liveaboard diving

Cuan Law, the largest sailing trimaran in the world, is like a luxury inn with a sporting flavor that moves around the beautiful British Virgin Islands. This fine, family-run establishment provides the amenities, food and attentive, friendly service that you would expect. The trimaran’s three hulls give superb stability, and the towering white sails speed it along with no carbon footprint, or the powerful twin diesels can move her fast if the wind dies. Overall, we use about one-quarter the fossil fuel of a power live-aboard.

Blackbeard’s Cruises offers live-aboard scuba vacations to the Out Islands of the Bahamas. You won’t find a greater variety of diving — reefs, walls, swift drifts, blue holes and shark dives. The 65-foot sloops depart Nassau each Saturday to the colorful reefs of the Exuma Islands. Blackbeard’s Cruises offers divers a combination of camaraderie and adventure — voted best value in the dive industry year after year. 

New for 2012-13 are two far-northern itineraries visiting wrecks and reefs rarely dived. Since 1969, Mike Ball has set the standard in the Australian dive industry with exceptional trips to the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Mike Ball offers three-, four- and seven-night expeditions including custom trips such as shark research and minke whale encounters. Spoilsport’s twin hull maximizes comfort, and both novice and adventuresome divers can experience encounters with huge potato cod at Cod Hole and the exhilarating shark feed at North Horn.

French Polynesia is a diver’s paradise, where translucent, turquoise lagoons are begging to be explored.  Join the superior dive team on board the M/S Paul Gauguin, designed specifically to navigate these islands; its small size allows you to visit small ports and shallow lagoons, creating countless opportunities to explore. Since its maiden voyage in 1998, the Gauguin has become the longest continually operating year-round luxury cruise ship in the South Pacific. On board, experience an atmosphere that is at once luxurious and relaxed.