Don et. al.,
Just did a BB over Thanksgiving. Went on the Sea Explorer. Great trip. Great crew. Sailed with Jason (Capt), JP (Cook), Karen (Dive Mistress). Our boat had 19 divers. I believe 25 is considered max. There are three cabin areas. The main salon where every one eats, showers, and houses the galley, contains six double berths. On our boat, six individuals had these six berths. They each had a lot of storage in the berth itself, with them, and on the shelf over their feet. Some may have had space under as has been described. In the next cabin forward, you will find two individual cabins each with two double berths. On our boat, a family of four had one cabin and my wife and I had the other. There is a head/sink for these two cabins. The head is tiny for a person of any size. I am 5 11 and 200#. There is no shower here. The family was crowded. My wife and I each slept in a separate bunk. I kept stuff in my bunk with me and on the shelf over my feet. We did not use all of the space under our bunks and shared it with the family of four. The next cabin forward, i never saw, but was told it contained 8 single bunks. On our boat, there were seven people up there and they all shared the eighth bunk as a storage area.
In short we probably had the best deal on the boat if you don't want all of the traffic associated with the main salon. The main salon has its own advantages, many of which have been stated. One more is it seemed my cabin was so tight it made it hard to sort thru my clothes that were stored in the bunk. In the main salon, at least at non-meal times, it was easy for those folks to pull out anything they wanted and lay it on the table to do whatever they wanted to do with it.
Definitely bring heavy duty clamps. The boat has clothespins but they don't hold. We lost three wetsuits over the side during a particularly windy day. We brought about 18 heavy duty clamps and we were very popular! Some kind of cushion is nice, we brought boat cushions, but it will be wet and it will take up room in your luggage.
We had one guy on board with a computer. We had an electrical outlet in our cabin.
We sailed on a Sat and arrived Bimini late Sat Night.
There were four dives on Sun, one at night.
There were four dives on Mon, one at night.
There were four dives on Tue, one at night
There were three dives on Wed and we docked at Bimini for the night.
There was one dive on Thurs and due to weather, we started back for Miami early.
I got the impression that there would normally have been two or three day dives on Thurs.
The night dives were usually at the same spot that the last day dive had been.
I concur with the clothing recommendations. 4-5 t shirts, couple of shorts, couple of bathing suits, rain gear (although I still got wet wearing full pants/jacket). It was very cool at night in November. I had long pants (that had zip on/off legs) and a sweatshirt and I wore them every night.
It was a fun trip. It definitely is "camping at sea". A good attitude goes a very long way.
If you have any specific questions, shoot me a PM.
Don, thanks for your contributions to SB, I always enjoy your posts.
Texasdiver2
and of course the diving. I think it's almost impossible to beat Blackbeards for the money.
