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Bucket List
- Thread starter dead dog
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The good news is the boat has a chamber onboard. Wreck-wise, Truk pales in comparison. Most of the vessels were relatively new warships, which hold up much better than the aged merchantmen in Turk... except maybe for the thermonuclear bomb part.
Indies Trader diving charter :: Bikini Atoll | Indies Trader Marine Adventures
CAPTAIN SINBAD
Contributor
By bucket list do people mean the places they wish to dive in their unachievable fantasies? Or the places that they intend to realistically dive in their life?
I just made mine last week when I traveled to North Vancouver Island. Unless I find another "secret" wreck I don't have any must dive sites ahead. There are so many great spots I've already dived that will give me all the pleasure and excitement I look for when I dive them again and again.
drrich2
Contributor
Mid. 40's, married, got a pre-toddler daughter, strictly recreational diver, living in Kentucky, enjoy tropical diving, mainly reefs but some wrecks (as artificial reefs). So some famous foreign locations probably aren't in the cards. Plus, I don't like plane rides over 4 hours. Mainly a Florida & Caribbean diver, having hit Key Largo, Jupiter, Bonaire x 8 & I've done a smattering of cruise ship stops diving St. Thomas, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Costa Maya, Puerto Rico, St. Croix & St. Lucia.
So, my conservative bucket list would now be:
1.) Aquacat Live-aboard. Although reputedly not the best diving available, the Bahamas seem to be kind of iconic as a scuba destination, rather like Cozumel and Bonaire with more name recognition than either, but there's the sharks thing. I haven't yet done a live-aboard. And the Aquacat is a very reputable operation. So, file under '3 birds with one stone' if I spend a week on that someday.
2.) North Carolina. Diving with large numbers of sand tiger sharks. It's on my list! Despite my trepidation about trying to re-board in the Atlantic if the seas get bad while we're down.
3.) Cozumel - did 2 dives there on a cruise ship stop, but would like to take a week, hit Hotel Cozumel maybe, and dive with Living Underwater (or maybe Aldora Villas and dive with Aldora) and 'do it for real.' Iconic place, warm, great viz., probably more big stuff than Bonaire, not too bad to get to, overall trip cost pretty budget as scuba vacations go.
4.) Little Cayman - either LCBR or the Cayman Aggressor live-aboard. I keep reading that Little Cayman is the best diving in the Caribbean, and Bloody Bay Wall is 'the stuff,' so to speak. Since this is the part of the world I dive, seems it would be worthwhile to go check out what is allegedly the best of it.
5.) Belize via Live-aboard - another iconic scuba destination, said best done by live-aboard. Did visit on cruise stop one day and did the New Liver and Lamanai tour; saw 3 Mayan ruins & climbed atop 2 of them, and it's a good memory.
6.) The Flower Gardens via the MV Fling. Well-regarded on the forums, sounds a little advanced for me to hit alone right now. My main problems are trips tend to be short, but my air fare is the same whether I go 3 days or a week. I'd probably need to rent a car to get down there. Flying round trip, renting a car, going all that way and diving 2 or 3 days? And they don't put a guide in the water. I think I'd like it at a calm time of year, but roughly the same money can get me a 1 week trip somewhere else and more dives in.
Okay, finally, I've got one potential bucket list trip that's more of a classic 'go big' thing, and I'm ever not too cheap to do it.
7.) Cage diving with great white sharks off Guadalupe, Mexico.
And one 'exotic' trip, if I am ever willing to take off the time and grow butt roots in plane seats getting there.
8.) The Philippines. I keep reading how awesome the diving is in parts of the Pacific, particularly Indonesia, and the Philippines are about as far as this conservative homebody is likely to get. And even that is a stretch.
Richard.
So, my conservative bucket list would now be:
1.) Aquacat Live-aboard. Although reputedly not the best diving available, the Bahamas seem to be kind of iconic as a scuba destination, rather like Cozumel and Bonaire with more name recognition than either, but there's the sharks thing. I haven't yet done a live-aboard. And the Aquacat is a very reputable operation. So, file under '3 birds with one stone' if I spend a week on that someday.
2.) North Carolina. Diving with large numbers of sand tiger sharks. It's on my list! Despite my trepidation about trying to re-board in the Atlantic if the seas get bad while we're down.
3.) Cozumel - did 2 dives there on a cruise ship stop, but would like to take a week, hit Hotel Cozumel maybe, and dive with Living Underwater (or maybe Aldora Villas and dive with Aldora) and 'do it for real.' Iconic place, warm, great viz., probably more big stuff than Bonaire, not too bad to get to, overall trip cost pretty budget as scuba vacations go.
4.) Little Cayman - either LCBR or the Cayman Aggressor live-aboard. I keep reading that Little Cayman is the best diving in the Caribbean, and Bloody Bay Wall is 'the stuff,' so to speak. Since this is the part of the world I dive, seems it would be worthwhile to go check out what is allegedly the best of it.
5.) Belize via Live-aboard - another iconic scuba destination, said best done by live-aboard. Did visit on cruise stop one day and did the New Liver and Lamanai tour; saw 3 Mayan ruins & climbed atop 2 of them, and it's a good memory.
6.) The Flower Gardens via the MV Fling. Well-regarded on the forums, sounds a little advanced for me to hit alone right now. My main problems are trips tend to be short, but my air fare is the same whether I go 3 days or a week. I'd probably need to rent a car to get down there. Flying round trip, renting a car, going all that way and diving 2 or 3 days? And they don't put a guide in the water. I think I'd like it at a calm time of year, but roughly the same money can get me a 1 week trip somewhere else and more dives in.
Okay, finally, I've got one potential bucket list trip that's more of a classic 'go big' thing, and I'm ever not too cheap to do it.
7.) Cage diving with great white sharks off Guadalupe, Mexico.
And one 'exotic' trip, if I am ever willing to take off the time and grow butt roots in plane seats getting there.
8.) The Philippines. I keep reading how awesome the diving is in parts of the Pacific, particularly Indonesia, and the Philippines are about as far as this conservative homebody is likely to get. And even that is a stretch.
Richard.
I always thought it was somewhere between those definitions.
As Harry Chapin sang:
If you just dream when you're asleep
There is no way for them
To come alive
To survive
Personally the bucket list is a done deal right now. Learning to dive was on it for decades, check. getting to the tropics happened, Bonaire. After that I'd like to do more but if I don't my life will seem no less complete.
Pete
Before I pick my next trip I research where I want to go. After each trip I seem to find 5 more that I might like........bucket list grows more with every location and I haven't even started on the Pacific yet! The next one or two are my focus.
CAPTAIN SINBAD
Contributor
I don't know man. I have always thought if it is a good idea to plan your life chasing a bucket list. Initially when I learnt to dive I made a list which included really high end places that would give me bragging rights and prestige among other divers. As I began to mature into diving that list started to loose its meaning. I had initially wanted to dive Bikini Atoll or Truuk but I now realize that I am sitting fairly close to Empress of Ireland which is Canada's Titanic. It was one of the most tragic disasters. Before I spend 4000 plus diving Truuk or Bikini, I owe it to myself to spend 1000 USD and dive Empress.
Similarly I am also realizing that if the Great Lakes were situated in Australia with exactly the same wrecks then I would be contemplating whether to spend 4 grand to dive the Great Lakes or to spend the same money diving Truuk. In terms of preservation of old historical ships, there is not much in the world that matches the Great Lakes. Instead of being loyal to a "list" I want to be loyal to myself and dive the equally great opportunities that are in front of me. Diving Truuk and Bikini without thoroughly enjoying Great Lakes would be like being in Fiji and not diving locally so that I can dive in Palau and boast to my Fijian friends that I just got back from Palau!
At this point I do not feel the need to travel anywhere for wrecks. If I must spend money for dive travel then it must go to see big animals and reefs and other things that I can not experience if I never leave my backyard. Now I have wanted to dive British Columbia but a little research tells me that Northern Maine and Passamaquoddy Bay area offers similar kinds of diving with wolf eels and anemones etc. So before traveling across the continent I owe it to myself to dive Maine.
At this point, instead of a bucket list of destinations I have a tentative and flexible "road map." This looks something like following:
1. Caribbean: I don't believe in spending a lot of diving time and money in this region. I did Honduras this year and will be doing Bonaire next year. This will be followed by Cozumel and these three offer the cheapest Caribbean diving. That would be the end of Caribbean for me.
2. Africa: This is where I believe my bucket list would start. Red Sea would be a greater sensory overload in terms of reef life and South Africa a greater overload in terms of sharks. Here I would feel like I am diving some of those bucket list dives.
3. British Columbia, or Maine: I have a feeling that Maine will become one of my favorite places to dive and the money that I would be saving to dive in exotic places would be spent diving a lot more in Maine. This would cause my bucket list to shrink for good reasons. I would still like to go to BC and chances are that one trip may not be enough.
4. After the Caribbean and the Red Sea, I would live to experience Asia Pacific. Maldive, Thailand and Philippines present budget side of the Asia Pacific and that is where I believe I will have my Asia Pacific experience.
5. Somewhere around the same time I would like to do a liveaboard in Socorro and Cocos and option 4 would have to compete with this one.
6. Once all of the above has been accomplished then what remains is the places that were on my original bucket list. These are:
North Pole and South Pole
Galaagos.
Truuk
Bikini Atoll
Scape Flow
Palau
Fiji
Raja Ampat
In the end you ask yourself if it is the journey that is more pleasurable or the final destination? I believe that as long as you are enjoying the journey, you are on the right path and it does not matter if you ever reached the destination. I hope it makes sense. Or no?
Similarly I am also realizing that if the Great Lakes were situated in Australia with exactly the same wrecks then I would be contemplating whether to spend 4 grand to dive the Great Lakes or to spend the same money diving Truuk. In terms of preservation of old historical ships, there is not much in the world that matches the Great Lakes. Instead of being loyal to a "list" I want to be loyal to myself and dive the equally great opportunities that are in front of me. Diving Truuk and Bikini without thoroughly enjoying Great Lakes would be like being in Fiji and not diving locally so that I can dive in Palau and boast to my Fijian friends that I just got back from Palau!
At this point I do not feel the need to travel anywhere for wrecks. If I must spend money for dive travel then it must go to see big animals and reefs and other things that I can not experience if I never leave my backyard. Now I have wanted to dive British Columbia but a little research tells me that Northern Maine and Passamaquoddy Bay area offers similar kinds of diving with wolf eels and anemones etc. So before traveling across the continent I owe it to myself to dive Maine.
At this point, instead of a bucket list of destinations I have a tentative and flexible "road map." This looks something like following:
1. Caribbean: I don't believe in spending a lot of diving time and money in this region. I did Honduras this year and will be doing Bonaire next year. This will be followed by Cozumel and these three offer the cheapest Caribbean diving. That would be the end of Caribbean for me.
2. Africa: This is where I believe my bucket list would start. Red Sea would be a greater sensory overload in terms of reef life and South Africa a greater overload in terms of sharks. Here I would feel like I am diving some of those bucket list dives.
3. British Columbia, or Maine: I have a feeling that Maine will become one of my favorite places to dive and the money that I would be saving to dive in exotic places would be spent diving a lot more in Maine. This would cause my bucket list to shrink for good reasons. I would still like to go to BC and chances are that one trip may not be enough.
4. After the Caribbean and the Red Sea, I would live to experience Asia Pacific. Maldive, Thailand and Philippines present budget side of the Asia Pacific and that is where I believe I will have my Asia Pacific experience.
5. Somewhere around the same time I would like to do a liveaboard in Socorro and Cocos and option 4 would have to compete with this one.
6. Once all of the above has been accomplished then what remains is the places that were on my original bucket list. These are:
North Pole and South Pole
Galaagos.
Truuk
Bikini Atoll
Scape Flow
Palau
Fiji
Raja Ampat
In the end you ask yourself if it is the journey that is more pleasurable or the final destination? I believe that as long as you are enjoying the journey, you are on the right path and it does not matter if you ever reached the destination. I hope it makes sense. Or no?
trapezus
Contributor
all the Mediterranean islands : Cyprus ,Sicilia ,Malta , Corsica , Sardunia ,Rhodes ..
and Red Sea Blue hole
and Red Sea Blue hole
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