A liveaboard is certainly a thrill. My first was a liveaboard out of Port Douglas diving on the GBR. Previously we had been to many places in the Caribbean, our favorite had been Little Cayman for best marine life. We also had made some day boats in Hurgada Egypt to dive the Red Sea as well as we took some dives off South Africa to dive Sodwanna Bay.
Australia has so much to offer besides diving as does South Africa. Being on a liveaboard in Australia was such a rush, being over 100 miles from shore, seeing the stars at night touch the horizon, the anticipation of the biggest reef in the world was very climatic.
Seeing sharks in mass and groupers larger than you thought possible, then seeing whales and have the whales (Minke) look you over then circle around and look you over some more.
Being with someone you love and then being able to share your experiences made it all the sweeter.
Taking the liveaboard out of Kimbe Bay in Papua New Guinea was another jaw dropping experience. The primitiveness of the area was indelible. The change in culture, you can't just forget it. The far-ness from civilization, the quiet, the stillness, miles from nowhere.
I remember being on the bridge and the captain stating that the charts weren't really correct for that area as they new the area better.
One day after a couple of dives the cook was going out in the skiff to go fishing, I asked to go along as I was degassing anyway. He let me use his fishing gear as he steered the boat and I caught something like a large wahoo. As I was reeling in a huge shark took the whole thing, this is where we were diving....now that was a funny feeling.
Seeing a Siver tip go biserk at the end of a dive was a crazy thing to see. My wife and I were coming up to the boat on a night dive and after I reached her position under the StarDancer she was still using her light to look out into the blue when a silver tip went into an aggressive behavior about 10 to 20 ft. behind the boarding ladder, we waited with about 6 of us and continued to watch this silver tip for about 10 minutes then it finally dissapeared into the black.
No this is not the silver tip, but with a wide angle lens I was kind of shocked how close you have to be to take a good photo, this is a grey reef shark.