handben
Contributor
For several months last fall I contemplated where I would take my son for the "Men's Spring Break" knowing that his sister and mom would be in Spain for their own adventure. We have only done land based trips in the past as a family and I was eager to do a live-aboard for this trip.
I had been twice by myself with Blackbeards (1987 then 2007) and had a good time with them. I thought this might be a decent option but was a little concerned about bringing my 15 year old to the spring break party atmosphere of 20 somethings drinking away the nights. Through a little research I came across Lost Island Voyages and was intrigued. It is basically the same sized boat (though Ketch rigged) as the Blackbeard's but it is configured to take 12 passengers in 6 staterooms (rather than 22-24 on Blackbeard's). When I inquired I found out that there would be a group of fathers and sons (Boy Scouts) on our week but there was room for us so we jumped at it.
About 2 days before the charter I got a call from Captain Ray. My heart sank when he said "We had a mix up and some cancellations and it looks like you and Logan and one other are the only passengers". I thought he would follow up with "So I have to scrub the trip". To my great relief, he said "But don't worry we are still on."
We had to go down the day before the charter as it was scheduled to leave about the time my flight would arrive. We stayed the night at the Harbor Club Marina Hotel which was about 500 yards east of the Nassau Yacht Haven where the Avalon departs. The motel was modest and somewhat old but was fairly clean and at $91 it was a bargain for Nassau. It also allowed us to just catch one cab from the airport. It is across the street from a Starbucks if you need that sort of thing in the morning like me.
Once aboard, we quickly stowed away our things and had a quick tour of the boat and safety features and got underway. Being that Logan and I were the only divers that week, (aside from the divemaster who lead us on the drift dives and the instructor who was down for 2 weeks but only able to dive once our entire week due to ear trouble) we were able to get our own state rooms. Thinking back to my time aboard Blackbeard's, I realized that I had so much more room to spread out. Each morning I woke up and relaxed to the gentle rock of the boat sometimes read my book till the smell of bacon and coffee beckoned. After breakfast we settled into the typical routine: dive, dive, eat, dive, eat, dive, sleep - repeat. One day my son and I got in 6 dives which is my personal record for one day. But we also had time for shore excursions with picnics and exploration. The exuma chain of islands is truly beautiful.
The other striking thing about this operation is the close working relationship of the crew. There is just the Captain, Cook and Divemaster to run the whole show; but it is clear that the cook and divemaster really enjoy working with and appreciate their captain. After having experienced tension among the crew on other trips that I have made, I can say that it is a real pleasure to see when group genuinely enjoys working together. It just so happened that our captain had his birthday our week out and the crew decorated the saloon and made a cake for him. It was a nice touch as was the celebratory cheers and pats on the back when my son came up from his 100th dive. I would not hesitate to recommend this operation and am trying to figure out how to book another trip with the rest of my family.
Here are the 20 dives that we did this trip:
Dive #: 1
Location: Periwinkle - Bahamas just east of Nassau
Date of dive: 3/9/13
Narrative: Shallow patch reef with grouper, lots of seargent majors, ocean triggerfish and Logan found a yellow sting ray. 23 foot max depth and 70 degrees - cold!
Dive #: 2
Location: Blacktip Wall
Date of dive: 3/10/13
Narrative: Lots of swim-throughs open up onto the wall lionfish were big.
Dive #: 3
Location: Austin Smith (aka Carless current)
Date of dive: 3/101/13
Narrative: This was a Bahamian Coast Guard vessel that was shot down by the Cubans killing Austin Smith. There were several reef shark and big grouper with lionfish.
Dive #: 4
Location: Basket Star
Date of dive: 3/10/13
Narrative:We were hunting for lionfish and saw 2 but also saw a red tipped sea goddess, channel crab and turtle. 2 remora tried to attach to us then to the boat. This was a 1 hour dive.
Dive #: 5
Location: Hammerhead Gulch
Date of dive: 3/10/13
Narrative: Rapid Drift Dive with 3 turtles and barracuda
Dive #: 6
Location: Hammerhead Gulch (night dive)
Date of dive: 3/10/13
Narrative: Lots of sting rays and a slipper lobster
Dive #: 7
Location: Wax Cay Cut
Date of dive: 3/11/13
Narrative: Drift Dive with large nurse shark, turtles
Dive #: 8
Location: Fire Coral Reef
Date of dive: 3/11/13
Narrative: Went hunting lionfish and killed 3 - fed one to a Moray.
Dive #: 9
Location: Jeep Reef (in front of Johnny Deps Island)
Date of dive: 3/11/13
Narrative: We found a weight pocket and brought it back to the boat. The Aquacat was also at the same site
Dive #: 10
Location: Jeep Reef
Date of dive: 3/12/13
Narrative: Nice dive, the jeep is all rusted out Logan got stung by fire coral on his hand and it hurt.
Dive #: 11
Location: Danger Reef
Date of dive:3/12/13
Narrative: Several big sharks, huge grouper and a couple of lionfish. Got a pic of Logan and a shark in the same frame
Dive #: 12
Location: Crack Head
Date of dive: 3/12/13
Narrative:We spearfished this dive. Many big lionfish and swim throughs, unfortunately also sharks, one bumped Bens hand (holding the spearpole). Ben gave the fish to the shark by dropping the spearpole after ignoring Logans plea to drop it earlier.
Dive #: 13
Location: Plane Wreck and Normans Cay
Date of dive: 3/12/13
Narrative: Shallow dive on a plane that had been part of the drug running from the 80s, saw a couple of lionfish unable to get a good shot though.
Dive #: 14
Location: Washing Machine
Date of dive: 3/12/13
Narrative: Very Fast Drift dive, it was like being flushed down the pipes of a toilet without the .."edit". There was a huge abundance of yellow stingrays at the end and a very persistent remora followed us the last few minutes of the dive
Dive #: 15
Location: Barracuda Shoals
Date of dive: 3/12/13
Narrative: Night Dive, sea Turtle, Logan saw a shark during the night dive that was swimming very fast. We had to surface to get our bearings on this dive.
Dive #: 16
Location: Crab Mountain
Date of dive: 3/13/13
Narrative: Spearfishing we got 2 nice lionfish. The site has very nice spurs with high profile and swim throughs out to the wall. The wall went very deep but we maxed out at 93 feet
Dive #: 17
Location: Crab Mountain
Date of dive: 3/13/13
Narrative: We had so much fun on this site that we asked to dive it a second time. We refined our technique by using 1 spear to immobilize the lionfish and another to carry it back on the single tip pole back to the boat. We saw one shark which fortunately was not aggressive.
Dive #: 18
Location: 15 shades of Blue
Date of dive: 3/13/13
Narrative: Small circular patch of healthy coral on the Bahama sound. Got 2 big lionfish, tiny lionfish survived under the coral reef (Could not get a good shot).
Dive #: 19
Location: Blue Hole
Date of dive: 3/13/13
Narrative: This was a very different type of dive. We maxed out at 96 feet and could just see the bottom at over 200 feet. There were 3 sharks int he sink hole and a small cave as well. It was a dark and overcast stormy day which made it kind of eerie to explore.
Dive #: 20
Location: Sargent Major Reef
Date of dive: 3/14/13
Narrative: Logans 100th dive
I had been twice by myself with Blackbeards (1987 then 2007) and had a good time with them. I thought this might be a decent option but was a little concerned about bringing my 15 year old to the spring break party atmosphere of 20 somethings drinking away the nights. Through a little research I came across Lost Island Voyages and was intrigued. It is basically the same sized boat (though Ketch rigged) as the Blackbeard's but it is configured to take 12 passengers in 6 staterooms (rather than 22-24 on Blackbeard's). When I inquired I found out that there would be a group of fathers and sons (Boy Scouts) on our week but there was room for us so we jumped at it.
About 2 days before the charter I got a call from Captain Ray. My heart sank when he said "We had a mix up and some cancellations and it looks like you and Logan and one other are the only passengers". I thought he would follow up with "So I have to scrub the trip". To my great relief, he said "But don't worry we are still on."
We had to go down the day before the charter as it was scheduled to leave about the time my flight would arrive. We stayed the night at the Harbor Club Marina Hotel which was about 500 yards east of the Nassau Yacht Haven where the Avalon departs. The motel was modest and somewhat old but was fairly clean and at $91 it was a bargain for Nassau. It also allowed us to just catch one cab from the airport. It is across the street from a Starbucks if you need that sort of thing in the morning like me.
Once aboard, we quickly stowed away our things and had a quick tour of the boat and safety features and got underway. Being that Logan and I were the only divers that week, (aside from the divemaster who lead us on the drift dives and the instructor who was down for 2 weeks but only able to dive once our entire week due to ear trouble) we were able to get our own state rooms. Thinking back to my time aboard Blackbeard's, I realized that I had so much more room to spread out. Each morning I woke up and relaxed to the gentle rock of the boat sometimes read my book till the smell of bacon and coffee beckoned. After breakfast we settled into the typical routine: dive, dive, eat, dive, eat, dive, sleep - repeat. One day my son and I got in 6 dives which is my personal record for one day. But we also had time for shore excursions with picnics and exploration. The exuma chain of islands is truly beautiful.
The other striking thing about this operation is the close working relationship of the crew. There is just the Captain, Cook and Divemaster to run the whole show; but it is clear that the cook and divemaster really enjoy working with and appreciate their captain. After having experienced tension among the crew on other trips that I have made, I can say that it is a real pleasure to see when group genuinely enjoys working together. It just so happened that our captain had his birthday our week out and the crew decorated the saloon and made a cake for him. It was a nice touch as was the celebratory cheers and pats on the back when my son came up from his 100th dive. I would not hesitate to recommend this operation and am trying to figure out how to book another trip with the rest of my family.
Here are the 20 dives that we did this trip:
Dive #: 1
Location: Periwinkle - Bahamas just east of Nassau
Date of dive: 3/9/13
Narrative: Shallow patch reef with grouper, lots of seargent majors, ocean triggerfish and Logan found a yellow sting ray. 23 foot max depth and 70 degrees - cold!
Dive #: 2
Location: Blacktip Wall
Date of dive: 3/10/13
Narrative: Lots of swim-throughs open up onto the wall lionfish were big.
Dive #: 3
Location: Austin Smith (aka Carless current)
Date of dive: 3/101/13
Narrative: This was a Bahamian Coast Guard vessel that was shot down by the Cubans killing Austin Smith. There were several reef shark and big grouper with lionfish.
Dive #: 4
Location: Basket Star
Date of dive: 3/10/13
Narrative:We were hunting for lionfish and saw 2 but also saw a red tipped sea goddess, channel crab and turtle. 2 remora tried to attach to us then to the boat. This was a 1 hour dive.
Dive #: 5
Location: Hammerhead Gulch
Date of dive: 3/10/13
Narrative: Rapid Drift Dive with 3 turtles and barracuda
Dive #: 6
Location: Hammerhead Gulch (night dive)
Date of dive: 3/10/13
Narrative: Lots of sting rays and a slipper lobster
Dive #: 7
Location: Wax Cay Cut
Date of dive: 3/11/13
Narrative: Drift Dive with large nurse shark, turtles
Dive #: 8
Location: Fire Coral Reef
Date of dive: 3/11/13
Narrative: Went hunting lionfish and killed 3 - fed one to a Moray.
Dive #: 9
Location: Jeep Reef (in front of Johnny Deps Island)
Date of dive: 3/11/13
Narrative: We found a weight pocket and brought it back to the boat. The Aquacat was also at the same site
Dive #: 10
Location: Jeep Reef
Date of dive: 3/12/13
Narrative: Nice dive, the jeep is all rusted out Logan got stung by fire coral on his hand and it hurt.
Dive #: 11
Location: Danger Reef
Date of dive:3/12/13
Narrative: Several big sharks, huge grouper and a couple of lionfish. Got a pic of Logan and a shark in the same frame
Dive #: 12
Location: Crack Head
Date of dive: 3/12/13
Narrative:We spearfished this dive. Many big lionfish and swim throughs, unfortunately also sharks, one bumped Bens hand (holding the spearpole). Ben gave the fish to the shark by dropping the spearpole after ignoring Logans plea to drop it earlier.
Dive #: 13
Location: Plane Wreck and Normans Cay
Date of dive: 3/12/13
Narrative: Shallow dive on a plane that had been part of the drug running from the 80s, saw a couple of lionfish unable to get a good shot though.
Dive #: 14
Location: Washing Machine
Date of dive: 3/12/13
Narrative: Very Fast Drift dive, it was like being flushed down the pipes of a toilet without the .."edit". There was a huge abundance of yellow stingrays at the end and a very persistent remora followed us the last few minutes of the dive
Dive #: 15
Location: Barracuda Shoals
Date of dive: 3/12/13
Narrative: Night Dive, sea Turtle, Logan saw a shark during the night dive that was swimming very fast. We had to surface to get our bearings on this dive.
Dive #: 16
Location: Crab Mountain
Date of dive: 3/13/13
Narrative: Spearfishing we got 2 nice lionfish. The site has very nice spurs with high profile and swim throughs out to the wall. The wall went very deep but we maxed out at 93 feet
Dive #: 17
Location: Crab Mountain
Date of dive: 3/13/13
Narrative: We had so much fun on this site that we asked to dive it a second time. We refined our technique by using 1 spear to immobilize the lionfish and another to carry it back on the single tip pole back to the boat. We saw one shark which fortunately was not aggressive.
Dive #: 18
Location: 15 shades of Blue
Date of dive: 3/13/13
Narrative: Small circular patch of healthy coral on the Bahama sound. Got 2 big lionfish, tiny lionfish survived under the coral reef (Could not get a good shot).
Dive #: 19
Location: Blue Hole
Date of dive: 3/13/13
Narrative: This was a very different type of dive. We maxed out at 96 feet and could just see the bottom at over 200 feet. There were 3 sharks int he sink hole and a small cave as well. It was a dark and overcast stormy day which made it kind of eerie to explore.
Dive #: 20
Location: Sargent Major Reef
Date of dive: 3/14/13
Narrative: Logans 100th dive
