Bahamas liveaboards living from Fort Lauderdale

[ppatin]

I thought the Juliet was not taking charters so that the owner could sail the world with his family or something like that. Is being chartered again?

John (the owner) was originally planning on shutting the business down. His plan was to sail the boat around the world and then leave the diving industry because of family business obligations. Running an operation like a liveaboard dive boat is a life-consuming profession and it sounds like he was ready to move on.

According to one of the captains who works for John the round the world plan kind of died because the friends he was planning on doing it with all had careers, families, etc, and none of them could just take a break from life for a year. The boat is now doing a scaled back, sail around the Carri-bean trip this summer. Once that's over she'll re-enter charter service. According to a couple of e-mails they sent out it sounds like John was able to find a business partner who he trusts to take over the day to day operation of the business.

---------- Post added April 5th, 2014 at 02:34 PM ----------

I'm glad to hear it, the Juliet really looks like an awesome boat to dive from.

They are a wonderful operation, especially for the price. Great crew, really cool old boat and they're much more convenient to get to than liveaboards that are based outside the US. If you're curious you can check my history for a trip report that I did in 2012. I also did a trip to the Keys with them in the fall of 2013 but haven't gotten around to writing about it. Both trips were a blast, the weather kind of screwed us over on the Keys trip but the crew was great both times around.

---------- Post added April 5th, 2014 at 02:40 PM ----------

I don't know, they don't seem to have a dedicated "gearing up" area or a proper dive off ramp. Also, seems rather limited in top deck area. I think people like it because it has a "romantic" feel due to a potential of going under sail.

It is just my guess.

There's a dive station in the middle of the boat that works pretty well. You have to jump a few feet off of the boat to get in the water and climb a few feet up a ladder to get back on but it's no big deal unless the seas are quite rough.

The top deck space never felt that small when you include "the beach." That's the area on top of the cabin/pilothouse that you can hang out on. I love laying up there at night under the stars at night, especially when you can see lightning off in the distance and the boat is under sail. Sorry, I'm waxing nostalgic for my Juliet trips.

Speaking of sailing, they don't seem to use the sails to get around that much. I asked the captain on my last trip about this and he said that the boat really needs a lot of wind (like 20 knots) for the sails to be all that useful for propulsion and she really only sails well on a beam or broad reach. Also, good sailing weather for a heavy boat like the Juliet is going to be lousy diving weather.