Hi Everyone
We did a 10 day trip out of Nassau on the "Avalon" from the 17th of August to the 26th. I have to apoligize right off the bat for my lack of underwater photos. It was my own fault because when I pulled out my camera two days prior to leaving I experienced serious non-repairable problems.
We sailed out of Nassau in the afternoon and did a dive right before dark that turned into a night dive. We saw lobster, crabs, tons of fish including my first viewing of a Lionfish.
We then headed for Eleuthera overnite and then headed south the next day diving at different locations.
The water temperture for most dives was 88 degrees so no suits were needed. We dove on a blue hole (Jakes Blue Hole) and there was a lot of fish just hanging on the edge of the cold water coming out of the hole.
We continued south and on he 21st of August we arrived at Conception Island where we stayed for two days and did a number of dives in the area.
On one dive we had just returned to the boat after checking out a large coral area set in the middle of a sandy area. Earlier a grouper had been spearfished by a free diver and after being cleaned the head and carcass was thrown over the side. I was sitting on the sand under the boat in 22 fet of water waiting for the ladder to become clear. I was thinking to myself that there must not be any sharks or other fish in the area because nothing was bothering the fish carcass on the bottom.
I then swam up to the ladder and as I reached it I looked down to see a tiger shark come in and go to work on the scraps. I let everyone know and my wife got on the ladder and watched it. It then swam away. I had only saw photos of tiger sharks before and this was the first live one we have ever seen.
The next day we were taken to a special dive site that the crew had located. This dive was one of the highlights of the trip. We were in about 35 feet of water surrounded by high coral. We were directed to one area where we got to observe cannons (5 or 6) along with a huge anchor. All were encrusted with coral
and spread along the edge of the reef where the ship had apparently struck the coral and broke up. We were advised that the wreck is the Southampton which went down during the war of 1812 when it struck the reef. This is something that must be seen.
That night we headed over to the Exumas and arrived about 3am just off Staniel Cay. The next day we dove the grotto which was a very colourful dive where we got to see a large number of eels, a hawksbill turtle, lobsters and many fish.
We then dove in the Exuma Caves National Park where we saw nice coral, seven lobsters including four under one coral head along with another turtle.
We spent an evening at Staniel Cay where we had a few cocktails at the Staniel Cay dock in their bar.
On the 24th of August we did a shark dive on Danger Reef and the Morning Star (Blackbeards) did a shark fed right next to us at the same time. We saw a large number of Reef sharks as well as some very large nassau groupers.
This is just some of the highlights of the trip but there was many more including side trips to see swimming pigs, The Hermitage (Cat Island) where we walked up to the monastery located at the highest point in the Bahamas at 206 feet above sea level.
We swam with dolphins near Conception Island and at one spot we put two of us in the water with a video camera when we came upon a pod of Beaked Whales. Luckily we got about 45 seconds of video of them. There was one night dive that an octopus put on an amazing show for about 5 minutes.
One of the guest on the boat had a underwater video camera and he took some great shots and video and is going to share them with us. When he sends it to me I will post some of his best shots with his permission.
I have to thank Ray (captain) and his crew for a great trip aboard the Avalon. The Avalon is a 65 foot sailboat that has individual cabins allowing for privacy. Also there is a full ship with 12 passengers allowing for lots of room above and below deck. The toilets are like home and not your typical marine toilet. The food was good and plentiful (thanks Mary Nel).
Big Mac
