Help finding a liveaboard through RCI

[diversteve]

Interesting link.

Two of those pictures are in the BVI's - the first one is the driveshaft of the RMS Rhone. When I saw the third, I thought it was the Chimneys - which they list as dive #10. The plane wreck isn't as good as they make it sound either IMO. Painted Walls off Dead Chest is about the best dive in that area IMO if you like brightly colored coral reefs. Dive Sites around the British Virgin Islands | BVI Tourism

Interesting that they mention Sail Caribbean Divers since Nanny Cay - where Tradewinds keeps their boats - has Blue Water Divers in the same complex. SCD is at Hodges Creek Marina, Norman and Cooper Islands so I'd assume you can trade tanks at those locations. We B Diving in Roadtown will deliver to the boat also. Two of the bigger yacht harbors on Virgin Gorda have a DiveBVI shop on-site - both have their fill stations conveniently located on the public dock.

I know of an 80' cat in that area with it's own compressor. They just don't have much - if any - of a bank so fills take a little time between dives. Tradewinds must know which of their fleet does also.

Unless you go out to Anegada, I can't see you being more than an hour or two at most from some marina with a dive shop nearby. There's really not many (any?) shops that aren't located near one. Many of the marinas have little carts you can use to move tanks also - at Leverick Bay they also have dinghies the moored boats can use. That's the 2nd DiveBVI shop.

 

[Damselfish]

I'm not totally dismissing the option of Tradewinds, but I've also heard of other live aboards that offer a lot more for divers and are more all-inclusive. But those aren't through RCI, which one thing I'm trying to take advantage of.

There are lots of real dive-dedicated liveaboard boats around the world which are going to be a very different experience then what you can cobble together through RCI. Unfortunately there aren't a lot of really great dive destination options available through RCI, even land-based. One of the better options may be Morritts Tortuga Club on the East end of Grand Cayman. (Even that, if I wanted to stay and dive East End I'd prefer to stay at Compass Point since I'd dive with Ocean Frontiers anyway, and given the good car/condo/dive packages they offer sometimes the "free" accommodations down the road aren't as good a deal as you'd like. I think the Reef is a nicer place to stay as well. But Morritt's is still worth considering, though it's popular and last I knew they only allow trading into it through RCI every other year. Apparently that's about to be a moot point though, as it seems they are changing from RCI to II.)