The overview:
I had a great time on my trip (Christmas week). Captain Breezy, First Mate Iain, Engineer Tammy, Divemaster Justin (Junior), our cook Jenn, and Martyna made it an excellent trip, even when the weather wasn't perfect (it was perfect most of the trip though).
Food was amazing, dive sites were great, the crew and the other divers were great company both above and below the water. I'm looking to plan my next liveaboard trip thanks to the wonderful time I had here.
The details-
The boat - I was on the Morning Star, a custom made 65 ft sailboat. There are 4 cabins - the crew cabin in the back, the #1 (forward) berthing cabin with bunks and 1 head, the #2 berthing cabin with bunks and 1 head, and the main salon. The main salon has 6 two-person bunks, the table (seats ~8 people), the "buffet" (where the food is put out), the galley (little space that our cook did a great job with), a head, and the shower (salt water for getting wet, fresh water for rinsing off... quickly). Topside had storage lockers on the sides in the rear, with the ladder at the back. Dive gear was setup all week on our tanks just in front of that (inside and outside tank racks on each side), the communal seating (with under-seat storage for mask/fins/snorkels/etc). Wetsuits, towels, etc were hung from the lines during the week when not in use (except for freshwater towels, there are hooks by our beds for those). Despite being a sailboat, we motored everywhere (even when the jib was put up on our last day at sea).
The accommodations/packing - Everyone gets a bunk (rack, bed, call it whatever you'd like). Not spacious, but it's advertised as "camping at sea" so there's no reason to expect the Four Season's style rooms.. It has a shelf at your feet for storing your non-dive gear. I took more stuff than I needed (two swimsuits was plenty, never bothered with the third I brought, and I'd say 5 shirts is probably overkill (I wasn't wearing a shirt that much, so I probably didn't need to switch shirts daily, a light jacket or fleece IS helpful at night though so don't forget one). Though you can have more room than expected.. for instance I got a double bed for just me... one of the other divers even brought his drone with him (pics from it were great).
The food/drink - The food was much, much better than I had anticipated. I was worried at first since there is only one "main course" for any given meal, and I can be somewhat of a picky eater, but everything was delicious. Including the lobsters that were speared by people free-diving from the boat between dives (we went snorkeling/lobstering twice on this trip).
Most importantly, the diving - I had a blast. The wall dives were my favorite sites, though the blue hole and the shark feed were pretty amazing too. The shallower reef sites were pretty cool. While I wouldn't say any of the sites were "teeming" with fish, there were a good number of fish, decent coral, some really nice swim-throughs on the wall dives, and just overall a bunch of really nice dives. We did get 19 dives in, though I skipped one night dive as I just wasn't excited enough about the dive to bother getting cold (water temps were mostly in the upper 70's, but when the sun is down and the wind is up it can be pretty chilly imo).
The "other stuff" - weather was kinda crappy on Sunday, but still enjoyable. The rest of the week was pretty much "picture perfect" weather and scenery, including a gorgeous sunrise (I got some pics of it Christmas morning) and a beautiful sunset (when the crew is breaking out their camera's, you should too...).
Things I saw diving -
Juvenile fish - tons of them. If I could name them all I probably wouldn't need to study anything for the fish ID specialty.
Other fish - a bunch of medium sized fish too.
Sharks - reef sharks were at most of the dive sites, one hammerhead was spotted (by 3 divers at the same time, I missed it though
), and a few nurse sharks (including one shark under some coral that looked to be an albino nurse shark, that was pretty cool).
One big grouper (at the wreck we did the shark feed on).
Turtles - I probably saw ~8 turtles, including a couple big ones (I got a nice shot of one at the blue hole we dove).
Rays - at least 3 different types of rays. Got a few of them swimming, most were just chilling in or on the sand though.
Bioluminescence - got some on the night dive I thought about it with, but not a ton.
Octopus - I didn't see any They were there (as others saw them), but I didn't catch any of them... guess I'll have to go back and try again!
Overall impression - I had a blast. The people were great, the food was great, the diving was great, the accommodations met or exceeded the expectations for "camping at sea". I'd say it was a good value for a really good time.
Some clips/video from the dives are posted on my youtube at:
I had a great time on my trip (Christmas week). Captain Breezy, First Mate Iain, Engineer Tammy, Divemaster Justin (Junior), our cook Jenn, and Martyna made it an excellent trip, even when the weather wasn't perfect (it was perfect most of the trip though).
Food was amazing, dive sites were great, the crew and the other divers were great company both above and below the water. I'm looking to plan my next liveaboard trip thanks to the wonderful time I had here.
The details-
The boat - I was on the Morning Star, a custom made 65 ft sailboat. There are 4 cabins - the crew cabin in the back, the #1 (forward) berthing cabin with bunks and 1 head, the #2 berthing cabin with bunks and 1 head, and the main salon. The main salon has 6 two-person bunks, the table (seats ~8 people), the "buffet" (where the food is put out), the galley (little space that our cook did a great job with), a head, and the shower (salt water for getting wet, fresh water for rinsing off... quickly). Topside had storage lockers on the sides in the rear, with the ladder at the back. Dive gear was setup all week on our tanks just in front of that (inside and outside tank racks on each side), the communal seating (with under-seat storage for mask/fins/snorkels/etc). Wetsuits, towels, etc were hung from the lines during the week when not in use (except for freshwater towels, there are hooks by our beds for those). Despite being a sailboat, we motored everywhere (even when the jib was put up on our last day at sea).
The accommodations/packing - Everyone gets a bunk (rack, bed, call it whatever you'd like). Not spacious, but it's advertised as "camping at sea" so there's no reason to expect the Four Season's style rooms.. It has a shelf at your feet for storing your non-dive gear. I took more stuff than I needed (two swimsuits was plenty, never bothered with the third I brought, and I'd say 5 shirts is probably overkill (I wasn't wearing a shirt that much, so I probably didn't need to switch shirts daily, a light jacket or fleece IS helpful at night though so don't forget one). Though you can have more room than expected.. for instance I got a double bed for just me... one of the other divers even brought his drone with him (pics from it were great).
The food/drink - The food was much, much better than I had anticipated. I was worried at first since there is only one "main course" for any given meal, and I can be somewhat of a picky eater, but everything was delicious. Including the lobsters that were speared by people free-diving from the boat between dives (we went snorkeling/lobstering twice on this trip).
Most importantly, the diving - I had a blast. The wall dives were my favorite sites, though the blue hole and the shark feed were pretty amazing too. The shallower reef sites were pretty cool. While I wouldn't say any of the sites were "teeming" with fish, there were a good number of fish, decent coral, some really nice swim-throughs on the wall dives, and just overall a bunch of really nice dives. We did get 19 dives in, though I skipped one night dive as I just wasn't excited enough about the dive to bother getting cold (water temps were mostly in the upper 70's, but when the sun is down and the wind is up it can be pretty chilly imo).
The "other stuff" - weather was kinda crappy on Sunday, but still enjoyable. The rest of the week was pretty much "picture perfect" weather and scenery, including a gorgeous sunrise (I got some pics of it Christmas morning) and a beautiful sunset (when the crew is breaking out their camera's, you should too...).
Things I saw diving -
Juvenile fish - tons of them. If I could name them all I probably wouldn't need to study anything for the fish ID specialty.
Other fish - a bunch of medium sized fish too.
Sharks - reef sharks were at most of the dive sites, one hammerhead was spotted (by 3 divers at the same time, I missed it though
), and a few nurse sharks (including one shark under some coral that looked to be an albino nurse shark, that was pretty cool).One big grouper (at the wreck we did the shark feed on).
Turtles - I probably saw ~8 turtles, including a couple big ones (I got a nice shot of one at the blue hole we dove).
Rays - at least 3 different types of rays. Got a few of them swimming, most were just chilling in or on the sand though.
Bioluminescence - got some on the night dive I thought about it with, but not a ton.
Octopus - I didn't see any
They were there (as others saw them), but I didn't catch any of them... guess I'll have to go back and try again!Overall impression - I had a blast. The people were great, the food was great, the diving was great, the accommodations met or exceeded the expectations for "camping at sea". I'd say it was a good value for a really good time.
Some clips/video from the dives are posted on my youtube at:
