Dive Boat: Nimrod Explorer
Operator: Explorer Ventures
Location: Outer Great Barrier Reef, Australia
See: Pictures from the diving
My rating: Five stars (out of five)

Caveat: The Nimrod is designed for holding 18 guests. There were only 8 guests on this trip, which may influence some of my opinions on the amount of space on the boat. I think the boat was a good size. In terms of space, I never felt crowded my entire trip. If I had felt that way, I could have always gone back to my room and stayed there (although that would have been difficult during a couple of the travels between dive sites because we ran into some moderately large seas.)

The Room Speaking of my room, it was great. I paid for a room in the quad-share bunks. However, since there weren't a lot of people on this trip, and no one had booked the second stateroom, they upgraded two of us (we are assuming they upgraded the first two who paid, but nothing was said about it.) So I had a two person stateroom on deck level shared with one other guest (my "assigned" dive buddy for the trip, Stephane.) It's a great room with wood paneling everywhere, nice beadspreads, a small desk if you need one, and our own bathroom including toilet and shower. Every room on the boat has it's own shower, so at most you're competing with four people for your shower (or toilet) after a dive, which is a good thing. I was happy that they upgraded me, but I was also impressed. They didn't have to do it. I paid for a quad share, and so did my roommate. If they didn't put us there, they would have had one less room to clean since we would have been in one of the already occupied quad rooms. But they didn't do that. They upgraded us without us even asking (or knowing, until we were shown to our rooms!) At the end of the trip, I looked at one of the quad share rooms. They are definitely a bit more constricting, and I could sense that having four people in them might be a bit close for some. But certainly it could be done for a short few days.

Common areas There was plenty of space in the dining area. There is a large, comfortable table in the middle, and two smaller areas to the side. Since there were only 8 of us, we all sat at the center table. This also gave the crew a chance to eat with us, which was a nice addition (with 18 guests there is not enough room in the main area, and the crew eat separately.) I also got the impression they were professional enough that if they sensed that we were a more stuffy or isolated group, they still would have eaten on their own. Overall, they had a good sense of the personalities of the guests, and I think catered their overall behavior to them. You can also see in the background of the first photo that there is a library on the wall. This library is stocked both with pleasure books, as well as a significant amount of information on the reef and the creatures that dwell within. Most of us spent a lot of time looking through the various books trying to identify which fish we saw on the last dive. The smaller side areas in the dining area provided a nice, comfortable place to take a nap during the afternoon, and most afternoons found one or more of us dead to the world, lying in the corner.

The Dive Area The dive area had plenty of space for 8 divers! Every diver is given their own space on the boat, and a storage area beneath the seat provides more than enough space for your weight belt and fins. Most of us ended up all on the same side of the boat, so it would be as crowded on that side of the boat as if there was a full complement of guests, and it still didn't seem that crowded. There was more than enough space for us all to gear up. They provide fresh water bins for masks, cameras, and anything else you may want to keep in fresh water. The dive gear was well used, but all in good working order. No one on the boat had any equipment problems except a small leak in the first stage which was quickly fixed with a new o-ring. For a reasonable charge, they provided wetsuits, BCD, computers, regulator (incl. octopus), mask, snorkel, and fins. What they did not provide (or even have available for rent) was hoods, booties, or compasses. If you want one of those, you'll have to bring it yourself (they do sell hoods for about AU$80). Not too much of a big deal except for hoods since several of us found ourselves to be too cold on the dives (remember we're diving in the middle of winter.) Also, several blisters developed on my feet from the repeated diving using fins without booties, so that might be something to consider. For those who are into photography, they provide several cameras. However, the great deal of the boat is the digital camera. Use of this camera is free, and if you want to have the pictures at the end, it's AU$35 for the CD and you get all the pictures taken during the trip. With only 8 guests on the boat, I had the digital camera for 3 of the 16 dives. This satisfied my desire to take pictures, and I think is a much better deal than the AU$20/dive regular cameras + processing and film. Of course, I would guess you'll get better pictures from the better cameras (with strobe attachments), but I was satisfied with the digital photos.

Next: The Crew