Looking For Suggestions On A Liveaboard For The First Week In May

[ScubaDoo83]

I just got my schedule cleared for the first week in May and am looking to book a liveabord. I am in the American midwest and while I certainly don't mind using my passport I'd rather not eat up more than one day of travel each way. I was looking at Bahamas options but most are either booked or not running that week. If possible I'd like to do something unique as well like a shark experience but my ultimate goal is to just dive a bunch. Thanks in advance for the suggestions!

 

[drrich2]

Using Liveaboard.com to quickly hunt openings on my iPhone, looks like slim options but Caribbean Explorer II diving St. Kitts and Saba might get you in.

 

[ScubaDoo83]

I just put a 24 hour hold on a reservation with Blackbeard out of Nassau. I really like that they offer a variety of dives night, shark, wreck. Just have to make sure I can get the flight schedule correct.

 

[diversteve]

Either of the Explorer boats in the Caribbean have availability that week (April30-May7)
Explorer Ventures: Adventures in Liveaboard Scuba Diving!

I think I'd pick Turks/Caicos for two reasons - one is sharks are almost a given on every dive at French Cay - usually 2 days are spent there, highly likely at West Caicos and it's deeper wall diving so the corals are real healthy which promotes a lot of smaller animals also. We saw at least 2-3 sharks on every dive out there, dozens of Stingrays, maybe a dozen barracuda - often near the boat, all sorts of fish and smaller stuff. Quite a few turtles also and we heard but did not see dolphins at West Caicos. I did 25 dives and sat two out - I was sick one afternoon - my buddy did all 27. Amazingly clear water also - sometimes you're straining to see something 2-300' down the wall. Caribbean Diving Aboard Turks & Caicos Explorer II

I haven't done Saba/St. Kitts yet but the logistics make that a little harder - you either meet the boat on St. Maarten or St. Kitts and you fly out of the other island. Living where you do it might be OK, for us in the west it's an overnight stay in one direction.

Trust me on this, the T/C is a lot better diving than the Bahamas. I've been thru there both shore-based and liveaboard - there was an invasive algae epidemic in some areas that damaged the reef some years ago - it takes a while to rebound.

You certainly get what you pay for with Blackbeards - 19 dives vs. a guaranteed 25+ - you did say you want to dive a lot right?

 

[Mia Toose]

I've worked on a scuba liveaboard in The Bahamas as well as on The Turks & Caicos Explorer II in Provo and I noticed a considerable difference in the quality of the reef. The main difference would be that TCI reef is healthier and the diving is quite deep with beautiful reefs on the top of the walls. Pretty much every island has a big deep alluring wall and top reef to explore, whereas in The Bahamas there are quite a lot of shallow pretty reefs that you can explore at slack tides.

I've been doing some social media stuff for Explorer Ventures and have started a nice Instagram collection of photos of all of our boats. You can look at them online even if you don't have Instagram if you are interested in seeing some of the wildlife:
www.Instagram.com/Explorer.Ventures

Caribbean Explorer has quite a few opportunities to see Sea Horses, which is pretty cool!

 

[KathyV]

I just put a 24 hour hold on a reservation with Blackbeard out of Nassau. I really like that they offer a variety of dives night, shark, wreck. Just have to make sure I can get the flight schedule correct.

I have done liveaboard trips to the Bahamas (including Blackbeards) and TCI and Saba/St. Kitts and other places and in the Caribbean I would pick TCI or the Caymans first, Belize or Saba/St. Kitts second, but the Bahamas would be my last choice and I would never go back to Blackbeards.

Blackbeards is very inexpensive and a bargain but I don't care for the dormitory style accommodations and the diving isn't nearly as good. The reefs off of French Cay and West Caicos in the Turks & Caicos has some of the best diving in the Caribbean IMO.

Below is a thread about Blackbeards that you may find of interest, some people love it but others not so much.

There are also some very good liveaboards out of Cabo/Baja which is a fairly short flight from the Midwest. Have fun!

Question about dives on Blackbeards Liveaboard

 

[nudisusie]

Hi ScoobaDoo83

Have you considered Fiji?

There are direct flights to Nadi from LAX. You could spend a day diving in Beqa Lagoon for the bull sharks (land based) then join the Fiji Siren for their 03 -10 May trip. the itinerary includes dives in Nigali Passage where grey reef and white tips are common plus Namena Reserve is also great for big pelagics. The reefs are some of the best i;ve ever dived with healthy corals and abundant fish life.

 

[scubadada]

I would also recommend T&C. This is the cut in the wall at Boat Cove, West Caicos. Personally, I'd rather see sharks in their natural habitat, there is no feeding or hunting here. We saw sharks on the majority of our dives.