Liveaboards out of Florida

[mike_s]

I've heard good things about the Gulfstream Eagle

We had a lot of problems on a trip with them..... very furstrating. what a shame. It could have been a great trip.

Their boat is for sale also, so I'd be leary about sending any deposits to them as if the boat sells, you might not get your deposit back. So your dollars are at risk.

 

[DivingPrincessE]

Nekton leaves out of Ft. Lauderdale during the summer.

I've heard good things about the Gulfstream Eagle and Juliet though.

Any particular reason you're looking for a liveaboard? Keys Road Trips are awesome!

I just think the liveaboard would be a cheaper way to dive a lot. I tried to look into key largo dive packages and I only found a few shops who offer some kind of discount on hotels and offer two dives...if I'm going on a "dive trip" I want to dive a lot more than twice a day.

 

[diversteve]

Want a private bathroom/shower on your trip? Nekton's the only option of the boats named previously. Since they're converted oil platform crew boats the rooms are larger than anything but more expensive liveaboards. Otoh, Nekton is also probably more expensive than the other Florida boats.

Nekton's Swath boats are more stable than other liveaboards with the exception of maybe AquaCat. And they're much wider, the Pilot is a box on water. Great food, average cabins and pretty much all the diving you can do.

We did the Cay Sal trip, in addition to schools of fish just about everywhere we saw at least 50 different sharks, most at a feed site but we'd typically see a couple per dive elsewhere. And turtles, eels, big puffers etc. Also you'll dive at least a couple of Blue Holes during the trip. Nekton puts in their own moorings so they're sometimes the only boat that dives that particular site. So you see what's normally there - with the exception of the shark feed site.

4 dives/day is standard, most days there's a night dive also. At the same dive site dove that afternoon so it's familiar.

Both boats will be out of Ft. Lauderdale late spring to early fall then they move to either Belize, Cayman or Puerto Rico. But read some of the recent trip reports in the liveaboards forum, both boats have had some problems lately. The Rorqual is about 10 years newer also.

Another affordable option is Caribbean Explorer 1 out of Exuma (Bahamas). Although it costs more to fly there, the trip is $1495 - $1295 if you share a bathroom. My buddy who's done both said the Nekton had much bigger cabins and deck areas.

 

[Firediver32]

post deleted.

 

[DivingPrincessE]

Thanks Steve, great info! I would like to have my own bathroom, so I'm going to look into the Nekton.

 

[deepstops]

But read some of the recent trip reports in the liveaboards forum, both boats have had some problems lately. The Rorqual is about 10 years newer also.

In particular, there's two former employees posting about how proper repairs keep getting fixed improperly by divemasters that aren't trained to do the repairs they're being asked to do. Additionally, I'm seeing passenger reports of trips going out where a safety briefing is never done. There may also be some issues related to diver safety regarding the sign in / sign out logs. For the money Nekton gets for their trips, I'd prefer fewer divers on the trip on an Aggressor or Peter Hughes boat.

I suggest not basing your trip on whether or not they have en-suite heads, there's a lot more to consider. I really think Undercurrent is worth the subscription price, it's never steered me wrong yet.

 

[fisheyeview]

I agree with Brian on Undercurrent. It is a great resource.

I have done the Gulfstream Eagle over to West End. It was okay. It was basic accomodations, the diving was great, the food was good (but the cook we had was a special request for the trip as we chartered the boat), and the crew was nice. We did notice that the crew kept drinking our beers out of the cooler.

I think the plans are to winter out of the Keys, and then go back to Palm Beach to run the Bahamas trips when the crossings are easier.

I had not heard that she was for sale.

 

[Gale68]

In particular, there's two former employees posting about how proper repairs keep getting fixed improperly by divemasters that aren't trained to do the repairs they're being asked to do. Additionally, I'm seeing passenger reports of trips going out where a safety briefing is never done. There may also be some issues related to diver safety regarding the sign in / sign out logs. For the money Nekton gets for their trips, I'd prefer fewer divers on the trip on an Aggressor or Peter Hughes boat.

I wouldn't say this is a very accurate summary of those threads. For example, no one has said there was no safety briefing. One week the abandon ship drill was missed, not the safety briefings. Read the threads for yourself, if you're interested, to see the good, bad, and ugly of what's being said.

 

[reefseal]

I've dove w/ Nekton (Bahamas) and Aggressor (Cayman). Liveaboards are great. Lot's of food, just plop and dive.. Still $$$.. I'm fortunate to travel a lot on business so I rack up the Frequent flyer miles and can usually get to a place like Bonaire where I can dive for cheap and as much as I want. Bonaire's just a place can get to using sm. amout of req. flyer miles (Delta, Continental, American..) I'm going in May for only 25,000 miles on Continental. There are plenty of places can offer dive (unlimited nitrox)/drive (pickup truck) and stay packages w/ full am. breakfast for about $90-110 pp. The key is having a buddy to split the cost of room. I have yet to ever do a boat dive or need to do one there. All dives are shore dives and what the variety of dive sites. i'm doing another trip this year for just under $1000. I can't possibly do that much diving of what I want to do, when I want to go with a live aboard.

I just loved the grab a tank and go. Do 2 to 3 in AM, have a burger and a nice nap, do a couple other before dinner and one at night.

You may get lucky and find cheaper fares during their off-season. Even in summer, there are no hurricanes as it's south of hurricane belt.

Just something to consider as alternative to live aboard.

 

[deepstops]

I wouldn't say this is a very accurate summary of those threads. For example, no one has said there was no safety briefing. One week the abandon ship drill was missed, not the safety briefings. Read the threads for yourself, if you're interested, to see the good, bad, and ugly of what's being said.

You're right, I used the phrase safety briefing and I should have used the phrase abandon ship drill. I stand by everything else I stated, especially about the repairs being done by the divemasters.

As I already stated, I don't want to do a liveaboard with 32 divers onboard (or even 20 for that matter). But hey, that's just me, to each their own.