Have you done sailing and diving in the same cruise?

Hi Luca - Yes, Ive chartered a 57m yacht in Indonesia and sailed myself out to islands i wanted to dive on - fantastic however, diving from yachts is not easy - you really do need a tender because its not often easy to enter and more specifically exit the water after a dive fully geared up unless you have a very very good ladder...and going backwards down a ladder with full scuba gear and tanks on your back isnt that easy. What I did was...hired a couple of locals - one to cook etc and man the helm/wait on deck while I was diving with the other Indo guy.

Things to consider - will you have the opportunity to refill tanks and store tanks and dive gear - is there room for a compressor on board? Are you experienced at filling tanks and maintaining gear? - if not, hire a dive guide/dive master with technical expertese so you can take care of anything like blown o rings.

Does your boat have easy access into and out of the water? - think about and try going up and down your ladder fully geared up and see if it is going to be easier to transfer tanks and regs etc to a tender/dinghy and then do a roll entry into the water from the tender. Remember after a dive most people are quite tired so a long climb up a moving ladder can be difficult with fins and tank on.

Personally I would go with your idea of taking a divemaster/techie with you - he or she will work out the logistics. If you plan on going for a week doing even one dive a day that means you will need 63 tank refills.....its going to be a lot of work for you alone. Dive gear also takes up a lot of room..if you have the tender/dinghy you can store it in there, 9 people on a 20m boat PLUS dive gear will make it very cramped.

And of course, never leave the boat unattended - always make sure someone is "topside" - if your mooring lines/anchor shift and the boat starts drifting you may find yourself and the divers in big trouble...there was a case in Barbados many years ago where 6 divers died because there was no one on the boat and they came up to find the boat bobbing off in the distance and were unable to get back on safely.

Hire a divemaster/techie and buy a tender if you dont have one and I would also hire another diving crew member who can assist your passengers in getting their gear on and off the boat and perhaps do some cooking or cleaning of gear and boat etc.

Best of luck you should have a great time 😊 Reply to this

Hi Cindy, thanks for your post.
Well I agree totally on your suggestions, I was thinking to do diving from Miaplacidus as follow:
I have enough space to store the gears and regarding the tanks I can put it on the fore deck in an apposite base support for inserting the tanks (has I saw in many specific boats). Then I have the electric winch on the for deck that I could use to lift the equipments (already prepared on board) and lower easily on the tender. Miaplacidus tender is 3.30 mt. lenght with 15 hp. By this way guests can use the solid alluminium ladder (positioned in the center side of the yacht in vertical position) and go straight on the tender. The sailor or me will be on the tender helping guests to wear the gear and roll back into the water. Same way, when they come back from the dive, immediately there is a person taking the gear from the water near the tender. Guests free from fins and every weight can go up by the ladder and with a rope (electric winch) we can take on the foredeck the equipment. What you think about?
Onboard I have the aircompressor, it is a bauwer, but is small and I think using every day will be broken or anyway too slow for many guests (maximum 8) . For few people can be ok.

So to charge the tanks I was thinking to do it every evening to a different scubadiving center (accordingly before), for istance in Sicily Islands is full of them everywhere, so in the morning the tanks are filled. Well this is a lot of work for the crew.
Normally on board we are 2 or 3 crew. So there is always someone onboard and we give for sure good cuisine service too in order to take care of guests.
Regarding the dive master I really don't know if to have one fix onboard. If a group ask, I have the experienced dive master Instructor that can come and make eventually also advanced courses. But If the group is already indipendent they can dive from my sailboat as they do by themselves from everywhere?

Dear Dave, I always check the legal aspect are in accordance with local policy.
Regarding the divers with very few experience, what you think about deciding to ask them to show a minimum number of dives experience? which can be this number? Also regarding the different kind of spot for diving... i have to make different Itineraries based on the levels.

The group is coming in May are very experienced, I met the client and I know him. So i prepared a 6 days itinerary for them in aeolian island, mixing all the best spots underwater and on the island, so not only diving but also visiting the local village, local people and lifestyle, clearly sailing from a place to another.
My partner Marianna already put informations on the website: http://www.cabincharter.it/scuba_crociere_diving_eolie_egadi.html (to be translated..)

Thanks for be back with comments! Reply to this

Dave, your suggestions are really appreciated, i will do!
Now my new contact dive instructor is not here in Italy, she is working in Maldives and she will be back next month so i will ask her wich limitations to put on the guests dive logs. 😊 Reply to this

Very exciting. Let us know how it goes. Good luck. Reply to this