Trip Report Tiger Beach and Bimini on the Dolphin Dream, March 11-19, 2022

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Tiger Beach and Bimini on the Dolphin Dream, March 11-19, 2022

My friend and dive buddy, @Dan and I recently had the pleasure of going to Tiger Beach and Bimini to dive with Tiger Sharks, Lemon Sharks, Reef Sharks, a Great Hammerhead, a few Bull Sharks and many Nurse Sharks.

Reservations: I reserved my spot on the Dolphin Dream directly with Captain Scott Tiger Shark Diving Bahamas! (sharkexpedition.com) I did an 8 night trip, they also have 7 and 6 night trips, the 6 night trips do not go to Bimini. A deposit is required to confirm the reservation, the balance is due 30 days before the trip. Captain Scott is available by phone or email but there may be a delay if the boat is out. The price of the trip includes all expenses, including $200 in taxes and fees and beer.

Travel: I have a townhouse just north of Boynton Beach. I flew directly from Philadelphia to Palm Beach International, West Palm, on March 7. Dan and I got in a couple of days of local diving before boarding the Dolphin Dream Trip Report - Back in Florida, 2022 #1 The boat leaves from the Blue Heron Fishing Fleet at the western end of the Blue Heron Bridge. There is parking available. No Covid testing was required for this trip. We did check in with immigration at West End on Grand Bahama and when returning to West Palm. We did not set foot in the Bahamas. Captain Scott was in possession of our passports for the duration of the trip.

Boat and Crew: The Dolphin Dream is an 86 foot long, 26 foot wide, ocean expedition trawler yacht. She was converted to a scuba diving boat by Captain Scott in 2004. She has twin engines, twin compressors, is fully air conditioned, and has a safety chase boat. The boat takes a maximum of 12 passenger. There are six cabins below deck, each with bunk beds, with shelves and under bed storage. One of the cabins has a double bottom bunk. The main stairway to the cabins is next to the kitchen/salon, right next to an exit outside. There is an emergency ladder exit at the other end of the cabin area that exits in the salon, right in front of an exit to the back deck.

The salon/dining area, kitchen and serving counter are on the main deck. The main deck also includes the two large bathrooms, including good showers. There is a third shower outside. The back deck includes a small camera table, picnic table, and cubbies for diver’s personal items. The dive deck stores the tanks and fins. Tanks are filled directly from the compressor between dives. Dives were on air, fills were routinely excellent with an average of 3257 psi (3118-3478 psi).The upper deck has storage for the chase boat, space for wetsuit and gear drying, and a sundeck.

Our crew consisted of Captain Scott, very experienced and skilled deck/diving crew, Finch, deck/diving crew trainee, Josh, and the gregarious and wonderful cook, Courtney. Captain Scott has been plying these waters since he was a young man, for 42 years

We only had 9 divers on our trip. Unfortunately, a party of 3 had to cancel at the last minute due to a personal emergency. All of the passengers were from the US with the exception of one very adventuresome woman from Japan, who was a professional photographer.

We had a full and very thorough safety briefing prior to the departure to the Bahamas.

 

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Diving: Our trip got off to a rough start, literally. We left West Palm on Friday evening in the setting of increasing brisk wind and building swells. The crossing to Grand Bahama was reasonably rough. Though I am not prone to seasickness, I applied a transdermal scopolamine patch before the trip, just to make sure. We had to anchor off Grand Bahama the next day and were unable to check in with immigration or do out checkout dive. On Sunday, we were able to check in with immigration at West End and do our checkout dive at Bootle Bay. We sailed up to Tiger Beach but were unable to dive due to very poor visibility after wind and swells. Starting on Monday, our dive schedule got back on schedule. Here is a summary to the entire itinerary:

Friday March 11: Board the Dolphin Dream, depart West Palm to Grand Bahama

Saturday March 12: Anchor off Grand Bahama due to wind and swells

Sunday March 13: Check in with immigration at West End. Do checkout dive at Bootle Bay, sail up to Tiger Beach

Monday March 14: 3 dives at Fish Tales, Tiger Beach

Tuesday March 15: 3 dives at Fish Tales, Tiger Beach, all 3 feeding dives

Wednesday March 16: 3 dives at Fish Tales, Tiger Beach, 2 feeding dives with close up encounter

Thursday March 17: Sail to Bimini, looking for dolphins along the way. 2 dives at Hammer Spot, Bimini, both feeding dives

Friday March 18: Snorkel with dolphins. 2 dives at Hammer Spot, Bimini, both feeding dives. Sail back to West Palm

Saturday March 19: Check in with US immigration. Depart the Dolphin Dream

The checkout dive was uneventful, on a shallow reef at Bootle Bay. It was useful in that we were over weighted by 6 pounds so that we could kneel or stand on the sand during the shark feeding dives.

The water temperature at Tiger Beach was 78-79 degrees. I was comfortable in my 5 mm full suit and a 5/3 mm hooded vest as there was often little physical activity during the shark feeding dives. Everyone was required to wear a full suit, hood or hooded vest, and gloves. The wind and swells continued, but decreased somewhat over time. Visibility was about 20-40 or 50 feet. All the dives at Tiger Beach were baited, with a crate lowered over the side of the boat. Only some of the dives were shark feeding dives.

For the nine dives at Tiger Beach, the average maximum depth was 40 ft. (36-43 ft.) and the mean average depth was 34 ft. (31-39 ft.).

The dives at Tiger Beach progressed in a logical way, from the least active to the most. On the first day, all 3 dives were free swims, without feeding. We saw several Tiger Sharks each dive and many Lemon and Reef Sharks. On the 2nd day, all three dives were feeding dives, with all divers in a semicircle, upstream from the feeding crate. There was considerable shark action this day, it all appeared calm and controlled. On the 3rd day, the first 2 dives were feeding dives in which each diver, one at a time, was invited to move up close to Finch, the feeder, off his right shoulder. This was quite an exhilarating experience, though never hectic, always controlled. The last dive at Tiger Beach was a free swim without feeding, to say goodbye to our new friends. I never felt threatened during the experience of diving with the Tiger Sharks. Altogether, we dived with 14 different Tiger Sharks, 9 named and 5 unnamed. Jenn probably made the biggest impression at 13 feet long, with a large girth, possibly pregnant. She always swam by with her entourage of 5 large Cobia. From smallest to largest, we also met Kelly, Jitterbug, Stephanie, Cyndi, Missy, Kim, Natalie, and Carrie.

We did not find any dolphins on our way to Bimini but were able to snorkel with some dolphins on the second morning there. For the four dives at Bimini, the water temperature was 80 degrees and the visibility was about 40 ft. or so. The average maximum depth was 37 ft. (35-40 ft.) and the mean average depth was 33 ft. (31-34 ft.) On the first day, we did two long dives and were rewarded by a Great Hammerhead named Princess that swam circles through the feeding station for a couple of hours. There were also several Bull Sharks and many Nurse Sharks. We did two more dives the next day but did not see Great Hammerheads or Bull Sharks, just the innumerable Nurse Sharks.

I had previously been exposed to many sharks in my diving in the Red Sea, Cocos, Galapagos, the Revillagigedos, Malpelo, SE Florida, and the Caribbean, but I had never participated in a baited/feeding shark experience. Though we got off to a somewhat slow start, we ended up with 14 great dives and I had 18:37 of dive time. This entire trip with Dolphin Dream was tremendous, very professional, safe, and a whole lot of fun. I may repeat it again myself.

 

[scubadada]

Sorry, no photos yet. My wife and I just became first time grandparents when our granddaughter was born two days after I flew home from Florida. I'll be leaving for a week on the Belize Aggressor IV a week from today. I will post some photos when I find the time to go through them, there must be a few good ones.

In the meantime, @Dan has some gorgeous videos, perhaps he will post them here

EDIT: See photos from this trip starting at post #31

 

[deeper thoughts]

very nice

 

[Dan]

Sorry, no photos yet. My wife and I just became first time grandparents two days after I flew home from Florida. I'll be leaving for a week on the Belize Aggressor IV a week from today. I will post some photos when find the time to go through them, there must be a few good ones.

In the meantime, @Dan has some gorgeous videos, perhaps he will post them here

Congratulations for being new grand parents!

Here’s one of trip video when we were in Tiger Beach.

 

[Dan]

Here’s a trip video of Princess

 

[Dan]

Here’s a video of swimming with spotted Dolphins when we were in Bimini.

 

[Dan]

Stay tune for over all trip video. I’m still editing the rest of video clips & pictures.

 

[scubadada]

 

[drrich2]

Sounds like a great trip. Glad you guys got to go. If I interpret correctly from the videos, the great hammerhead was a bit quicker moving, a tad more tense looking, than the tiger sharks tended to be. On my shark feeding dive trip to Jupiter, FL, I only had one dive with more than 1 tiger shark at once, and that was 2. Having more than 1 to watch out for upped the tension a bit. How many were you guys in-water with on a given dive?

Richard.