Finally-our blackbeard's trip review! Part 1

[cindy0519]

Blackbeard’s Cruise – Weekend Trip
Date: October 8 to October 12, 2004
Location: Bimini Bahamas

This was our first liveaboard dive experience and we had read quite a bit about Blackbeard’s prior to booking the trip so we felt we were prepared for the experience of “camping at sea”. We (my husband, my sister and I) are all three relative “newbie’s” – DH and I having logged about 25 dives and my sister having logged 12 or so dives prior to departing for this trip. In anticipation of this trip, we completed our AOW about a month or so prior to the trip in the cold waters of an Ohio quarry.

The trip was originally scheduled for September 17 to September 22 but was cancelled due to hurricane Jeanne blowing around in the area of the Bahamas that weekend. Blackbeard’s did a great job of keeping us informed during the process of making the “go” or “no go” decision related to the and was very helpful and accommodating in getting the trip rescheduled.

After three weeks of having packed luggage sitting in our dining room waiting for the weather to cooperate, we arrived at the Miami airport on Friday Oct 8 at 3:00 p.m., gathered our luggage and headed off to Blackbeard’s docks at Bayside via taxi. One bit of advise for those traveling with more than two people – if you need a van or something larger than a regular taxi cab, it may be wise to make arrangements ahead of time as it took us some time at the airport to get a SUV or van to transport the three of us, 3 duffle bags and 3 gear bags to the dock. The taxi driver assured us that he knew where Blackbeard’s was located and after about 20 minutes we arrive at a small pirate ship that is docked at the other end of Bayside and apparently used for tours of Miami harbor. Knowing this was the wrong location despite the instance of the taxi driver that we were at the right place; we called Blackbeard’s and discovered that we just needed to go around to the opposite end of the dock at Pier 5. Total cost of the cab from the airport to the dock was a flat fee $28.00 plus tip as was clearly posted in the taxi. Upon arrival at the correct dock we were greeted by a member of the Blackbeard’s staff, told our trip would be aboard the Morning Star and informed that the crew was still preparing the boat for the trip. We were told we could leave our luggage on the dock and should head off to explore the mall for an hour or so to eat or grab some last minute necessities. We returned about an hour later to find that everyone making the trip had begun to arrive and the boarding process was well under way. For this trip there would be 16 divers, one non-diver and the Blackbeard’s crew consisting of Captain – Ernie, 1st Mate – Grayson, Dive Master Ann Marie, Deck Hand- Brandon, Cook – J.P, and Engineer- A.J.

We were shown to our “home” for the week; birth #3 which was located toward the bow of the boat. A short climb down the ladder revealed a small “hallway of sorts” with 3 doors, one for each of the two cabins and one leading to the head in this section. Each cabin in this section has two double bunks (with a thin mattress similar to a sofa bed or futon) and a curtain for privacy, a wooden shelf across one end for storing your personal belongings and on the wall next to the bunks is a small mirror, a couple of hooks to hang things, and an a/c vent that blasted cold air into the room. The head was a marine head and instructions on how to use it correctly (hint…..pump, pump, pump!!!) were provided on more than one occasion. Back topside we were directed to choose a bin to hold our gear for the trip. We chose to put our gear in bins under the canopy that was stretched across the mid part of the boat in hopes that getting into the wetsuit and dive skins in the shade might be a tad easier than if we were in the direct heat of the sun. This turned out to be a great choice, as this was also a prime spot for listening to the dive briefings. Our BCD’s and regulators were eventually set up on tanks at the back of boat and remained on the same tank throughout the trip, as air was refilled with a whip and a very loud compressor.

One again the weather had become an issue; the winds had picked up and were creating sea conditions that were not promising for the Gulf Stream crossing. There was some mumbling among the passengers about discussions to potentially delay our departure until Saturday morning since the winds/seas were so bad. Around 8:00 pm, the captain called everyone together for the first of many excellent meals prepared by the cook J.P. and to let us know the he would conduct the departure briefing immediately following dinner. The departure briefing included going over the general boat procedures (including again reviewing the proper way to use the head to avoid disasters), safety procedures, and a discussion/warning about bringing firearms or drugs on the trip, an overview of the proposed itinerary, and last but not least… a discussion of the current/expected weather conditions for the crossing. The last few weather reports had forecasted high winds/seas and we were warned that the crossing would be “pounding” if we attempted it under the current/forecasted conditions - our options were to postpone leaving until the early morning hours of Saturday, leave immediately after dinner and take our “pounding” as people were going to be sea sick regardless of when we made the crossing or to wait for the next weather update and make a decision at that time. The choice made was to wait for the next weather update and then the captain alone would decide to leave or to stay until the next morning, no vote of the majority here. The next weather report revealed that the seas were expected to lie down between midnight and 4:00 a.m., so the decision was made to finalize all the necessary rental gear needs of the group and to head out of Miami as soon as possible. The crossing was rough, with 4 to 8 foot waves, though the crew claimed it was not as rough as they anticipated is was going to be. Although we had begun taking Bonine the night prior to heading to Miami and throughout the day on Friday in anticipation of a rough crossing, we knew that going into the birth to try to sleep was out of the question (at least from the sea sickness prospective) so we donned our rain gear and prepared to spend the night topside with the crew that remained on duty during the crossing. We were eventually accompanied by several other passengers who came running from their births very sea sick and positively miserable! In spite of the rain gear, it was a long cold wet night but we managed to somehow find a way to catch a bit of sleep despite being wet and cold. We were awakened by the captain announcing to those on deck that we had reached calm waters in the protection of the island of Bimini and should try to head downstairs to get dry/warm and get a couple hours sleep prior to clearing customs. The call for breakfast awoke us next and upon reaching topside, we were treated to not only the sight of the beautiful crystal clear water of the Bahamas but also to a pod of dolphins playing just out of camera range off the port side of the boat. After the dingy was prepared, the captain prepared to head into Bimini to clear customs along with two of the people who had been sea sick during the crossing who insisted on going into Bimini for the day rather than remaining on the boat and diving.

To be continued ....

 

[cindy0519]

All the diving was done from the boat, after a giant stride off either side of the boat and the required “OK”, we used a current line (if necessary) to proceeded to the bow of the boat and the mooring line, Blackbeard’s has at installed permanent mooring lines at each dive site, before descending to the reef below. When we booked this trip we anticipated being some of the least experienced divers on the boat, however we were astonished to find quite the opposite to be true. 8 or 9 of the other passengers on the boat had less than 7 dives and for some these were to be their first post checkout dives.

Dive number 1 (Lewdi Reef-53 feet, 35 minutes) a reef dive to allow everyone to once again become comfortable with diving, with their equipment or rental equipment, and to ease into the diving after a long, and for many sea sick night. The dive master also hit the water on this dive, to conduct a well attended refresher course for those who wanted to do so. Since we had just completed AOW, we decided not to do the refresher course and headed off to explore the reef on our own. Not much out of the ordinary was seen on this dive, but we did encounter the first of many jellyfish as we made our way to the bow and down the mooring line. After trying desperately to avoid them every dive, we were told later in the week that these jellyfish did not sting.


Dive number 2 (Strip Reef – 40 feet, 33 minutes) was as the name implies, a strip reef which allowed everyone to have a nice easy dive. Lots of fish life on this dive, schools of grunts were everywhere! We got a really few nice shots of a shrimp that lived on the reef.

On this dive we also encountered a fairly good sized and VERY friendly remora that was looking for a new home. It followed us around for quite a while and then became pretty determined to make one of us its new home. It kept swimming right up into our face or swimming up onto your legs when you weren’t expecting it. It was very creepy –much like something out of an alien movie! We ended up calling the dive because we couldn’t get the thing to leave us alone and we were getting close to our return point anyway. I think we all did our safety stop on this dive praying that the remora did not notice us just floating there!

After this dive we were informed that we would be returning to Bimini, rather than completing another dive, as the two people that had spent the day there due to not feeling well from being so sea sick were now insisting on flying home and did not want to complete the trip. As a result, the captain had to return to the dock in Bimini for them to clear customs to fly back to the U.S. While this was a tad disappointing, everyone agreed that it would be nice to end the day early anyway, as we were all tired from the long night making the crossing and everyone was looking forward to getting a hot shower and a good night’s sleep in Bimini. There was not too much to see or do in Bimini only a straw market, some small shops, and a couple of local bars – the End of the World and The Angler. I had somehow misplaced our stock of Bonine during the crossing, so after a shower we ventured into Bimini in search of something to prevent sea sickness on the trip home. We did eventually find some Bonine and Dramamine at a local dive shop. After dinner we ventured off to the End of the World to check on the score of the Buckeyes game ….what an interesting place. It had no floor, only sand and the décor consisted primarily of prior patron’s underwear which had been stapled to the ceiling and walls. We stayed for a quick beer and headed back to the boat to get some sleep. One of the people who wanted to go home did end up flying back home and the other was eventually persuaded to stay on board, after a reminder that he could always chose to fly home from Bimini when we returned to Bimini at the end of the trip. There was really no reason to leave now as the worst part of the trip (the crossing) was over and the best parts were yet to come! Several times throughout the trip this person commented on how glad they were they had not left and how much the other person was going to regret the decision to return home.

After a much needed night of rest, we departed Bimini early on Sunday and set off for the next dive site. Along the way several of the passengers tried their luck at fishing so that we would have something to feed the sharks during the shark dive to occur later in the trip. A few barracuda and Spanish mackerel were caught and eventually brought on board. The crew would take a bottle of rum out of the storage bin at the back of the boat, open it and pour the rum down the fish’s throat to kill it instantly. After this the fish was put on a long kabob type skewer and then the skewered fish was placed into a large plastic bag to be frozen until it was used later in the trip. This part of the trip was very scenic as we motored through the beautiful clear water past the wreck of the Sapona and an island with a good sized light house, lots of good photo opportunities during this part of the trip.

Dive number 3 (Tuna Alley, Victory Reef – 73 feet, 28 minutes) – This dive was somewhat of a wall dive along the Victory Reef chain. The dive was to begin just off the bow of the boat at about 40 feet and continue down the along the edge (wall) of the reef to a sandy bottom at about 85 feet. This was the first dive on which we had to deal with a pretty strong current being present. The current line was put out on the starboard side of the boat and we were instructed to pull ourselves along the line and not attempt to “swim” against the current to reach the bow line. This was the dive where the inexperience of the divers on the boat really began to show. While waiting at the mooring line to descend the current was strong enough to send waves crashing completely over your head, making using a snorkel instead of the regulator near impossible as every time you cleared it was immediately filled again, if you were lucky enough to be able to get it cleared at all. As I waited for my dive buddies to make their way to the mooring line, a newly certified diver became panicked as they tried to reach the mooring line using just a snorkel and couldn’t clear it faster than the waves filled it up again. Taking on a lot of water, and not hearing me yelling at them to switch to the regulator, I could see the panic building in their eyes as they pulled themselves toward me on the mooring line. Eventually, this person began to yell “help me”…I swam toward them thinking that I could add more air to their BCD and help them get their regulator. I approached this person from behind trying to add air to their BCD only to find that it was fully inflated, I was never able to reach the regulator amidst the panic this person was now fully engulfed in. The yells for help continued and this person became more and more panicked despite the captain and other crew members yelling that they were OK, to just relax and breathe. Within what seemed seconds of the first yell for help, the dive master had hit the water and was at this person’s side tipping them backwards, depositing the regulator in their mouth and towing them back to the boat. Mighty scary…. really made us realize the importance of taking a rescue class - I had NO idea what to do for the poor person and acted purely on instinct. Somewhat shaken by this event, a group of us followed the dive master into the current and along the wall of the reef, while a few others went off on their own. The amount of marine life was incredible everywhere you looked your were surrounded by blue chromis, assorted grunts, squirrel fish, parrot fish, various angel fish, trigger fish, a moray eel, and few lobster to name just a few. This dive had lots of valleys and swim through areas. However, this was a relatively short dive for us due to the amount of air consumed fighting the current to swim along the reef and our turning point came way too quickly so we turned the dive and drifted on the current back to the mooring line to make our safety stop and ascent. The other group of divers got caught in the current and ended up having to get a dingy ride back to the boat.

Between this dive and dive number 4 we anchored in a small inlet for our surface interval and lunch. The crew rigged up a rope and let everyone swing from the boat into the water. Dingy rides to the island were also provided for those who wanted to walk around the island or sit on the beach. We also snorkeled though there really wasn’t much to see except a few jelly fish and some very small reef fish. Several people swam to the island when the snorkeling turned out to be so disappointing.

During this time DH, who decided not to snorkel, spent some time chatting with the crew and some of the discussion by the crew was about not doing the shark feed dive later in the trip since there were so many inexperienced divers on the trip. At this point the crew was feeling like it was just too risky to put divers with bad air consumption and poor skills in the water with the feeding sharks. In the end, they decided to join the diving and watch the divers for the next few dives and then make a decision regarding the shark feed dive. I was really looking forward to the shark feeding and was really disappointed to hear that this was being considered, after all this was one of the reasons we had decided to do this trip. On the other hand I certainly understood after the experience noted above why this was being discussed. Honestly I hoped that someone would pull those without the proper skills aside (even if we were among those they were worried about) and discourage them from doing the dive, so that the remaining divers could enjoy the shark feeding dive.

 

[cindy0519]

Dive number 4 (Panther - 48 feet, 32 minutes) As requested by many of the passengers, this dive was a wreck dive along with several small patch reefs that surrounded it. Blackbeard’s had towed the tug boat over from Miami and sunk it as an artificial reef. Again lots of sea life was present with reappearances of many of the same types of fish from previous dives, but we also found a few new things including four eyed butterfly fish, a tunicate, an arrow crab and a few Nassau grouper.

Dive number 5 (Miami Rita- 37 feet, 46 minutes) was also a wreck dive. These two boats (the Miami and the Rita) had crashed in the channel and were blocking the channel so they were blown up to clear the channel thus the wreckage was pretty scattered. However, the wreckage was virtually covered with marine life, sturgeon fish, grunts, glass eyed snapper, oceanic trigger fish, parrot fish, grouper, and schools of fish that seemed to make walls and be totally unaware of our presence were everywhere. Since this was a relatively shallow dive we were able to spend lots of time exploring and peering into the cracks and crevices of the wreckage.

Dive number 6 (Miami Rita – 33 feet, 38 minutes) was our night dive. For 6 or 7 people this was their first night dive and since everyone enjoyed this dive so much during the day, it was decided that this would be our night dive too. Three of the passengers had canister lights so having enough light along on this dive certainly wasn’t going to be an issue. DH decided not to take the camera on this dive, thinking that there wouldn’t be much that he hadn’t already taken a picture of earlier. Boy was this wrong, upon taking the giant stride off the boat I noticed one of the divers with a canister light following a stingray along the sandy bottom below me. Once we were on the wreckage there was a lot of new life to be seen, several crabs had made their way out of the deck and were feeding on the coral, there were a couple of good sized puffer fish, and a small white spotted eel peeked out of its home in the wreckage. This location was our favorite of the trip – positively awesome!

Dive number 7 (Blue Chromis, Victory Reef –75feet, 26 minutes) another reef in the Victory reef chain. Again lots of current was present and the current line was run off the starboard side of the boat. It wasn’t hard to figure out why where the name of this reef came from, blue chromis seemed to form clouds above the reef as far as the eye could see. Nothing new was spotted on this dive but there was a lot of fish life and many swim through opportunities. It seemed to pretty strange to be floating along and encounter a column of bubble rising from below you where another diver was swimming through the reef.

 

[cindy0519]

Dive number 8 (Bull Run – 56 feet, 34 minutes) the much anticipated shark feed. The crew was still very concerned about doing this dive but had decided to attempt to proceed with the dive. The dive brief was long and full of warnings… once your down NO coming up even if you are short on air, no bad buoyancy control, no slow descents, no skulling to stay in place and because the sharks associate the dingy with food as it is used to bring the bait to the pulley line, no dingy rides! If we didn’t find the mooring line for our return – no matter how far out you got, you’d have to wait for everyone to reboard and then the boat would come to pick you up – no exceptions. The briefing seemed to be an attempt to discourage people from doing the dive as much as it was to let us know what to expect/do during the dive. Those with bad air consumption were told to be the last in and those with trouble equalizing the first one(s) to enter with other passing them on the mooring line as necessary. We were to wait until everyone was in their gear and ready to go then enter the water from both sides of the boat, quickly one after the other. There was to be no picture taking on the way down and we were to proceed immediately to the coral heads and kneel on the bottom without stirring up the sand. We were told that the dive could and would be called if everything did not go exactly as planned and that the sharks are used to being feed, expect to be feed and can be quite agitated if the dive is called for some reason. After the briefing everyone decided to do the dive except the diver who had trouble earlier in the trip. We all geared up and hit the water, quickly making our way immediately to the mooring line and down to the coral heads. As I moved along the current line to the mooring line I could see a few reef sharks already gathering in anticipation of what was to come. Everyone did great and got it place quickly and without incident, so the buoy was sent up to signal the dingy to bring the fish. As soon as the dingy appeared so did a lot more sharks. They swam to close to the surface in anticipation of the meal they knew was soon to arrive. As the frozen fish kabobs were put on the pulley, the dive master attempted to pull the bait and the feeding sharks down to eye level so that the sharks were feeding right before our eyes! It was amazing, there were probably 15 or 16 sharks and a pretty good sized grouper. When there was only one fish head remained on the line a big shark determined to get the fish off the line, took a bite and violently shook its body, breaking the line and biting clear through the buoy and the metal line! The line with the fish head still attached floated back away from the divers – thank god. DH got a really great mpeg video of the whole thing with our Olympus C5050z digital camera. Knowing the feeding was over the sharks began to swim out of the feeding area with one shark choosing to swim through the clearing in the coral heads that we sat at the end of, it literally passed within inches of us. Once things were determine to be going well and the frenzy calmed, we were given the signal that it was okay to continue the dive. After checking our air and finding that we still had plenty to continue the dive, we set off to explore the coral heads around the area. We came across several sharks while swimming around the various coral heads, though they seemed to be more interested in swimming away from us than in posing for pictures. We eventually found a bunch of garden eels peeking up out of the sandy bottom and stopped to take some pictures of them since they were the “fish of the dive” for this dive. However within a few feet them was a reef shark, who was not very happy about us looking as though we were going to enter his territory, so we quickly made our exit and found another place to explore. We had been told during the briefing that the sharks like to gather below the tag line at the back of the boat and sure enough as we did our safety stop on the mooring line we began to see several sharks swimming near the bottom toward the tag line. While on the mooring line we also saw another remora swimming by and once again we were all silently prayed that it would continue to swim by and not notice us. Once at the back of the boat, we hung on the tag line for awhile just watching the show these amazing creatures were putting on below us, there was no rush to be the first one off the tag line and back on the boat on this dive.


We then motored toward Cat Cay thinking we could clear customs there rather than going back to Bimini. This is beautiful island appears to be a private island and had many really nice houses lining the shores. The customs guy however was at lunch and not expected to return until 5 pm so clearing customs here was not to be. We were going to have to return to Bimini to clear customs before they closed at 5 p.m. afterall.

Dive 9 – (38 feet, 13 minutes) for some reason we never got the name of this site, they included it in the dive brief but we never wrote it down. This was a dive that we should have just skipped. In an effort to get one more dive in and still make it to Bimini before customs closed at 5p.m., we were told that this would have to be a quick dive of 15 to 20 minutes, given a quick dive brief and informed to expect very minimal current. We did our giant stride off the boat only to find ourselves being swept back past the boat in the current. After kicking and kicking and seeming to go virtually nowhere we decided to descend and hopefully go past or under the current. Upon reach the patch reef below, there was still a pretty strong current present and the visability was terrible. There was also lot of particle matter floating in the water, possibly from the hurricanes that had moved through the area in the weeks prior to our arrival. After fighting the current for about 13 minutes and not really much enjoying the dive we decided to call the dive and head back to the boat.

After returning to the boat we heard some of the other passenger discussing the fact that someone had returned from the dive with a broken regulator. Seems the same person who had panicked earlier in the trip had gotten down okay but then panicked, spit out their regulator and proceeded to rip one of the other passengers regulator out of his mouth, breaking the bite tabs completely off. This was definitely a dive we all should have definitely skipped as it was too hurried, not well planned and just not enjoyable for anyone who did it.

 

[cindy0519]

With everyone back on board we were full speed ahead to make it to Bimini to clear customs by 5 pm. After clearing customs in Bimini we started our journey back to Miami. Before dinner the captain called everyone together to complete the necessary paperwork for clearing customs in Miami and gave us the departure briefing. With the wind pushing us toward Miami the trip back was much more pleasant than the trip over. We finished packing all of our gear and personal belongings and then even managed to go below deck to our births and get some sleep. As expected, we were awaken by call for everyone to come on deck to meet with customs. We reached topside to find not a sunny Miami, but lots of rain and quite a bit of a chill in the air. The process of each passenger meeting with the customs officer to present thier passport or other documentation was quickly completed, and once the boat was "cleared" bu the customs officer, we were free told we could leave anytime we were packed and ready to do so – there was no rush to leave but the crew would be beginning the process of cleaning up the boat to prepare it for the next trip. A large bucket was filled with fresh water for rinsing gear and we were told that we could now take as long of a shower as we would like since the water tank could refilled at the dock. Cinnamon rolls and juice were available in the galley for anyone who wanted something to eat.

Not wanting to have to skip dives on at the end of trip in order to ensure we met the no fly requirements of diving, we had planned our trip to include staying the night in the South Beach area of Miami and flying out of Miami the following afternoon. We booked a studio room at the Royal South Beach Hotel. Again we called a taxi, asking for a van or SUV to accommodate all of our bags, for the trip to the hotel. This trip ended up only costing us about $20.00 including the tip and took about 10 minutes or so from dock to hotel. We arrived at the hotel very early (around 9:30am) and expected to be told that we would have to wait until 2:00 p.m. or after to check in, however they told us that they had one room ready immediately and the other room would be ready within an hour. The decor of the hotel itself was modern but really pretty basic and for the $65.00 rate we had been able to book over the internet it was more than ample for one night. We decided to grab something to eat and when we returned the other room was ready, so now it was nap time! We ended up sleeping for a most of the afternoon and then walking around South Beach for awhile, getting something for dinner and even stopped at a shopping center to see a movie. The only complaint about our hotel was that apparently it was very near some night clubs that must have been open until the wee hours of the morning. We were awaken several times during the night and early morning hours by drunk people yelling outside our windows, after the first few times this noise became very upsetting. After a shower and getting things back into the suitcases we grab some brunch at a local dinner and headed off to the airport for our uneventful flights home.

What a great trip! The crew was fantastic and really did whatever they could to make it a fun and enjoyable experience for everyone on board. The diving was great and the group of passengers really made the trip. We will definitely do another Blackbeard’s trip! While we have come to the conclusion that a seven day trip would allow more time to forget any negative experiences of seasickness during the crossing (LOL) and most importantly more time to dive, the five day trip was a nice quick getaway. We put all ofour pictures and the shark video up on imagestation, to view them copy and paste the following link into your web browser: http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=2890665093&code=12809041&mode=invite&cmp=EMC

 

[cindy0519]

For those interested, the shark feed video is at the very bottom of the pull down the menu that now says Cover Page and the shark video is on the very bottom of this menu. You have to download it to be able to watch it.