We took our first live-aboard trip last week. I am not one for hyperbole but this was the best trip we have ever taken. My wife agreed. Why was that? I actually had to figure that out. This is what I came up with:
1. Set up your gear one time.
2. Plenty of room between each diver to gear up.
3. Racks and hangers for your wetsuits to dry a bit between dives.
4. Nice full tanks 3100 to 3300 pounds.
5. Everything is ready when you are ready to dive.
6. Fantastic dive sites.
7. Take a nap between divesin your bed or on a deck chair in the sun.
8. No need to pee in your wet suit. Use the restroom before and after each dive.
9. Shower off and wash the salt out of your hair on the back of the boat after each dive
10. Other people cook your food and have it ready when you want it.
We might have gotten a bit lucky. There were 17 guests (the boat holds a maximum of 18). Everyone was a mature serious diver. There were no partiers, drunks or obnoxious people. It was a genuine eat, sleep and dive trip.
The service and crew on the aggressor was outstanding. Those guys work their tails off. I simply could not believe how good the service was with only one crew person per three guests, but it was great. The best part was that everyone seemed to really enjoy his job.
The captain made a point the first day of saying, if you have a problem or need something tell us, dont wait till Friday and complain. He meant it. We had two minor problems in our room which we casually mentioned to a crew member before a divethey were both corrected by the time we got back to the boat.
Ok, the diving. The aggressors policy is that the dive deck is open from 8:00 am to noon and then from 2:00 to 6:00. I dont know if our group was typical or not, but we naturally fell into a much more structured routine. Dive from 8:00 to 9:00, rest from 9:00 to 10:30, dive from 10:30 to 11:30 with the same pattern in the afternoon.
I am not much at categorizing my fish sightings, so I cant list every fish we saw. But the highlight for us was a gigantic loggerhead turtle. He was just lumbering along the top of the reef as we came up over the wall at the halfway point of one of our dives. He wasnt at all intimidated as I swam along side. This old guy had to be five feet from nose to tail. His back was covered with moss. An 18 inch cleaner fish of some sort was hovering over his back the whole time we watched him.
Twenty-six dive slots were available. One father/son team did them all. The rest of us got somewhere between 19 and 25 dives over the week. My wife and I did call two dives after about 25 minutes because the currents were a bit strong. Hey, why wear yourself out when you have a captain that will find another spot without such strong currents for your next dive.
I hear people describe the Blue Hole as been there done that. I found it exhilarating. And based on the chatter as we got back on the boat, our whole boat was the same. I will go back and do it again someday. And we will definitely be on the Aggressor fleet again.
1. Set up your gear one time.
2. Plenty of room between each diver to gear up.
3. Racks and hangers for your wetsuits to dry a bit between dives.
4. Nice full tanks 3100 to 3300 pounds.
5. Everything is ready when you are ready to dive.
6. Fantastic dive sites.
7. Take a nap between divesin your bed or on a deck chair in the sun.
8. No need to pee in your wet suit. Use the restroom before and after each dive.
9. Shower off and wash the salt out of your hair on the back of the boat after each dive
10. Other people cook your food and have it ready when you want it.
We might have gotten a bit lucky. There were 17 guests (the boat holds a maximum of 18). Everyone was a mature serious diver. There were no partiers, drunks or obnoxious people. It was a genuine eat, sleep and dive trip.
The service and crew on the aggressor was outstanding. Those guys work their tails off. I simply could not believe how good the service was with only one crew person per three guests, but it was great. The best part was that everyone seemed to really enjoy his job.
The captain made a point the first day of saying, if you have a problem or need something tell us, dont wait till Friday and complain. He meant it. We had two minor problems in our room which we casually mentioned to a crew member before a divethey were both corrected by the time we got back to the boat.
Ok, the diving. The aggressors policy is that the dive deck is open from 8:00 am to noon and then from 2:00 to 6:00. I dont know if our group was typical or not, but we naturally fell into a much more structured routine. Dive from 8:00 to 9:00, rest from 9:00 to 10:30, dive from 10:30 to 11:30 with the same pattern in the afternoon.
I am not much at categorizing my fish sightings, so I cant list every fish we saw. But the highlight for us was a gigantic loggerhead turtle. He was just lumbering along the top of the reef as we came up over the wall at the halfway point of one of our dives. He wasnt at all intimidated as I swam along side. This old guy had to be five feet from nose to tail. His back was covered with moss. An 18 inch cleaner fish of some sort was hovering over his back the whole time we watched him.
Twenty-six dive slots were available. One father/son team did them all. The rest of us got somewhere between 19 and 25 dives over the week. My wife and I did call two dives after about 25 minutes because the currents were a bit strong. Hey, why wear yourself out when you have a captain that will find another spot without such strong currents for your next dive.
I hear people describe the Blue Hole as been there done that. I found it exhilarating. And based on the chatter as we got back on the boat, our whole boat was the same. I will go back and do it again someday. And we will definitely be on the Aggressor fleet again.
I am with you on all the reasons you stated. To me, there is no easier way to dive, and we dive more often because of it. 
