How long of a liveaboard is too much?

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Hello folks:

The longest liveaboard and the only liveaboard that I have been on was a 4 day trip. The boat was minimalist with bunks instead of rooms and we had a pretty good time on it. I have looked at the duration of some liveaboards and they go up to 14 days! I was wondering, has anyone been on a liveaboard that they felt was a bit over extended? Diving is fun but being on a boat for an extended period of time may cause some people to become "land sick." If anyone has been on a long liveaboard Id love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks -

Sinbad

 

[TSandM]

The longest liveaboard trip I've done was ten days, and I had no desire whatsoever to get off the boat and come home. The ONLY thing about the long trips that eventually gets to me is just not being able to exercise (we really didn't have much time even for a swim, because we were busy diving, eating and sleeping). But I don't get seasick, and I love sleeping on boats.

 

[Shasta_man]

I have been on the 14 day trip. It was awesome! However, you have to hit multiple locations for that to work, as in not just one island.

I didn't really want to get off but it's nice to be home too. What is an issue about those trips is it gets to be a bit of a marathon of keeping healthy and keeping your ears in good shape from equalizing multiple times a day. You have to go easy on your ears when equalizing because after 30+ dives, they can start to be cranky. On the other hand, by that point, you tend to just equalize by moving your jaw a little so no problem. What also comes out is how comfortable you become with being at 75 feet at 7 AM, again. It starts becoming a bit surrealistic to me to be wandering around on reefs and not thinking of breathing air through this tube while I look for critters. Sometimes you have to think, oh yeah, this can be dangerous, pay attention again.

As mentioned above, there is surprising little time for anything but diving. If you have a camera, write in your dive log, and like to relax a bit, boom, the day's gone.

 

[ktkt]

No such thing. I would like to move to a liveaboard, but alas, I can't afford it. And my family would miss me

 

[Lorenzoid]

I'll play the contrarian. I have only done one liveaboard, but I have to say that my wife and I were not all that unready to leave at the end. And this was a fairly luxurious boat. Oh, we could have done a few more days and been very happy, but for us, facing the exact same dive/eat/sleep schedule day after day got just a little tedious. I suppose I could have broken it up by sitting out a dive (indeed, I sat out one night dive and enjoyed a beer instead), but missing out on dives doesn't feel ideal either. I have to say that our favorite style of diving so far as been Bonaire, where you have a rental truck and can dive whenever you want at whatever site you want without being beholden to anybody else. I guess that's why liveaboards come in various lengths--different strokes for different folks.

 

[lsorenson]

Hello folks:
iveaboard and the only liveaboard that I have been on was a 4 day trip. The boat was minimalist with bunks instead of rooms and we had a pretty good time on it. I have looked at the duration of some liveaboards and they go up to 14 days! I was wondering, has anyone been on a liveaboard that they felt was a bit over extended? Diving is fun but being on a boat for an extended period of time may cause some people to become "land sick." If anyone has been on a long liveaboard Id love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks -

Sinbad

It all depends on the boat, the crew, and your expectations... Good boat, good crew, good spot (for me, it was the Cocos for 14 days) there are not enough days... however, bad boat, bad crew, poor diving; about 4 hours...! JMHO

Sounds like you might have been on a Blackbeard cruise... fair?

 

[wmperry]

I've done two back to back Blackbeard's cruises with one night ashore between them. Loved every minute of the 12-13 days on the boat.

It helped that we went on a 90% different itinerary the second week and had perfect weather both weeks.

I might suggest trying a 7 day trip, check your tolerances before more than tripling your current number of days at sea.

Second the notion of living aboard, alas my wife does not do boats at all. Have to rely on trips with my son while he still likes diving with his dad.

 

[KeithG]

1 week trips are fairly standard in the Caribbean. We always wish we were staying longer when the end of the trip arrives. We did once do 2 back to back 1 week trips in PNG and even then the end came too soon.

We do take dives off during the week and generally do 4 of the 5 dives available. I like my afternoon nap. So we are not tired of too much diving as we pace ourselves a bit.

I am glad that the week seems too short, since I always leave wanting to come back.

Anything shorter than a week would mean that we invested too much travel time in relation to diving time.

 

[eelnoraa]

man, too long of live aboard?? all I ever had were too short.

 

[lloyd_borrett]

G'day,

I've done 2-day, 3-day, 7-day and 12-day live aboard dive trips.

One of my 7-day ones was in the Galapagos Islands. I couldn't get off the boat soon enough. But that's because the boat and food were very ordinary. The 4-days diving at Darwin and Wolf Islands was spectacular.

My longest live aboard dive expedition was to Bikini Atoll. It started and finished with a 30-hour steam between Kwajalein and Bikini Atolls. And the accommodation was the most basic I'd experienced on a live aboard, yet I didn't want to get off that boat. The food and crew were fantastic and I just wanted to stay and do more diving on the sunken nuclear ghost fleet at Bikini Atoll. That's why I'm going back again this year in October. See Scuba Dive Bikini Atoll - The top wreck diving location in the world - The Scuba Doctor

Many of the longer live aboard trips include the opportunity to go see something on land nearby. Usually I prefer to stay on the boat and skip the land tours. But that's just me.

Best regards, Lloyd Borrett.