Tanked Monkey
Contributor
My wife and I just got back from a little trip to Grand Bahama Island last night, and jeez, I wish I was still there. We dove with Fred and Melinda at Grand Bahama Scuba, and they were great. My wife and I did our AOW with them, as well as regular dives. GBS picked us up at our hotel, and were always on time. They also dropped us off at the end of the dive day. We stayed at the Port Lucaya Resort and Yacht Club. It was basic accomodations, just fine for us, as we spent very little time in the room. The best thing about the hotel was that it was directly next to the restaurant and shopping area.
Day 1: Too much wind, water was too rough to dive. So we did our coursework and easy navigation dive (in the canal) that day. Glad that happened on the first day, so we got most of the classes and navigation part out of the way. Only one dive today, and it was in the canal. I hope the weather turns! Water was 75, and I wore a 3 mil today. I have a feeling that is too cold for repetitive diving.
Day 2: Rain
Luckilly, GBS set it up ahead of time so we could dive in Ben's Cave (an inland cavern dive). It was wonderful. The experience was somewhere between Florida springs and Mexico cenotes. Very easy entry like in FL, but also stalagmites, no flow, and a halocline like in MX. Only one dive today too, but what a wonderful dive it was! Switched to my 7 mil, and am very happy.
Day 3: Beautiful weather. We were all set to dive Theo's Wreck, but another problem surfaced. We just hooked into the mooring ball on the bow of the wreck, and it began to drift. Turns out the line was so frayed, all it took was one more boat to cause it to snap. And that just happened to be us. The wreck's stern mooring was long gone. So we abandoned that site and moved to Duncan's Wreck. Duncan's was broken into 3 main pieces, and was a great dive. After that, we did Questor, which is a nearby reef and ranges from 40 fsw to about 60 fsw. The afternoon dive was Pygmy Caves, which were alot of fun. It was kind of like many grooves, or small canyons.
Day 4: Sunny, nice weather. We started out at Theo's for another attempt. This time, Fred dropped anchor about 25 yards from the bow. We descended and did a nice trip alongside the wreck, then some mild penetration keeping daylight always in sight. While we were diving, they re-attached the mooring line to the bow, so it will be there for future boats. Next dive we went to Shark Junction. Even though we didn't feed the sharks, they were still plentiful. This site is a combination of sand bottom and nearby reef. The last dive of the day (and trip) was a shallow reef at about 10 fsw. We dove for well over an hour, and still had TONS of air left. We just noticed that everyone else was already back on the boat, so we felt guilty about styaing in the water so long. You know how it is . . . first in the water, last out of the water.
All in all, we did 8 dives, over 4 dive days. If the weather had been better the first 2 days, we would have done more. As it was, we had ample time to do our AOW coursework, and didn't feel pressed by time. It was a great trip. When we do it again, we won't do anything differently, except maybe stay for a few more days.
Mike
Day 1: Too much wind, water was too rough to dive. So we did our coursework and easy navigation dive (in the canal) that day. Glad that happened on the first day, so we got most of the classes and navigation part out of the way. Only one dive today, and it was in the canal. I hope the weather turns! Water was 75, and I wore a 3 mil today. I have a feeling that is too cold for repetitive diving.
Day 2: Rain
Luckilly, GBS set it up ahead of time so we could dive in Ben's Cave (an inland cavern dive). It was wonderful. The experience was somewhere between Florida springs and Mexico cenotes. Very easy entry like in FL, but also stalagmites, no flow, and a halocline like in MX. Only one dive today too, but what a wonderful dive it was! Switched to my 7 mil, and am very happy.Day 3: Beautiful weather. We were all set to dive Theo's Wreck, but another problem surfaced. We just hooked into the mooring ball on the bow of the wreck, and it began to drift. Turns out the line was so frayed, all it took was one more boat to cause it to snap. And that just happened to be us. The wreck's stern mooring was long gone. So we abandoned that site and moved to Duncan's Wreck. Duncan's was broken into 3 main pieces, and was a great dive. After that, we did Questor, which is a nearby reef and ranges from 40 fsw to about 60 fsw. The afternoon dive was Pygmy Caves, which were alot of fun. It was kind of like many grooves, or small canyons.
Day 4: Sunny, nice weather. We started out at Theo's for another attempt. This time, Fred dropped anchor about 25 yards from the bow. We descended and did a nice trip alongside the wreck, then some mild penetration keeping daylight always in sight. While we were diving, they re-attached the mooring line to the bow, so it will be there for future boats. Next dive we went to Shark Junction. Even though we didn't feed the sharks, they were still plentiful. This site is a combination of sand bottom and nearby reef. The last dive of the day (and trip) was a shallow reef at about 10 fsw. We dove for well over an hour, and still had TONS of air left. We just noticed that everyone else was already back on the boat, so we felt guilty about styaing in the water so long. You know how it is . . . first in the water, last out of the water.
All in all, we did 8 dives, over 4 dive days. If the weather had been better the first 2 days, we would have done more. As it was, we had ample time to do our AOW coursework, and didn't feel pressed by time. It was a great trip. When we do it again, we won't do anything differently, except maybe stay for a few more days.
Mike
