Juliet Sailing and Diving

I did my first ever liveaboard dive-​trip, a 5-​day trip to Bimini on the S/​V Juliet. Since I’d never done a liveaboard before I decided to try it out with a short trip rather than one that was a full week long. If I hated it I’d be wasting less money and time off from work. I’m happy to say that wasn’t an issue and my trip on the Juliet ended up being the best dive experience I’ve ever had. I cannot speak highly enough of her crew and I’d recommend her to anyone who enjoys liveaboard diving.
My positive experience with the Juliet started several days before my departure. Four days before we were supposed to leave I injured my ankle in a way that made it seem like I would not be able to go. I called them up to cancel my booking but a couple of days later it turned out that my issue was much less serious than I was initially told. Diving seemed possible again so I gave the Juliet’s office another call and they were happy to put me back on the manifest.
One of the Juliet’s great advantages is that she sails from Miami. This means that getting to her is extremely easy and cheap for those of us who live in the mid-​Atlantic. We flew into Fort Lauderdale which isn’t quite as convenient for getting to the Juliet as Miami’s airport is, but FLL is a much better airport for affordable tickets than MIA. We got to the boat in the early evening and were quickly welcomed aboard and helped with our bags and gear.
The Juliet is a 100-​foot long steel-​hulled sailboat that originally hauled cargo in the South Pacific. She was later modified to support a research station in Antarctica and has since been turned into a liveaboard dive boat. Because of her design she doesn’t have a typical dive deck at the back of the boat. The dive station is in the middle of the boat just forward of the pilothouse. You get into the water by jumping off the side of the boat, and there’s a retractable dive platform with stairs for getting back on. It sounds a little bit ungainly but is actually extremely easy to use. I went on this trip with an ankle that I’d sprained pretty badly five days beforehand and I had no issues at all getting out of the water after a dive. The cabins are comfortable but you probably won’t spend very much time there except for when you’re asleep. There are power outlets, AC that keeps them reasonably cool and sinks in some of the cabins. Cabin #1 really isn’t all that private (the person who’s sleeping in cabin #2 has to pass through it in order to get to their room) but those two cabins have the advantage of having their own private bathroom. The other cabins share a couple of additional toilets and a shower. Showering off on deck is also an option in between dives or at the end of the day. Fresh water is plentiful as long as you aren’t ludicrously wasteful.
All of our diving days started off with a call of «breakfast is ready!» around 7 AM. For the first couple of days there were three day dives interspersed by lunch, with a night dive after dinner for those who were interested. On the last day we had a couple of dives along with an opportunity to snorkel with stingrays right before lunch time. We could have gotten in a third dive on the last day, but the consensus among the passengers was that we preferred a more leisurely schedule along with the opportunity to see the Juliet under sail since squeezing in a third dive would’ve meant hustling back to Miami as soon as that dive was done.
Good food is another thing that the Juliet seems to be well known for and she lived up to that reputation. Will and Hilary did an amazing job in their small kitchen. The food was always pretty hearty but each meal came with salad and lots of veggies (fresh, crunchy vegetables, not canned crap that had been cooked to death) so if you wanted to eat reasonably healthy that would have been easy. My girlfriend is vegetarian and they were wonderful about accommodating her. Will always prepared some sort of vegetarian variation on the main dish (i.e. eggplant parmesan when the main meal was chicken parm) for her and I’m sure they’d make arrangements for any other reasonable dietary restrictions. Fruit and snacks were available if you got hungry in between meals and there was always a cooler full of water and another with lemonade or fruit punch to encourage people to stay well hydrated. Beer, wine and booze were available once you were done diving for the day.
Obviously a trip on the Juliet won’t suit everyone. If you want privacy and lots of personal space and don’t like sharing close quarters with people you’ve never met before then a liveaboard trip isn’t for you. People who are absolutely set on squeezing in as many dives as possible also might want to look for a different operator where the norm is five or even six dives per day. For someone who wants a comfortable but reasonably priced liveaboard trip I cannot imagine a boat that’s better than the Juliet though.