Great family vacations can include diving from a boat!

[pauldw]

See, right there!

Caribbean Splurge: A Sailboat of Your Own (Well, Sort of)

 

[Doc]

That pic is from the S/Y Karma. It is their only web reference to SCUBA. She is big enough to have a small compressor with limited fill capacity. (see her on Below Decks Caribbean). About $40k per passenger week. Not a misprint.

That’s the huge problem- (on a boat for mere mortals?) getting air, storing gear, the little things. Thinking you’re making a port call and transitioning back & forth to a dive op? Exhausting.

It’s a NYT Fluffy travel sales piece.

• “”In the Leeward Islands, Antigua and St. Martin appeal to those looking for serious ocean sailing and, in the case of St. Martin, especially the French side, good food. South of normal hurricane routes, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a group of 32 cays and small, agricultural islands, sees an influx of charter boats during what is peak hurricane season for many other Caribbean islands.””

Interesting take on weather patterns.

Not workable for SCUBA but will test any familial relationship. Surprisingly high number of spouses have disappeared by falling overboard at night on such trips.

 

[pauldw]

It's expensive because they have more sophisticated gear. For example, these guys don't need masks in order to dive.

Or in other words, to quote someone, "If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to."

 

[mje113]

I had to dig through some emails to see how much I paid last time I charters in the BVI--$4850 for a 42' catamaran for a week. That's 4 cabins (we sailed with 3 couples, 4th was for cylinders and dive gear), no captain (I'm the captain!), and it was a very long time ago, 2011. I really couldn't make it through the NYTimes puff piece but there are multiple tiers of catamaran charters. Boats are typically bought in a time-share sorta setup (Sunsail and Moorings), then after they get a bit of wear and tear the owners often sell them to the 2nd tier charter companies.

No need for a compressor on board. Nearly all the ports in the BVI allow you to swap out cylinders. We rented 6 in Road Town and then just swapped out every time we'd come in for provisions or adventures ashore, anywhere. Never had to wait for fills, just drop empties and grab fulls.

 

[Doc]

and then just swapped out every time we'd come in for provisions or adventures ashore, anywhere. Never had to wait for fills, just drop empties and grab fulls.

Does that get you maybe 3 dives in a week?

I played “dive guide” aboard a mega-yacht for a friend. It would have been so much easier to let a given port’s land-based LDS take the divers aboard their shops dive boat- we switched to that model after just one trip. They’d get all the gear brought in, plus… multi tank dives.

Big adventure? Rarely, but we did do Los Roques, Cisne/Swan and the rarely seen NE Grenada barrier islands. Private livesboard with an unlimited budget.

Herding cats. Really pleasant cats, but cats.

 

[mje113]

Does that get you maybe 3 dives in a week?

Yeah, maybe a few more. We were 3 divers and had 6 cylinders... We got in 2 dives here and there but mostly one dive a day. Just because we also had 3 non-divers.