FRENCH POLYNESIA MASTER LIVEABOARD

[matthall]

Sara and I were on this boat from July2 - July12, 2017 for a cruise through the Tuamotu Atolls. We made our first dives at Toau, then moved to Fakarava South, then Fakarava North, Apataki and then finished up at Rangiroa. We had an absolutely wonderful time and I give this boat my highest recommendation. While I was on SCUBA, Sara only snorkels and was taken snorkeling on four separate days by Marc, the assistant cruise director, who couldn't have been nicer. She was a bit unnervered by some of the tidal currents and all the sharks. And many sharks there were - mostly grey reefs, but also black tip and white tip reefs, black tips,
silver tips, galapagos and two tiger sharks! If you want to see sharks in a natural setting, without baiting,then this is the trip for you.
Absolutely everyone working on the boat was extremely kind and well qualified. We dived off Zodiac - type
inflatables in groups of 4 - 6 divers plus one dive master. My group had Serge, the head dive master who was especially excellent, giving everyone plenty of time to take pictures.
I saw a thread on SCUBABOARD by someone who complained about depth restrictions. We were using NITROX 33 most of the time and only once did I feel it would have been nice to go deeper than our 107 ft.
limit, and that was at Rangiroa where on one of the dives the sharks looked like they were down at 140-150 ft. And that was only one dive.
If pressed, the only negative I can come up with was a bit of clunky noise when the thermostat turned the air conditioner off and on in our cabin, but it wasn't a big deal.
Again, I give this trip my highest recommendation : Nice boat, great crew, 3-4 dives per day and fantastic food.
I love diving in the Tuamotus!

 

[Wingy]

Do the boat operators apply these depth limits to CMAS certified divers as well? I know logistically the answer would be yes to keep dive groups together and schedules etc but I'm curious

 

[matthall]

Do the boat operators apply these depth limits to CMAS certified divers as well? I know logistically the answer would be yes to keep dive groups together and schedules etc but I'm curious

Depth limits were governed by NITROX mixture - mostly 33, but we had a few tanks of 32 .
Also, I said the inflatables carried 4 - 6 divers; in fact they carried 3 - 5 divers plus one dive master.

Best,

Matt

 

[Wingy]

Thanks Matt - that's now two questions - I don't dive Nitrox - Air divers catered for?
and I'm CMAS certified so am I going to be limited to below my cert level?

Given CMAS is the recognised agency in FP has the FP Master been given some sort of special permission to ignore FP Law?

 

[matthall]

Thanks Matt - that's now two questions - I don't dive Nitrox - Air divers catered for?
and I'm CMAS certified so am I going to be limited to below my cert level?

Given CMAS is the recognised agency in FP has the FP Master been given some sort of special permission to ignore FP Law?

There were 2-3 divers on our cruise without NITROX certification. Sara remembers that they enrolled in an on-board course and thus were able to do all their dives with NITROX - if this is untrue then we'll blame Sara. E mail the company about it.
Wingy, on multi-day dive trips NITROX is a wonderful thing - I can't emphasize it enough. You should get your NITROX card ASAP.

Best,

Matt

 

[runsongas]

Does their usual route hit tikehau also or no?

 

[Shasta_man]

Great to hear of a liveaboard in FP. How were the transits between islands? About how long and how bumpy were yours?

 

[matthall]

Does their usual route hit tikehau also or no?

We didn't go to TIKEHAU, but maybe they stop there now and then - send them an email (I've heard there's nice diving there).

Best,

Matt

 

[matthall]

Great to hear of a liveaboard in FP. How were the transits between islands? About how long and how bumpy were yours?

The flight from PAPEETE to FAKARAVA was about 1 1/2 HRS. and from RANGIROA to PAPEETE maybe a little shorter.
They use those great ATR Biturboprops - really nice airplanes.

Best,

Matt

 

[Shasta_man]

<<How were the transits between islands? About how long and how bumpy were yours?>> I thought you had to transit between islands on the liveaboard itself. No? That's what I was referring to.