Anyone knows about Nekton Cruises?

[greg454]

Well, I got my brochure yesterday. It looks pretty good. I heard Cay Sal was for more experienced divers.

 

[diversteve]

Well, I got my brochure yesterday. It looks pretty good. I heard Cay Sal was for more experienced divers.

It can be, depends how you approach it. Most of the sites have both a deep and a shallow option so you have a choice based on your experience/comfort level. On our trip most divers had between 50-250 dives, however there was a 12yr. old girl who certified on the trip also.

We had several dives on the Cay Sal trip that didn't exceed 30', many that didn't exceed 60-80'. A lot of it is blue hole diving so you can choose to either drop into the hole - up to 130' - or stay around the top, generally 40-60'. Most of the swimthroughs required at least 100'. We dove off the Bahamas Banks twice in water that was 15' at it's deepest, the joke was to locate the boat, just stand up and look for it. There were several dives where they didn't drop the 15' hang bar so it didn't hit the coral. Otoh, the drift dive off Bimini was at between 90-130' in order to see anything.

One thing about Cay Sal diving, you should know how to navigate in currents. Most of the dives had some current, some were pretty fierce. Surprisingly one of the worst was the shallow(15-30') Bahamas Banks dives because of tidal exchange. We were blown all over heck on that dive, passed the boat twice in opposite directions w/o even knowing it during two dives.

But the water's warm, the viz is better than average and there's a lot to see. And you can't go wrong with being able to do 4-5 dives/day.

 

[Desert_Diver]

Otoh, the drift dive off Bimini was at between 90-130' in order to see anything.

Hmmm. Maybe I'm missing something. I don't have my charts here with me (at work) but from memory, bottom time diving regular air at 130 feet is about 8 minutes, isn't it? That would seem like a relatively short dive to me. And if you are diving Nitrox at 30% mix, isn't it below the Max Operating Depth? Or have I overlooked something obvious?

Art

 

[Pam_In_Paradise]

Hi guys...here is some info on the typical dive sites on the Cay Sal Bank itinerary with some notes from my trip last August.
Cat Cay
Tuna Alley - 45-100 ft
Victory Reef - 30-80 ft
Neat sites but can have some noticeable current....hang on.....

Orange Cay
Last Chance Reef - 50-60 ft (Look for tunicates and barrel sponges)
Playground - 20-55 ft

Blue Hole
Shark Hole aka Big Hole- 25-130+ ft (Say hello to the sharkies!!!! - hole is 1/4 mile in diameter)
Sistine Chapel - 18-130+ ft (neat stalagtites at 120 ft)
Silversides - 25-130+ ft (swimthroughs with silversides)
Grocery Store - 10-40 ft (Just about anything under the sun)

Elbow Cay
Elbow Cay Drift Dive - 80-130+ft (Really cool drift dives Nekton style)
Water Cay - 25-40 ft (Small plane wreck, swim thru, neat rock formations, swim from ocean thru tunnel and come up in a lagoon on the Cay, Cliff Jumping)

Bimini
Thumbnail - 80-130ft (Mini wall, sea fans, octopus and morays)
The Strip - 30-40 ft (Schooling fish, morays, scorpionfish and sergeant majors)
Hawksbill - 45-55 ft

I only had significant current on the Cat Cay sites when I went. In my opinion a beginner diver would be able to handle this as long as they are very careful about watching their depth.

Hope this helps....Happy Diving!

 

[greg454]

I would love to go as deep as everybody else, if everybody else has no objection. I've never been good at land sports, so scuba diving is my personal extreme sport.

 

[diversteve]

Hmmm. Maybe I'm missing something. I don't have my charts here with me (at work) but from memory, bottom time diving regular air at 130 feet is about 8 minutes, isn't it? That would seem like a relatively short dive to me. And if you are diving Nitrox at 30% mix, isn't it below the Max Operating Depth? Or have I overlooked something obvious?

Art

Most people hung at 90-100'. There were people who went deeper for part of the dive - depending on their air consumption. It's a true drift dive, once you drop you're in the current doing no work, just flying along the wall. The wall at Elbow Cay started at 80' so above that you're just floating in blue water. I don't know about Nitrox as I don't use it but my buddy went to 129' on Nitrox at Silversides. For a short time.

 

[DiveMaven]

30% nitrox has an MOD of 143' at 1.6 PPO, or 120' at 1.4 PPO.

 

[leadweight]

Getting ready to do my second Nekton trip next week. I would take them over Aggressor any time. First trip was Mona Island, next will be Cayman Islands. Would love to do the Cay Sal Banks trip.

 

[TracyKent]

Did Cay Say on the SeaFever two years ago. going back on the Pilot Aug 5th. Its FINtastic.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

The trick to Cay Sal is knowing "when to say when" if you don't like the conditions get out, that's what smart divers do. The video of our trip shows divers getting in for one dive where the current was ripping. Several of them got in and immediately got out--you can see that on the video. We got in as a threesome and made it down the line, my husband darted from the line and over the reef wall to an area where the current was slack. He was peeking over the wall watching me and the third diver flapping on the down line looking at each other trying to decide whether we wanted to make the dash into the current for the safety of the reef or just abort. We finally decided on the dash

Know your limits; if you look over the stern of the boat and it looks like the boat is kicking up a wake and you know you're anchored ya might want to stay on the boat--we did (it was a night dive).
Ber :lilbunny: