Liveaboards: the good, the bad and the ugly

[Mr. Bubble]

I am going to go on a live aboard trip in the near future, and I wanted to get everyones oppinion as to the comment above. Please give the good, the bad and the ugly...your real experiances , in short, about liveaboards. I have never spent a week on the ocean in close quarters and I can think of a handfull of issues that may pose a problem.

What about foul weather...when do you head to port? , 4-6...6-8? when half the boat is yaking? Or do you tuff it out and go diving some more? :11:

Have you ever been stuck with a real jerk for a week on a boat in the middle of the ocean?
Is the food genreally pretty good, or great, for most vessals?

Space in limited, to say the least. What are some of your best secrets to making yourself comfortable?

Have you been, and would never go again, or can you not wait to get back on board?

The good, the bad and the ugly please. You don't have to name names.......

Thanks

Mr. B

 

[Doc]

Liveaboards are often described as perfect for those who want to dive-dive-dive.
This may be a good application, but there are many land based ops you can do that from.

The real use for a liveabaord (in my book) is to take me to places that are not well served by land based dive ops. This might include Los Roques, Cisne (Swan), NE Grenada... some local examples.

The other purpose is for an area that is widespread with niche diversity, making land based range limitations less desirable. This might include Outer Bahamas, Belize, Maldives, Red Sea, etc. I would like to see this happen in the Bay Islands, but with fuel prices, don't hold your breath.

Will you meet goofs? Sure. As a lot, we divers are kind of goofy. I have seen a few that I considered drowning, but I remember well dozens of people that were an absolute delight. I spent a week in the hot tub of the Nekton in the rainy Bahamas with a delightful lady who was a forensic psychiatrist for a state prison system. She had contact with many of the infamous serial/mass killers that we all know and love. Fascinating.

Not her, but when I was single, I met more than a few "friends" on dive weeks.

It all depends on your attitude. As another thread on this same forum drags on beating a dead horse about one person's crummy trip, four posters have formed a support group and the past happy customers have created fodder for the flames. As Miss Ev of CoCoView said, "It's not like home...adjust". Do we want the happy homogenous similarity of our home, family, town and favorite Greek restaurant? Most divers do not- they want something new, challenging.. something to talk about.

I have been to dive ops, or AI's or liveaboards that I rate "2" and some that I rate "10". It does not necessarily mean that the entire trip follows suit. It is a totality of the experience. I was on one trip to Maldives that the cook was so incompetent that we threw him out of his galley and cooked for ourselves. He enjoyed the week off and even his staff agreed that they weren't used to American tastes. It ended up as a very positive thing for everyone. I was on a huge liveaboard in another ocean- everyone else on board was Japanese- matter of fact, we were the third or fourth group of americans that they had ever carried. Was it my favorite accommodation? No, but it was a life experience.

On a liveabaord, you are on a ship at sea. More importantly, you are on a machine of interoperating components, not the least of which is an overworked, underpaid crew. Repairs are made "on the fly", parts arrive with new guests, some big repairs have to wait until you limp into port... and when the parts arrive.

 

[fdog]

I am going to go on a live aboard trip in the near future, and I wanted to get everyones oppinion as to the comment above. Please give the good, the bad and the ugly...your real experiances , in short, about liveaboards. I have never spent a week on the ocean in close quarters and I can think of a handfull of issues that may pose a problem.

What about foul weather...when do you head to port? , 4-6...6-8? when half the boat is yaking? Or do you tuff it out and go diving some more? :11:
On the boats we've been on, we have been repeatdly told that the vessel would take more than the guests could. So we were the arbiters of the sea state we could take, like for example, the crossing from Grand Cayman to Little Cayman. And the captains have all been very good about terminating diving for safety reasons.

With that said, the boat is mobile, so they just move to somewhere the sea state and conditions are pleasing, so this really turns into a non-issue.

Have you ever been stuck with a real jerk for a week on a boat in the middle of the ocean?
Nope. But we "buy the boat", and everyone that comes along is a friend. Still, you are stuck with a set group for a week; the boats are mostly large enough that it's easy to avoid someone if you feel the need.

Is the food genreally pretty good, or great, for most vessals? On only one boat has the chef not been a CIA graduate (Culinary Institute of America). The food's good enough that you will probabally gain weight!

Space in limited, to say the least. What are some of your best secrets to making yourself comfortable? Pack light. I bring 5 swimsuits and 3 t-shirts, and a set of fleece. That's it besides dive gear and toiletries. The 5 swimsuits is so you always have a dry set waiting after every dive. Usually, we don't even take showers in the stateroom, we do it on the dive deck after the first dive of the day.

Have you been, and would never go again, or can you not wait to get back on board? Can't wait to go again!

The good, the bad and the ugly please. You don't have to name names....... I will name names...for us, Aggressor is worth the extra $600.

Thanks

Mr. B

Other stuff...the biggest reason I reccomend liveaboard diving is that it's way lower effort. You set up you gear once, when you get on the boat, and wake up with a 30 foot walk to your gear (which is conveniently parked right over the dive site). You don't have to wake up in the morning, schlep all your stuff to the boat, set it up, ride to the dive, get off the boat for lunch...and...repeat in the afternoon.

And you don't have to dive. You can be lazy and sleep in, and make the second dive at the same site before the boat moves.

It's just way easier. More civilized. And depending on the destination, occasionally cheaper than staying on shore.

Hope this helps!


All the best, James

 

[Footslogger]

Well Mr Bubble ...we do liveaboards exclusively now. For us, it is the ONLY type of diving. We are able to get away once, maybe twice a year for some diving. We are not much for shopping or the touristy stuff. We are also not the type of divers who have to be in the water 4 - 5 times a day.

Liveaboards offer us the ability to totally get away and change the pace of our otherwise crazy lives.

For us ...it's ALL GOOD - - no bad or ugly !!

 

[Mr. Bubble]

Great advise guys. Thanks. Good to hear about the Aggressor. I will be taking the Aggressor in Turks Caicos. I have been there before, and loved it so much, that I am signing up with my LDS to go again. THis time (and first time) on a liveaboard.

What about tanks? Are they all Al80's? Are the dives recommended to 90fsw? The reason I ask is because I like to cruise the deeper limits, and prefer stateside to carry 120's and pony bottles. It IS reommended to dive the limits of your tank(e.i al80 80 + feet, 100's 100ft, 120's 120ft etc)
So, can you get larger tanks and pony bottles if you request them? Or is my comfort zone going to be limited to the AL 80's?

Thanks again

B

 

[PacketSniffer]

You could get your feet wet (pun intended) on a short live-aboard trip on the M/V Spree to see how you might like the environment. Based in the Texas Gulf, it runs to the Flower Gardens (100 miles offshore) which are pretty cool. There are huge mantas, sting rays, sharks, eels, turtles, etc running around out there. If weather permits, there's also a rig dive (always a good dive with lots of marine life) and a night dive. They have week day and weekend trips.

 

[DiverBeth]

I've done 3 liveaboards, 2 Aggressors and Mike Ball. Of my 3 trips the worst one I would rate fantastic!

If you want to maximize your diving you can't beat a liveaboard. Set up your equipment once for the week a lazy person's (like me) dream.

I've found the food to be from very good to excellent, your results may vary.

Yeah there always is one or two people you can't stand, but if you get a good crew on the boat they can truly make it a great experience.

I haven't booked a liveaboard for this year yet but it's still only January. I'll probably do a trip with one or both my sons.

 

[Andrew Jones]

Have loved scrolling thru this thread. It reminds me of all the reasons we dive and the bonuses of meeting new people ( good and shake the head. ), maybe finding love..... getting better at diving and seeing or experiencing something new.

I will not waffle on, its all accurate in my books.

Andy.

P.S Love waking up to the ocean as my back yard, strapping on a tank. Morning Dives are best here.

PEACE ON REEF

 

[fdog]

<snip>What about tanks? Are they all Al80's? Are the dives recommended to 90fsw? The reason I ask is because I like to cruise the deeper limits, and prefer stateside to carry 120's and pony bottles. It IS reommended to dive the limits of your tank(e.i al80 80 + feet, 100's 100ft, 120's 120ft etc)
So, can you get larger tanks and pony bottles if you request them? Or is my comfort zone going to be limited to the AL 80's?

Thanks again

B

All you'll get are Al80's. Occasionally the boat will have a 63 or two. Email the boat's captain to find out exactly.

I would expect you to get some subtle resistance to what you seem to be suggesting. Although the Aggressors we have been on have all had a "here we are, the pool's open, you're adults so dive as you wish" attitude, there is a stated expectation of NDL and come back with 500 psi. Sling on a pony and ask for big cylinders and they'll ask why. This is something to discuss with the captain before you get there, just so nobody is dissapointed.

I will say the Aggressors have been incredibly compliant - we bring DIN valves that they cheerfully swap out onto an Al80 for us, don't bat an eye at our X-scooters, and generally make our lives wonderful.

Hey - they're compliant enough that they let us dive like this:

Probabally not the answer you were looking for, but better to hear the truth first thing.


All the best, James

 

[vladimir]

I was living in Singapore at the time. I called the booking agent for the Telita looking for a berth; no luck, they were booked solid for the next few weeks, whereupon they would be sold (to Mike Ball, if I remember correctly). Dik Knight, the proprietor of Loloata Island, called me back a week later, saying they had a private charter with some openings. I leapt at the deal. They gave me the berth at their cost ($1800 for ten days) and I headed to Papua New Guinea.

Dik met me at the airport and shuttled me to Loloata, where I met Neville Coleman, the naturalist (with at least one species of nudibranch named for him). Before the launch, Neville, myself, and an Aussie doctor killed time with a two or three day trek into the mountains, with some local guides, hoping to photograph tree frogs. After coming up pretty empty the first day, we made camp that evening and had a dozen tree frogs sailing across our little eating area in 6 foot leaps. I slept in a lean-to with all manner of insect life, covered in a (hopefully) protective layer of DEET, and bathed the next morning by ladling cold fresh water from a cistern over myself. I am usually a 5-star hotel kind of guy, but I enjoyed every moment. Neville was prepared for the jungle&#8212;I was not. The next morning we squatted in the dense jungle hoping to photograph the dawn mating ritual of birds of paradise. I quietly pulled the leeches off my bare ankles as Neville, in full camouflage, stalked his prey with a 600 mm lens.

Back at Loloata, Dik and Neville regaled us with stories over dinner. Dik told of the large boa that had lived on the island until all the wallabies and some domesticated goats were gone. And of the whale carcass that washed up to the island and stunk to high heaven. When he motored towards it the Tiger Sharks bumped his (smaller) skiff repeatedly in some territorial warning. Neville told a story of camping on a tiny remote atoll and slightly miscalculating the rising high tide. As the land around the tent disappeared, he was surrounded by hundreds of crabs, perhaps anticipating making a meal of him, perhaps avoiding the high tide themselves. Well, those are the few stories I remember. (And apologies to Dik and Neville if I butchered them.)

Dik, Neville, the Aussie doctor, and I joined a professor and his grad student from the University of Papua New Guinea, and a couple of English ex-pats, one working in the PNG government, the other in Australia. I was, I have to confess, the least interesting guest, and we gelled into a group, each of us savoring the company of the others: except when diving.

By the second day of diving, a pattern had emerged already. I was entering the water when everybody else was exiting. The Papuan deckhand took me up-current in the rubber dinghy for a pre-breakfast dive, and I rolled in for a shallow drift along the wall back to the Telita&#8217;s anchorage. As I combed the wall for nudibranchs at 40 to 50 feet (Nikonos V with extension tubes at the ready) I saw something approaching in my periphery. I turned to see a Great Hammerhead, maybe 10-12 feet long, emerge from the depths, swimming lazily but purposefully towards me. My first thought? What f-stop do I use. I immediately realized my macro set-up would be useless, and had a strange sense of relief&#8212;one less thing to worry about. But the shark kept swimming straight towards me, and that started to concern me on a very visceral level. He was big, big in girth, and had a huge dorsal fin. I unconsciously balled up into the fetal position as he came within arm&#8217;s reach of me, then relaxed and enjoyed the view as he slowly passed, resisting the temptation to stroke him.

That was just the start of a fabulous trip, marred only by the massive coral bleaching that affected the area that year (1995). The diving was otherwise superb on the 10 day liveaboard, and I did a few more days of diving off Loloata afterwards, logging over 50 dives on the trip.

One night we tied the bow to a tree on the edge of the jungle, with the anchor astern to keep the boat from swinging. I had to use the head in the middle of the night&#8212;there was only one, on the main deck-- and found the deck covered an inch thick with termite-like insects, no doubt attracted by our lights. Inside the head, it was the same. Of course I was barefoot. But I managed.

I could go on, but my only point was made nicely by Roatanman earlier. A sense of adventure, a positive attitude, and a passion for diving will ensure a great experience. I have done 10 liveaboards, and enjoyed each trip. Most were luxury operations with all the amenities. A few were less luxurious, but for me it has always been about getting to the best diving and spending a week or two with people who have the same passion.