> >Any one actually done five dives per day for more than one day?

Rarely, but it has been known to happen. In my - quite considerable -
live-aboard experience, everybody is very gung-ho for the first day or two,
and then people start skipping dives, sitting out the night dive and so on.
The sun and nitrogen takes its toll, and the good food and lethargic state
of mind that one enters into after a few days out limit people's energy.

Also, many live-aboards may not actually allow night diving except on a few
days, because they visit areas where night diving is inadvisable.

> >They offer nitrox (EAN 32 only) but require that nitrox divers use
> >only air profiles -- did you do that?

Same on the Sun Dancer in Palau, the only PH boat I've been on. Personally,
I find it ridiculous. They preach safety, but let you dive Notrox on
1000-foot walls! I decided to just use air throughout the trip, also because
I didn't want to deny myself the opportunity to go a bit deeper in the
beginning of the dive.

They didn't seem to enforce their rule, at least not that I saw.

> At the medical conference I attended in Fiji the invited speaker from the
> UK, who is one of the top advisors for commercial diving worldwide, was
> really pushing his recommendation that all recreational nitrox diving
> should be done using air tables - a better safety margin.

A still controversial issue, and one that brings back memories for me. This
issue was the subject on which I chose to enter the fray on SCUBA-L, and
promptly found myself in a dispute with Randy Allen. Bob ended it with the
post I mentioned the other day, which I still don't understand :-) Randy,
BTW, became a friend :-)

> >What kind of clothes did you actually use?

Like Viv says, shorts and T-shirts, maybe a pair of sweatpants for a chilly
evening. Unlike Viv, I like to wear underwear, though...

But listen to this: BRING MORE THAN ONE WETSUIT! In my opinion, one of the
most miserable aspects of multi-day-multi-dive trips is having to constantly
get in and out of a clammy wetsuit, and if you are a die-hard diver, your
skin can start to suffer after only a few days. With one suit always drying
in the sun, you can eliminate this unpleasantness altogether.

Although not strictly a piece of garment, give some thought to bringing a
spare dive computer, or to renting one on the boat. Dive with BOTH, so if
one goes, you don't have to skip a day.

> >What did you pack, but never use?

I recall bringing a blowdrier once :-) These days, lugging 50 kilos of
camera gear for a live-aboard trip, I have learned to be VERY economical
with the clothes and accessories I pack.

If it is like other PH boats, they give you shampoo, conditioner, soap,
towels and sunscreen lotion. Leave yours at home.

Bjorn
http://www.bjornjensen.com