Liveaboards in the Caribbean

:After 11 years of diving, we finally tried our first liveaboard. We are spoiled!!! We did the Agressor in Grand Cayman, and we shared the ocean with Ike. We only had two calm days, and did not make it over to Little Cayman. But, we still loved the experience. Since we are going to do the Maldives in a year, we are looking for something closer this summer. any opinions for a liveaboard in the carribean? I heard goos things about the Agressor in Belize. Any opinions or suggestions?

It's like opening Pandoras box. My wife and I had been diving for 20 yrs. before we tried one (liveaboard) in Australia, be thankful you only spent 11. Our options are always open when we make our trips as to what liveaboards are in the area. The ease of it all, the comradery and the intimacy, the food, being over the dive site, the non-rushness.
There are few places that have ever provided us with the same options when at a land based resort. One that did was the Divi on Cayman Brac and sadly that resort is now gone. Although we've been to the Brac reef more recent, you don't get a great choice of the really good dive sites with them. Bonaire would be a better example.

dmorus:

: I heard goos things about the Aggressor in Belize. Any opinions or suggestions?

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I've done most of the LAs in the Carribean over the past few years, except Peter Hughes. All are good, but I'd rank Belize Aggressor and the Saba/Statia Explorer as the best based SOLELY on the diving.

Others will, of course, disagree. Weather is always a big factor. I'd not schedule a Carribean LA during hurricane season. Why spend that much $$ and take the risk.

So, I was considering the Explorer Ventures Saba/St Kitts in late December or early January, but I'm wanting to learn more about the reef/critters that might be seen.

For reference, I thoroughly enjoyed the Peter Hughes Belize boat, thought Roatan was nice but not awesome, and enjoyed Turks+Caicos Explorer (the crew was awesome) but the diving was not phenomenal there- then again, we didn't get to dive West Caicos and several repeat customers said the reef/fish were not up to par. I "normally" dive in the Pacific Northwest, so I'm used to looking for little things.

I'm wondering what type of critters/diving is in Saba (big vs small, fish vs invertebrate etc), why you like it, and how you compare it to Belize.

I know its a lot to ask- but even a quick note would be a help!

Edit: Reading this, I can see that it might come across as that I did not thoroughly enjoy all these trips. I most certainly did, and I would recommend all of them. Maybe I should just go back to T&C again and hope to see more critters and more than three sharks, it sounds like I just was there on a "bad" week.

We've been on the Turks & Caicos Explorer II and the Cuan Law in the BVI and thoroughly enjoyed both. Don't think you could go wrong with either one.

My wife and I have done the Turks & Caicos aggressor, the Bay Islands Aggressor, the Utila Aggressor, the Cayman Agressor and the Peter Hughes Belize. Both of us agree that the Utila Aggressor was the best of those. It had the best crew, great food, good diving and best value. While we love Little Cayman (been there twice), we didn't like the diving on the Cayman Aggressor. The crew was good as was the food but the diving was just okay. Weather is more of an issue on this boat than any of the others. We were luck enough to have made it to Brac and Little Cayman but some don't.

We've also done two live aboards in Indonesia and nothing compares.

I love all live aboards and highly recommend them. It's hard to go wrong with any of the major players.

Dear ncchuck,
I'm not sure if it's late and I'm too tired to understand or if your sentence can be interpreted 2 ways. You said: "We've also done two live aboards in Indonesia and nothing compares." Do u mean the live-aboards in Indonesia are better than the ones you referred to in you previous paragraph or vice-versa?
Thanks!
-ROD

I have a Continental ticket to use and I would like to find a Liveaboard that Continental flies to. Or near. Peter Hughes Grenada looks good, but Cont doesn't go there. I've dived a lot in Belize and Caymans so I'm looking for something different. (Unless a LA is way much better.) I've been to Aust + PNG + Palau ... all awesome. But this is a short trip to tide me over til ..... Help Ideas?

Jim,
This is Jim. Trish and I had a great time on the Cayman Aggressor with you and your lovely bride during Ike. We are looking at July on the Belize Aggressor. They have some kind of special the week of the 18th but I think it is a moot point as Dive the World club members. If you likes Cayman's you'll love Belize. PM me if you want to hook up with dates.

Jim

We'd love to go but we are paying on a 2 week to the Maldives in November.

Let us know where you will be going next year as we would enjoy another trip with you guys

jim