good first liveaboard ??

[gcarter]

So the liveaboard is done......


The diving was incredible!!!!!
The boat and crew and food were awesome.
They had no problems with 4 of us diving sidemount or backmount doubles and I’d say for probably 10 dives they left us open without a time limit. Some 85 - 100 min dives happened.
I used a drysuit with no hood. but it was definitely too warm for me I could have made due in a 3mm no problem
The Thistlegorm and Ulysses wrecks were super cool. Definitely the highlight dives of the trip.
It’s been 2 days and we’re already looking at our next destination.
Have a couple more days in Egypt until we fly to Switzerland for a few days to check out the sights there.

Awesome.

The Echo was my first last November. Fully agree on the boat and crew.

We did the Brothers in the middle of all the shark issues, had some good but close encounters. The Thistlegorn was amazing, albeit crowded.

I wore my 3mm all week.

 

[KentB]

We had 3/4 dives on the thistlegorm with just our boat the head guide said that was super super rare

I didn’t do cairo but we went to luxor yesterday and did valley of the kings which was super cool!

 

[DavidFL]

When I was contemplating my first live-aboard; I decided to try a "shorter-in-time" trip in case I didn't like it. The LOB was M/V Spree when it was operating from Key West. You can find lots and lots of threads about the Captain (@Wookie) / crew / Spree experience. Needless to say I was hooked. Have now done five week-long LOBs, with another booked for this year, and I nearly always sad to see the week end.

 

[BoltSnap]

backmount doubles

Did they provide doubles for you? What boat did you book btw?

 

[KentB]

I dove sidemount. They provided tanks and valves no rigging.
My buddy dove backmount doubles and they supplied everything

Emperor echo was the boat

 

[BoltSnap]

My buddy dove backmount doubles and they supplied everything

Wow, they had double tanks with all of the bands and valves/manifolds on the boat already? This is very unusual.

 

[KentB]

Wow, they had double tanks with all of the bands and valves/manifolds on the boat already? This is very unusual.

We had to pay extra and in advance but it was totally reasonable I think it was 40 euro maybe 50 euro For the week.Considering they left 1/2 the dives open without a time limit, they filled 42 tanks instead of 21 and we got considerable more bottom time on the 4 dives in the thistlegorm than the majority of the other divers on the boat it was well well spent money

 

[BoltSnap]

We had to pay extra and in advance but it was totally reasonable I think it was 40 euro maybe 50 euro For the week.Considering they left 1/2 the dives open without a time limit, they filled 42 tanks instead of 21 and we got considerable more bottom time on the 4 dives in the thistlegorm than the majority of the other divers on the boat it was well well spent money

That is a fantastic deal indeed in terms of money and service.

Thank you for being so patient in answering my questions.