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Always book directly with the liveaboard who operates the boat, not with a middleman or agency. Not saying it would've necessarily prevented this, but possibly could've simplified communications/resolution. Liveaboard.com or other travel/booking agencies also have no business selling trips for...

Belize is quite nice if you can get out to half moon caye and the other sights on lighthouse reef near the blue hole. Lots of sharks and other big fish in a natural non-feeding environment (see my profile pic). Lots of turtles too. There's a couple resorts out there like Huracan, but they're...

Lol, yeah sorry no thanks. A lot of that stuff does not need to be carried on in most cases, in my opinion. Is it a good idea to carry on your computer/regs/mask if you can so you're better off if a checked bag is lost? Sure, of course. But you don't have to, especially if travelling with a...

It's also plenty easy to sink/burn even a properly designed boat when it's inadequately provisioned/maintained or has unqualified or inadequate crew operating said boat. I'd venture a guess that the vast majority of these incidents are far more on the operations and maintenance than the ship...

Curious where everyone in the area gets their regs and whatnot serviced? I had issues with my regs after both of the last two maintenance cycles, and am potentially looking for someplace new in the Seattle area or on the eastside to service my gear. Don't want to name and shame or anything...

Price is probably a good starting point. I think many of the issues can be traced to the cratering of prices after instability intensified in the region several years ago. Liveaboards had to cut prices in half (or more) in order to compete regionally/globally and attract guests wary of...

From my experience, demonstrated proficiency is more important than an AOW card. I have my AOW, but I've never once been asked for it anywhere, and before I got it I did plenty of more "advanced" sites with no questions asked. Probably because the DM's saw I could handle myself. I probably...

My profile pic is a reef shark from half moon caye. Might be the very same one. But in any case yeah, the sharks at half moon in particular have little fear of divers compared to everywhere else in the world I've been. They must be very well protected there. I never saw them come at me, but...

Yeah just pick one of those three instead of trying to hop around. For Beqa there's obviously beqa resort down there, for bligh waters there's multiple choices but generally anything on the NE corner of Viti Levu or the islands offshore from there is good (but long boat rides), and for rainbow...

We just booked the Blue Manta in January 2026, 10 nights in Raja Ampat/Misool. Gonna be wild. Thanks again for all the feedback and info.

Thanks guys. I've got the MK11 EVO / C370 / R195 bookmarked. Only problem is I have to buy two, not just one, haha. Regs have gotten more expensive in the last 15-20 years! I think my Flathead 7 setup was like $600 (including octo) way back when.

Are they rebuilding/reopening Wananavu resort in Volivoli? I dove there many years ago and had some great day trips up into the Bligh pinnacle sites there, though they were long boat rides. Namena is at the far northeast side of the Bligh waters, and I think many of the sites we were diving...

Moisture munchers, seal it up in as dry an environment as possible as close to the water temperature as possible, and lastly (if your housing supports it) using a vacuum pump to lower the pressure inside the housing will more or less eliminate the need to worry about fogging.

Hey all. My and my partner are still diving on my original Zeagle Envoy set circa 2004 and my Zeagle Flathead 7 set circa 2009. The last two trips I've taken I've had issues with my Flathead. The first time my secondary got thrown out of adjustment and was free flowing every time I jumped in...

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'll peruse the suggestions and let you know if I have any questions.

Yeah I'll certainly try! That's generally my approach for any Pacific diving trips due to the travel taking 20+ hours plus the time zones, but we're gonna hop over to New Zealand either before or after the liveaboard since we want to go and it's kinda sorta on the way (and there's direct...

I did see the Scubaspa boat earlier when I was browsing and it looked quite nice. I agree about the bigger launch vs zodiacs. More preferences, hmmmm. I don't really need a spa and all that, though my dive buddy may disagree, haha. Good food, good DM's, clean cabins, a newer boat in good...

Yeah I've got no issue with currents. My last couple Pacific trips have been to Fiji in areas with tides/current/drift dives all the time at basically 100% of sites, in some cases very strong. From what I've read Raja Ampat has a bit more variety at least, though yeah there will obviously be...

Hello all, Never been to Indonesia and it's been on my list for a long time. I'd like to start with Raja Ampat as I think it's got the best combination of critters I'd like to see and the ease of diving (compared to say, Komodo). Anyways, I haven't done a liveaboard in a number of years and...

Yeah Patches was our favorite too. We'd give him and Gia snacks after breakfast sometimes, and he'd hang out on our patio sometimes hoping to get a chance to go inside the room. And yeah we may have dove with you for one day on January 2nd, but I don't recall. Unless you were on a boat by...