teknitroxdiver
Contributor
Well, some people asked for a review of Cat Island, Bahamas, so here it is:
We departed Lakeland, FL last Wednesday in a private aircraft and flew to Marsh Harbour, to clear customs into the Bahamas. After a short stop we took off again and headed on down to Hawks Nest on Cat Island. Ahhh, paradise at last! Off we went to the main office, where we met JR and ____ (sorry, I forgot her name.... :
) who got us checked in and took our C-card info. After we got all that done, then: "Are yall ready to go to a get together tonight?" Da-whuh? Turns out the owner was flying in as well that afternoon and there was a party at one of the houses on the island. Amazing place (Top Cat, if you ever end up on the island), they had a smoker which they used to smoke fresh tuna, and fried some shrimp, and some hot wings....oh man that was some seriously good food. (As you can tell, this will not be a diving-specific review....)
So after that I managed to stay awake long enough to move my dive gear from suitcase configuration to boat-bag configuration. Next morning, breakfast starts at 8, (I suggest the Bahamian French Toast) but the boat doesn't leave until 10, so plenty of time to sleep in. (The late time is because the DMs also have to help run the resort) Off to the boat. To get to the boat, they pick you up in a Suburban and drive about 1/4 mile to the marina (this is not 'marina' in the normal sense...they own it, 28 slip, very nice). The boat is a 6-pack with narrow benches on each side, with a long stretch of tank racks in the middle (a board on the floor with circles in it and bungees attached to a stainless rail). It's....cozy. 200HP motor on a smallish boat, however...it moves along. And most sites are within minutes.
This is mostly DIY diving, except they already have the tanks on the boat. Entry is a backroll off the side. First site was a 115' wall dive. Very cool, my first wall dive. I had started out just using the same amount of weight I always do, 10#, and at the end of the dive discovered I was waaay heavy in my new bp/w. I ended up getting down to no weight other than the 5# backplate...awesome!
The second dive was a shallow dive toward the beach, also very cool.
Lunch orders are radioed in from the boat (the "Padi Wagon") since you're in a bit late. They've got a little lattice-wall room where you can rinse and hang your gear.
Afternoons, you can do whatever you want. Their website tells enough about that....oh, they have free wifi which reaches down to the beach...
Next day was a wall dive through coral tunnels, followed by a shallower dive where an interesting shark encounter occurred (Look in the Shark forum for my thread about it). Later that afternoon, some 'technical' divers arrived at the marina in their 54' Hatteras, and came up to resort for a bit. Total strokes (and if you know me, it is few and far between that I use that word). Deep air to 250' on independent doubles with a single back-mounted deco bottle. Not to mention the women doing those same depths on a SINGLE 100 with not even an H-valve. But don't get me going again on that....
All in all, a great place with good diving, I highly recommend it.
Cat Island relative to Florida: http://tinyurl.com/a93e6
Hawks Nest website: www.hawks-nest.com
Beach from the back porch: http://tinyurl.com/8kdyx
The main eating/socializing area: http://tinyurl.com/7vgso
Our mighty chariot: http://tinyurl.com/e4pxv
Path to the rooms: http://tinyurl.com/9oy8w
Approaching Hawks Nest: http://tinyurl.com/argsp
Nice shoreline: http://tinyurl.com/acue8
Inside the main room: http://tinyurl.com/7koe9
Hovering over the abyss: http://tinyurl.com/cngwn
Showing off my BP/W: http://tinyurl.com/74aqr
Sigh...home again: http://tinyurl.com/ced3x
We departed Lakeland, FL last Wednesday in a private aircraft and flew to Marsh Harbour, to clear customs into the Bahamas. After a short stop we took off again and headed on down to Hawks Nest on Cat Island. Ahhh, paradise at last! Off we went to the main office, where we met JR and ____ (sorry, I forgot her name.... :
) who got us checked in and took our C-card info. After we got all that done, then: "Are yall ready to go to a get together tonight?" Da-whuh? Turns out the owner was flying in as well that afternoon and there was a party at one of the houses on the island. Amazing place (Top Cat, if you ever end up on the island), they had a smoker which they used to smoke fresh tuna, and fried some shrimp, and some hot wings....oh man that was some seriously good food. (As you can tell, this will not be a diving-specific review....)So after that I managed to stay awake long enough to move my dive gear from suitcase configuration to boat-bag configuration. Next morning, breakfast starts at 8, (I suggest the Bahamian French Toast) but the boat doesn't leave until 10, so plenty of time to sleep in. (The late time is because the DMs also have to help run the resort) Off to the boat. To get to the boat, they pick you up in a Suburban and drive about 1/4 mile to the marina (this is not 'marina' in the normal sense...they own it, 28 slip, very nice). The boat is a 6-pack with narrow benches on each side, with a long stretch of tank racks in the middle (a board on the floor with circles in it and bungees attached to a stainless rail). It's....cozy. 200HP motor on a smallish boat, however...it moves along. And most sites are within minutes.
This is mostly DIY diving, except they already have the tanks on the boat. Entry is a backroll off the side. First site was a 115' wall dive. Very cool, my first wall dive. I had started out just using the same amount of weight I always do, 10#, and at the end of the dive discovered I was waaay heavy in my new bp/w. I ended up getting down to no weight other than the 5# backplate...awesome!
The second dive was a shallow dive toward the beach, also very cool.
Lunch orders are radioed in from the boat (the "Padi Wagon") since you're in a bit late. They've got a little lattice-wall room where you can rinse and hang your gear.
Afternoons, you can do whatever you want. Their website tells enough about that....oh, they have free wifi which reaches down to the beach...
Next day was a wall dive through coral tunnels, followed by a shallower dive where an interesting shark encounter occurred (Look in the Shark forum for my thread about it). Later that afternoon, some 'technical' divers arrived at the marina in their 54' Hatteras, and came up to resort for a bit. Total strokes (and if you know me, it is few and far between that I use that word). Deep air to 250' on independent doubles with a single back-mounted deco bottle. Not to mention the women doing those same depths on a SINGLE 100 with not even an H-valve. But don't get me going again on that....
All in all, a great place with good diving, I highly recommend it.
Cat Island relative to Florida: http://tinyurl.com/a93e6
Hawks Nest website: www.hawks-nest.com
Beach from the back porch: http://tinyurl.com/8kdyx
The main eating/socializing area: http://tinyurl.com/7vgso
Our mighty chariot: http://tinyurl.com/e4pxv
Path to the rooms: http://tinyurl.com/9oy8w
Approaching Hawks Nest: http://tinyurl.com/argsp
Nice shoreline: http://tinyurl.com/acue8
Inside the main room: http://tinyurl.com/7koe9
Hovering over the abyss: http://tinyurl.com/cngwn
Showing off my BP/W: http://tinyurl.com/74aqr
Sigh...home again: http://tinyurl.com/ced3x
