Lost Sailor
Registered
Quick trip report on Grand Bahama from the Grand Bahama Airport.
Arrived on Thursday, Jan. 27 with plans to dive four days. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate on Friday and no boats went out. Not the best start to a trip, but my luck (thankfully) turned for the better.
On Saturday morning I headed out to the west end of the island and after an expensive taxi ride ended up in Old Bahama Bay for the Stuart Cove's Tiger Shark Safari. I was not really sure what to expect from the trip, but I was looking for a different experience. Well, a different experience it was. After riding about an hour out to Shark Beach, we met up with a second boat that left early to bring the sharks in... We arrived and started chumming with them. OK, I have to admit that it was a little disconcerting to watch the crew fill fish heads with menhaden oil and toss it all into the water around the boat. In my mind, it isn't natural to jump into chummed water, but what the hell. Forty minutes or so later, the first shark showed up - a 12 foot tiger, we were getting what we paid for. We spent the next hour plus at the bottom with 2-3 tigers and 5 lemons. The lemons were very active and got right into our group. The tigers hung 10+ feet out and basically did fly-bys. All I can say is that it was amazing. The second dive on shark beach found the same group of lemons with only a couple tiger fly-bys, but the guide and I did get a visit from a nurse and a reef shark at the end of the dive. I was second in the water and second to last out, what a trip.
Sunday and Monday found me riding out with UNEXSO in the Lucaya area. My take away from the second two days is that UNEXSO runs a good operation and almost every dive is a shark dive. The only time we did not have reef sharks mingling with our group was a dive on the Sea Star, my one wreck dive of the trip. I had a great time on every dive, but the tiger experience kind of spoiled me a bit. My last dive was the UNEXSO shark feeding dive (third dive yesterday where they accommodated me and another guest and went out with only 2 customers). It was fun, not tigers, but fun. Spent my last evening out with a few of the UNEXSO crew, good folks all around.
On my way home now and back to work tomorrow... At least I have the pictures to prove it all to my coworkers! I will post photos once I figure out how!
Arrived on Thursday, Jan. 27 with plans to dive four days. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate on Friday and no boats went out. Not the best start to a trip, but my luck (thankfully) turned for the better.
On Saturday morning I headed out to the west end of the island and after an expensive taxi ride ended up in Old Bahama Bay for the Stuart Cove's Tiger Shark Safari. I was not really sure what to expect from the trip, but I was looking for a different experience. Well, a different experience it was. After riding about an hour out to Shark Beach, we met up with a second boat that left early to bring the sharks in... We arrived and started chumming with them. OK, I have to admit that it was a little disconcerting to watch the crew fill fish heads with menhaden oil and toss it all into the water around the boat. In my mind, it isn't natural to jump into chummed water, but what the hell. Forty minutes or so later, the first shark showed up - a 12 foot tiger, we were getting what we paid for. We spent the next hour plus at the bottom with 2-3 tigers and 5 lemons. The lemons were very active and got right into our group. The tigers hung 10+ feet out and basically did fly-bys. All I can say is that it was amazing. The second dive on shark beach found the same group of lemons with only a couple tiger fly-bys, but the guide and I did get a visit from a nurse and a reef shark at the end of the dive. I was second in the water and second to last out, what a trip.
Sunday and Monday found me riding out with UNEXSO in the Lucaya area. My take away from the second two days is that UNEXSO runs a good operation and almost every dive is a shark dive. The only time we did not have reef sharks mingling with our group was a dive on the Sea Star, my one wreck dive of the trip. I had a great time on every dive, but the tiger experience kind of spoiled me a bit. My last dive was the UNEXSO shark feeding dive (third dive yesterday where they accommodated me and another guest and went out with only 2 customers). It was fun, not tigers, but fun. Spent my last evening out with a few of the UNEXSO crew, good folks all around.
On my way home now and back to work tomorrow... At least I have the pictures to prove it all to my coworkers! I will post photos once I figure out how!
