Caribbean live aboard deals currently available?

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miserkris

Contributor
Messages
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Location
s.e.PA USA
# of dives
50 - 99
Hello
Are there any live aboard deals for this year?
I'm still kinda newbie.... about 32 dives in total. From Hawaii, Belize, bonaire.....

What's the best bang for the buck Caribbean live aboard deal currently available?

Pls advice thx.....
 
What is your budget and will you be traveling single or double occupancy? If single are you willing to share a cabin with a same-gender room mate? It makes a big difference in the price.

There is a wide selection of Caribbean LOBs available that range from around $1000 to $3000 per person per week. Tell us more about what you are looking for so that we can give you some suggestions.
 
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What does "best bang for the buck" mean to you? Simply lowest price per dive, or are other things important?

CEX II ^ is likely the least expensive Explorer trip but price the airfare as you fly into one destination and out of another.

They don't necessarily clobber you any more for open jaw itineraries. When we did this trip a couple years ago the fare was exactly the average of the 2 routes. Seems to be pretty much the same now (though the St Maarten fares, which always seemed to be pretty good in the past when I've looked, seem pricey nowadays.)
 
What if an emergency happens and you'refar outat sea? Are live aboards safe?

What are its advantages vs going to a resort in bonaire like buddy, cayman beach resort etc?

Do these live aboards stop in the way at smaller islands? And beaches?

Btw I'm the only one traveling, I'm 45 and don't drink (love island food though lol)

Pls share....
 
if on the boat, they usually evacuate you as best they can. depends on the response by the local coasties. nautilus lifeline or plb and wait for rescue if separated from boat. halcyon used to sell a one man life raft but it was a pita to carry.

more dives per day than most resorts, although you can get 5 a day in from shore in the philippines. some areas liveaboards are your only option because of remoteness if you want to see the really good dive spots (eg socorro/malpelo/cocos/wolf&darwin/tubbataha).

some do, depends on their itinerary.
 
What if an emergency happens and you'refar outat sea? Are live aboards safe?

What are its advantages vs going to a resort in bonaire like buddy, cayman beach resort etc?

Do these live aboards stop in the way at smaller islands? And beaches?

Btw I'm the only one traveling, I'm 45 and don't drink (love island food though lol)

Pls share....

I am by no means an expert on liveaboard diving (having only done one and booked on another one), but I can provide you with some info to start the discussion.

There are many destinations that cannot be done via a day boat from land. It's just too far. These include, for example, the Galapagos, Malpelo, Cocos, Soccorro. Then, there are other destinations where you can do certain dive sites from land, but boat rides are still so far as to be inefficient, especially if one wants to be diving upto 5 dives a day. People who go on liveaboards are looking to do a lot of dives (upto 5 a day) over a 7, 10 or 14 day period.

Some of these liveabaoards do stop on islands with beaches, but that's probably not a normal occurrence with most liveaboards and even if they do, it's just maybe one or two sidetrips.

Yes, emergencies can and do happen when you're far out at sea, but they can also happen when you're close to land. The boats have some measure of safety protocols (oxygen, satellite phones), and many divers also carry safety gear such as SMBs, personal locator beacons (PLBs), etc. to minimize risk. But diving is an activity that has risks. We just try to do our utmost to minimize them.
 
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There are no Caribbean liveaboards "far out at sea" In many cases you'll be near an island - not always inhabited though.

On the T/C Explorer for instance - we dove around 3 islands - one being Provo where you fly into, West Caicos and French Cay are un-inhabited. Our last day we did one dive then motored back to Provo - arriving around noon.

Most lob's have a satellite phone that works everywhere. A few offer pricey slow internet access - or you can rent a satphone/panel for the week. Not as expensive as it sounds. The cook on our boat used to call his wife nightly with his personal cellphone from the upper deck.

My last trip we had wi-fi at the dock which ended about 20mins offshore unless you were roaming,

Most of the Caribbean trips you're rarely out of sight of some inhabited island. It's just a more convenient way to do more dives at more islands in a week.

You sound like you want other things to do besides diving - you'll be in the minority on most boats. Some do offer excursions - the CEXII for example offers a day tour of Saba instead of diving - others will stay on the boat to dive though.

If you really want more of a liveaboard vacation with diving - book the Cuan Law in the BVI's. They sail between 3-4 islands, once on Torrola we met a group of their divers in a bar - the ship is too big for some harbors so they tendered in.

The boat also has Jetski's, Hobie Cats and other water toys for guests use. Plus there's some excellent beaches in the BVI's - even some tiny uninhabited islands where I've seen a single boat tied up. Some of the beaches on Virgin Gorda have no roads to them - all acess is via sailboat.

About the only trips I can think of "far out" are the Socorros boats since they spend a whole day getting there. Even then - one of the islands has Mexican military stationed on it.

US flagged boats meet all USCG safety standards - they have deployable life rafts ready to go, there's a evacuation drill and sonar/radar/gps to the tell them where they are.

It's like being on a mini-cruise ship.

Someone summed it up once perfectly - where else is your room 50' from a really good - ever changing dive site?

No matter how hard we try - and we do - I've always gotten more dives on a liveaboard than even the most optimum shore dive locations like Bonaire/Curaacao etc.

The food is way better than expected also and there's after dive snacks. Our cook always seemed to be baking something mid-morning.
 
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As a single diver Buddy's on Bonaire makes less sense. First of all they have a hefty single supplement charge in their package.

Also Bonaire is a lot of more difficult shore dive entries over ironshore/coral rubble - it's easy to go down. And once you leave town - there are no facilities at any of the dive sites - you'd want to bring a secure way to bring your phone as your vehicle will possibly be gone thru while you're diving and anything of value removed.

Plus the trucks are for 2-4 divers so unless you make friends fast - you'd need your own unless you could ride with someone you met on island. It's real easy there since most people are either divers or with divers but it's best to bring a buddy.

Of course you can boat dive with the dive resorts and shore dive at most of them but you'll miss a lot of the better dives.
I personally would not go to Bonaire as a single diver - there
s not even much nighjtlife and except for Coco Beach club - most resorts have no or lousy beaches. A lot of Bonaire is ironshore up to the waterline.
 
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