Bahama's Liveaboards
The Bahamas are a marquee live-aboard destination, with a variety of boats and itineraries to choose from. Here are some of your options:
Aqua Cat Cruises has weekly, eight-day, seven-night trips leaving on Saturdays from Nassau, New Providence to explore the Exumas region, consisting of 200 small islands, including the famed Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park. You can also do a variety of dives, featuring shark feedings, blue holes and fast drifts. On board the 102-foot luxury catamaran, billed as a floating resort, there’s also snorkeling, kayaking and land excursions available and if you’re bringing along a partner or friend who’s not a certified diver, but would like to become one, no worries. Aqua Cat offers certification courses. Prices start at $2,295 per person — though rates can be significantly lower depending on how many people are sharing a cabin — and include food and beverages (including alcoholic), shore excursions and airport transfers from and to Nassau International Airport. Prices do not include airfare, or port tax, fuel surcharge and port fees totaling $160, nitrox, or the recommended gratuity of 15 percent of the price of the cruise, for the crew.
If you’re on a tighter budget and schedule, flexible about which dive sites you’ll visit and up for adventures in the Western Bahamas or the Exuma Cays, Blackbeard’s Cruiseshas a fleet of three vessels — the Morning Star, Sea Explorer and Pirate’s Lady — sailing from both Nassau and Freeport to Bimini, Andros, Cay Sal Banks and Berry Island. Walls, reefs and sharks are on the dive menu an there is no set itinerary — the captain heads for wherever the weather and sea conditions are most favorable. Both weekend and week-long cruises are offered. Weekend trips depart Saturdays and return the following Wednesdays and begin at $679 (not including $65 in surcharges), while week-long cruises run Saturday to Saturday and start at $899 per person (plus $80 in related surcharges). Recommended gratuity for crew members is 15 percent. Also, Blackbeard’s has four special, scheduled nine-and-10-day trips to the remote Hogsty Reef in the Southern Bahamas, between Great Inagua and Crooked Island, which feature unspoiled dive sites and more than two dozen wrecks. Those cruises depart from Georgetown, on the island of Great Exuma and range from $1,259 to $1,435 per person, excluding surcharges.
If living on and diving from a yacht is more your style, Cat Ppalu Cruises, offers seven-day, six-night voyages from Nassau to the Exumas, Eleuthera and Andros, ranging from $1,495 to $1,545 per person.
On Nekton Diving Cruises, pampering and an emphasis on relaxation comes standard aboard its sturdy, Small Waterplane Twin Hull (SWATH)-designed vessels and has five different Bahamas itineraries, including Northwestern Bahamas, Cay Sal Banks, Cay Lobos, Medio Reef and Southern Bahamas. Week-long cruises on the Nekton Pilot depart from Fort Lauderdale. Prices range from $1,495 to $1,895 per person, excluding applicable surcharges.
For a more intimate live-aboard experience, try the Sea Dragon, which accommodates just eight divers and plies the waters of the Exumas and occasionally, remote Conception Island. The boat departs from Nassau. For information and pricing for trips this year and next, email captaindan@sedragonbahamas.com or call 954-522-0161.
Next year, Juliet Sailing & Diving is scheduling summer-only, four-seven-and-10-day dive cruises from Miami to the Bimini islands chain, aboard its three-masted schooner. All departures are set for Saturdays, with 10-day trips returning to port on Mondays and seven-day trips disembarking on Fridays. Prices per person have been slated from $980 to $2,190.
For one-stop online shopping for Bahamas live-aboard options, visit www.bahamasdiving.com/BahamasDiver/exploring.html.
Please note that prices are current as of May 2009.
