So we did our Avalon Liveaboard in May/June and it was phenomenal. While there were a few communication break-downs (delays) with Blue Water Travel, those were never much of an issue. As many here know, Avalon charters to both divers as well as catch&release fly fishermen. There are multiple boats and you are not assigned a boat until the week before you arrive. Assignments are based on the size of your group, cabin selection, and who else is chartering that week.
We flew from Miami to Camaguey and stayed in that beautiful (albeit very poor) city for a couple nights. We then took the Avalon bus for the 2 1/2 hour drive to the port where all four boats were moored. We were very lucky with our boat assignment. We were on the Avalon IV which is the newest in the fleet @ 190ft with 20cabins and a capacity of 40 guests. We had a total of 13 guests, 10 fly fishermen and 3 divers … we had the boat to ourselves.
The boats makes the ~4hour run out to the mangroves where they moor for the entire week. 30ft, twin engine dive tenders run between the liveaboard and the reefs for daily dives.
While we had beautiful blue skies the first two days, after that we unfortunately saw very little sun with scattered showers and some winds the rest of the week. Not horrible when underwater but it definitely put the fishermen out of luck many times.
The crew and staff were amazing and catered to the 13 of us wonderfully.
I will post more and certainly answer any questions from folks considering the trip … we will do it again, but maybe a month or two earlier in the year.
