Cold water liveaboard experiences, input requested

[slingshot]

As posted elsewhere, I am scheduled to be on my first Alaska diving liveaboard, which will be my first cold water liveaboard. I have restarted diving locally in Monterey with a new drysuit to get some experience before the trip, and will dive as much as my schedule allows prior to the trip to gain experience, but am wondering if any people who have done this trip before, or similar, could post their experiences and recommendations. There isn't much by way of recent reviews on the board. In particular, I'm interested in what things to bring on the trip that might not occur to someone who has only done warm water liveaboards. I plan to bring drysuit, drygloves, spare seals, undergarments including wool wicking layers, a good hood and so forth, but is there anything else unusual to consider? Thanks.

 

[Imla]

I don't know what kind of gear you are diving, but make sure you can properly operate boltsnaps and doubleenders with gloves on. Depending on time of year and algae concentrations, bring 1 primary light, and at least 1 backup. I normally dive in Norway, and even though we _sortof_ cannot do nightdives from about mid May to september because of very short nights, the inevitable algaes that comes in the summer can cause even dives done at noon to be night dives.
If you are a guy (Or a girl) get a pee valve
Bring extra warm wool socks... you can never have too many pairs of socks. And.. bring a beanie.

 

[slingshot]

Thanks Imla. I dive a standard rig with a backmounted pony bottle, no boltsnaps for me, but I agree that dexterity is a challenge. I don't use a can light, but do dive with a video setup with lights, including a narrow beam light, and have a backup in my BC pocket that I can access with gloves. I bring a wool hat even when diving in Hawaii!