All Star Cat Ppalu — a compact, dive-first Bahamas liveaboard

The Cat Ppalu suits divers who want the Bahamas under their fins rather than a large ship around them. Her size keeps the group small enough for the crew to know who is carrying a camera, who wants sharks, and who would rather spend the afternoon on a reef than in the lounge. The boat is older, but the 2018 renovation matters: this is a working dive vessel that has been kept in service, not dressed up as a resort. The reason to choose her is the route and the people running it. Up to 19 dives give the Exuma Cays week real volume, while the compact layout keeps the diving close at hand. She is also a practical choice when one person wants to dive and another wants to snorkel, paddle or simply stay aboard.

The Cat Ppalu makes the impression of a small, purposeful boat rather than a polished hotel. She was built in 1984 and renovated in 2018, so the character comes from an older working platform brought back into service, not from new-boat gloss. Boarding puts the dive operation close to the living spaces: the platform, stations and tender are part of the day rather than a separate department. With no crowd of passengers to disappear into, divers quickly learn the faces around them and the crew learns how each person likes to work. The boat cruises between the Bahamas sites at an unhurried pace, leaving the value of the trip in the water time rather than speed. That is the trade: less resort scale, more direct access to the diving.

The Cat Ppalu is the kind of boat where the crew becomes part of the trip quickly because the passenger group is small and the spaces are shared. The crew is local and international, and English is spoken aboard. Their role is practical: keeping the dive stations moving, getting the tender to the right place, feeding divers through a long day and making room for people who are not diving. Evenings belong to the group that has formed underwater—photos, site talk, food and the next day’s plan rather than formal entertainment. The boat itself is not the strongest reason to book; her age shows in the vessel’s character. The gain is a crew-led week in which service, food and diving carry more weight than luxury finish.

This is a Bahamas route with Nassau-to-Nassau departures lasting seven days and six nights, and up to 19 dives in the Exuma Cays. The site list ranges from shark encounters to wrecks, walls, blue holes and shallow coral formations. At The Original Tarpon Dive, a coral wall reaches -15 metres and schools of tarpon share the site with a resident grouper. Steel Forest reaches -33 metres across three wrecks, where reef sharks, nurse sharks, stingrays and turtles can move among the steel. The Lost Hole drops to -60 metres around an oceanic blue hole off Nassau, with Caribbean reef sharks around the rim. In the Abacos, Coral Caverns is -15 metres, the San Jacinto rests at -12 metres, and The Catacombs, Horse Shoe Reef and Valley of the Sponges offer profiles from -12 to -27 metres. Grouper Alley and The Ledge reach -27 and -30 metres, while Coral Canyons cuts down to -17 metres and The Coral Gardens to -24 metres. Wall Dives begin at 12 metres before falling into the Tongue of the Ocean, and The Shark Emporium Shark Dive places divers in a dedicated shark sanctuary off Andros.

The Original Tarpon Dive →

Max. depth · 15 m

Steel Forest →

Max. depth · 33 m

The Lost Hole →

Max. depth · 60 m

Coral Caverns →

Max. depth · 15 m

The Catacombs →

Max. depth · 12 m

Horse Shoe Reef →

Max. depth · 12 m

Valley Of The Sponges →

Max. depth · 27 m

Grouper Alley →

Max. depth · 27 m

The Ledge →

Max. depth · 30 m

Coral Canyons →

Max. depth · 17 m

The Coral Gardens →

Max. depth · 24 m

Wall Dives →

Max. depth · 1829 m

The Shark Emporium Shark Dive →

Several sites repeat the animals that make this route work: groupers, sea turtles, parrotfish and eagle rays appear across multiple write-ups, so the week has more than one chance to find familiar Caribbean reef life. The individual sites then supply the reasons to make a particular descent. The Shark Emporium Shark Dive is the place for a direct encounter with Caribbean reef sharks in a sanctuary off Andros. Steel Forest is the only listed site for a green turtle. Coral Canyons can produce barracuda and carangids among its channels, while Grouper Alley is the specialist stop for large Nassau groupers, a goliath grouper, lobsters, angelfish, snappers and rays. The San Jacinto is marked by green morays, The Ledge by soft coral, and The Coral Gardens by fan corals and gorgonians. These are possibilities tied to named sites, not guarantees.

Nurse Shark →

Ginglymostoma cirratum

Stingray →

Dasyatidae — Dasyatis, Hypanus, Pastinachus, Himantura, Taeniura

Goliath Grouper →

Epinephelus itajara

The crew speaks English and handles the dive operation from the boat and tender. The listed safety equipment includes oxygen, first-aid kits, fire alarms and extinguishers, life jackets, lifeboats, radar, sonar, GPS, VHF/DSC/SSB radio, an emergency position-indicating beacon and mobile and satellite phones. The Cat Ppalu does not publish a guide-to-diver ratio, guide count, guide qualifications or a recall system, so the page should not promise a particular group size or level of in-water supervision. Dive certifications can be arranged as an optional onboard service, and private guiding is available as an option. Divers should arrive ready to dive within their current certification and experience; the boat page does not set a logged-dive minimum.

The dive deck is arranged around fixed stations, a platform and a 12-foot inflatable tender that carries divers to the site and collects them after the dive. Tanks and weightbelts are provided, with DIN adaptors, equipment rinse tanks and a separate rinse for cameras. A camera area and air blower give photographers a place to deal with housings before the next descent. Outdoor showers are available after diving. Rental equipment can be arranged, but the listed details do not identify tank material or volume, compressor type, rental brands or nitrox provision for this boat. That is the point to check before packing a specialised setup. The deck is built for repeated recreational dives, not for a technical inventory that has not been described.

Between dives, the Cat Ppalu gives guests a choice between the shaded or open-air areas, the air-conditioned saloon and the terrace. The quiet hours can be spent looking over the water, sorting a camera at the separate camera rinse, or taking a kayak or stand-up paddleboard ashore when the itinerary allows. Snorkelers and non-divers have their own reasons to stay on the boat: fishing, land excursions and surface time are built into the offering. There is no need to manufacture entertainment around a schedule this full. After a dive, the useful pause is a shower, something cold to drink, a snack and enough shade to be ready for the next briefing.

A day begins with the dive operation rather than with a leisurely hotel breakfast: prepare at the station, attend the briefing, board the tender or step from the platform, then return to rinse gear and eat before the next descent. Meals and snacks break up the diving, while the crew resets the deck and the boat moves toward the next site. The route can deliver a dense run of daytime dives, with the full week reaching up to 19 in total. When there is no dive, the gap belongs to a shower, a camera, a shaded seat, a paddleboard or a shore excursion. By evening, the group is back around food and photos, with the next site replacing the day’s last conversation. Then the cabins become quiet and the cycle starts again.

Meals are served buffet-style, with Western and local cooking, snacks available through the day, and non-alcoholic drinks, tea and coffee included. Vegetarian and vegan options can be provided. On a route offering up to 19 dives, food has a job beyond filling the table: breakfast needs to be easy before the first descent, while later meals and snacks keep the gaps between dives useful rather than sluggish. Beer is available aboard, and the galley works around the repeated pattern of divers coming back hungry, wet and ready to eat. The local dishes give the Bahamas a place at the table; the Western choices keep the buffet familiar for a mixed group.

The six cabins are on the main deck, with double and twin layouts, air conditioning and standard windows; some have sea views. Two bathrooms serve the boat, so the accommodation is functional rather than private-suite living. At night, the important detail is not a long list of fittings but the compact scale: the cabin is a place to sleep between dives, while the saloon and outdoor areas carry the social life. Non-smoking cabins keep the sleeping spaces clear. The Cat Ppalu will suit a diver who treats the cabin as a bunk, shower point and dry place for a few personal things. It will not suit someone choosing a liveaboard mainly for a large private room or hotel-style bathroom.

The Cat Ppalu departs from Nassau and returns to Nassau on seven-day, six-night cruises. Airport transfers can be arranged as an optional service. Arriving in Nassau the night before is the sensible choice, leaving room for flight delays before boarding.