Liveaboard trips allow divers to spend the entire day underwater at great diving destinations. In most liveaboards, you will be able to enjoy 3 to 4 dives a day including night dives.
In case you are about to embark on your first liveaboard trip, you might be wondering how to best behave to fully enjoy your diving holiday.
In this post we will go over what not to do on your first liveaboard and other small details you might want to pay attention to. If you are looking for a liveaboard destination for your first liveaboard trip, I highly recommend checking out the Maldives, one of the world’s destinations with the highest number of liveboards.
In a nutshell, the “No GOs” of liveaboard diving include: overpacking, lying about your number of dives or dive experience, be late, ignore allergies, shower too often, overuse fresh water, be a bore, overlook rules and regulations, abandon good sleeping habits, pollute the ocean, and finally feeding wildlife.
1. Overpack
It’s incredibly important to try and keep your liveaboard clothing to a bare minimum. Liveaboards won’t have much space for your personal items, so make sure you pack lightly. Don’t bring anything incredibly valuable either.
In most cases, the only regular clothing that you will have to consider wearing is on the airplane if you fly to the liveaboard trip destination. You won’t need anything else on the boat except for a couple of t-shirts, shorts, and swimwear. You might also want to consider heavier clothes in case you are going on a liveaboard trip in colder seasons.
You can easily rinse and clean items when needed. If your liveaboard is 7 days long, you can get along well with only a couple of swimsuits, tank tops, and t-shirts. There’s no need to even pack any socks or very much underwear since you are going to be wearing your swimsuit the entire time.
Avoiding overpacking will also help you avoid extra luggage charges. In most cases you will be traveling with your dive gear as well, which is already quite heavy. If you will be sharing a cabin with people you don’t know, avoiding overpacking will certainly help you make some friends.
2. Lie on your dive experience
One of the first questions you will be asked when signing up for a liveaboard trip, is the amount of logged dives you have and when was your last dive. This will be used as a proxy for your experience.
You should never, ever lie on the number of logged dives you have as a liveaboard trip is often planned based on the experience of guests. Dive sites are chosen based on experience level and you do not want to end to inflate your experience level and end up in difficult dive sites.
Same reasoning for your last dive. If you have not been diving for a while, consider taking a refresher course before your liveaboard trip or ask to do a check dive. You do not want to end up doing a drift dive with strong currents as your first dive.
3. Be Late
A liveaboard has a very strict itinerary and it’s important that you always follow it. The crew will not want to waste time herding divers. They may be flexible if there are weather issues, but you will always want to be right on time for your liveaboard trip. Don’t make the guide waste time looking for you simply because you don’t want to dive or because you are late.
If you find yourself stuck in a situation where you could potentially be behind schedule, let someone on the boat know so that they can pass the message along. It’s also very important to be on time for each dive briefing and return to the boat on time at the end of every dive.
Not returning timely to the boat after a dive can cause panic and will require a lot of adjustment from the team in the boat’s schedule, and will inconvenience all those that are on the trip with you.
Besides, there is more than enough time spent in the water on the trip, so end your dives on time if you would like to be back in the water on time the following morning.
4. Ignore Allergies
Most liveaboard boat crews will try to understand any of their passenger’s food allergies and preferences beforehand but don’t just assume that they will know exactly what you need. Make sure that you make your allergies clear to the crew so that you can better avoid having any serious allergic reactions.
Most liveaboard boats have buffet-style meals and so it should be somewhat easy to accommodate your food allergy needs and avoid foods that you shouldn’t be eating because you get to choose what’s on your plate. If your boat is not buffet style though, always check with the crew what kinds of foods you will be eating if you have certain food allergies.
5. Shower Often
Most liveaboard boats have open deck showers to rinse the salt off of you when you finish your dive but hogging these showers will not win friends. The key to not annoying all of the other people on the boat is making sure that you have the right timing and be quick. Don’t use the showers, changing rooms, or bathrooms for too long. Everyone else likely needs to use them too and will quickly get annoyed if they notice that you are always using them for long periods of time.
6. Use all the freshwater
Freshwater on liveaboard boats is used for showering, cooking, and drinking. These boats are able to hold massive amounts of water to suffice everyone’s needs on the boat, but that doesn’t mean that you should go crazy with the water. Similar to showering too often, it’s important to conserve the water that’s on the boat.
Every liveaboards orientation briefing will show you the importance of freshwater conservation. The freshwater tanks in the boat only hold so much water, so make sure to be very careful about the amount of water you are using and drinking.
7. Be a Boat Bore
When staying on a liveaboard boat, there are many other people around you that you will either know or won’t know very well. All of these people have something very in common with you. They love to dive also, so try to be friendly to everyone and make friends.
You usually will have seven or more days and a lot of different people to talk to so make sure to make a good impression on those people and be friends so that the next seven days will be a breeze with the people that you’re living with. Staying on a liveaboard boat could be an amazing, fun experience, but when you shut yourself out from everyone else, it can become lonely quickly and you will be begging to get off that boat as soon as you can.
8. Overlook Rules and Regulations
As every good diver knows, there are many rules and regulations that exist to ensure the safety of all diving participants. However, accidents can still occur even with these rules, so there are important emergency procedures to learn as well. It is always important to be safe while diving, but this is especially relevant on a liveaboard because participants are diving for such an incredibly large portion of the day. Houseboat and company rules are not optional, and they are well-devised and good-intentioned.
9. Abandon Good Sleeping Habits
There are so many exciting people to meet on a liveaboard, and there can be lively gatherings at night for those aboard. While it is good to get to know these people while out of the water, keep in mind that your body will be physically drained from an entire day in the ocean. Enjoy yourself, but be sure to get a healthy amount of sleep so that you will have the energy to function and appreciate all of the excitement the next day holds.
10. Pollute the Ocean
In most cases, liveaboards have systems in which all wastewater is expelled into the ocean itself throughout the duration of your voyage. Be aware of this and only bring shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and other materials that will be safe for coral reefs and animal life in the ocean.
Follow all posted rules about putting waste materials in the garbage rather than flushing them down the toilet. Many boats may encourage you to use a douche hose to keep the plumbing from clogging.
11. Feeding Wildlife
Feeding wildlife during dive safaris is really tempting. You think you are in the middle of the ocean, and that no one will notice you, plus you will finally get the opportunity to take the pic of a lifetime.
However tempting, feeding marine life is highly harmful for the underwater world and can also turn out to be dangerous in case you are trying to attract sharks or other predator species.