Help a fella out with Liveaboards.

[mdkpsk]

Hey All, a buddy and I and maybe a third are looking to do a liveaboard late summer early fall. We are looking to take off from Florida, Puerto Rico, Nassau or any places close to those areas. My wife said I can go out and play with my friends. I don't know much about them but we are looking forward to starting those adventures. As far as LUXURY goes we don't mind dormitory style or private rooms. Our whole reason is to dive, not relax in our room. ANY HELP as who to use or not use will be welcome. If you are uncomfortable with talking about any of the dive boats just PM me and it goes no further than me. Not even to my buddies. We're getting together on Jan. 30th to narrow down who we want to talk to and your input will be part of that decision. Thanks in advance and be safe down there. Marc
P.S. A little about our abilities. We are all experienced advanced open water with lots of shallow and deep dives on reefs and wrecks both day and night. Wanting to do a mixture. I like to dive NITROX.

 

[jameseg]

mdkpsk, take a look in the Liveaboard subforum. Lots of great trip reports and help in there. My only caribbean liveaboard experience is with Explorer Ventures, who run a couple of trips you could look into. The one I did was Turks & Caicos, leaving out of Providenciales. Absolutely recommended. All wall diving, with great reef life and lots of sharks and rays. Nice boat, too. They also run a trip between Saba and St. Kitts, but that's usually a lot more complicated and expensive from an airfare persecptive. Look at their specials page - they often run discounted trips that'll save you $300 to $500 per person.

I've also heard good things about the Juliet, which visits the Keys or the Bahamas out of Miami, and the Spree, which visits the Dry Tortugas or the Keys (out of Key West, I think).

 

[KeithG]

Is Turks & Caicos or st. Maartens close enough?

We split our trips among 3 live aboards which are all fairly similar in operation: Belize Peter Hughes, Turks & Caicos explorer and Saba st kitts explorer boats ( I forget the boat names...)? We have repeated all several times and plan to return some more.

They all give 5 dives a day, dive your own profile, 60 or 70 minute limits with introx produced on board. Generally you see 2 dive sites a day with the night dive repeated on the afternoon dive site. No wrecks other than some junk in st kitts and no drift dives.

The only real distinction between the trips is that t&c dives are generally deeper with the top of the wall starting at around 50 feet. So we have to watch ndl on that boat.

None of these are dormatory or sea camping. Food is plentiful and okay (not great).

 

[diversteve]

We are looking to take off from Florida, Puerto Rico, Nassau or any places close to those areas.

I covered a lot of those options in this recent post:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/liveaboards-charter-boats/443347-liveaboards-leaving-florida.html

And Capt. Scotty listed the rest a few posts later.

I don't think there is a liveaboard leaving from Puerto Rico except when either Spree or Explorer move a boat there - and I think Explorer only does it for their Silver Banks Whale Watching (no diving) trips in winter.

A couple of the Bahamas boats leave from Freeport part of the year also. Which may be easier as there's a ferry from Ft. Lauderdale now.

 

[shmuggy]

There is a whole range of choices out there - I think the Blackbeard boat is all bunk beds- dorm style but I am not sure becaue although I have heard good things about them, I want to have my own private room and bathroom but others don't care and don't want to pay for it. But you are going to pay more for that and that may not be how you want to spend your money.

All the boats mentioned so far have gotten good reviews from passengers as far as how they run their dive operations but if I were you, I would scour the liveaboard section of this forum. You will come across comments about things you would not have considered that may make or break a deal for you. For example, I hate cigarette smoke and have read that some liveaboards in Asia let people smoke in the salons. That is a deal breaker for me and something I would not have thought of that would really aggravate me . Hope you have fun- be sure to write a review!

 

[RJP]

Hey All, a buddy and I and maybe a third are looking to do a liveaboard late summer early fall...

Do note you're talking about peak hurricane season. I'm just saying...

 

[Karloss]

The majority of my trips have been with Explorer Ventures and all have been good trips. Once with Blackbeards which was as they say, "camping at sea". It was a good trip. They( Explorer Ventures) do a Northern Bahamas trip during the year which leaves out of Freeport that is on the Turks and Caicos Explorer I believe. The T&C is a good ship with a good cook. Haven't done the T&C Aggressor yet however the Cayman Aggressor was a nice ship and the company was great to deal with.

 

[ptn72]

My wife and I booked Turks and Caicos trip with Explorer Ventures from 7/20 to 7/27. I'm not sure if that week works for you. If it does, with 3 more people, we will get a 6th spot for free. That will be about $350 saving for each person if we have 6 people.

 

[loveIIdive]

If you and your buddies are willing to change from late fall (hurricane season, lower viz) to April 20-27 (better vis, blue water, no hurricanes) join our group on the Aqua Cat. All inclusive. Meet the boat in Nassau, eat, sleep , dive. 5 days a day if you want. Been there loved it, going back!

 

[dave2063]

Is Turks & Caicos or st. Maartens close enough?

We split our trips among 3 live aboards which are all fairly similar in operation: Belize Peter Hughes, Turks & Caicos explorer and Saba st kitts explorer boats ( I forget the boat names...)? We have repeated all several times and plan to return some more.

They all give 5 dives a day, dive your own profile, 60 or 70 minute limits with introx produced on board. Generally you see 2 dive sites a day with the night dive repeated on the afternoon dive site. No wrecks other than some junk in st kitts and no drift dives.

The only real distinction between the trips is that t&c dives are generally deeper with the top of the wall starting at around 50 feet. So we have to watch ndl on that boat.

None of these are dormatory or sea camping. Food is plentiful and okay (not great).

no offence, but you can hardly call the 'River Taw' junk.....................It is an excellent divesite with many many things to see. Maybe you need to do it again.....