First Liveaboard Trip - What I Learned...

[charlesml3]

Gang,

I read a lot of threads on Liveaboard Dive ships before doing my first trip. There were some things I did right, others I could have done better. Here's a summary:

- If you're traveling across a lot of time zones for the trip, you really should get out there a few days early to adjust. I felt awful the 2nd day I was there after traveling from North Carolina to Palau. I went out three days early and by the time we boarded the Aggressor, I felt fine.

- Buy new booties, and get the best ones you can find. I saw this recommendation in another thread and ignored it. Wish I hadn't. The ones I have are OK and for a couple days of diving they're fine. On a liveaboard, you're diving like crazy. Those little sore spots and blisters get a lot worse over five days of constant diving. We all looked like an advertisment for Duct Tape by Friday.

- Skip the alcohol and soft drinks - Dehydration is a huge concern. You're diving 5 times a day and it's hot. If you add on alcohol at night and a dieuretic like soft drinks you're going to get into trouble. The crew was always pushing all of us to keep drinking water. I got this right, but underestimated the effects of caffeine withdrawal. Man, what a headache I had for about three days.

- Bring your "cool" water wetsuit. Even if you're diving in the tropics, you're going to start getting cold by about the third day. I started out with my "farmer john" but moved to my full 3mil after a couple of days.

- You don't need to bring a lot of clothes on the trip. You won't wear shoes all week. Tshirts and shorts are fine. Pack light.

 

[DeputyDan]

I wear thick athletic socks under my booties.

Saw this on a thread here a couple of years back - works great - usually take three pair for each day. Don't worry about whether they make it back home or not.

 

[Damselfish]

Agree with all of this, except the wetsuit - that's a very personal thing. It's a good warning, some people do get colder with the repetitive diving, but it doesn't bother others. We were perfectly fine diving our 1mm's on a liveaboard in Palau, as well as all the others we've done.

 

[highlandfarmwv]

Thanks for the tips. Hope to do a livaboard some day...

 

[dschonbrun]

hypothermia is common for those diving multiple times per day, even in tropical waters. It surprised me to see my instructor in a full suit and hood... but she explained that she lives in the water. After some more experience, this concept makes sense.

 

[georoc01]

What I saw in a thread somewhere and followed on my trip. Bring a suit for every dive in a given day so you have something dry to change into after every dive and can rotate. So for five dives a day, have five suits.

I have heard of guys getting diaper rash for sitting around in their wet suits all day. Makes for a long flight home.

The other thing I wished I had done was find a way to take all of my own dive gear. Frankly the rental BCD while functional had enough rust on it to make me nervous and there were no options to switch it out. Unfortunatley flying on a small plane really forced me to cut weight and my bc was what I didn't bring. I didn't have any problems, but was certainly apprehensive in the rental gear for the first day of diving.

 

[charlesml3]

Good points, everyone.

I only brought one swim suit. It wasn't really all that bad but two would have been a better plan.

Everyone had all of their own gear so I didn't really think about the rental angle. That's a bummer. I carefully picked my gear and it would be really annoying to have to leave it at home.

-Charles

 

[RJP]

Agree with all of this, except the wetsuit...

Me too - bring a dry suit!

:14:

 

[fairybasslet]

Make sure you bring a sweatshirt because there might not be a nice guy onboard to loan you one.

Like George, I was trying to keep the weight of my luggage down so I left my sweatshirt in the Nimrod's office. Big mistake.

Also, I do get cold after repetitive diving so a hooded vest under my suit (which I also left in the Nimrod's office) would have been good. TG I had it for Sydney.

 

[RICHinNC]

Glad you enjoyed the trip and great info.

Ellen, I would have gladly given you my sweatshirt.