I went on a SCUBA trip to the Bahamas from December 30th, 2017 through January 6th, 2018. This was a Live-A-Board cruise. There were 23 of us divers, plus 10 crew members including kitchen staff. The boat was the Aqua Cat, a 102 foot catamaran specifically designed for diving. There was a 28 foot jet boat that was towed behind, for excursions and safety.
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Note: I took almost no photos on this trip. All of these photos and videos were taken by the the crew. The Videos are great. I split them up so you can see sharks in one, pigs in another, people in another and just diving in yet another. Enjoy.
THE ROUTE
The red line is the route the boat took, starting in Nassau, in the upper left end of the line. It went back and forth on the lower part of the route, depending on weather and where the best diving of the day was.
The Big Picture
This is what I missed by not being home. Broke my heart:
This is what I missed by not being home. Broke my heart.
THE BOAT
This is the boat we were on. I wish. The marina had loads of these Yachts, but for some reason I was never invited to go on any of them.
Unfortunately NOT our boat.
This was the boat. Not bad, but not as nice as the first one.
This was the boat. Not bad, but not as nice as the first one.
The lower rear portion is for diving off of. The rooms were in front of the dive area. The second floor had an outdoor and indoor eating and hanging out area, and the top floor had lounge chairs for soaking up the sun.
The lower rear portion is for diving off of. The rooms were in front of the dive area. The second floor had an outdoor and indoor eating and hanging out area, and the top floor had lounge chairs for soaking up the sun.
When they say a Giant Stride off the boat, they really mean it. Men, remember to close your legs before you hit the water. You will only forget one time.
When they say a Giant Stride off the boat, they really mean it. Men, remember to close your legs before you hit the water. You will only forget one time.
THE SHARKS
There were a lot of sharks in the area. Mostly Reef Sharks, but a few divers saw, and photographed, a hammerhead. It was just getting to the time of year when you start seeing the hammerheads more frequently. Just in case you were not happy seeing only a few sharks per dive, we did a shark dive where food in the form of a frozen fish-sicle is brought down so you can see a lot of sharks in close proximity. I was able to retrieve a few teeth off the bottom when the feeding was done.
There was one dive where 3 of us were under the boat and a bunch of sharks came in and were circling around us. At one point I noticed that they seemed to be paying just a little bit more attention to me. Then I realized that I had walked across the boat, right through the area where they had been cleaning fish earlier. I think I smelled like a fish-sicle.
You might think divers are a bit weird. One time when we got to one of our dive sites, a bunch of sharks came swimming up around the boat, circling just below the surface. Everyone was saying things like “hurry up and get ready so we can jump in with the sharks”. Yup, we are weird.
That’s a well chewed fish-sicle.
THE SWIMMING PIGS
In sailing days, when sailors would find an island with fresh water, they would leave a few pigs and chickens or sometimes goats on the island. This way, when they came back there would be food and water. These particular pigs learned that if they swam out to boats then people would throw food in their mouths. It is pretty darned funny, and a good thing to do first thing in the morning after our New Years celebration.
THE CRITTERS
Lots of things to see under the ocean. Here are just a couple.
