Question about dives on Blackbeards Liveaboard

[SouthSideScubaSteve]

Got home from my trip on the Morning Star earlier this evening and I am hooked on liveaboard diving!

Here are my general impressions of Blackbeards:

The phrases "camping at sea" / "scout camp at sea" fit the experience pretty well ...
Accommodations are basic, but functional ...
The Lost Blue Hole is wayyyyy cool!
The food is good and plentiful; think home-style, not gourmet ...
Did I mention the Shark dive ?
The crew works their keisters 's off (and adds to the fun) ...
Diving multiple times a day on consecutive days can be a bit tiring physically, however sustaining elevated levels of dissolved nitrogen for multiple days is good for the soul! ;-)​

---------- Post added February 28th, 2015 at 08:23 AM ----------

I am looking at booking flights.

My understanding is that on Blackbeards, the boat arrives back in port on Thursday with most people flying out on Friday. Does anyone know when the last dives are on Thursday. Do they do one or two dives before heading back to port on Thursday.

Looking at booking flights and for the most part like to stick to the 24 hour rule and so it would be helpful to know when I will be out of the water on Thursday so that I can fly on Friday.

On my recent trip, we overnighted in the Exuma's and did an early dive there before breakfast Thursday morning, and then motored/sailed toward New Providence, catching the Lost Blue Hole dive sight in the way in. I think we splashed on the last dive at roughly 11:45AM and I was out of the water 40 minutes later. I had a 1PM flight on Friday, others had 11:45 AM Friday flights and decided to use the "23 hour rule". I would have done the same.....

Also as an aside - when does diving start? Most liveaboards I have been on don't start diving until the following morning but I thought I had seen mention of diving starting in port on the first cruise day (Saturday)

Thanks

We didn't "sail" until Sunday morning because of a combination of:

1 - Waiting on two bags of dive gear that took later flights than their divers (it was 4:15ish when they showed up)
2 - The weather forecast for the early part of our week (winds @ 18-22mph with 6-8' seas on Saturday to 5-8mph winds overnight & 1-3'seas Sunday morning)
3 - The 3+ hour sail time to our intended dive area and only 2-1/2 hours of daylight available (to navigate the shallows / reefs in our destination area)​

As a result, we only got three dives on Sunday...

My impression is that later in the year, as the hours of light per day increases, doing the first dive on Saturday night becomes more prevalent...

 

[KathyV]

Got home from my trip on the Morning Star earlier this evening and I am hooked on liveaboard diving!

Here are my general impressions of Blackbeards:

The phrases "camping at sea" / "scout camp at sea" fit the experience pretty well ...
Accommodations are basic, but functional ...
The Lost Blue Hole is wayyyyy cool!
The food is good and plentiful; think home-style, not gourmet ...
Did I mention the Shark dive ?
The crew works their keisters 's off (and adds to the fun) ...
Diving multiple times a day on consecutive days can be a bit tiring physically, however sustaining elevated levels of dissolved nitrogen for multiple days is good for the soul! ;-)​

Thanks for the report; it sounds like you had a great trip! Blackbeards was our first liveaboard experience and we got hooked too. A word of advice; if you decide to try other liveaboards that offer more privacy and comfort than Blackbeards, they may seem pricey - but they tend to run specials and discounts during the year and that helps to bring down the price; and after you take one cruise with that company you usually qualify for additional discounts on future cruises.

And even though a liveaboard trip may seem expensive - remember that the price covers almost everything - lodging, food, diving, night dives, and often even alcoholic beverages. When you work out the cost per dive for a liveaboard trip versus a land-based trip, the livaboard is almost always much cheaper.

And you get to dive the more distant, less frequently visited sites, the gear handling is minimal, you don't have to deal with long rides to the reef on day boats; and you have the chance to make friends with a lot of people, many of them very nice. And you don't have to wear shoes for a week!

A word of caution, a liveaboard can be a miserable place to be if the weather is bad or if you get sick, like develop an ear infection. We've been pretty lucky with our liveaboard experiences and I hope that you have the chance to do many more great trips!

SouthSideScubaSteve, are you going to the Our World Underwater Expo in Rosemont this weekend? There will be many dive travel vendors there offering "Show Specials" including liveaboard vendors. If you have a DAN card bring it with to get a discount on the admission fee.
​

 

[SouthSideScubaSteve]

Thanks for the report; it sounds like you had a great trip! Blackbeards was our first liveaboard experience and we got hooked too. A word of advice; if you decide to try other liveaboards that offer more privacy and comfort than Blackbeards, they may seem pricey - but they tend to run specials and discounts during the year and that helps to bring down the price; and after you take one cruise with that company you usually qualify for additional discounts on future cruises.

And even though a liveaboard trip may seem expensive - remember that the price covers almost everything - lodging, food, diving, night dives, and often even alcoholic beverages. When you work out the cost per dive for a liveaboard trip versus a land-based trip, the livaboard is almost always much cheaper.

And you get to dive the more distant, less frequently visited sites, the gear handling is minimal, you don't have to deal with long rides to the reef on day boats; and you have the chance to make friends with a lot of people, many of them very nice. And you don't have to wear shoes for a week!
​

You are correct, I had a BLAST!

SouthSideScubaSteve, are you going to the Our World Underwater Expo in Rosemont this weekend? There will be many dive travel vendors there offering "Show Specials" including liveaboard vendors. If you have a DAN card bring it with to get a discount on the admission fee.
​

Not going to OWUW this year; I've been gone playing a week, this weekend is all about my wife & family!

But yes, I already started looking for my next trip and already noticed that Explorer Ventures has some good discounts throughout the year

A word of caution, a liveaboard can be a miserable place to be if the weather is bad or if you get sick, like develop an ear infection. We've been pretty lucky with our liveaboard experiences and I hope that you have the chance to do many more great trips!
​

We got lucky on the weather, the last two weeks had sustained 15-20+ winds and the accompanying 4-10' seas .... By Sunday morning the winds had dropped and the seas calmed; Monday->Wednesday @ noon it was like jumping off the boat into turquoise glass!!

I was recovering from a sinus infection when I left, so I got my Dr to give me a script of anti-biotic's to run thru the entire trip and into Monday/Tuesday of next week (my Dr is a diver )