Douglas Klassen

Booking with Liveaboard.com was seamless. They communicate well, keep ypu in direct touch with the operator when needed and follow up consistently.

Raja Ampat is the most biologically diverse area we have ever dived in over 40 years of scuba around the world, with more live coral and sealife than anywhere else we’ve experienced.in a similar vein, Gaia Love is the best run and most comfortable scuba liveaboard we’ve been on anywhere.
- It doesn’t have the “romance” of the traditional Indonesian “phinisi”, but what you lose in tradition you gain in space, comfort, amenities and a stable platform all custom-geared to the scuba diver. Also, the staff is second to none in attentiveness, responsiveness, safety and diving protocols.
- Among the safety measures is a GPS transmitter issued to all divers and placed in a BCD pocket. Each one is individually assigned and registered on the boat’s bridge’s navigation equipment. Nobody ever needed to activate it, but it’s comforting to know you will be found even if swept far away by surface current.
- Nitrox, of course, as well as 15l tanks if you suck air like I do, and any bit of rental scuba gear you don’t want to schlepp around the world with you.

Tenders typically go out with no more than 4/5 divers at a time with their dive guide. Tanks and BCDs are transferred to the tender from the dive deck by the staff, stored underway (as they are on the dive deck) in cylindrical wells. Then, when ready to dive, the guide and tender driver help everyone on with their gear - and into the water you go in a synchronized backward roll. Getting back out is similarly easy: hand up your weight belt, hand up ypur BCD and tank, hand up ypur finds, grab onto the sturdy tender rails climb up the ladder - It just couldn’t be more comfortable - or kind to my 75-year old arthritic knees and back.

Back on the dive platform, there are warm showers and the staff helps everyone strip off their “sticky” wet suits and skins. Again, it could not be more comfortable. Back up on the dive deck, a cup of hot ginger tea and warm towels await you, and the staff are already busy refilling tanks and washing and hanging wet suits to dry for the next plunge. Your camera gear will have found its way to the fresh water basin in front of every station, which also has more than ample dry storage for all your gear.

If it weren’t for a reluctance to go repeatedly to the same places (whether for scuba or other international travel) my wife and I would book Gaia Love again in a heartbeat. After dozens of liveaboards and over 70 countries visited outside North America we, in our late 70s, still have many travel adventures ahead of us - until we physically can’t anymore.

Gaia Love will undoubtedly remain one of our most memorable.

All in all, an A+ liveaboard in an A+ part of the world for scuba. Highly recommended. Book early and prepare yourself for a lot of time underway to get there.

Douglas