mcohen1021
Contributor
So we were very fortunate that the Aggressor special lined up with direct NS flights from DFW to NAS, and for only ~25k miles. We were delayed a bit taking off and it made me happy that we had no worries in catching a connection in CLT or MIA with time ticking down.
We did a quick trip to the duty free store to stock our private bar and made it to NAS easily in time to make the passenger briefing. I was surprised and pleased the prices weren’t much different than outside of the airport.
The boat is smaller than several other Aggressors, but there was plenty of room for everybody / everything. Food was very good, despite the dreaded salmon twice. Yes, I hate salmon, but it had nothing to do with the chef. I managed to choke it down both times.
Quick Stats:
Water temp:
76-78 – I used a 5 mil, but some of the other guys that had ‘padding’ went with just shorts.
Dives: 4 day, 1 night
Depths/Times: The like to limit you to 100 ft and 60 minutes max
Meals: Steak, Red Snapper, Salmon 2x, Chicken… Did I mention how amazing the soup was?
Pace: was fast. If you want to be guided, you will want to start prepping earlier than the bell.
Crew: LT, Shawn, Romel, Rodney, Dan and Lars.
The scuba started on Sunday morning with 2 dives at the lost blue hole… We witnessed a sharknado – so many Caribbean reef sharks circling above! The hole, not too much to see at 1st… Not without a flashlight! If you stay close to the walls and use your light, you’ll see a lot more – like the sleeping loggerhead and 2 remoras… Speaking of remoras, we had this one annoying remora following us throughout dive #1. Guess he found someone else to annoy on dive #2 lol. Other Sunday sites included Up Jumped The Devil, Dog Rocks x2..
Day two of scuba started with a dive at Split Coral Head, followed by Monolith, Cut Through City, Tunnel Rock, and the night dive @ Tunnel Rock. Yes, we’ve now done 10 dives in 2 days.
Day 3 started with Cut n Run, which has a cool wrecked smuggler plane – no not Pablos. We were off to the strange site with the space ship looking thing @ Cobia Cage. We did a dive at Hole in The Wall, then 2 at Krakens Lair (one at night).
Day 4 Started with a dive at Cave Rock, followed by Split Coral Head, Morgans Point and the last 2 at Jakes Hole. The dive briefing for Jakes Hole was pretty amusing. “You can go to the rim and play a bit, but don’t penetrate Jakes Hole…” Haha
We are now up to 20 dives… There’s only 7 of us left for the Iron Diver.
Day 5 started with Barracuda Shoal, then Lobster No Lobster (did not see one). Then we were off to the Washing Machine… Truly unique. If you do not know what this is, check YouTube. We were jumping off a moving boat, paratrooper style, negative entry… DIVE DIVE DIVE… When you get to the hole, you dip in and the washing machine current spits you back out… It’s insane. I tucked and did enough tumbles, I was dizzy and ended up 2 ft from the surface…. I got back down and did a few barrel rolls – great fun. 3rrd dive was at Flat Rock, followed by the 4th and 5th at Barracuda Shoal. My night dive was a disaster, as I followed two of the guests around because I had not one but two flashlights fail… No chance I was going to get eliminated from that award on dive #25…
Day 6 started with a DAWN dive at Lobster No Lobster – in the water, 45 minute max time, and this time I did find a lobster! Last dive of the trip, we moved off to Normans Cay to dive the plane wreck of you guessed it – Pablo Escobar… it was so cool to see a piece of history like that.
It was off to the dock after that. We rinsed the gear, hung it up and headed back. Mostly dry in the 3 hour commute. We were then free to pack, snack, drink, go out into Nassau for a few hours before the wine and cheese party and awards.
The next morning, 8 am, we were officially kicked off the boat and off to tour Nassau. I had not visited in over 30 years, it was an incredibly different place.
And before I forget, I especially liked the fresh killed lionfish ceviche they made, although I would have loved the opportunity to hunt a few of them myself. And I might mention one last thing – they do not feed the sharks there. The throw a triangle with bait to lure them in.
Overall, the Bahamas Aggressor delivered a week of great memories, great diving, great food and I did like the fact that they had someone awake all night. I could easily do this one again, however next stop is TnC Aggressor next summer.
Video Aggressor put together:
My best pics here:
We did a quick trip to the duty free store to stock our private bar and made it to NAS easily in time to make the passenger briefing. I was surprised and pleased the prices weren’t much different than outside of the airport.
The boat is smaller than several other Aggressors, but there was plenty of room for everybody / everything. Food was very good, despite the dreaded salmon twice. Yes, I hate salmon, but it had nothing to do with the chef. I managed to choke it down both times.
Quick Stats:
Water temp:
76-78 – I used a 5 mil, but some of the other guys that had ‘padding’ went with just shorts.
Dives: 4 day, 1 night
Depths/Times: The like to limit you to 100 ft and 60 minutes max
Meals: Steak, Red Snapper, Salmon 2x, Chicken… Did I mention how amazing the soup was?
Pace: was fast. If you want to be guided, you will want to start prepping earlier than the bell.
Crew: LT, Shawn, Romel, Rodney, Dan and Lars.
The scuba started on Sunday morning with 2 dives at the lost blue hole… We witnessed a sharknado – so many Caribbean reef sharks circling above! The hole, not too much to see at 1st… Not without a flashlight! If you stay close to the walls and use your light, you’ll see a lot more – like the sleeping loggerhead and 2 remoras… Speaking of remoras, we had this one annoying remora following us throughout dive #1. Guess he found someone else to annoy on dive #2 lol. Other Sunday sites included Up Jumped The Devil, Dog Rocks x2..
Day two of scuba started with a dive at Split Coral Head, followed by Monolith, Cut Through City, Tunnel Rock, and the night dive @ Tunnel Rock. Yes, we’ve now done 10 dives in 2 days.
Day 3 started with Cut n Run, which has a cool wrecked smuggler plane – no not Pablos. We were off to the strange site with the space ship looking thing @ Cobia Cage. We did a dive at Hole in The Wall, then 2 at Krakens Lair (one at night).
Day 4 Started with a dive at Cave Rock, followed by Split Coral Head, Morgans Point and the last 2 at Jakes Hole. The dive briefing for Jakes Hole was pretty amusing. “You can go to the rim and play a bit, but don’t penetrate Jakes Hole…” Haha
We are now up to 20 dives… There’s only 7 of us left for the Iron Diver.
Day 5 started with Barracuda Shoal, then Lobster No Lobster (did not see one). Then we were off to the Washing Machine… Truly unique. If you do not know what this is, check YouTube. We were jumping off a moving boat, paratrooper style, negative entry… DIVE DIVE DIVE… When you get to the hole, you dip in and the washing machine current spits you back out… It’s insane. I tucked and did enough tumbles, I was dizzy and ended up 2 ft from the surface…. I got back down and did a few barrel rolls – great fun. 3rrd dive was at Flat Rock, followed by the 4th and 5th at Barracuda Shoal. My night dive was a disaster, as I followed two of the guests around because I had not one but two flashlights fail… No chance I was going to get eliminated from that award on dive #25…
Day 6 started with a DAWN dive at Lobster No Lobster – in the water, 45 minute max time, and this time I did find a lobster! Last dive of the trip, we moved off to Normans Cay to dive the plane wreck of you guessed it – Pablo Escobar… it was so cool to see a piece of history like that.
It was off to the dock after that. We rinsed the gear, hung it up and headed back. Mostly dry in the 3 hour commute. We were then free to pack, snack, drink, go out into Nassau for a few hours before the wine and cheese party and awards.
The next morning, 8 am, we were officially kicked off the boat and off to tour Nassau. I had not visited in over 30 years, it was an incredibly different place.
And before I forget, I especially liked the fresh killed lionfish ceviche they made, although I would have loved the opportunity to hunt a few of them myself. And I might mention one last thing – they do not feed the sharks there. The throw a triangle with bait to lure them in.
Overall, the Bahamas Aggressor delivered a week of great memories, great diving, great food and I did like the fact that they had someone awake all night. I could easily do this one again, however next stop is TnC Aggressor next summer.
Video Aggressor put together:
My best pics here:
