Live aboard in Phuket.

[brew77]

Hello, I didn't want to hi-jack the other guys post. So I'm posting a similar question. But I am specifically looking for a live aboard out of Phuket. My buddy came across a website called seafundivers.com that has live aboard's in Phuket. Does any one know if the follow live aboard's are legit and can recommend any of them.

Daranee

Deep Andaman Queen

Dive Andaman

Dive Race

MV Giamani

MV Pawara

MV Sai Mai

South Siam 4

The Junk

I also checked out Sea Bees Diving, as suggested in the other post, and it looked good. Just really looking for recommendations. We are looking at doing a 3 to 5 day trip on board a boat. Thanks and I appreciate any info.

Justin

 

[weeksd]

Check out the White Manta liveaboard which picks up divers in phuket and drives up to Khoe Lak where they dock. They do similian trips from there. Its four hours to get to similians instead of seven from phuket. The boat is a steel liveaboard and very well constructed. Accommodations are excellent as well as the meals onboard. Dive briefings are very well done. Dive deck is well designed and all dives are from inflatables. No surface swimming as well as pickup with inflatable is much easier than the liveaboard. I have seen a few budget liveaboards which dump off ten divers at a time and then the pickup is from the liveaboard. which boarders on crazy and is very dangerous. I have seen other liveaboards trying to manouver between safety sausages to pick up there divers. Some divesites are very busy. The White Manta is a first class operation.

 

[stevenl]

The boats you mention are all legit, as is Seafun Divers. The boats each have their own pro's and cons, so recommendation would depend on what you're looking for.

 

[brew77]

Me and a friend are looking at staying in Thailand for about a week. So we were going to get on a live aboard for about 3 to 5 days. That would give us time to look around Phuket as well. We were looking at spending about 500 to 600 USD for the boat. NITROX would be nice, but not a necessity, since my friend is not certified. But, I'll dive it if it's available. Other than that, we are not to picky, as we've never done the live aboard thing before. The biggest thing for us is safety and a good crew.

@weeksd, thanks for the info, we will do some research on white manta. I did come across them in my research.

Justin

 

[Scuba Cat Diving]

At the price you mentioned you are looking at the more budget end of the liveaboards here, so that rules out some of the boats you mentioned in the original post.
Some of them will have nitrox but nor all.
Best thing to do is check departure dates, most of the trips are 4 day and night and if you are only here for a week it could depend more on this.
When are you actually planning to be here?

 

[brew77]

We were planning for September time frame. The price on the boat is flexible. Thanks.

 

[stevenl]

We were planning for September time frame. The price on the boat is flexible. Thanks.

In September the Similans and Surin national parks are closed. There are some options in the Andaman Sea, but really limited and it is difficult to get enough people together to get a trip confirmed. There are also some options in the Gulf of Tjhailand, however in general a liveaboard there does not add much to the diving except it makes it more expensive. Divesites there are much closer to shore, reducing the need for a liveaboard, only leaving the comfort. Also there options are limited, and in September nearly impossible.

Go daydiving in stead.

 

[Scuba Cat Diving]

Agreed with StevenL, September is not the optimum time for liveaboards here. Occasionally we get a 3 day and night one to the Hin Daeng Area and we are running overnight trips to Phi phi weekly too.
Daytrips are the easier option for this time of year.

 

[mkcojocaru]

The MV Pawara was a fantastic liveaboard. Great boat, crew, food and, of course, diving. I highly recommend them, so much so I created an account just to comment on your post.

The DMs were top notch, especially since we only had 5 dives under our belts last year. You get free nitrox, which none of the other boats offered.

I did look a The Junk when we were deciding on who to take, but they didn't have availability. We did see them once when we were out. It was a beautiful ship, but from what I saw overpriced just because of the look.

One other thing to mention, the MV Pawara is not a backpackers liveaboard. Higher-end.

 

[Oldbear]

My daughter and I did the Junk in March 2010 and loved it...awesome experience. Then my brother and I did a live aboard-training excursion with Scuba Cats that September. He did his open water referral and AOW and I did five Specialties and Master Diver cert. While it technically was a training trip again we had such a blast and if memory serves me well I think the five day-four night trip was in your budget range. Something to think about.