Tortugas trip april or september?

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simbrooks

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I really have wanted to go hit the Tortugas and might one day get on one of those liveaboards. Maybe we can arrange a trip this year, who might like to go? Would think late spring or something, say April or May depending on dates open and whether to go out of Ft Myers or Key West? :wink:
 
simbrooks:
I really have wanted to go hit the Tortugas and might one day get on one of those liveaboards. Maybe we can arrange a trip this year, who might like to go? Would think late spring or something, say April or May depending on dates open and whether to go out of Ft Myers or Key West?:wink:

I am planning to do a liveaboard trip out of Ft. Myers with the Ultimate Getaway May 18-22nd. I'm booking through a dive shop in North Alabama. I went on this trip last year and it was fantastic (depending on what you are looking for--it is not a luxury trip, but we did 6-7 dives each day). Most of our dives were in the 70-90 foot range. There was a wall dive on which you could have gone much deeper (I'm not sure about 250 feet) and we did a couple of deeper wrecks on the last day (nothing beyond recreational limits).
 
Dry Tortugas sounds good to me. I just went to the Ultimate Getaway's site. The boat looked nice. I know it is not a luxury cruise, but I would rather do 6-7 dives a day than place bingo and climb rock walls.
 
murphdivers286:
I know it is not a luxury cruise, but I would rather do 6-7 dives a day than place bingo and climb rock walls.

Then this might be the trip for you. No hot towels or suites with hot showers. There are bunks and it is basically like camping at sea. The food is adequate and plentiful. The thing I liked most about the trip (and I'm not sure if all Ultimate Getaway trips are like this) was that there was no hand holding. We stopped at a site-there was a briefing-and then it was announced that the pool's open. You could dive or not--buddy or not--go down and come up when you wanted. There was always an anchor line and the dives themselves were not difficult. We only ran into real current a couple of times. There was a night dive each night. The coral was amazing. Everyone who dove saw at least one shark and we saw all kinds of other sea life including grouper the size of Volkswagons.
 
eanxgirl:
Then this might be the trip for you. No hot towels or suites with hot showers. There are bunks and it is basically like camping at sea. The food is adequate and plentiful.
What you dont realise is that this is how we conduct many of our trips around here, camping out in living rooms, air mattresses and 10+ people in a house - all sharing only 1 or 2 bathrooms, communal eating and such - seems to have worked so far :wink:

Its something i'd like to do, various shops operate trips, but i was thinking more of a collective SB entry/booking - will post up and see if others like the idea, in fact might split this thread a bit too!
 
I looked on their site and it looks like they are well booked through summer. Unfortunately I'm a School Resource Deputy and I can't take a trip until June or July. I'm still interested. Simmon, I was thinking about a group trip to Cozumel also.
 
I guess being on the water during the early summer isnt as bad as being inland - hence my thoughts on avoiding summer. I havent checked when they might be available, but of course there are options on either Ultimate Getaway (Ft Myers) or Playmate (Key West), even if we dont get the whole boat, we could still have a good size following.
 
A lot of the groups that book (especially dive shops) have plenty of room to accommodate a group of people--you just have to contact the shop directly (instead of the Ultimate Getaway) and don't get the leader discounts that way.

How is the Playmate?
 
Now that I got all the schooling in for a year or so I am taking advantage of the O/T. Max out my Comp one month (80hrs) then 50+ hrs O/T the next - then take a Trip. The live aboards are what I am looking at doing.
I'll keep my eye on these threads and would join a trip going that way..

Eric
 
Sounds good, but don't forget the other thing I just talked to you about. I think I might be able to swing a 3 day live aboard trip in the spring to Tortugas as long as it ends on Sat or Sun.
 
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https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

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