Bahamas - please help me

[mesje]

I am thinking about diving in Bahamas in November, but i would like some help:
- is november good month for diving there (visibility in the water, temperature, risk of hurrucanes)?
- which liveboard do you recommend me (big area of operations, good rates) ?
(I would prefer liveboards sailing from Nassau, because i will fly there)
- which location is better (northern bahamas, south)?
thanks

 

[diversteve]

I can't help with November since I've only been to the Bahamas in the summer but you should be ok since it's after the hurricane season.

Liveaboards from Nassau are limited. One option would be Blackbeards, Cat Ppalu or Aquacat, all owned by the same company. Different levels of service based on the price.

Seadragon also looks like they have some charters out of Nassau in Nov. Not sure if they're private or public.

Another Bahamas option might be Juliet but she sails out of Miami.

There's no Aggressor boat in the Bahamas afaik and the Caribbean Explorer 1 is retiring Nov. 1st. - it's out of Exuma anyway - and CEX2 won't be sailing out of there until Mar 2009. There's no Hughes boat (Dancer Fleet) in the Bahamas either.

And the Nekton boats are both doing the PR/St. Croix trips in November out of San Juan PR. In the summer when they do the Bahamas trips, they leave from Ft. Lauderdale. We did Cay Sal (south Bahamas) a couple years ago, it was a good trip to see big stuff - turtles, sharks, rays barracuda etc. on just about every dive.

I would contact any liveaboards you're interested in soon also as they may be all booked for November by now. Although with the price of airline tickets, maybe not...

 

[Tavi]

I always spend the last week of October and the first week of November diving Grand Bahama Island. The water temps are starting to drop at this time of year. Usually around 80f plus or minus a couple degrees.

Vis is good. The seas are becoming less predictable and sometimes we get a day that's to rough to go out (I've never done a liveaboard).

Although it's near the end of Hurricane season, I've been there twice when there was a Hurricane. Michelle, and Wilma. Each time , we couldn't dive for 2 or 3 days after, but when we did, WOW!! The wrecks weren't where we saw them last, Some had changed a lot and those little ripples in the sand at the bottom were 4 feet high and 10 feet apart!!

 

[robint]

as sjspeck said, you need to contact the liveaboards ASAP as they may be full already for the dates you want. Check out the Aquacat first. Scuba Diving Bahamas Liveboard Aqua Cat
if they don't have any spaces they can check the other boats (owned by same company).