Liveaboard Pros and Cons

Hi guys-
I have a liveaboard trip upcoming, but not until June, and it's bitchin' cold here in Virginia--so let's talk about liveaboards so we can dream about warm places!

What are your favorite and least favorite things about liveaboards? Do you have any great liveaboard moments to share? I'd sure love to hear them.

Favorite- The diving, all the boats I have been on let you do your own thing. Walkout of stateroom, gear up, gaint stride in water, dive, return, hot shower on deck, eat, repeat.
Least Favorite - the last day, the vacation is over, everything is hectic, usually have to fend for yourself for the last meal.

Have a great trip

Kona Aggressor II 8/1/09-8/8/09. I have been dreaming about doing a nice liveaboard trip for many many years - since long before I could even begin to earn money to afford a trip like that. I remember my first day onboard, after being picked up, brought to the boat (after walking around Kona town a bit) we all got onboard, and setup our gear and did intros. The first day was simply a WET DREAM COME TRUE! :mooner: I remember I had done 3 tank boat dives from day boats before and remember being exhausted from it. This was pleasure through and through...naps and dry clothes after dives, warm showers in the staterooms and on the dive deck, awesome food (which is one of my favorite things about liveaboards - THE FOOD!), and like minded people who all love to eat, sleep and dive. This was somethings I'd always wanted to do because you can really get into taking and perfecting your underwater photos. I got some great tips while doing my underwater photo specialty. The snorkeling with pilot whales (which is what my avatar pic to the left is of) was definitely an unforgetable highlight!

I am counting down the days to my next trip (which is of course, another liveaboard). Star Dancer, Papua New Guinea (4/23-5/3). I have my passport, my extra safety equipment required by Peter Hughes Diving, I've gotten my Nitrox cert, all the rest of my paperwork is taken care of, now in the next couple months I'll be doing my bench testing of my gear and getting last minute maintenance checks done.

This trip will be awesome because of the 86 degree water temps and hopefully calm seas at that time of year. In Kona I was wearing my full length 3mm all week, this trip I'm probably just going to wear a rash guard and swim trunks most dives, with my 1mm fullsuit later in the day.

The biodiversity will be unparalleled in Papua New Guinea, I have dreamed for years about going west of Hawaii - I thought Palau would be the first mega south Pacific trip, but after all the advice on scubaboard forums, PNG was just ringing in my ears too much. I will be planning for the Palau Aggressor II for January 2011. Then my top two bucket list places will be checked off - where to go next is what I'm continually pondering....maybe Fiji, maybe Cocos Island, maybe Turks and Caicos, maybe Galapagos....too soon to tell.....

Great thread by the way H20 Gal, where are you going in June? I love hearing other peoples stories....it's what makes us divers unique! Does anyone out there have a REALLY outlandish tale about a liveaboard trip to Antarctica?? That's one place that I don't expect to go anytime soon, but definitely after I'm older, more experienced, and hopefully a bit more financially well off I would go to in a heart beat!

ewaiea-
Great story! I'll bet you'll see some great stuff at PNG. But it must be nice living in Hawaii and doing all the great dives out there. I'm an east coaster on a tight budget so a liveaboard is quite a luxury to me. I'll be diving the Cay Sal banks on the Nekton Rorqual. There's a bit of a story involved with this upcoming trip. DH and I booked a trip last August on the Nekton Pilot. As we were literally driving to the airport the cellphone rang and it was the company calling us to cancel the trip (the boat broke down near Bimini the week before our trip--maybe we can get Brown Mermaid to share her story!) . They let us go the next week and we had a great time. There was NOTHING that I disliked about liveaboard diving, except what Doubler said-getting off the boat...and when we got back we found out that due to our inconvenience Nekton was giving us a free trip to use within the next three years! All we had to pay for was taxes, port fees and our Nitrox.
The best thing about diving Cay Sal was the sharks! My DH got a great picture of one sneaking up behind me as I was peering over the edge of a blue hole. I had the feeling something was looming behind me and looked over my shoulder to see a 5' reef shark about a foot away watching me---I wonder if he was looking for the tastiest part to chomp first?

A liveaboard is certainly a thrill. My first was a liveaboard out of Port Douglas diving on the GBR. Previously we had been to many places in the Caribbean, our favorite had been Little Cayman for best marine life. We also had made some day boats in Hurgada Egypt to dive the Red Sea as well as we took some dives off South Africa to dive Sodwanna Bay.

Australia has so much to offer besides diving as does South Africa. Being on a liveaboard in Australia was such a rush, being over 100 miles from shore, seeing the stars at night touch the horizon, the anticipation of the biggest reef in the world was very climatic.

Seeing sharks in mass and groupers larger than you thought possible, then seeing whales and have the whales (Minke) look you over then circle around and look you over some more.

Being with someone you love and then being able to share your experiences made it all the sweeter.

Taking the liveaboard out of Kimbe Bay in Papua New Guinea was another jaw dropping experience. The primitiveness of the area was indelible. The change in culture, you can't just forget it. The far-ness from civilization, the quiet, the stillness, miles from nowhere.
I remember being on the bridge and the captain stating that the charts weren't really correct for that area as they new the area better.
One day after a couple of dives the cook was going out in the skiff to go fishing, I asked to go along as I was degassing anyway. He let me use his fishing gear as he steered the boat and I caught something like a large wahoo. As I was reeling in a huge shark took the whole thing, this is where we were diving....now that was a funny feeling.
Seeing a Siver tip go biserk at the end of a dive was a crazy thing to see. My wife and I were coming up to the boat on a night dive and after I reached her position under the StarDancer she was still using her light to look out into the blue when a silver tip went into an aggressive behavior about 10 to 20 ft. behind the boarding ladder, we waited with about 6 of us and continued to watch this silver tip for about 10 minutes then it finally dissapeared into the black.


No this is not the silver tip, but with a wide angle lens I was kind of shocked how close you have to be to take a good photo, this is a grey reef shark.

Best thing to me about the liveaboard is = dive dive dive and never have to carry your gear! I love that, I guess I am pretty lazy. I also love that as soon as you get out of the water and change clothes, hot yummy food is served!

Worst thing to me = the price... but I guess if they were cheaper, everyone would do them! You get your money's worth, for sure, I just wish we could afford to do liveaboards more often.

Best memories? Too many to mention really. I have loved every liveaboard trip we have done, all for different reasons. Maybe the coolest thing to me is waking up in the morning, grabbing a cup of coffee and going up to top deck to watch the sun rise over the ocean every morning. Just the whole experience of sitting there in a chair, breeze blowing, sun peaking up over water and not another boat, man-made object, or human in site. LOVE it.

robin

A liveaboard has more positives than can be listed.

The biggest two for me are
1) access to dive sites difficult to get to from land based operations.
2) most guests are there to dive / discuss diving/ and dive some more!

Some negatives:

1) The price is a significant one - you can do as many dives at COCO View for $1,200 a week +/-
2) If you get an A hole on the boat you are stuck for a week.
3) The crews expectation of a significant tip (this is just a fact of life)
4) Seasickness

I have have been blessed with the opportunity to do two liveaboards and will continue to do more (as finances and schedule allow) in the future.

Live Aboards:
Bahamas - don't remember boat
Bay Islands Aggressor - three times
Utila Aggressor - a great value trip often overlooked
Cayman Aggressor - least favorite
Belize - Peter Hughes
Belize - worked on the Nekton Pilot (very short time)
Komodo - Peter Hughes - excellent
Raja Ampat - nothing compares so far
And dozens of resorts too - Fiji, Moorea, Lembeh, Cozumel, Truk Lagoon, Yap and more.
Raja Ampat is easily the best. Everyone should add this to their bucket list. Very easy diving with critters you can't even imagine, clear water, pristine corals.
Since I'm retired and dependant upon my wifes income, we have to watch our budget much more closely so liveaboards are just too pricey most years. My wife says Palau is on her radar for her 60th birthday in 2011. Sounds good to me but I may still lobby for a return to Raja Ampat.
Best part of liveaboards is just the convenience of everything, the avid divers, the avid crews, the access to remote areas. I love it.
Worst part is time getting to some of these remote places (takes too long and cost too much). While I tip pretty well, I tend to agree with Deputy Dan that liveaboard tipping expectations are extreme. They seem to forget taxes, port fees, fuel surcharges and other fees that should not be considereding when calculating a tip.
If money were no object I'd choose liveaboards in:
Raja Ampat
Truk Lagoon
PNG
Maldives
Cocos
North Sulawesi
and a few more
I never stop dreaming about liveaboards.

....also, on a liveabaord, you can always easily get your tank topped off if needed ( I HATE short fills....my numero uno pet peeve !!! ...well, that and timed dives ! ) ...and, if needed, you can train the boat tank fillers to pay special attention to YOUR tank....if I point out to you I want to see it FILLED all the time, I'll make it worth your while......this is how you earn MY tip !

galapagos in feb.
3rd live aboard trip!
i like to socialize-privacy issue not a bother for me
but it does some people
thats the only down side i see!
cold up here as well!!!!!
enjoy!!!!!
yaeg