ScubaLuuke
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I am really interested in trying to get a job on a liveaboard and am wondering what this life may be like? Anybody have any experience with working on any liveaboards worldwide? Any info is greatly appreciated!
Life as a liveaboard crew member?
- Thread starter ScubaLuuke
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PM Pir8. He did a brief tour with Nekton.
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I have several Instructors whom I certified who did that. Most of the them had a horrible time and left disappointed and disillusioned. The two that enjoyed it had focused career plans that working on a liveaboard was a stepping stone for. One needed sea time to sit for his Captain's license and the other was building a portfolio as an underwater photographer. Both made great successes of what they wanted to do. Focus and goals are critical, as in most things. Surprise?
dumpsterDiver
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In my experience, you have to take a hard look at the crew and yourself. You will be living, eating, working and probably sleeping in very close quarters with the crew and there is no where to get away from eachother.
Is the crew happy? If prodded, will they make disrespectful comments about eachother when you are alone with them? Do they drink or get high? Do you? Are they going to be hitting on the customers? Are you? It is very different than a normal job, where you just go home at the end of the day. You also have to realize that the crew must function as a TEAM and that everyone has their specific duties, but you will frequently be required to do other stuff when things break etc.
If the boat is descent and the crew is good, working on a boat is tolerable.
You also probably need to be a somewhat outgoing and gregarious person to like living with a bunch of strangers (customers) which changes every week and to also deal with the personalities of the crew. You have very little privacy, if this is important to you, then you will probably be miserable. The customers are like house guests, you are their host and your job is to keep them safe and happy 24 hrs per day.
I used to do it to fill in for regular crew members who would have the week off. I used to really enjoy it, especially the diving, but I could quickly tell that after 15 weeks straight, I would be sick of it.
Is the crew happy? If prodded, will they make disrespectful comments about eachother when you are alone with them? Do they drink or get high? Do you? Are they going to be hitting on the customers? Are you? It is very different than a normal job, where you just go home at the end of the day. You also have to realize that the crew must function as a TEAM and that everyone has their specific duties, but you will frequently be required to do other stuff when things break etc.
If the boat is descent and the crew is good, working on a boat is tolerable.
You also probably need to be a somewhat outgoing and gregarious person to like living with a bunch of strangers (customers) which changes every week and to also deal with the personalities of the crew. You have very little privacy, if this is important to you, then you will probably be miserable. The customers are like house guests, you are their host and your job is to keep them safe and happy 24 hrs per day.
I used to do it to fill in for regular crew members who would have the week off. I used to really enjoy it, especially the diving, but I could quickly tell that after 15 weeks straight, I would be sick of it.
gregorio
Contributor
Thank you DumpsterDiver for this useful post!
I did almost 6 years with Aggressor. Enjoyed it mostly, sometimes you get a little tired of stuff but most is great. Except when the weather sucks and all the guests blame you cuz obviously you control the weather... 
As long as the people on the boat are good then it can be real fun, i found most people I worked with would do a 2 year stint or longer
As long as the people on the boat are good then it can be real fun, i found most people I worked with would do a 2 year stint or longer
OP
ScubaLuuke
Guest
All of this is good information, thanks. I do realize that it is quite a commitment, and would be an abnormal job. But it seems like it would be one hell of an experience, and a great oppurtunity to meet people and do a lot of diving. It also seems to be the best way to make and save money when working within the diving insdustry, since you have no living expenses and you are on a boat the majority of your time, did those of you with this experience find that to be true?
I spent eight years with Nekton, and overall I thought it was a wonderful experience. It is not for everyone, as evidenced by the high turnover rate. That being said, the dive industry is transient by nature so people tend to leave resort based jobs almost as frequently.
PLUSES:
1. The diving. I logged over 2500 dives while working on the boat, most in my first four years (after I got my captain's license there wasn't as much time to dive).
2. An opportunity to save money. IF you enter the job with no bills (no credit card bills, car payment bills, mortgage, etc.) there is an opportunity to save a decent amount of money. We used to work nine weeks on/three weeks off, so essentially there is nowhere to spend any money for nine weeks. Some crew members would blow there entire earnings during their three weeks off, but I managed to squirrel away quite a bit.
3. Gaining sea-time to get your mate's/captain's license. The "real" money in working on a liveaboard is working as a captain. After a few years you can take your USCG exam (if you are a US citizen) and your pay will go up. It will also open up lots of other opportunities--in diving and outside of diving.
4. Travel. Aside from getting to dive and explore your boat's itineraries, your off time is an opportunity to travel (especially if you don't have a house or apartment to go home to). While working I got to travel throughout the Caribbean and Central America as well as lots of trips to North Central Florida for cave diving.
5. Picking up dive related skills. Most liveaboards are looking for volunteers to pick up photo and video pro duties. These skills will help in your later dive career. You might start out as a novice, but by the time you leave you can be an expert. There are also opportunities for picking up seamanship skills such as driving skiffs, navigation,
6. Meeting lots of wonderful people. Through the years I met lots of crew members who are still my friends today. Living, eating, and working with folks for months on end is an opportunity to form lifelong friendships. I also developed great friendships with many of our guests and still correspond/dive with some of these folks to this day. I saw thousands of guests during my eight years on the boat, but I can count on one hand the number of absolute "jerks." Most guests are out to have a good time and very few are difficult to work with.
MINUSES
1. It is hard work. Expect twelve hour days (and often longer) for weeks/months at a time.
2. Non-diving responsibilities. As an instructor, you may still be required to work as steward (cleaning guest rooms and laundering towels) one day a week, work as a galley assistant (helping the chef) one day a week, and do night watches (monitoring engineering) a few days a week. Many go into liveaboards thinking about the "glamour" of being a dive instructor only to be humbled by having to be involved in the day-to-day operations of the boat. Personally, I liked being steward and galley asst., because those were the days I got to dive on my own time, without teaching or leading dives. But many of our crew absolutely hated these days.
3. Turnaround days. I can't speak for other liveaboards, but on Nekton we did Saturday-Saturday cruises. That means that the old guests get off in the morning and the boat has to be prepared for the new guests coming on Saturday night. The boat has to be thoroughly cleaned, fueled and provisioned, which leaves you virtually no time for yourself during the only day in port. This was by far my least favorite part of the job.
4. Boat maintenance. Not everyone likes to scrape and paint, but it is necessary on a boat. Often repositioning weeks (when we move from one home port to another) are spent doing lots of HARD manual labor. Nekton tries to keep people employed during its yearly shipyard/USCG inspection, so expect a few weeks of dirty, nasty work (I don't know other liveaboard policies).
Overall, for me the pluses outweighed the minuses and I enjoyed my time spent with Nekton. There are cetainly some negatives, but the truth is that ALL jobs have there crappy attributes. Bottom line, I spent many days working on the dive deck and thinking to myself I can't believe they are really paying me to do this.
If you have any specific questions, please feel free to PM me.
PLUSES:
1. The diving. I logged over 2500 dives while working on the boat, most in my first four years (after I got my captain's license there wasn't as much time to dive).
2. An opportunity to save money. IF you enter the job with no bills (no credit card bills, car payment bills, mortgage, etc.) there is an opportunity to save a decent amount of money. We used to work nine weeks on/three weeks off, so essentially there is nowhere to spend any money for nine weeks. Some crew members would blow there entire earnings during their three weeks off, but I managed to squirrel away quite a bit.
3. Gaining sea-time to get your mate's/captain's license. The "real" money in working on a liveaboard is working as a captain. After a few years you can take your USCG exam (if you are a US citizen) and your pay will go up. It will also open up lots of other opportunities--in diving and outside of diving.
4. Travel. Aside from getting to dive and explore your boat's itineraries, your off time is an opportunity to travel (especially if you don't have a house or apartment to go home to). While working I got to travel throughout the Caribbean and Central America as well as lots of trips to North Central Florida for cave diving.
5. Picking up dive related skills. Most liveaboards are looking for volunteers to pick up photo and video pro duties. These skills will help in your later dive career. You might start out as a novice, but by the time you leave you can be an expert. There are also opportunities for picking up seamanship skills such as driving skiffs, navigation,
6. Meeting lots of wonderful people. Through the years I met lots of crew members who are still my friends today. Living, eating, and working with folks for months on end is an opportunity to form lifelong friendships. I also developed great friendships with many of our guests and still correspond/dive with some of these folks to this day. I saw thousands of guests during my eight years on the boat, but I can count on one hand the number of absolute "jerks." Most guests are out to have a good time and very few are difficult to work with.
MINUSES
1. It is hard work. Expect twelve hour days (and often longer) for weeks/months at a time.
2. Non-diving responsibilities. As an instructor, you may still be required to work as steward (cleaning guest rooms and laundering towels) one day a week, work as a galley assistant (helping the chef) one day a week, and do night watches (monitoring engineering) a few days a week. Many go into liveaboards thinking about the "glamour" of being a dive instructor only to be humbled by having to be involved in the day-to-day operations of the boat. Personally, I liked being steward and galley asst., because those were the days I got to dive on my own time, without teaching or leading dives. But many of our crew absolutely hated these days.
3. Turnaround days. I can't speak for other liveaboards, but on Nekton we did Saturday-Saturday cruises. That means that the old guests get off in the morning and the boat has to be prepared for the new guests coming on Saturday night. The boat has to be thoroughly cleaned, fueled and provisioned, which leaves you virtually no time for yourself during the only day in port. This was by far my least favorite part of the job.
4. Boat maintenance. Not everyone likes to scrape and paint, but it is necessary on a boat. Often repositioning weeks (when we move from one home port to another) are spent doing lots of HARD manual labor. Nekton tries to keep people employed during its yearly shipyard/USCG inspection, so expect a few weeks of dirty, nasty work (I don't know other liveaboard policies).
Overall, for me the pluses outweighed the minuses and I enjoyed my time spent with Nekton. There are cetainly some negatives, but the truth is that ALL jobs have there crappy attributes. Bottom line, I spent many days working on the dive deck and thinking to myself I can't believe they are really paying me to do this.
If you have any specific questions, please feel free to PM me.
OP
ScubaLuuke
Guest
PM sent to cappyjon431
Scubasteve1982
Contributor
your post was extremely helpful and interesting. One other question is do you need to be a Instructor to get a job as crew?
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