After boarding a live-aboard ship, the regimen consists of eating, sleeping and, of course, diving four to seven times each day.Having a choice dive site right under your feet is immensely gratifying in its simplicity. Following breakfast, stroll back to the aft deck, suit-up and dive. Surface intervals are spent reading a book, watching a movie, sucking down a fresh baked brownie or napping. Then, dive again.Many divers undergo an interesting change in their own skill level between the time they first step on board and the day they step off. Novices and intermediates quickly develop into advanced divers.Another plus: No precious time or energy is wasted waiting at boat docks or schlepping gear back and forth. In addition to diving as often as desired, most of your other needs are pretty much taken care of on a live-aboard, allowing you to achieve your other objective: relaxing.A common concern is the fear of being ''stuck'' on a boat for a week with total strangers. However, unless you are a total jerk, there's nothing to worry about. Some of the most genuine and interesting people I have met during my diving travels were on live-aboard trips.As Peter Hughes points out, ''One thing you won't see is a parade of 20 or more divers cruising up and down the same part of a reef.'' More likely, you will be hard-pressed to see more than a handful of shipmates during any dive.