desert diver 71
Guest
We did 14 dives in 6 days with Stuart Cove in Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas. They are a larger dive shop compared to most others. To start, the bus picked us up at our hotel on time, with about a 30 min. ride from Cable beach. They assigned us to the advanced boat based on our certification level when we arrived for check-in. The first dive of the trip was usually a wall dive, 80-100 ft. depths & guided by a divemaster. The second dive was a shallow, unguided dive. We decided to mix it up and alternate with the beginner & advanced boat and take the beginner boat the second day. The dive profile was the same as the advanced boat with the addition of a second divemaster/videographer. I was surprised they took brand new divers out over the wall with no bottom. 1 guy we met had 4 dives before we did the wall dive. The only benefit we had by using the beginner boat was that the boat was bigger and we had plenty of room. During the entire week we never had more than 12 divers on board either boat. We did the afternoon shark dive at the Edward Williams wreck, we hung onto the railing with the divemaster/feeder on the deck. We had about 5 sharks total, a nice dive.
All in all the crews were good, helpful and we were happy with the overall trip. On the downside, the dive shop gets crowded. There are a lot of snorkelers there besides the divers. If you do the morning trip, you will arrive back at the dock around the time the afternoon buses arrive. If you can, try to buy your food/souvenirs before the buses arrive since the lines are long & slow with all the customers making purchases and completing registration paperwork. The only part I didn't like was they limited your dive times since they run a tight schedule. We usually came back on board with 700-800 PSI, other divers with good air consumption were boarding with 1000 PSI and higher.
Besides the sharks, we seen 2 turtles, barracuda, several stingrays, a large moray eel under the Port Nelson wreck, lots of small fish and lionfish on almost every dive.
All in all the crews were good, helpful and we were happy with the overall trip. On the downside, the dive shop gets crowded. There are a lot of snorkelers there besides the divers. If you do the morning trip, you will arrive back at the dock around the time the afternoon buses arrive. If you can, try to buy your food/souvenirs before the buses arrive since the lines are long & slow with all the customers making purchases and completing registration paperwork. The only part I didn't like was they limited your dive times since they run a tight schedule. We usually came back on board with 700-800 PSI, other divers with good air consumption were boarding with 1000 PSI and higher.
Besides the sharks, we seen 2 turtles, barracuda, several stingrays, a large moray eel under the Port Nelson wreck, lots of small fish and lionfish on almost every dive.
