Just returned back from my stay in the Bahamas where I spent time on CEX 1 (Nov 11 till 18). Had decided to spend the night before the boat trip in Nassau rather than Georgetown because there are direct flights from the UK to Nassau, there is a better selection of hotels in Nassau and I knew someone who lived in Nassau!
Arrived into Nassau on time and waited for immigration, which was moving very slowly. At immigration I got quite a bit of a grilling about my intentions of visiting the Bahamas. Then collected my bags and proceeded to pick up my tickets from Sky Bahamas (to fly from Nassau to Georgetown). I had called a few days earlier to make a reservation with Sky Bahamas, but they had no record of my booking. Didn't matter anyway as they had seat available and got my tickets.
I was spending the evening at the Wyndham on Cable beach. The hotel was pretty nice, nothing special, but I only wanted a bed for the night. The room was of a decent size (two queen size beds) and had sea view room. Spent the evening at Atlantis, had dinner with an old university friend who lives in Nassau. It was a pleasant evening. Next day spent the morning on the beach and the afternoon walking around town. The Wyndham does offer Wi-fi but they were charging a way over the top $15 an hour (plus 15% service charge)!! I was able to pick up a local wifi cafe which were offering it for a bit more reasonable (but in my view still expensive) $6 an hour.
Went to the airport and flew over to Georgetown at around 16.00. The flight was on time, it was a small plane, about a 19 seater. Everything went smoothly and arrived into Georgetown at 16.40. There was supposed to be a taxi waiting to take me to the marina, but that didn't seem to be the case. Another cabbie offered to call CEX 1 and I was told to jump into any cab and come to the marina. Cost was $25 and it took about 20 minutes.
The boat had already left the marina due to the tide and I was picked up by dingy. From the outside the boat does not look anything special (the boat was built in 1972). I was shown to my cabin, which was in the lower deck. Set up re cabins was a queen bed and then a single bed on top. There was also a sink with and a wardrobe and a few drawers. In the below cabin there were two share bathrooms. It was not luxurious (but wasn't expecting such), but at the same time it did not feel cramped. I would say it was comfortable.
Below deck had six bedrooms and two share bathrooms, along with the engine room. The main deck was where the saloon was. This is included the kitchen, seating area for food, a TV with DVD player and books. The dive deck was outside on the main floor. There was also two showers and a toilet along with a camera table and a battery charging table. Up top was the sun deck, a covered seating area, a sink, the drink fridge and the state rooms (I.e. rooms with their own bathrooms). Overall a comfortable set up with more than enough room, I never felt cramped.
After being shown my room and leaving my bags I set up my kit. I had hired my kit from the boat, it all seemed fine to me (and was) . We were assigned a tank each and there was room below to keep our fins, mask, etc. I was then shown around the boat.
The crew consisted of the skipper, the cook/purser, the engineer and three deck hands. All were divers and the deck hands were also dive masters and dive instructors. In terms of passengers there were four couples (all in the state rooms), two friends who knew each other and the rest (like me), had come on their own (five of us had come on our own). Many passengers had dived with the company before (but not necessarily this route). Also the vast majority of the pax were American. I was the youngest pax by a long way. Even the people who had come on their own had wives/husbands back home. I ended up sharing a room with someone and along with the two friends who knew each other we were the only ones down below who had to share a room. The other three single pax had their own rooms. However sharing the room was no problem, did not have any issues with the person I shared with.
Once the kit was sorted and everyone had settled in, we had dinner. This was also a good chance to chat to the other pax and the crew. After dinner the skipper gave his briefing. This dealt with an introduction of the crew, safety briefing, rough itinerary, rough dive schedule and other bits of useful information.
The crew were fantastic. They worked very hard to make sure we had to do as little as possible. They were always friendly and approachable. They were always on hand to give advice on diving technique, trying to work out what we had seen on our dives and general chat and joking around. I had a slight overweighting issue, and the crew were great in showing me the best way to get my correct weight, they spent time helping me to sort out working out my correct weighting.
The food was also great. I'm a vegetarian and was expecting to have a limited selection of food, however the cook went to great effort re everyone and especially us fussy eaters. There was always a cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner and in between dives there were snacks. The cook was quite adventurous in her cooking, which turned out very well.
The next day was the start of our diving, we left Georgetown at about 4am to reach our first location. The normal schedule for the majority of days was breakfast, dive 1, surface break and snack, dive 2, surface break and lunch, dive 3, surface break and snack, dive 4, surface break and dinner, dive 5 (night dive), hot chocolate break. Before each dive there would be a dive brief about the dive site. You had the option of diving with one of the crew or sorting out your own buddy. I dove with the crew a few times initially (as I was a bit less experienced than the rest of the pax) and then I dove with a buddy (basically my room mate) for the rest of the dives. The set up was dive 1 and 2 would be in the same location, then the boat would move. Dives 3,4 and 5 would also be the same location. The dive sites were around Long island, Conception island and San Salvador. There was a total of a possible 27 dives (on the last day you do only two morning dives, one at dawn and one after breakfast). One dive was cancelled due to a long transit from Conception island to San Salvador (bad weather meant the boat had to go a bit slower than usual).
The diving itself was mainly wall diving and general coral swims. We did do one wreck dive off Long island. The water temp was a constant 27 Celsius and vis was very very good, about 20 metres on most dives. Max depth was about 30 metres and max bottom time was 70 minutes. Generally there were no currents, a few dives had a bit of a current, but nothing too hard.
In general the diving was great. There were loads of juvenile fish and the coral formations were amazing. I loved the drop offs and just seeing the walls. It was fantastic swimming from the boat over to the walls and seeing the size of them. Did not see many big fish apart from a few groupers and barracuda. I personally did not see any sharks on the dives (there was one swimming while we were on the boat), but others saw a nurse shark. I'm not going to bother to list all my dives and locations, unless someone wants me to (in which case I'll be more than happy to).
In between dives we would log dives, read a bit and chat or just chill out on the sun deck. There were also snacks always provided during the surface breaks. Also while on the trip I decided to go ahead with the Nitrox course. One of the dive crew helped me along the way (however the course was not too challenging).
During the trip we had an option of going to San Salvador, which I decided to take. It did mean missing a dive, but I think the trip was well worth it. It was a nice 3 hour drive around the island with a tour guide. Got to see the Columbus site, the lighthouse and got a general walk around. It is a lovely little island and one day would be nice for a holiday.
On the Friday we got our two morning dives and then it was time to clean our kit and relax. We arrived back at Georgetown early afternoon. The rest of the Friday involved a stroll around town and a few beers. I also got a wifi card which extended out to the boat at a bargain price of $5 for 24 hours. In the evening went of dinner at Peace & Plenty and had many drinks (those rum punches were very strong!!) Bumped into a couple who were going to be on the boat for the next week, so had a chat with them. Some of the crew were out, so had several drinks with them and generally unwound.
Flight back to Nassau on Saturday was not until 17.00, which meant the whole day in Georgetown. Luckily I was not the only one leaving until then, so I had a bit of company. We had to leave the boat first thing in the morning (but could leave our bags on board). The day consisted of having a walk around the town, sitting at Peace and Plenty having a coffee and then sitting at the cafe near the boat for lunch. Was glad I had the wifi connection and the cafe had decent food. The couple from the previous night joined us for lunch. All in all it was a pretty boring day. Left for the airport two hours before the flight, and had another long wait at the airport. The flight was delayed, but made up time with the super fast turn around. Arrived into Nassau, checked in my bags to the BA flight and met my university friend for dinner. In retrospect I would have left Georgetown earlier in the day and spent it in Nassau (i.e. visiting Atlantis).
So that is the end of my trip report. Overall it was a great, relaxing time with lots of diving. The weather was faultless. We had a day or two of slightly rocky seas, but nothing too bad. It rained a total of about 30 minutes during the week and for the majority of the time the sun was out.
I hope you enjoyed this report.
Arrived into Nassau on time and waited for immigration, which was moving very slowly. At immigration I got quite a bit of a grilling about my intentions of visiting the Bahamas. Then collected my bags and proceeded to pick up my tickets from Sky Bahamas (to fly from Nassau to Georgetown). I had called a few days earlier to make a reservation with Sky Bahamas, but they had no record of my booking. Didn't matter anyway as they had seat available and got my tickets.
I was spending the evening at the Wyndham on Cable beach. The hotel was pretty nice, nothing special, but I only wanted a bed for the night. The room was of a decent size (two queen size beds) and had sea view room. Spent the evening at Atlantis, had dinner with an old university friend who lives in Nassau. It was a pleasant evening. Next day spent the morning on the beach and the afternoon walking around town. The Wyndham does offer Wi-fi but they were charging a way over the top $15 an hour (plus 15% service charge)!! I was able to pick up a local wifi cafe which were offering it for a bit more reasonable (but in my view still expensive) $6 an hour.
Went to the airport and flew over to Georgetown at around 16.00. The flight was on time, it was a small plane, about a 19 seater. Everything went smoothly and arrived into Georgetown at 16.40. There was supposed to be a taxi waiting to take me to the marina, but that didn't seem to be the case. Another cabbie offered to call CEX 1 and I was told to jump into any cab and come to the marina. Cost was $25 and it took about 20 minutes.
The boat had already left the marina due to the tide and I was picked up by dingy. From the outside the boat does not look anything special (the boat was built in 1972). I was shown to my cabin, which was in the lower deck. Set up re cabins was a queen bed and then a single bed on top. There was also a sink with and a wardrobe and a few drawers. In the below cabin there were two share bathrooms. It was not luxurious (but wasn't expecting such), but at the same time it did not feel cramped. I would say it was comfortable.
Below deck had six bedrooms and two share bathrooms, along with the engine room. The main deck was where the saloon was. This is included the kitchen, seating area for food, a TV with DVD player and books. The dive deck was outside on the main floor. There was also two showers and a toilet along with a camera table and a battery charging table. Up top was the sun deck, a covered seating area, a sink, the drink fridge and the state rooms (I.e. rooms with their own bathrooms). Overall a comfortable set up with more than enough room, I never felt cramped.
After being shown my room and leaving my bags I set up my kit. I had hired my kit from the boat, it all seemed fine to me (and was) . We were assigned a tank each and there was room below to keep our fins, mask, etc. I was then shown around the boat.
The crew consisted of the skipper, the cook/purser, the engineer and three deck hands. All were divers and the deck hands were also dive masters and dive instructors. In terms of passengers there were four couples (all in the state rooms), two friends who knew each other and the rest (like me), had come on their own (five of us had come on our own). Many passengers had dived with the company before (but not necessarily this route). Also the vast majority of the pax were American. I was the youngest pax by a long way. Even the people who had come on their own had wives/husbands back home. I ended up sharing a room with someone and along with the two friends who knew each other we were the only ones down below who had to share a room. The other three single pax had their own rooms. However sharing the room was no problem, did not have any issues with the person I shared with.
Once the kit was sorted and everyone had settled in, we had dinner. This was also a good chance to chat to the other pax and the crew. After dinner the skipper gave his briefing. This dealt with an introduction of the crew, safety briefing, rough itinerary, rough dive schedule and other bits of useful information.
The crew were fantastic. They worked very hard to make sure we had to do as little as possible. They were always friendly and approachable. They were always on hand to give advice on diving technique, trying to work out what we had seen on our dives and general chat and joking around. I had a slight overweighting issue, and the crew were great in showing me the best way to get my correct weight, they spent time helping me to sort out working out my correct weighting.
The food was also great. I'm a vegetarian and was expecting to have a limited selection of food, however the cook went to great effort re everyone and especially us fussy eaters. There was always a cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner and in between dives there were snacks. The cook was quite adventurous in her cooking, which turned out very well.
The next day was the start of our diving, we left Georgetown at about 4am to reach our first location. The normal schedule for the majority of days was breakfast, dive 1, surface break and snack, dive 2, surface break and lunch, dive 3, surface break and snack, dive 4, surface break and dinner, dive 5 (night dive), hot chocolate break. Before each dive there would be a dive brief about the dive site. You had the option of diving with one of the crew or sorting out your own buddy. I dove with the crew a few times initially (as I was a bit less experienced than the rest of the pax) and then I dove with a buddy (basically my room mate) for the rest of the dives. The set up was dive 1 and 2 would be in the same location, then the boat would move. Dives 3,4 and 5 would also be the same location. The dive sites were around Long island, Conception island and San Salvador. There was a total of a possible 27 dives (on the last day you do only two morning dives, one at dawn and one after breakfast). One dive was cancelled due to a long transit from Conception island to San Salvador (bad weather meant the boat had to go a bit slower than usual).
The diving itself was mainly wall diving and general coral swims. We did do one wreck dive off Long island. The water temp was a constant 27 Celsius and vis was very very good, about 20 metres on most dives. Max depth was about 30 metres and max bottom time was 70 minutes. Generally there were no currents, a few dives had a bit of a current, but nothing too hard.
In general the diving was great. There were loads of juvenile fish and the coral formations were amazing. I loved the drop offs and just seeing the walls. It was fantastic swimming from the boat over to the walls and seeing the size of them. Did not see many big fish apart from a few groupers and barracuda. I personally did not see any sharks on the dives (there was one swimming while we were on the boat), but others saw a nurse shark. I'm not going to bother to list all my dives and locations, unless someone wants me to (in which case I'll be more than happy to).
In between dives we would log dives, read a bit and chat or just chill out on the sun deck. There were also snacks always provided during the surface breaks. Also while on the trip I decided to go ahead with the Nitrox course. One of the dive crew helped me along the way (however the course was not too challenging).
During the trip we had an option of going to San Salvador, which I decided to take. It did mean missing a dive, but I think the trip was well worth it. It was a nice 3 hour drive around the island with a tour guide. Got to see the Columbus site, the lighthouse and got a general walk around. It is a lovely little island and one day would be nice for a holiday.
On the Friday we got our two morning dives and then it was time to clean our kit and relax. We arrived back at Georgetown early afternoon. The rest of the Friday involved a stroll around town and a few beers. I also got a wifi card which extended out to the boat at a bargain price of $5 for 24 hours. In the evening went of dinner at Peace & Plenty and had many drinks (those rum punches were very strong!!) Bumped into a couple who were going to be on the boat for the next week, so had a chat with them. Some of the crew were out, so had several drinks with them and generally unwound.
Flight back to Nassau on Saturday was not until 17.00, which meant the whole day in Georgetown. Luckily I was not the only one leaving until then, so I had a bit of company. We had to leave the boat first thing in the morning (but could leave our bags on board). The day consisted of having a walk around the town, sitting at Peace and Plenty having a coffee and then sitting at the cafe near the boat for lunch. Was glad I had the wifi connection and the cafe had decent food. The couple from the previous night joined us for lunch. All in all it was a pretty boring day. Left for the airport two hours before the flight, and had another long wait at the airport. The flight was delayed, but made up time with the super fast turn around. Arrived into Nassau, checked in my bags to the BA flight and met my university friend for dinner. In retrospect I would have left Georgetown earlier in the day and spent it in Nassau (i.e. visiting Atlantis).
So that is the end of my trip report. Overall it was a great, relaxing time with lots of diving. The weather was faultless. We had a day or two of slightly rocky seas, but nothing too bad. It rained a total of about 30 minutes during the week and for the majority of the time the sun was out.
I hope you enjoyed this report.
