Similar dilemna. I LOVE my wife who is into the beach, snorkeling and tropical destinations. I have a similar affection for Liveaboards. My compromise was to book us both on
Scuba Diving Bahamas Liveboard Aqua Cat out of Nassau for the 2nd week of April. Since she's never been on a boat for more than an afternoon, and always within sight of land, this is a big roll of the dice for both of us. Wish me luck -- I'll report back.
By the way, this is my first trip with them as well.
I just got back from a week with my ND Spouse on Aquacat and, as promised, here is my report:
We flew Delta out of Denver on Sat, 4/5. 2 hr. layover in Atlanta with an extra hour delay getting off to Nassau due to storms in Atlanta area. Arrived Nassau 90 minutes late and were greeted as promised by Mr. Wright who dutifully waited for us and drove us to Paradise Island (near Atlantis Hotel). Made it to the Aquacat after 30 minute drive at 7:30pm in time for modest meal and briefing. 19 passengers this trip with crew of 10 -- including 3 divemasters. All top notch, very safe and knowledgable. Captain Mark has been guiding the vessel for the last 5+ years.
Rooms: 5 rooms on either side of the 102' long, 35' wide catamaran hulled vessel. All very clean, dry and in good shape. Each has 2 single sized beds, private shower, auto-flush toilets, sinks and ample storage space. Floors are soft, synthetic material. 2 large windows at least 3'x3' in size in each stateroom. Some rooms allow the beds to be converted to doubles. There's also one (budget) room in front with a skylight, but no one was in that this trip. They moved the single fellow who was in that to an empty stateroom which I thought was kinda classy.Towels were changed 3 times in the rooms during the week and they got the daily treatment from "House Mouse" -- Karina. Towels for beach and diving dry-off were also readily available in stacks on the dive deck, so don't bother packing your own. Leave the sea-sick meds at home unless you are really sensitive to motion.
Diving: Exumas where they go and where they have put in their own (and pretty much, the only) moorings was one of the first underwater sea parks -- established in the late 1950's. The park is 20 miles long and 8 miles wide. Since there is no development to speak of and it's out of the range of resort day boats, you can safely infer that the underwater world is in good shape. Lots of coral structures, sponges and abundant marine life. Diving included drift dives in channels between Cays timed to coincide with tidal flows. "Washing Machine" had everyone coming up laughing- it was so much fun. "Coral Cut" was less turbulant, but as fast as anything I've done in Cozumel. Wall dives were similar to Turks and Caicos. Shallow reefs were visited every day and could be snorkled just as easily as dove since most came to within 10 feet of the surface in places. There were no wreck dives. In total we did 21 day dives and 4 night dives. I would happily splash back in at any of them.
Food: Abundant, varied and good. 4 beers on tap, tons of rum, vodka, and mixers, white and red wine. As always, one drink and you're done diving. Big dinner was Thursday night where Filet Mignon with shrimp was served by the staff. All other meals were "all you can eat" buffet served puctually at 8am, 12:30pm and 6:30pm. At times I felt a bit rushed to finish up, but that may have reflected the staff's eagerness to clear the empty plates.
ND Spouse: Loved it! There were trips (using a 28' launch) that took you to postcard places that look the same as they did 200 years ago. They took her (and me when I wanted to join her) to snorkling sites where she'd see as much as I did on the dives. After the 3rd day, the single male diver who I buddied with, expressed remorse that if he'd known what it would be like, he'd have brought his ND spouse too! 'Nuff said, mine can't wait to go back.
I could ramble on, but bottom line is: Take her, both of you will have a great time.
