Here's the answers.
1) do they dock each night, our just pull into the harbor close enough that noise was an issue?
They don't go into a dock, they tie up to a mooring out in front of the waterfront of the city. Apparently it's a big concrete block, specifically made for mooring overnight and in weather. The govt mandated mooring there nightly so as to not damage any of the reef moorings if weather came up. Realize that I'm saying that an outdoor concert was going on, at concert volume, not just a noisy neightbor but full out concert volume, with bass set on 13, and the local music has fast driving beats with the primary component being bass. Without the concert it would have been fine, and normal concert hours would be fine, but daily until 3 AM doesn't make for good rest and diving. Since, with the exception of one day when weather enabled going to the North side, we just moved up and down the same stretch of coast, with all of the dive spots within an easy distance of each other, travel time wasn't an issue. I never even considered that we would spend every night in front of a city. Going to places where no one else goes is part of what I think of in a liveaboard so it just wasn't what I would prefer.
2) on the day they "dock" in Frederiksted, is that for the whole day or just part of it (i.e. morning or afternoon)? We docked for the whole day and overnight. I think they moved there in the morning and we stayed hooked up until the next morning when we drove out again to open water. Most of the pier is only about 25-30 feet deep so you can have 1.5 hour dives because air lasts so long and no nitrogen loading. You want to do day dives and night dives as well. Unfortunately it's human made debris piles for the most part. Lots of lobsters, and octopus out at night. Be aware of the jellyfish at night. One person went in just a bathing suit to dive. The jellies congregate just below surface and she came up through them and they tore her up with tentacle swaths across her legs and abdomen, as well as her face. She was vomiting and shaking and it messed her up for a day or two. The next night I wanted to go because I like some night dives. The previous persons entrance hole in the water had barely closed before I was jumping in, and I spent zero time on the surface. Of course, this was the day they neglected to hang the glow sticks or any strobe under the boat. It was black as coal. I just stayed shallow as possible to prolong my air in case of need of navigation because I had no intentions of spending a second on the surface. Saw numerous eels hunting etc before exiting. My buddy watched as a jelly stung him on the exposed hand while we hung on the bar underneath. I did the "clear the way with bubbles" then zoom up from the last couple feet and I was out of the water.
On the last day, we dove until late afternoon. I think we did 3 dives that day. We surfaced to wind and a storm coming in and gathering darkness. Off we went in our skyscraper ship. Underway in real waves, the boat is worse than a regular design for rocking but better when at anchor in the calm.
Realize that they can structure the days a variety of ways. After talk of going to Vieques on the way out, we didn't, then Vieques on the way back, but we didn't. So they may structure the route to accomodate. More dives on the North side would have made a better trip. We saw the only shark seen on that trip: a hammerhead on the North side. The reefs there were real organized reefs area as opposed to what I would call "field reef" meaning scattered organized coral and coral rubble on sand that was more typical of the sites by the pier side of the island.
I'm guess I'm trying to gauge how much diving in could get in on the new 6-day itinerary ...
