Whats normal on a dive boat?

[Divectionist]

I have been on a number of day boats out of Cairns and I have never experienced a SI of 10 min. An hour was the norm.

I had it, 3 dive day trip to two sites, because of a 'tight schedule', the two first dives at the same site were 10min apart. Was supposed to be one of the better boats but our guide was an idiot who also bumped into two corals.

 

[clownfishsydney]

Unfortunately that is the way with many (most?) of the dive boats out of Cairns. Cater to the lowest common denominator, short bottom times, treated like a beginner no matter your experience. This is why most experienced Australian divers do not use them except in dire circumstances (eg non-diving spouse wants to go on them).

 

[happy-diver]

The more local Aussie dive operators in other locations where the site is not that far from land take 6-14 or so divers out on a RHIB with two 50-60min dives and a 60min SI.

RHIB SCHMIB man you should get out more

LIKE this one less than an hour drive from you

and this one less than two

Way cool!

and this one 30 minutes south

so waddya talkin about man

 

[Neilwood]

I don't think I would be happy with that trip - 10 min SI is asking for trouble (also very short NDL for the second dive). If presented with that, I think I would choose not to go. Better to organise another boat with a better schedule.

My previous experience has been average of 4 dives of approx 1Hr per day with approx 2hrs between on a liveaboard. Nice and relaxed.

 

[Divectionist]

so waddya talkin about man

Yeah I go with Blue Bay (it's 50mins south though!) but have yet to venture North. I stay out of Brisbane whenever I can avoid it

 

[Snoweman]

The OP didn't say what the max depth was for the first and second dive, so a 10 min SI may be OK.

I have been on some big boats (50'+), but I have never gone in the water with 50 other divers from the same boat. That would be hell, especially not being able to dive your air.

 

[jlcnuke]

I think 8 is the most divers I've had on a non-liveaboard boat at once. That's in Florida, Antigua, Aruba, Mexico (PDC and Cozumel), and Grenada. I like to book with 6-pack charters or similar. I specifically look at what size boats are used by the dive operation and try to avoid cattle boats though.

 

[dmaziuk]

I think my so far "most" is the Roatan trip to Pigeon Cay where they put two groups on one boat (but the groups dive separately w/ their own DMs) because it's a long trip: they want to save some gas and you all want a bigger boat for it. Normally the groups are up to 8 people.

My shortest SIs were around 40 minutes to "start gearing up" in Ocotal Costa Rica where most people drive in for a 2-tank morning and need to drive back to wherever they're staying for lunch.

 

[Mustard Dave]

In the UK, commercial dive boats will never be coded for more than 12 divers.

 

[Snoweman]

I forget how many divers we had on each of three of the dive operators my buddies and I used in Plancencia, Belize. I'm thinking about 16+ per boat. Those seas can get big, and they had big boats to handle the seas. But, you have to pay for a big boat, too.

I'm pretty sure we had over 16 divers with Dive Provo in Turks & Caicos.