OP
I guess I have mixed feelings about the trip, which is pretty much why I haven't posted a trip report. Still trying to sort out my thoughts. Also I had planned on shooting a roll of film per day and was only able to shoot one roll and that was on a day we didn't see sharks or rays. The roll of film I did get has been developed and the pictures aren't good, which is no real surprise since I'm not highly interested in photography. Still, the photos don't serve their intended purpose which was to provide a reference to do paintings from. Without the photos, my memory has faded rather quickly. There may be some hope though as many od the people on the trip were big into the digital photography and one of the guys on the trip brought a laptop with him and is making a compilation of the picture taken by most of the people who did take pictures.
The weather was an issue. The temperature was mild and comfortable especially compared to winter in Kentucky but there was apparently some issue about the winds. Apparently due to the winds we never left the waters of Grand Bahamas. No trip to Bimini. No shark feeding dive, which was fine with me(I'm opposed to such activities), but quite upsetting to others. No mid trip stop at some other port in the Bahamas. One night spent in a harbor close to Port Lucaya but not getting off the boat. There was some specualtion amongst the passengers as to whether or not the winds really were an issue of concern with many feeling they weren't getting the trip they paid for. At the end of the trip I heard the captain make a comment along the lines of-- at some point you just get tired of beating yourself against the waves all day long. Not sure if this was for his point of view or if he was sparing the passengers from a rough time at sea---or maybe both. Speaking of weather, it was also mostly cloudy for the entire weeks which made it feel more like diving the Great Lakes than the tropics.
In the many trip reports I had read, there was always the mention of the one obnoxious guy on the boat that by mid trip people wanted to use for the shark bait. In our case we did not have that. We had 18 passengers and it was really a very good group of people. Not everything was picture perfect but it was a well behaved group of people who were there to dive as much as they could. While there was plenty of drinking no one got obnoxious that I was was ever aware of and I only had a couple of drinks on shore the last night in the Bahamas.
The concept of camping at sea. Blackbeards is very open and up front about this and that is pretty much what it is. I didn't find it to be uncomfortable at all. Yes it can be a bit cramped/crowded but that is the nature of most boats. Things are small on most boats. There is no way 18 people are going to eat in the saloon at the same time. My dive buddy and I eat pretty much all our meals up on deck. Most of the time this was an enjoyable experience and few times it was a bit of an inconvenience, but certainly not miserable. The crew did not wait on us hand and foot so to speak, but for the most part they were helpful. For my part, I don't want to be pampered and waited on.
From what I had read in the many trip reports out dive briefings were not anything to write home about. We had a new divemaster(maybe 6 weeks with Blackbeards) who had not been to many of the dive sites. Many people found these briefings to be worthless, somewhat annoying and inaccurate regarding depth. I quit paying attention to them after the first two dives on Saturday.
The dive sites. A couple of places listed as wrecks which were just the standard stripped down vessels sunk as artificial reefs. I don't consider these to be wrecks per say as one would consider the wrecks of the Great Lakes. There were some interesting bits of marine life to bee seen especially for the photographer types. Most of the dives were on natural reefs along the southern length of Grand Bahamas island. The "problem" with this is that once you see one reef in a system you have pretty much seen them all. Same corals. Same fish. Same crustaceans. On two different days we did see sharks. If my memory and identification is correct the first sharks were carribean reef sharks and the second sharks were black tip reef sharks. The carribean reef sharks came close enough to feel as though I could touch them. The balck tips didn't get that close, but were close enough to get good views of. Nice experiences in a more natural setting than a shark feeding. I was very happy with this.
I really enjoyed my time ashore while on Grand Bahamas. I will go back to the Bahamas, let my wife sit on the beach, go shopping etc etc and I will do some of the day trip diving that is available.
The big question is will I do another Blackbeards trip? Maybe. The trip was good overall, but not so special that I am clamouring to go again, especially with the increase in price for 2008 and beyond.
