First Liveaboard -- what to consider and expect....

[RJP]

Nothing worse than a wet bathing suit and damp wet suit first thing in the morning.

That's why the good lord gave us drysuits!




Seen here on a Bahamas trip on the Carib Dancer...

Best regards,

Ray Purkis

 

[KeithG]

rule #1: liveaboards are addictive
rule #2: you brought too many clothes
rule #3: be prepared to talk to other divers. lots. and then some more.
rule #4: you brought too many clothes
rule #5: be prepared to skip a dive each day. naps ARE important. more bottom time will happen real soon.
rule #6: you can not hide on your room - there are no room keys....(really, someone asked one time..)

our favs are belize dancer and t&c explorer. we take a break and do bonaire in between. every now and then we do the saba explorer.

loveaboards give the greatest amount of bottom time with the least amount of effort.

 

[RJP]

loveaboards give the greatest amount of bottom time with the least amount of effort.

Is that a "themed special" that one of the boats runs?

:d

Best regards,

Ray Purkis

 

[Freewillow]

I have been on 17 liveaboard cruises around the world thus far and enjoyed all of them. . I assume that by the time you get this organised the North American hurricane season will be over and you'll be getting towards winter - generally a good time to dive in that part of the world. The Bahamas as you say are a good option but better diving is to be had in Turks & Caicos, Cayman Islands, Belize and Saba & St Kitts, all of which have excellent liveaboard operations. Going with established operations like the Aggressor & Dancer Fleet or Explorer Ventures, you cannot go wrong.



Go for it!

Just a question for the experienced. I have been on 10+ liveabord myself but mostly french speaking ones in asia/middle east. Now, I would love to test the carribean waters jan/march 2016 and I was thinking of the Bahamas. Never been to the area you mentionned. Can you help me by saying what you prefer in the other paces like belize St Kitts/saba Turk/Caicao, Cayman Island. FYI, we do not mind beginners but we do not want the majority to be OW/AOW with less than 50 dives. ...... Thanks

 

[Hintermann]

In my experience, guests on a Caribbean liveaboard tend to be very mixed and the set-up is better organised than the Red Sea liveaboards. The latter are better value, but tend to be chaotic. Although Red Sea has great diving, I am not a big fan of the Red Sea liveabords because they are too 'touristy'. The crew can at times be indifferent and popular dive sites like the Thistlegorm wreck are overcrowded.

Turks & Caicos and Cayman Islands are among the best of the Caribbean liveaboard trips with up to 5 dives a day in the best dive sites. On the T&C trips we saw lots of sharks along with plenty of small fish and colourful coral. Not as many sharks in the Caymans but plenty of the other stuff.

While it is true that the small fish of the Caribbean are not as colourful as the Red Sea or Indo-Pacific, there is certainly more than enough to keep you busy!

The Indo-Pacific is the best of the lot, of course but having said that, I saw far more coral bleaching in Phuket and Sipadan than I did in the Caribbean.

 

[KeithG]

Just a question for the experienced. I have been on 10+ liveabord myself but mostly french speaking ones in asia/middle east. Now, I would love to test the carribean waters jan/march 2016 and I was thinking of the Bahamas. Never been to the area you mentionned. Can you help me by saying what you prefer in the other paces like belize St Kitts/saba Turk/Caicao, Cayman Island. FYI, we do not mind beginners but we do not want the majority to be OW/AOW with less than 50 dives. ...... Thanks

can only speak for a few caribbean liveaboards (t&c explorer, belize dancer, saba explorer) and the divers are generally VERY experienced with only a few "fresh" divers. this may be due to the price point? not sure.

these boats treat you as adults and allow dive pairs to plan and dive their own dive. they are ready to handle both noobs and experts. they do provide a dive guide that you can follow if you wish, but no requirement to group / cluster dive. they have common sense general restrictions:
- pool is open at set times only
- max depth is suggested and monitored post dive (generally 110 ft so that the voodoo gas divers can stay safe without thinking too much)
- max dive time is "enforced", either 60 or 70 minutes - (but ... you can push the time limits a bit if you are the first ones in...)

So no need to fear noobs as you can dive at your own pace with your dive buddy. you are free to choose who you dive with.

P.S. and many of the noobs are great divers and interesting people. So let's not slam them too hard...

 

[Darnold9999]

At 500 + dives I have been the least experienced diver on the boat several times. Mostly Indo Pacific - Caribbean tends a little bit more toward the inexperienced, but even still most of the boat will be divers with dives in the multiple hundreds and occasionally a diver or two less than 100. The only impact that I have seen is that if there are inexperienced divers on the boat the Captain will skip a more difficult site in favor of an easier site. You won't even notice if/when it happens. Have been on two trips where there were kids - not an issue at all. Hardly noticed they were there.

 

[ev780]

Wow - thanks for all the tips! Now can't wait to go! I did the Dramamine thing on a recent cruise and yes, after day 2, I had no need for it! Less drowsy formula worked great so guess I will be fine.

Awesome! I am the same, usually after a few days I don't need it any more. But occasionally I set foot back on the dock and my vestibular canals get confused all over again. I sometimes need a little help until I get a full nights sleep to calm everything down.

Just for everyone's information.

Dramamine regular and Triptone have the active ingredient dimenhydrinate 50 mg.

Dramamine "Less Drowsy" and Bonine have the active ingredient meclizine HCI 25mg.

It is all personal preference. Pick the one that works. For me, meclizine might as well be Skittles.


Dimenhydrinate 50 mg (a close cousin to diphenhydramine aka Benadryl which I have used in a pinch) and meclizine HCL 25 mg are available at your local "Big Box" at half the cost in generic form.

 

[Bearkeley]

WE'RE DOING IT! Found a GREAT deal we just couldn't refuse at Explorer (too good that i'm actually afraid of posting it until I get my full official confirmation!) Seems as though (thanks DiverSteve!) we got a 50% off discount to St Kitts/St Maarten (hopefully!) the week of our anniversary and right before hubby's bday, so really COOL!

We didn't get a main deck cabin (got cabin #5 -- forward ensuite) but alternatives on other ships were about the same given our timing and a lot more $s (didn't even look at Blackbeard given our concern of having too many divers). It looks like we'll be sticking around St Kitts the first few days and then heading out to Saba.....although initial videos look like it's mostly lava / rocks and not what we've seen at places like Cozumel (love the reef / life / colors), it really looks like a neat place. Seems like it's pretty easy diving as well, but would love to hear any feedback you guys might have....will certainly circle back and do a trip report when we get back!

I will have my less drowsy Dramamine and my regular ones too but at least with this boat, there's an awesome sun deck I can camp out on if needed ;-) (EV780 - been wondering what the differences were between the two --- Dimenhydrinate 50 mg and Benadryl actually knock me out cold, even at half a pill....i'm very petite - 5 ft with heels, and in my younger days just a month or two ago, weighed less than 100 lbs!)

 

[Wookie]

Look at Saba a little harder. The corals are incredible. Far superior diving than to St Kitts IMHO. I liked St Kitts too, but Saba is much better.
I worked on that boat's predecessor.