Explorer atop the Wreck of the Andrea Doria
EXPLORER is a 42 foot Grand Banks Trawler, originally designed for comfortable long-term and long-distance cruising. She features three cabins below, and spacious decks above. Her main salon incorporates a full galley with refrigerators and freezers, stove, large table, and all of the essentials for long term life aboard. Down below forward is a guest cabin with berths and a private head with shower. Aft and below is the Master Cabin, with queen-berth, pilot berth, and a second head and shower. Topside is a large canvas-covered flying bridge with seating for a dozen, grill, and table. She is heated, air-conditioned, and well found for her work.
EXPLORER has been modified for diving by the addition of comprehensive diving support equipment. She has been fitted with a heavy-duty swim platform, capable of securely holding divers burdened with the heaviest of technical diving gear. Her ladder is a stainless-steel ?Fish-Spine? design, for divers wearing fins. Support equipment includes a RIX Oil-Free breathing air compressor, able to produce oxygen-clean air. She is provided with down-lines, tag-lines, ?granny? lines, and overboard emergency oxygen breathing system.
She carries gas-blending equipment for both Nitrox and Trimix as well trans-filling and boosting mixed gas.
Technical Diving
EXPLORER has a well earned reputation as a dive boat catering to Technical and Rebreather diving. When diving deep wrecks, we moor to the wreck and then set a descent weight located near the transom, with a plummet weight suspended 50 to 100 feet from the surface.
Rebreather Diver on the EXPLORER
A crossover line connects this plummet to the mooring line. Emergency gas and a strobe are placed at the plummet, and an umbilical fed oxygen supply is placed at twenty feet (six meters) for emergency use.
We tow and deploy a chase-boat in case a diver needs to make a free-decompression, and carefully monitor the operations for safety at all times.
Our infrastructure includes an on-board Haskel booster,oil-free compressor, large oxygen cylinders, and helium cylinders if the expedition requires it. We carry on-board supplies of Sofnolime adsorbent for rebreathers, as well as a large quantity of spare parts and loaner equipment including stage bottles (40ft3 and 80ft3), rebreather cylinders (2 and 3 liters), weights, etc.
With advance notice we can meet nearly any needs for expedition level diving. We know technical diving, and we know how to support it.
Please contact us with your specfic requirements.
Traveling Divers
EXPLORER is located an hour drive south of Boston Logan Airport, three hours from JFK Airport, and slightly less than four hours from Newark Airport.
Loaded up with equipment, EXPLORER is ready for a week of diving
We stock many loaner and rental items for divers traveling to our area. In addition, we can provide surface marker buoys, strobes, lights, drysuits, and all other equipment needed either for planned use or to replace a piece of equipment in order to save a trip.
Many of our clients fly in from Europe, and meet equipment that they have pre-staged aboard prior to expedition start. We can also provide economical shipment of equipment back to point of origin at expedition end. Some divers leave equipment in our hands from year-to-year, and find it waiting for them upon their return. Please
let us know how we can make your trip easier.