Liveaboard nightdives question.

[rabe]

Last year our night dive were after dinner, but before dessert... It was a good solution, and in a good time frame...
And after the dive we could have some energy replacement with the dessert and enjoy a couple of beers...

 

[TGIF]

Slippery Slope indeed- but what a great one! You are such a great live aboard resource!

And an enabler

 

[Lorenzoid]

I get what you are saying, but I often dive after breakfast and not very long after lunch, so I do dive after meals. The only time it has been a problem is when I have been dealing with seasickness - then I don't eat much anyway.

That’s why many boats do a light pre-breakfast before the first dive, then a full breakfast when you return, followed by siesta time before the next dive.

For what it’s worth, if I’m fortunate enough to do another liveaboard—never a given—and the night dive is after dinner, the solution of having the crew put my dinner away to wait for me sounds like it would address my problem. There.

 

[Wingy]

I'm not a morning person at all, often sleep thru first dive. If I had my way diving would be 3pm, 6pm, dinner, 9pm dive, 2am dive and sleep all day. I've only ever been awake before the bell once in anticipation for a dive....can't see that happening again. I'd love to do a night/Blackwater trip.

 

[Redfoot]

I used to be a total night owl, now struggle to stay up past 2200......

But I like the idea of a middle of the night dive...... @Wingy, do any boats actually do that?

 

[Shasta_man]

The only thing about diving before dinner is the boats I have been on held dinner for the night divers to come back. I usually night dive myself but if not it is a long time to dinner time. I'd rather they served dinner and then served the night divers separately though I can see that is not optimal for the staff

 

[Shasta_man]

My experience is best viz is first dive in the morning.

 

[Wingy]

I used to be a total night owl, now struggle to stay up past 2200......

But I like the idea of a middle of the night dive...... @Wingy, do any boats actually do that?

Not yet that I know of....

 

[shmuggy]

Don't forget the boat has it set up so they can accomodate their crew with dinner, rest, maintenance, etc and possibly moving the boat to another site. Also, a lot of them talk about their typical daily schedule on their web site and some other passengers may like the opposite way better but do not want to get into a quarrel over it. A few years ago, I was on a boat where the majority wanted to do a "jungle" tour looking for monkeys instead of a dive. I was not at all happy about it because I had no interest in it. When it started up that they also wanted to look for an alligator instead of another dive, I had to get mouthy and things got unpleasant but I was not up for losing another dive to unadvertised nonsense.

I go along with the previous posts that say go with the flow of the boat- they know the area- they have had experience with all this stuff before and they are very busy. Let them do what they need to do. It is not a democracy..the Captain is in charge

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

We had dinner before dives, but the guys were happy to plate up for me and I stuck it in the microwave afterwards. I wasn’t missing much, the food was honest but anecdotally that is nothing to do with the cook. They make pretty much what they are told to. I was happy to nuke it and eat it standing up in the galley.

I did find it a bit unnecessary that continental breakfast was served and then an hour later cooked breakfast, all before the first dive.As opposed to light beeakfast, dive then hot cooked breakfast...4 divers told me that they don’t do night dives on liveaboards where the dinner is served first, purely because they don’t like diving after dinner, but I suspect that is a potential strategy to reduce the number of nightdivers anyway..the others I asked said they weren’t really bothered either way.

The consensus was that dinner after dive would be highly preferred, less indigestion, sluggishness underwater belching etc. with those who weren’t doing night dives preferring beforehand. Several of the staff also said they would prefer it after dive as it would get people out of the water quicker and the could close off the divedeck and move to next divesite quicker...they confirmed that dinner before night dive was actually a hinderance, not a help when it came to moving to other divesites.