Eleuthera in July - Shore?

[bmorescuba]

Heading to Eleuthera for the first time for a week in July. I've been researching and I've only found 2 shops running daily boats - Valentine's and Ocean Fox. Clear Water dive shop looks like it might rent tanks. I've seen many references to shore diving, but can't find maps, sites, etc. Ocean Fox and Valentine's didn't have any info either. I'd love to just grab some tanks and head in. If anyone has tried this, can you share your experience? I hope to do Current Cut as well - sounds exciting. The price of the charter is proportional to the number of people, so I have to find 5 more before it gets anywhere near affordable. If anyone has any other Eleuthera tips, I'm all ears. Thanks!

 

[tomek77pl]

Heading to Eleuthera for the first time for a week in July. I've been researching and I've only found 2 shops running daily boats - Valentine's and Ocean Fox. Clear Water dive shop looks like it might rent tanks. I've seen many references to shore diving, but can't find maps, sites, etc. Ocean Fox and Valentine's didn't have any info either. I'd love to just grab some tanks and head in. If anyone has tried this, can you share your experience? I hope to do Current Cut as well - sounds exciting. The price of the charter is proportional to the number of people, so I have to find 5 more before it gets anywhere near affordable. If anyone has any other Eleuthera tips, I'm all ears. Thanks!

Hi, Can you provide us with some info after your trip? I will be going there in November and would love to hear what spots/shops you recommend for diving.

 

[elbig]

IIRC Valentines is on Harbor Island just North of Eleuthera. It is a rather short water taxi ride but nonetheless it needs to be factored into your plans. Ocean Fox is at the exact other end of the island. Depends on where you are staying in Eleuthera. There is really only one main road so you can't get lost but it takes quite a while to get from one end of the island to the other.

 

[bmorescuba]

We stayed in the north-middle of the island (Rainbow Bay). I made a significant effort to rent some tanks and do some dives on my own, but there was simply no one willing to do that. I went to the "dive shop" in Governnor's Harbour, but they basically had a few snorkels for sale. They gave me a charter operator's number - he said he wasn't running charters anymore. He gave me another guy's number who supposedly had tanks, but that didn't go anywhere either. So, I went up to Valentine's in Harbour Island. As stated above, just to do 2 morning dives, it meant leaving super early and getting back mid afternoon. So I only did that one day. Pretty good dives - great viz, interesting topography. The boat was big but run safely.

I opted to do a lot of snorkeling instead of doing more dives. It was not a dive trip, per se, so i had to balance the time. Snorkeling was great. If one was staying on Harbour Island, Valentine's would be convenient (or way down south for Ocean Fox).

Eleuthera was very beautiful. Here's a gallery of land, dive, and snorkel pics:

https://flic.kr/s/aHskHEBWL1