Had a great trip. Here's a brief overview of the trip. I will do a more thorough report in a few days when I get time. I met up with a group from another diving web site on Fri. & Sat. We had an absolute blast!
Fri. Sept. 12th- I overslept & almost missed my 6:00am flight. I made it by 3min. I made it to the resort I had reserved. Fri. Night I met up with 2/7 of our group's members.
Sat. Sept. 13th- I went on a short, shallow 2 tank dive from the resort to refresh my salt water diving skills. No problems there. I then made may way to the boat & met up with the rest of the group. The trip organizers were Roddy & Heather Pickett. Heather's son (Joey) & a friend (Jarod) were there, along with Heather's father (Tim Murphy). Then there was another gent from New Mexico who decided to do the trip (Marty DeFord) & then myself. Tim & Marty were my dive buddies for the most part the entire trip, though Tim had to stop diving about Wed. due to a cold going around the boat. There were 11 other divers on the trip. It was crowded, but most everyone was civil & things went smoothly. Sat. afternoon we did a single shallow dive. It was a site where shark feeding is commonly done by other dive operations. We saw 6-7 reef sharks & a nurse shark.
Sun.- we were south of Grand Bahama. The vis really wasn't spectacular but it was dive-able. We saw more sharks &, for better or worse, a lot of lionfish. It seems the population down there has exploded. The second site was about the same vis- wise. I had dove the spot before a couple of years ago. The third site was terrible. Vis was only about 10ft at most. There was also a very heavy current. It made for a rather difficult dive. For the night dive we decided to go back to the second site. It was a nice dive, though there was some current that had started up there.
Mon.- We traveled down further south past Orange Cay. It was rather deep diving & for the remainder of the trip there were pretty stout currents to deal with. There was a Spotted Drumfish in a shelf that was a treat to watch. Saw more sharks around. There were also some Spotted Moray eels around. The second dive was very much the same (deep & lots of critters around). The third dive was quite different. It was shallow, but had a ripping current. There were no coral heads to say, but there were lots of ledges to look under to find things. After wearing myself out trying to kick against the current, I found it easier to find sandy patches & carefully use my hands to pull myself through the current. We sort of went from "fox hole" to "fox hole" to try to stay out of the current. During our surface interval came the best part of the trip. We were just swimming & jumping off the boat, waiting for dinner when we were visited by a pod of wild dolphins. Everyone grabbed masks, fins, snorkels & cameras. The dolphins proceeded to play with us for about 2 hours. It was a very neat experience. On the night dive there was still a ripping current. only 4 of us decided to take up the challenge. We all kept together & were pretty much on top of each other the whole time. Made for some interesting diving.
Tues.- We made our way up near Bimini. The reefs seemed to be in better shape than I remember 2yrs ago. We did a deep dive followed by the shark feeding dive. Of course, we stopped in Bimini for a "real" shower & some serious partying. I stayed on the boat with a bad sinus headache. No fun:depressed:.
Wed.- we did more dives around Bimini. Marty had me to try (& I say try) to navigate back to the boat. I had no idea where we were. I got turned around & went the wrong way. When Marty corrected me, I then took us through a swarm of jellyfish. Neither of us got stung, but it still wasn't pleasant. We finally made it back & non the less I got all kinds of ribbing about it. I warned them that my navigation wasn't the best from the start. The night dive was on one of my favorite spots,... The Hesperus. Lots of stingrays, turtles, eels,oceanic triggers & now, lionfish. So much to see there. The night dive was interesting as the current had picked up. There were stingrays & lionfish everywhere. It seemed like a poisonous pin cushion just waiting for someone. Everyone made it back OK though with lots of very good pictures of sleeping turtles.
Thurs.- We did a night trip back to around Freeport. We did 4 more dives, however, I only made 1 of these. It was a rather deep dive around a wreck. I didn't pay enough attention to my computer & wound up in deco. I did the appropriate stop & even though everything seemed kosher, I thought I would be prudent & err on the side of caution & decided to sit out the second dive. The 3rd & 4th dives were within the 24hr no fly time, so I had to sit those out also. I just chilled out for the day & cleaned & prepped my gear for packing to go home.
Fri.- I was traveling all day & got home about 9:30pm. glad to be home.
Fri. Sept. 12th- I overslept & almost missed my 6:00am flight. I made it by 3min. I made it to the resort I had reserved. Fri. Night I met up with 2/7 of our group's members.
Sat. Sept. 13th- I went on a short, shallow 2 tank dive from the resort to refresh my salt water diving skills. No problems there. I then made may way to the boat & met up with the rest of the group. The trip organizers were Roddy & Heather Pickett. Heather's son (Joey) & a friend (Jarod) were there, along with Heather's father (Tim Murphy). Then there was another gent from New Mexico who decided to do the trip (Marty DeFord) & then myself. Tim & Marty were my dive buddies for the most part the entire trip, though Tim had to stop diving about Wed. due to a cold going around the boat. There were 11 other divers on the trip. It was crowded, but most everyone was civil & things went smoothly. Sat. afternoon we did a single shallow dive. It was a site where shark feeding is commonly done by other dive operations. We saw 6-7 reef sharks & a nurse shark.
Sun.- we were south of Grand Bahama. The vis really wasn't spectacular but it was dive-able. We saw more sharks &, for better or worse, a lot of lionfish. It seems the population down there has exploded. The second site was about the same vis- wise. I had dove the spot before a couple of years ago. The third site was terrible. Vis was only about 10ft at most. There was also a very heavy current. It made for a rather difficult dive. For the night dive we decided to go back to the second site. It was a nice dive, though there was some current that had started up there.
Mon.- We traveled down further south past Orange Cay. It was rather deep diving & for the remainder of the trip there were pretty stout currents to deal with. There was a Spotted Drumfish in a shelf that was a treat to watch. Saw more sharks around. There were also some Spotted Moray eels around. The second dive was very much the same (deep & lots of critters around). The third dive was quite different. It was shallow, but had a ripping current. There were no coral heads to say, but there were lots of ledges to look under to find things. After wearing myself out trying to kick against the current, I found it easier to find sandy patches & carefully use my hands to pull myself through the current. We sort of went from "fox hole" to "fox hole" to try to stay out of the current. During our surface interval came the best part of the trip. We were just swimming & jumping off the boat, waiting for dinner when we were visited by a pod of wild dolphins. Everyone grabbed masks, fins, snorkels & cameras. The dolphins proceeded to play with us for about 2 hours. It was a very neat experience. On the night dive there was still a ripping current. only 4 of us decided to take up the challenge. We all kept together & were pretty much on top of each other the whole time. Made for some interesting diving.
Tues.- We made our way up near Bimini. The reefs seemed to be in better shape than I remember 2yrs ago. We did a deep dive followed by the shark feeding dive. Of course, we stopped in Bimini for a "real" shower & some serious partying. I stayed on the boat with a bad sinus headache. No fun:depressed:.
Wed.- we did more dives around Bimini. Marty had me to try (& I say try) to navigate back to the boat. I had no idea where we were. I got turned around & went the wrong way. When Marty corrected me, I then took us through a swarm of jellyfish. Neither of us got stung, but it still wasn't pleasant. We finally made it back & non the less I got all kinds of ribbing about it. I warned them that my navigation wasn't the best from the start. The night dive was on one of my favorite spots,... The Hesperus. Lots of stingrays, turtles, eels,oceanic triggers & now, lionfish. So much to see there. The night dive was interesting as the current had picked up. There were stingrays & lionfish everywhere. It seemed like a poisonous pin cushion just waiting for someone. Everyone made it back OK though with lots of very good pictures of sleeping turtles.
Thurs.- We did a night trip back to around Freeport. We did 4 more dives, however, I only made 1 of these. It was a rather deep dive around a wreck. I didn't pay enough attention to my computer & wound up in deco. I did the appropriate stop & even though everything seemed kosher, I thought I would be prudent & err on the side of caution & decided to sit out the second dive. The 3rd & 4th dives were within the 24hr no fly time, so I had to sit those out also. I just chilled out for the day & cleaned & prepped my gear for packing to go home.
Fri.- I was traveling all day & got home about 9:30pm. glad to be home.
