DiveMaven
Contributor
Part 1
We left early on Saturday morning for our 2-week back-to-back trip on the Nekton Pilot to NW Bahamas and Cay Sal Banks. Our plane was delayed, but Jeff in the Nekton van picked us up at the airport and we were able to get dinner before meeting everyone at the liquor store and Publix to buy sodas, beer, etc. After shopping, we were taken to the Pilot and she looked exactly the same as 18 months ago in Belize.
Once on board, we went to our cabin to unpack and settle in. We were pleased to note that not only Capt. Ephey was still captain and on-board, but Arminda was still the chef and Leslie was the steward. Everyone else was different, and there were 3 new crew members who had been on the boat for a week or less.
After a boat briefing and lifejacket drill, we put to sea. We hung out for a little while on deck, then in the lounge talking with folks. We went to bed and slept well during the easy crossing to the Bahamas.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
After breakfast, we went up on the sun deck to look around at the scenery and wait for the dive briefing. Tyler led the briefing and explained about the dive deck, the tanks, etc., all things we remembered from our Belize trip.
We finally got to dive on a site called Indian Cay. We were to do one dive there, then the boat would move to Scoto’s Reef, which was about 2 hours north. They put a couple of safety divers in the water with us to help people check buoyancy, and I think to check out people’s diving ability. There was a strong current at the top but once we descended, there was only a slight current, so the dive was easy and a lot of fun. We immediately went to the coral heads and began searching for macro critters. We weren't disappointed by all the Pederson Cleaner Shrimp, Yellowline Arrow Crabs, and Spotted Cleaner Shrimp we discovered. There was also an abundance of marine life and we knew that we were likely to see just about every fish in the ID book in the next two weeks.
During lunch (and after) the boat moved to a site called Scoto’s Reef. Again, it was a good reef to find all sorts of macro creatures, and was teeming with just about every tropical fish in the book. We also saw our first free swimming Caribbean Reef Shark of the trip, and that was super cool. He was about 4’ long and just cruised the reef, not caring that we were there at all. We’re looking forward to swimming with sharks more as the trip goes on.
Dinner was Prime Rib and the first of many excellent meals in our future by Arminda!
Monday, July 3, 2007
The boat moved to a sand flat area looking for dolphins for everyone to play with. It took about an hour of driving around in circles for the dolphins to show up, but when they did, everyone jumped in and attempted to entertain them to keep them around for awhile. At first there were only 3 Spotted dolphins, but a short time later 5 more arrived. After everyone was tired from snorkeling, we left for a site called Sugar Wreck.
The weather thus far has been typical for this area, sunshine, occasional rain, thunder, and lightening and we’ve seen all of those things. Strangely enough, during the 2 hour trip to the site, the boat was struck by lightening! We were in our cabin trying to nap when we heard what sounded like a mortar going off outside our windows. We immediately looked outside and all we saw was a huge puff of black smoke hanging in the air. We went out to the salon to see what happened and just as we though, they said that lightening had struck close by. We didn’t think the boat had been hit, but later when we went on deck, Capt. Ephey pointed out the antennas on the pilot house, showing that they had been hit and were charred at the end. The lightening knocked out 2 radios, the satellite phone, fried some gauges, and knocked the engines off line for awhile. Capt. Ephey told us that in all his years of working on boats, this was just the third time a boat he was on had been struck by lightening. Capt. Ephey got the engines back on-line after about 30 minutes of checking everything to make sure it was safe to continue, and we arrived at the Sugar Wreck a little over an hour later.
Our first dive on Sugar Wreck was all about looking for different types of fish and scouting the lay of the land. Strangely, the Arrow Crabs and cleaner shrimp that are so common on other sites aren’t to be found here. The crew thinks that may be because there are too many fish and the macro critters simply get eaten. The site has more fish than you’d be able to count, as well as all sorts of feather duster worms, flamingo tongues everywhere, and more juvenile fish than is believable. There are also Pacific Lionfish to be found. Nobody knows how the Lionfish got here, but there were two on this wreck and they were spectacular. We were able to take pictures of them on both dives but during the second dive we were alone in the water and were able to set up shots better, eliminate any silting, and my husband could take his own time to get the shots he wanted.
After two 1 hour dives, we were ready for dinner and to relax for awhile before our first ever night dive. At about 8:00 the dive deck was open and we were the first in the water for the night dive. We were fortunate enough to drop right in on 2 southern sting rays and swim with them for awhile. My husband decided to leave his camera behind since he didn’t want to task load on his first night dive, and although it was the smart thing to do, it was sad that he missed some great pictures. The critters definitely changed at night, with oodles of little snails and crabs crawling around everywhere.
At the end of our night dive and on our way to the boat, we again encountered 3-4 southern sting rays, ranging from huge to small. While waiting to board the boat, another diver told us to look in the water as there was a large squid swimming about. We immediately looked and watched what appeared to be about a 10” squid cruising near the surface. He was very pretty and it was our first squid sighting. This trip is definitely turning into one of many firsts for us. I boarded the boat and as soon as I headed toward our bench, I noticed a flying fish flopping on the deck! I immediately picked him up and threw him back into the water immediately, and hopefully he survived his traumatic ordeal….but it was another first for me!
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Our first site was Theo’s Wreck, which is an old cement carrier that was sunk to make an artificial reef and dive site. The cargo hold was cut completely open so it’s safe to penetrate the wreck and snoop around inside. There wasn’t an abundant amount of life on the wreck, but the one thing we found a large quantity of were arrow crabs! Some of them were extremely large for their species, and my husband had fun taking pictures of them.
Our second site was Shark Alley. It was a disappointing site in that everything was covered with sand and algae and dead looking. We did manage to find three large Reef Sharks (4-6’
and a large Nurse Shark (5-6’, as well as a couple of very pretty Spotted eels. We hadn’t planned on night diving here, but even if we had, we would have skipped it. The site just wasn’t that much fun to dive.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
The dive site this morning was Rocky Mt. High. It wasn’t a bad site, but visibility was poor at 30-40 feet. There were a lot of Yellow Headed Jawfish in the sand, conch, blue and orange tunicates, quite a few Pederson cleaner shrimp, as well as the usual tropical fish. It was a small site, so with everyone in the water it tended to get crowded. We cut our surface interval a little shorter so we could get in the water before everyone, and we basically had the site to ourselves for about 30minutes before the big group that always dove together showed up.
It was a 3 hour boat trip to the Hesperus Wreck, so we took a nap, watched a movie, read, and just generally hung out. When we got there, two Blackbeard’s boats were on the site, and although one moved off within a few minutes, the captain of the other one was new and said he was uncomfortable with the Pilot being moored only 40 feet away from his boat. Captain Ephey knew he would encounter this captain again, so agreed to stay off the mooring until the other boat moved off. That gave us an additional hour to relax, getting us in the water just before dinner and basically limiting us to one afternoon dive. I was disappointed at first, but once we were able to dive and see the site, it was clear that it’s really a one day dive and one night dive site.
The highlight of this dive for me was the Lionfish, the MANY Southern Stingrays we saw, and the juvenile spotted drum. Unfortunately, the camera seemed to be malfunctioning so we didn’t get good pictures of the lionfish nor the drum. The site was definitely too small to need to stay down forever, so we were back on board after making two circles around the wreck, taking only 45 minutes.
For the night dive, we had to wait until the Blackbeards boats finished, which put us in the water at 10pm. One passenger convinced Capt. Ephey that there were quite a few folks who weren’t going to dive, thus we didn’t need two groups. Capt. Ephey agreed and sent everyone to the dive deck. Unfortunately, they were wrong….about 20 people wanted to night dive, making the site very crowded. I found a free swimming Lionfish out in the sand, which my husband got some good pictures off. He also found some cool Giant Hermit Crabs, and Clinging Channel Crabs out on patrol. We also saw two huge Loggerhead Turtles, but the Blood Worms were out in force and the pictures didn’t turn out well. After almost 30 minutes of getting battered by the blood worms, I called the dive.
We left early on Saturday morning for our 2-week back-to-back trip on the Nekton Pilot to NW Bahamas and Cay Sal Banks. Our plane was delayed, but Jeff in the Nekton van picked us up at the airport and we were able to get dinner before meeting everyone at the liquor store and Publix to buy sodas, beer, etc. After shopping, we were taken to the Pilot and she looked exactly the same as 18 months ago in Belize.
Once on board, we went to our cabin to unpack and settle in. We were pleased to note that not only Capt. Ephey was still captain and on-board, but Arminda was still the chef and Leslie was the steward. Everyone else was different, and there were 3 new crew members who had been on the boat for a week or less.
After a boat briefing and lifejacket drill, we put to sea. We hung out for a little while on deck, then in the lounge talking with folks. We went to bed and slept well during the easy crossing to the Bahamas.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
After breakfast, we went up on the sun deck to look around at the scenery and wait for the dive briefing. Tyler led the briefing and explained about the dive deck, the tanks, etc., all things we remembered from our Belize trip.
We finally got to dive on a site called Indian Cay. We were to do one dive there, then the boat would move to Scoto’s Reef, which was about 2 hours north. They put a couple of safety divers in the water with us to help people check buoyancy, and I think to check out people’s diving ability. There was a strong current at the top but once we descended, there was only a slight current, so the dive was easy and a lot of fun. We immediately went to the coral heads and began searching for macro critters. We weren't disappointed by all the Pederson Cleaner Shrimp, Yellowline Arrow Crabs, and Spotted Cleaner Shrimp we discovered. There was also an abundance of marine life and we knew that we were likely to see just about every fish in the ID book in the next two weeks.
During lunch (and after) the boat moved to a site called Scoto’s Reef. Again, it was a good reef to find all sorts of macro creatures, and was teeming with just about every tropical fish in the book. We also saw our first free swimming Caribbean Reef Shark of the trip, and that was super cool. He was about 4’ long and just cruised the reef, not caring that we were there at all. We’re looking forward to swimming with sharks more as the trip goes on.
Dinner was Prime Rib and the first of many excellent meals in our future by Arminda!
Monday, July 3, 2007
The boat moved to a sand flat area looking for dolphins for everyone to play with. It took about an hour of driving around in circles for the dolphins to show up, but when they did, everyone jumped in and attempted to entertain them to keep them around for awhile. At first there were only 3 Spotted dolphins, but a short time later 5 more arrived. After everyone was tired from snorkeling, we left for a site called Sugar Wreck.
The weather thus far has been typical for this area, sunshine, occasional rain, thunder, and lightening and we’ve seen all of those things. Strangely enough, during the 2 hour trip to the site, the boat was struck by lightening! We were in our cabin trying to nap when we heard what sounded like a mortar going off outside our windows. We immediately looked outside and all we saw was a huge puff of black smoke hanging in the air. We went out to the salon to see what happened and just as we though, they said that lightening had struck close by. We didn’t think the boat had been hit, but later when we went on deck, Capt. Ephey pointed out the antennas on the pilot house, showing that they had been hit and were charred at the end. The lightening knocked out 2 radios, the satellite phone, fried some gauges, and knocked the engines off line for awhile. Capt. Ephey told us that in all his years of working on boats, this was just the third time a boat he was on had been struck by lightening. Capt. Ephey got the engines back on-line after about 30 minutes of checking everything to make sure it was safe to continue, and we arrived at the Sugar Wreck a little over an hour later.
Our first dive on Sugar Wreck was all about looking for different types of fish and scouting the lay of the land. Strangely, the Arrow Crabs and cleaner shrimp that are so common on other sites aren’t to be found here. The crew thinks that may be because there are too many fish and the macro critters simply get eaten. The site has more fish than you’d be able to count, as well as all sorts of feather duster worms, flamingo tongues everywhere, and more juvenile fish than is believable. There are also Pacific Lionfish to be found. Nobody knows how the Lionfish got here, but there were two on this wreck and they were spectacular. We were able to take pictures of them on both dives but during the second dive we were alone in the water and were able to set up shots better, eliminate any silting, and my husband could take his own time to get the shots he wanted.
After two 1 hour dives, we were ready for dinner and to relax for awhile before our first ever night dive. At about 8:00 the dive deck was open and we were the first in the water for the night dive. We were fortunate enough to drop right in on 2 southern sting rays and swim with them for awhile. My husband decided to leave his camera behind since he didn’t want to task load on his first night dive, and although it was the smart thing to do, it was sad that he missed some great pictures. The critters definitely changed at night, with oodles of little snails and crabs crawling around everywhere.
At the end of our night dive and on our way to the boat, we again encountered 3-4 southern sting rays, ranging from huge to small. While waiting to board the boat, another diver told us to look in the water as there was a large squid swimming about. We immediately looked and watched what appeared to be about a 10” squid cruising near the surface. He was very pretty and it was our first squid sighting. This trip is definitely turning into one of many firsts for us. I boarded the boat and as soon as I headed toward our bench, I noticed a flying fish flopping on the deck! I immediately picked him up and threw him back into the water immediately, and hopefully he survived his traumatic ordeal….but it was another first for me!
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Our first site was Theo’s Wreck, which is an old cement carrier that was sunk to make an artificial reef and dive site. The cargo hold was cut completely open so it’s safe to penetrate the wreck and snoop around inside. There wasn’t an abundant amount of life on the wreck, but the one thing we found a large quantity of were arrow crabs! Some of them were extremely large for their species, and my husband had fun taking pictures of them.
Our second site was Shark Alley. It was a disappointing site in that everything was covered with sand and algae and dead looking. We did manage to find three large Reef Sharks (4-6’
and a large Nurse Shark (5-6’, as well as a couple of very pretty Spotted eels. We hadn’t planned on night diving here, but even if we had, we would have skipped it. The site just wasn’t that much fun to dive. Wednesday, July 4, 2007
The dive site this morning was Rocky Mt. High. It wasn’t a bad site, but visibility was poor at 30-40 feet. There were a lot of Yellow Headed Jawfish in the sand, conch, blue and orange tunicates, quite a few Pederson cleaner shrimp, as well as the usual tropical fish. It was a small site, so with everyone in the water it tended to get crowded. We cut our surface interval a little shorter so we could get in the water before everyone, and we basically had the site to ourselves for about 30minutes before the big group that always dove together showed up.
It was a 3 hour boat trip to the Hesperus Wreck, so we took a nap, watched a movie, read, and just generally hung out. When we got there, two Blackbeard’s boats were on the site, and although one moved off within a few minutes, the captain of the other one was new and said he was uncomfortable with the Pilot being moored only 40 feet away from his boat. Captain Ephey knew he would encounter this captain again, so agreed to stay off the mooring until the other boat moved off. That gave us an additional hour to relax, getting us in the water just before dinner and basically limiting us to one afternoon dive. I was disappointed at first, but once we were able to dive and see the site, it was clear that it’s really a one day dive and one night dive site.
The highlight of this dive for me was the Lionfish, the MANY Southern Stingrays we saw, and the juvenile spotted drum. Unfortunately, the camera seemed to be malfunctioning so we didn’t get good pictures of the lionfish nor the drum. The site was definitely too small to need to stay down forever, so we were back on board after making two circles around the wreck, taking only 45 minutes.
For the night dive, we had to wait until the Blackbeards boats finished, which put us in the water at 10pm. One passenger convinced Capt. Ephey that there were quite a few folks who weren’t going to dive, thus we didn’t need two groups. Capt. Ephey agreed and sent everyone to the dive deck. Unfortunately, they were wrong….about 20 people wanted to night dive, making the site very crowded. I found a free swimming Lionfish out in the sand, which my husband got some good pictures off. He also found some cool Giant Hermit Crabs, and Clinging Channel Crabs out on patrol. We also saw two huge Loggerhead Turtles, but the Blood Worms were out in force and the pictures didn’t turn out well. After almost 30 minutes of getting battered by the blood worms, I called the dive.
