Trip report CEX1, Dec 22-29, 2007
Getting there:
We flew in a day early, and while our luggage was delayed it came in the same day. The crew member who came in the next day (Sat) was not as lucky, so the boat stayed at dock until almost 9AM on Sunday before his luggage arrived.
The boat:
The boat is older, but is in very good condition. Our room was a bit hot, since we were on the upper deck, and passengers on the lower deck said their rooms were cold. We were lucky that we only had eight divers and the crew onboard, I could not image being onboard with a full boat of 18 divers, which is what they had the following week. The food was very good, and the crew was great.
The weather:
The weather was very nice, mid to high 70’s, and water temperature was in the high 70’s, we had a little rain, and the wind seems to always be blowing, just harder some days than others. The sea was rough enough that my wife was sea sick the first day, and the crew said it was calm compared to the previous week, when it had rained for four days.
The diving:
We had purchased 5mm wetsuits after reading about diving in the Bahamas during the winter, but ended up using our 3mm wetsuits because the 5mm were too warm, and stiff. The visibility was a bit hazy, probably due to the rough weather and rain the previous week, but was still about 80 ft. We did three dives the first day due to getting off the dock late, and the time it took to transit to Conception Island. The first day was the only day we did the night dive, since the other days we did the four early dives, and then we chose to enjoy our beverages of choice with dinner. We spent several days at San Salvador Island, and stopped at Conception Island and Long Island on the return trip to Grand Exuma.
Most dives were deep, and we had to watch that we did not exceed our 110 ft limit, since we were both diving using Nitrox. The swim through at “Blow Hole” was fun, and the condition of the coral, sponges, and sea life was very good at all the dive locations. We saw several lion fish, rays, hammer head sharks, nurse sharks, reef sharks, turtles, barracuda, crabs, lobster, and numerous other typical Caribbean fish, but only one green moray eel (but he was big).
My wife took pictures with her Oly SP-350 (I’ve made an attempt to post some in the gallery, but looks like only one photo made it), and I took video with my Sony A1U, but don’t know when I’ll get to work on the video since my gear is all in TX and I’m on the road working in WA for an unknown duration.
Summary:
The last night we all took the trip over to Stocking Island and had dinner at St Francis Resort, which was very nice. If you are planning on taking this trip, I would check there to see if you can get a room the day before, and maybe a day after. We stayed at Peace and Plenty, which was nice, but not on a Friday night because they have a party that goes very late and there is no “peace” that night, but “plenty” of noise.
Would I go again? Maybe, but since my wife is my dive buddy an she got sea sick, even using the “patch” and pills which had worked for her on previous day boats and cruises, I don’t know if I could talk her into going on a single hull liveaboard boat again. Maybe on a Nekton type boat…., but she is talking land based for our next trip right now. This was our first liveaboard experience, and I really enjoyed it myself, but don’t know if I would have enjoyed the trip if the boat had been full, or the sea rough.
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