stunsm

To illustrate 2 things that I feel are extremely important, I'll tell a quick story about a local boat (not liveaboard but the same issues apply) that I won't use again. Over the summer, my buddy and I booked 2 spots for a "2 tank" dive on the St. Lawrence (US side). To have 6 people on the boat would be a little crowded but workable, on this day there were 9 divers (we were the only Rebreather's) and 2 crew. The acting captain asked how long we intended to stay down on our first dive. Trying to be considerate of the OC divers, I said maybe an hour, hour and a half, and was immediately shot down and told to be back in 45 minutes! Our bailout tanks by this time were buried under 2 tiers of everyone elses cylinders, conveniently piled up in the middle of the boat due to lack of tank racks/bungees, so we were almost last in the water and had a terribly short dive. After a surface interval and trip to another wreck for the second dive, we were told to be back in 30 minutes!! Mind you, these were both rec depth wrecks, but I would have found those times short and offensive on single tank OC. Between the total lack of space (I ended up standing with my gear still on my back for about 15 minutes after getting out of the water for lack of space to sit or de-kit), the incredibly short bottom times, and the general attitude of the crew being that they had something better to do than be on the water that day, I will not ever use this operation again. So long story slightly less long, the important things to me above all are: room to gear up, check over or work on gear, and a bit of leeway on run times. Another boat, the Pacific Star out of California, alleviated these problems by dedicating the entire bow area to rebreathers. Nice and spacious, no curious open water students poking at your gear, etc...