Best live-aboards

What are your top 3 (if you have been on more than one) live-aboards?

What made it such a good live-aboard for you?

Lawrence

Joe English,
How many divers on the boat?

How about the diving itself?

Where was the boat?

Lawrence

>
>
> Lawrence wrote:
>> What are your top 3 (if you have been on more than one) live-aboards?
>>
>> What made it such a good live-aboard for you?
>>
>> Lawrence
>>
> Nekton
>
> 1. Number of Dives Per day (at least 5) 2 AM - 2PM - 1 Night with an
> occasional dawn dive
> 2. Overall set up of dive platform.
> 3. Freedom of Diving - you are on your own.
> 4. Food
> 5. Stability in the water
> 6. Staff was great - every night before night dive had a group
> presentation on different topics
>

I don't remember how many divers but less than 30 - you can check out
www.nekton.com

Diving was done in Belize, Half Moon Cay area. Done in January 2002 -
Nekton Pilot

The diving was great - the reefs are never ending. Huge morays, sea
cucumbers. A lot of life on most the reefs. Some reefs suffered major
damage form the hurricane a couple of months earlier.

The boat almost always moors right on top of the wall. On the first
dive we would usually head south at a comfortable depth until
approximately 1/3 of our air was consumed. Move up the wall on top of
the reef and work our way back to the boat. While we may have been at
60-100' along the wall the tops of the walls were very shallow - usually
30 - 45'. Then we did our required safety stop - always had a bar and
spare air hanging at the safety stop.

Did our surface interval - and second dive on the site we would head the
other way.

After second dive we would have lunch while the boat moved to your
second dive spot. Repeat the dive sequence, eat dinner, nightly
presentation, then your night dive.

While you sleep, the boat positions itself for diving the next morning.

I think I did 30 dives in the time aboard the boat. Quite a good bang
for the $$ spent - I'd do again in a heartbeat if I had the time and money!

Lawrence wrote:

> Joe English,
> How many divers on the boat?
>
> How about the diving itself?
>
> Where was the boat?
>
> Lawrence
>
>
>>
>>Lawrence wrote:
>>
>>>What are your top 3 (if you have been on more than one) live-aboards?
>>>
>>>What made it such a good live-aboard for you?
>>>
>>>Lawrence
>>>
>>
>>Nekton
>>
>>1. Number of Dives Per day (at least 5) 2 AM - 2PM - 1 Night with an
>>occasional dawn dive
>>2. Overall set up of dive platform.
>>3. Freedom of Diving - you are on your own.
>>4. Food
>>5. Stability in the water
>>6. Staff was great - every night before night dive had a group
>>presentation on different topics
>>
>
>

"Lawrence" <coralsea5@citlink.net> wrote in message
news:BD3BA4EB.24CA%coralsea5@citlink.net...
> What are your top 3 (if you have been on more than one) live-aboards?
>
> What made it such a good live-aboard for you?

To me a liveaboard is only as good as the diving it gets you to. Only after
that do the differences between service, accommodation, food etc come into
play.

1) Boats that, in my experience, most balance the two side of the equation:
Ocean Rover, Lammer Law, Odyssey, Bilikiki, Komodo Dancer, Spirit of Freedom

2) Bad boats with great diving:
Red Sea Aggressor (gone), Febrina (was better in the old days), Telita
(great onboard experience, just too small and cramped for today's market),
Horizon (if standing in a cage an hour at a time can be considered "diving"

3) Decent boats with bad diving:
Wave Dancer (obviously gone), T&C Aggressor II

4) There are of course lots of other boats that don't distinguish
themselves, either way, by virtue of their service, accommodation, or
diving.

I always choose boats by destination first. After that I decide if the
condition of service and boat is **too bad** for me to consider the trip. To
date I have not yet passed on great diving because the boat wasn't
state-of-the-art or equal to the standard set by Dancer, Aggressor or in
some cases Ball.

On Sun, 08 Aug 2004 11:24:03 -0500, Joe English
<jenglish@accessusn.net> wrote:

>I don't remember how many divers but less than 30 - you can check out
>www.nekton.com

That should be http://www.nektoncruises.com/

--
Remove preceding and trailing X from username for replies
(Sorry, but I'm SICK of spam...)

"Lawrence" <coralsea5@citlink.net> wrote in message
news:BD3BA4EB.24CA%coralsea5@citlink.net...
> What are your top 3 (if you have been on more than one) live-aboards?
>
> What made it such a good live-aboard for you?
>
> Lawrence
>

Komodo Dancer
nusa tengara, Indonesia (start in Bali and go east 18 hours to the Komodo
Island group)

14 divers
19 crew

5 dives a day, good land ops

120 ft., 30 ft beam, 350 ton wooden motor sailer....very stable and
comfortable
Great in-suite accomodations
Great food
Great diving
Great crew
Good airfare prices from anywhere in the U.S. Under $1000 to Bali using
coach on any domestic carrier and China Air. About $1500 for any domestic
carrier and Cathey Pacific. 1st class/business class airmiles with
American/Cathey Pacific...110,000. A great way to go if you have the miles.
Opens the Cathey Pacific airport clubs to you during layovers....
Boat on the 11 night priced very well.

Forest Aten

Lawrence <coralsea5@citlink.net> pounded away at his keyboard
resulting in:
:What are your top 3 (if you have been on more than one) live-aboards?
:
:What made it such a good live-aboard for you?

Star Dancer
Fiji Aggressor II
Sun Dancer

Good locations, nice boats.

Dan Bracuk
If at first you don't succeed, you run the risk of failure.
The Best of rec.scuba http://www.pathcom.com/~bracuk/RecScuba/


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Luca,

Excellent feedback on live-aboards. Just the information I wanted.

Lawrence

>
> "Lawrence" <coralsea5@citlink.net> wrote in message
> news:BD3BA4EB.24CA%coralsea5@citlink.net...
>> What are your top 3 (if you have been on more than one) live-aboards?
>>
>> What made it such a good live-aboard for you?
>
> To me a liveaboard is only as good as the diving it gets you to. Only after
> that do the differences between service, accommodation, food etc come into
> play.
>
> 1) Boats that, in my experience, most balance the two side of the equation:
> Ocean Rover, Lammer Law, Odyssey, Bilikiki, Komodo Dancer, Spirit of Freedom
>
> 2) Bad boats with great diving:
> Red Sea Aggressor (gone), Febrina (was better in the old days), Telita
> (great onboard experience, just too small and cramped for today's market),
> Horizon (if standing in a cage an hour at a time can be considered "diving"
>
> 3) Decent boats with bad diving:
> Wave Dancer (obviously gone), T&C Aggressor II
>
> 4) There are of course lots of other boats that don't distinguish
> themselves, either way, by virtue of their service, accommodation, or
> diving.
>
> I always choose boats by destination first. After that I decide if the
> condition of service and boat is **too bad** for me to consider the trip. To
> date I have not yet passed on great diving because the boat wasn't
> state-of-the-art or equal to the standard set by Dancer, Aggressor or in
> some cases Ball.
>
>
>
>

"Dan Bracuk" <NOTbracuk@pathcom.com> wrote in message
news:omvfh05sqvg5ou50n2pkjs1hs26e4v4qm7@4ax.com...
> Dan Bracuk <NOTbracuk@pathcom.com> pounded away at his keyboard
> resulting in:
> :Star Dancer
> :Fiji Aggressor II
> :Sun Dancer
>
> Star Dancer???
> Oops, I meant Sky Dancer.

Did you like that boat? I have done only one trip on it but it was the least
composed 100 ft. boat I have ever been on. Rolled in a heavy sea like little
else I have ever seen of the size. In fact I am not completely convinced of
it's seaworthiness in an unsettled sea. It appears to me to be another
top-heavy Dancer boat.

Caveat: I have no proof, just my own experience during a November 2002 trip.

"Luca Rossetti" <dontw@nt.spam> pounded away at his keyboard resulting
in:
:Did you like that boat? I have done only one trip on it but it was the least
:composed 100 ft. boat I have ever been on. Rolled in a heavy sea like little
:else I have ever seen of the size. In fact I am not completely convinced of
:it's seaworthiness in an unsettled sea. It appears to me to be another
:top-heavy Dancer boat.

Great boat. Don't know about rough seas, I didn't notice any.

Dan Bracuk
If at first you don't succeed, you run the risk of failure.
The Best of rec.scuba http://www.pathcom.com/~bracuk/RecScuba/


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