Stuart Cove's August 9th

[RalphJr]

My wife and I will be in Nassau on Thursday night August 7th or Friday morning depending on our connecting flight into and out of Fort Lauderdale. I had originally allowed two hours to make the connection but the airlines have changed my itinerary and now only have 45 minutes. Based on the number of on time flights I have flown on over the past three years (3 out of 12) I don't like my odds. Are any SB member going to be there at the same time?

We will be staying at the Orange Hill Beach Inn and diving with SC. I plan on doing the Shark Dive and I am wondering if I should shoot my own video, take the still camera or just go and experience the dive. When I am playing cameraman I always seem to miss stuff that is going on around me as I fiddle with the camera or I am filming what is in front of me as something really awesome swims past my back! But worse are the times when you see something really cool and you don't have a camera.

I really think that it is a two edged sword camera or no camera; I like to share the underwater marvels with my land lover friends but I truly become immersed in my dives when I don't take one with me.

Other than the shark dive, If you had to choose one dive site as a must see with Stuart Cove's what would that be?

 

[Captain Morgan]

I've been to Stuart Cove's, it was a great experience. I'm actually going there again in January so I'm going to overshoot you by like 5 months. You mentioned the Shark dive, exhilarating rush. Don't forget to look in the sand after the frenzy for shark teeth, you're bound to find some.

Don't worry about missing any of the action in regards to whether you should bring a video camera or not, Stuart Cove's films the experience. They will give you the opportunity to buy a copy at the end of the dive. My only gripe is how expensive it is.

Hope you and your wife have a wonderful trip.

 

[LesThePrez]

I'll be diving with SC from 8/11-8/13. I plan to do the shark dives (again) on 8/12. I'm be staying at the Orange Hill (again). I know the island pretty well. When the Nassau Scuba Center was open I wore the chain mail suit & did the feed "fishkabob" style. This is my annual "trip by myself" that the Mrs. lets me go on. Buy the video & enjoy the dive, but let the videographer know in advance that you expect to been seen on the video for more than a few seconds. Les. Safe diving!

 

[Shangrl]

There are quite a few underwater movie sets that are cool to dive with Stuart Cove..the downed plane from Into The Blue, and a few from Thunderball that are shallow dives but very colorful and relaxing. I really enjoyed diving the Avalon...a tanker sank at about 90-100 ft...usually has a pretty stiff current on the surface but once you get down--great viz and a really cool dive! You'll see a few reef sharks and possibly some rays. Have fun~

 

[Shangrl]

PS Orange Hill is a great place to stay..usually packed with divers...very laid back and across the street from Cable Beach. Good choice!

 

[RalphJr]

Les the Prez: We wil be crossing paths I look forward to meeting you. I guess I am really lucky in that my wife is my dive partner and loves diving as much as I do. We normally dive the coast off California and she prefers cold water aquatic life to warm - how crazy is that? She wants to dive Alaska and I think that is in our future but it is going to require some major equipment revisions - dry suits etc. Back to being lucky we have a rack built over our hall bathroom bathtub to hang all of our dive gear to dry when we clean it after a trip - I don't think a lot of wives allow that!

SB Members please sound off about your favorite SC sites, Avalon and plane wrecks have one vote each. Thanks Shangrl.

 

[rje634]

Yes, SC is more than happy to have their photog in the water with you snapping photos that you can buy. My avatar is one of them!
I brought a camera on the dive and got some good shots when I remembered, with all the sharks swimming around you tend to forget you have a camera in your hand.
At the end of the dive I remembered that my camera has a video mode, here is the output of that.
YouTube - Bahamas Shark Dive

Also you can check out my gallery for some of the shark photos...

It was an incredible experience, have a great time..

 

[Captain Morgan]

I guess I am really lucky in that my wife is my dive partner and loves diving as much as I do. We normally dive the coast off California and she prefers cold water aquatic life to warm - how crazy is that? She wants to dive Alaska and I think that is in our future but it is going to require some major equipment revisions - dry suits etc. Back to being lucky we have a rack built over our hall bathroom bathtub to hang all of our dive gear to dry when we clean it after a trip - I don't think a lot of wives allow that!

RalphJr, you are so so lucky. I'm getting my girl interested in diving and we plan to dive Stuart Coves this January (I've already been there once) where she will get certified. I only hope she loves diving as much as I do.

 

[LesThePrez]

My wife also dives & has a few more dives than I. (I'm at 244.) The small problem I have when I do solo is that I gotta pay extra $ for a single room. Everything considered, the OH is the best deal I can get on the island & is the closest to SC. After the am dives I usually take the SC van into downtown Nassau, hang out, & take the #10 bus back to the OH when I lie around the pool & nap! Rrrrrr! Safe divin', mate.

 

[Dantheengineer]

I reckon the "Ray of Hope" just next to the runway shark feed site is a cracker! There are always sharks crusing about the area. The ROH was a cargo ship (about 120') sunk only about 2 years ago so it's still very much intact. You can swim through the companion ways to the sides of the vessel and enter the hull cargo area easily. Try to get the Fin Photo photographer to get a shot of you in the companion way. Look's cool!
The "Port Nelson" is a very close second. (80' Coast guards wreck) only about a year down for her. She's right next to a magnificant little reef. i've come across ALL types of life there. A couple of juvenile drum fish was the high point. Sadly both sites get plenty of current at times and so are not always accessible.
Any of the wall dives are an eye opener. The ones they regularly use have the wall start at 50 to 60 feet and drop off to 6500. They don't expect you to go all the way down!
There's a few large preds kicking about from time to time. Hammerheads have been seen a couple of times since the start of this year and even a small tiger more recently (Not by me sadly!). Turtles are regular visitors and those bloody lion fishes are everywhere!
If you do a night dive, see if you can get to the Will Laurrie or the Bond Wrecks. The soft corals light up very nicely!
Good luck!
Dan