We finally got our trip to Bermuda, and it was fantastic! This was a reschedule from '20, and long overdue. It was just my wife (the snorkeler) and I, so it was not a dive vacation, but a vacation with a 2 tank morning dive trip. We flew out of Boston Saturday morning for the 2 hour direct flight on JetBlue. The flight was very smooth. A little "small world" aside, the gentleman in the seat next to me was going to Bermuda to fix up a family home, probably to put on the market. His father was American, but his mom was Bermudian, which gave him dual citizenship. For brevity, he married a woman from New Hampshire who turned out to be a high school class mate of my wife's. He grew up in Columbus, OH, and I grew up in Southwest OH (the Little Kentucky area of OH.) So, needless to say, we had a lot of common ground to talk about.
Back to our regularly scheduled program. We were staying on the west end of the island, and a 3 minute walk from Blue Water Divers, one of the two dive ops that seem to be left in Bermuda. I had prebooked both a snorkel trip with them for Sunday and a morning dive trip for Wednesday simply due to location. They had engine problems that caused them to cancel both trips, so we booked with Dive Bermuda Grotto Bay, towards the East end of the island, for a Wednesday morning dive and Wednesday afternoon snorkel trip.
The morning 2 tank dive trips tend to start on a wreck, then move to a shallow reef. AL 80's were all I saw, no DIN valves, and no Nitrox. The dives are guided, though it appears that you can go without if you have dived enough times with them, but there will need to be 2 divers meeting the criteria as I didn't get the impression that solo was allowed by the op. There were 12 divers on the boat that morning, two of whom were diving without a guide, and 3 guides, which made for 3-4 divers per guide. I was teamed with a Swedish guide, a gentleman from Quebec, Canada, and a gentleman from Kent, England, who had just finished his 100th dive of the year (around 600 total over the last six years). All the divers seemed very laid back and respectful of everyone else, which was nice.
Our first dive was the wreck of the Niobe Corinthian, which is the newest Bermuda wreck, sunk in 2017. The wreck maxed out around 60'. There was not a lot of coral growth on the ship yet, due to how recently it was sunk. As for fish, there was a wide variety, but no real schools. However, the fish that were there tended to be large. There were some large parrotfish, good sized grunts, and two of the largest barracuda I've seen in a long time. As for smaller fish, your typical ones, but not in large numbers. The wreck itself was a nice, stripped wreck, sitting upright. We did limited penetration with a lot of natural light coming through the large window openings. Overall visibility for both dives was diminished to around 60' due to a tropical storm coming through 3 nights earlier, but the vis was still good.
My stats on this dive were 56', 43 minutes and a temp of 76 degrees. The Brit in the group had warned us that he may go through air quickly (fit, but barrel chested man), so that might be why we ended then. I was at 800 psi when we surfaced. I was thankful that I had brought my 5mm wetsuit.
The second dive was at North Rock, which is the remnants of an island that the US shelled out of existence during WW2 to keep the Germans from using it. It has turned into a wonderful system of shallow reefs sitting in sand flats. The reefs are absolutely fantastic, with a combo of soft and hard coral. Beautiful purple sea fans were everywhere. We dropped down to the sand between a couple of reef structures that were about 30' apart from each other. Hanna, our guide, stirred up the sand with her fingers, and we were quickly joined by a couple of puddingwifes that became our mascots for most of the dive. Again, not very fishy overall, though I did turn around at the end of a swim through to spot a massive margate tucked into some of the rocks.
Stats for this dive were 29', 57 minutes an a temp of 75 degrees.
The snorkel trip that afternoon took us back to North Rock for a combined snorkel/new diver (their students) excursion. This is first combo trip I've ever been on that was not a compromise for one group or the other. The top of the reef made for excellent snorkeling with parrotfish, small trumpet fish, damselfish, angels, etc.
Overall, it was a trip that I would do again. The Brit that I was diving with was staying at the resort where Dive Bermuda is located (they are not affiliated) and was diving every morning for his 14 day stay, but this would add up the dollars quickly at $175.00 a trip. There doesn't seem to be anyone left on the island that rents tanks for shore diving, or diving off of someones boat, but I could be wrong.
As for east vs west, I may have to dive the West end with Blue Water Divers next time just to compare (and hedge it with a trip with Dive Bermuda, as well). @tridacna says that the East is the place to dive. Unfortunately, conditions were still too rough to dive Cathedral.
Ok @drrich2 , hit me with your questions!
Erik
Back to our regularly scheduled program. We were staying on the west end of the island, and a 3 minute walk from Blue Water Divers, one of the two dive ops that seem to be left in Bermuda. I had prebooked both a snorkel trip with them for Sunday and a morning dive trip for Wednesday simply due to location. They had engine problems that caused them to cancel both trips, so we booked with Dive Bermuda Grotto Bay, towards the East end of the island, for a Wednesday morning dive and Wednesday afternoon snorkel trip.
The morning 2 tank dive trips tend to start on a wreck, then move to a shallow reef. AL 80's were all I saw, no DIN valves, and no Nitrox. The dives are guided, though it appears that you can go without if you have dived enough times with them, but there will need to be 2 divers meeting the criteria as I didn't get the impression that solo was allowed by the op. There were 12 divers on the boat that morning, two of whom were diving without a guide, and 3 guides, which made for 3-4 divers per guide. I was teamed with a Swedish guide, a gentleman from Quebec, Canada, and a gentleman from Kent, England, who had just finished his 100th dive of the year (around 600 total over the last six years). All the divers seemed very laid back and respectful of everyone else, which was nice.
Our first dive was the wreck of the Niobe Corinthian, which is the newest Bermuda wreck, sunk in 2017. The wreck maxed out around 60'. There was not a lot of coral growth on the ship yet, due to how recently it was sunk. As for fish, there was a wide variety, but no real schools. However, the fish that were there tended to be large. There were some large parrotfish, good sized grunts, and two of the largest barracuda I've seen in a long time. As for smaller fish, your typical ones, but not in large numbers. The wreck itself was a nice, stripped wreck, sitting upright. We did limited penetration with a lot of natural light coming through the large window openings. Overall visibility for both dives was diminished to around 60' due to a tropical storm coming through 3 nights earlier, but the vis was still good.
My stats on this dive were 56', 43 minutes and a temp of 76 degrees. The Brit in the group had warned us that he may go through air quickly (fit, but barrel chested man), so that might be why we ended then. I was at 800 psi when we surfaced. I was thankful that I had brought my 5mm wetsuit.
The second dive was at North Rock, which is the remnants of an island that the US shelled out of existence during WW2 to keep the Germans from using it. It has turned into a wonderful system of shallow reefs sitting in sand flats. The reefs are absolutely fantastic, with a combo of soft and hard coral. Beautiful purple sea fans were everywhere. We dropped down to the sand between a couple of reef structures that were about 30' apart from each other. Hanna, our guide, stirred up the sand with her fingers, and we were quickly joined by a couple of puddingwifes that became our mascots for most of the dive. Again, not very fishy overall, though I did turn around at the end of a swim through to spot a massive margate tucked into some of the rocks.
Stats for this dive were 29', 57 minutes an a temp of 75 degrees.
The snorkel trip that afternoon took us back to North Rock for a combined snorkel/new diver (their students) excursion. This is first combo trip I've ever been on that was not a compromise for one group or the other. The top of the reef made for excellent snorkeling with parrotfish, small trumpet fish, damselfish, angels, etc.
Overall, it was a trip that I would do again. The Brit that I was diving with was staying at the resort where Dive Bermuda is located (they are not affiliated) and was diving every morning for his 14 day stay, but this would add up the dollars quickly at $175.00 a trip. There doesn't seem to be anyone left on the island that rents tanks for shore diving, or diving off of someones boat, but I could be wrong.
As for east vs west, I may have to dive the West end with Blue Water Divers next time just to compare (and hedge it with a trip with Dive Bermuda, as well). @tridacna says that the East is the place to dive. Unfortunately, conditions were still too rough to dive Cathedral.
Ok @drrich2 , hit me with your questions!
Erik
