thevalkyry
Queen of the Turtles
Greetings all! I got to head to Bimini in the Bahamas for Spring Break. It was awesome to get some blue water viz. The only drawback is that it rained... but since I figured I'm getting wet diving anyway I didnt worry too much. But I could have done without the wind though. I just bought an underwater camera and took a ton of pix. I am not that good yet, but I got some cool shots. I posted my pix here: thevalkyry's collections on Flickr
(I've got them broken into sets of bite size pieces)
I went with Mermaid Dive Charters based out of Lake Worth, FL: Welcome to Mermaid Dive Charters
Troy and Daria are way awesome people. We had a fabulous crossing over on glassy seas (although the crossing back was a bit choppy). We even got whales on the way over!! And really, it was a steal. The fee was $500 and for that I got transport to and from Bimini, entry into Bimini, lodging, meals, 6 dives, snorkeling, and air fills. After crunching the numbers on cattle boat diving out of Ft Lauderdale, you just couldnt top it. Even with the rain I had a fantastic time.
Sapona Wreck: A boat built by Henry Ford for War I that was later turned into a casino boat and sunk in a storm about 5 miles south of Bimini. It's shallow - about 20 feet - but teeming with fish and ray. Lots to see. This was pre-rain so the sun lighting everything up was just awesome.
DC3 Wreck: Bimini has an airport and there is an old DC3 that crashed into the water that they just left. It's only in about 7-10 ft of water so we just snorkelled here. But I got some cool arty shots of the half-in/half-out of the water variety. Pretty fun. But I need to learn I dont need the sea feature on in such shallow water.
The Strip: This is a short dive - good to knock off the end of your tank. It's a narrow coral reef that isnt very long, but we saw some cool wildlife including on big fat eel. Didnt get a very cool pic though because he was buried in a crevice.
Tuna Alley: This was my reward for diving in the rain: turtles!!! There was a HUGE one that had a couple of remora stuck under him that was too far away to get a photo, but I did find another one closer by
All in all a good dive.
Cat Cay, Gun Cay: Since it was raining and we needed dinner, in the afternoon I played bag lady to Troy's Great White Hunter while he rounded up conch, lobster, and schoolmaster. We ate like QUEENS!!!
Rainbow Reef: We went on a night dive to Rainbow Reef. I didnt get any pix, but after night diving in Coz, I was kind of disappointed with the single octopus and skinny eel we found. Although I did find a hermit crab who squared up and looked like he was willing to do battle with me I wont say it was a bad dive, but I wish more had been out.
Bimini Barge: Very cool dive. It's about 85' deep and the water was just a gorgeous blue with viz all the way down. We passed some baracuda on the descent and then clowned around taking pix. I also found a lion fish - his back was too me, but since he's poisonous I decided not to poke him into turning around
Road to Atlantis: Seeing the stones was very cool as this was something I had only heard about. Lots of critters under the ledges, but I didnt get very many pix as it was hard to get good angles. Also, this place had major surge. I wouldnt recommend this dive in any kind of wind unless you like the sensation of diving as if you were in a hammock. I hadnt experienced it before, but I kind of liked it. I just locked in my buouyancy and went with it, but we had one girl call the dive when she was getting tossed about. It's very shallow too, but luckily the surge was causing more of a horizontal motion rather than a vertical one so I didnt feel like I was going to get slammed into the rocks or anything.
All in all a great trip. I totally want to dive with Troy and Daria again. They are awesome. And there are a ton of places in Bimini to go that I havent been to yet. I would go back for sure.
Joe Bob says Check it out.
(I've got them broken into sets of bite size pieces)
I went with Mermaid Dive Charters based out of Lake Worth, FL: Welcome to Mermaid Dive Charters
Troy and Daria are way awesome people. We had a fabulous crossing over on glassy seas (although the crossing back was a bit choppy). We even got whales on the way over!! And really, it was a steal. The fee was $500 and for that I got transport to and from Bimini, entry into Bimini, lodging, meals, 6 dives, snorkeling, and air fills. After crunching the numbers on cattle boat diving out of Ft Lauderdale, you just couldnt top it. Even with the rain I had a fantastic time.
Sapona Wreck: A boat built by Henry Ford for War I that was later turned into a casino boat and sunk in a storm about 5 miles south of Bimini. It's shallow - about 20 feet - but teeming with fish and ray. Lots to see. This was pre-rain so the sun lighting everything up was just awesome.
DC3 Wreck: Bimini has an airport and there is an old DC3 that crashed into the water that they just left. It's only in about 7-10 ft of water so we just snorkelled here. But I got some cool arty shots of the half-in/half-out of the water variety. Pretty fun. But I need to learn I dont need the sea feature on in such shallow water.
The Strip: This is a short dive - good to knock off the end of your tank. It's a narrow coral reef that isnt very long, but we saw some cool wildlife including on big fat eel. Didnt get a very cool pic though because he was buried in a crevice.
Tuna Alley: This was my reward for diving in the rain: turtles!!! There was a HUGE one that had a couple of remora stuck under him that was too far away to get a photo, but I did find another one closer by
All in all a good dive.Cat Cay, Gun Cay: Since it was raining and we needed dinner, in the afternoon I played bag lady to Troy's Great White Hunter while he rounded up conch, lobster, and schoolmaster. We ate like QUEENS!!!
Rainbow Reef: We went on a night dive to Rainbow Reef. I didnt get any pix, but after night diving in Coz, I was kind of disappointed with the single octopus and skinny eel we found. Although I did find a hermit crab who squared up and looked like he was willing to do battle with me
I wont say it was a bad dive, but I wish more had been out.Bimini Barge: Very cool dive. It's about 85' deep and the water was just a gorgeous blue with viz all the way down. We passed some baracuda on the descent and then clowned around taking pix. I also found a lion fish - his back was too me, but since he's poisonous I decided not to poke him into turning around
Road to Atlantis: Seeing the stones was very cool as this was something I had only heard about. Lots of critters under the ledges, but I didnt get very many pix as it was hard to get good angles. Also, this place had major surge. I wouldnt recommend this dive in any kind of wind unless you like the sensation of diving as if you were in a hammock. I hadnt experienced it before, but I kind of liked it. I just locked in my buouyancy and went with it, but we had one girl call the dive when she was getting tossed about. It's very shallow too, but luckily the surge was causing more of a horizontal motion rather than a vertical one so I didnt feel like I was going to get slammed into the rocks or anything.
All in all a great trip. I totally want to dive with Troy and Daria again. They are awesome. And there are a ton of places in Bimini to go that I havent been to yet. I would go back for sure.
Joe Bob says Check it out.
