Focusing on numismatics, and commenting upon current legal and world events, not to mention asides into the world of scuba diving, flying, and fine firearms.
Dawn broke on Sunday as we awoke at the first dive site.
A good breakfast and a dive briefing and we got ready to hit the water.
This group was different form my previous two voyages. A lot more teens on board and most of the racks were taken up by a group on a trip organized by Blue Planet Scuba from Washington DC. They had their own instructor and dive master (trainee) with them and most were open water divers so limited to a 60 foot depth. Some were there to take the advanced or deep course in the Bahamas. So it was not a highly experienced bunch of divers, with some exceptions.
This cruise would not be a group of hard-diving, hard-drinking pirates. But, it would be fun all the same.
The first dive was a nice bunny hop on North House Reef. With a max depth of 21.2 feet, it was an easy first dive, even though the waves and swell at the surface made it a little more interesting than anticipated - especially when getting back on the boat.
The water was basically bath water, with the surface at 95 degrees and the lowest temp the whole dive at 87 degrees no wetsuit was needed, just a rash-guard and swim shorts.
Descending, I soon got to see some pretty fish:
Lots of coral and small fish abounded:
Being at such a shallow depth, I had a solid one hour dive and was back on the boat with almost 1000 psi still in the tank. I did get back on the boat without issue, being used to having waves and the ladder kicking around a bit during boarding so it was no problem.
Returned from a great time on a live-aboard doing some diving in the Bahamas with Blackbeard's. I had arrived in the Bahamans the day before departure, meeting up with Jay from the last dive trip.
Six days at sea with this lower rack being the only area for myself and my dry gear:
Blackbeard's is still the best value at sea, so long as you understand that it is camping at sea.
On this trip, we dealt with some harsh weather, rolling seas and difficult dive conditions, so we had to cancel some planned dives and locations we did only 17 of the planned 19 dives due to the conditions and need to move out of the heavy winds and waves.
We dove in the Exumas and off Eleuthera changing sites and maneuvering to avoid the conditions as much as possible.
Still to say the boat was a rockin' was an understatement.
18 divers, 5 crew on a 65 foot boat meant for tight quarters, but a lot of fun and getting to meet people and dive till you drop.
Sharks were seen and fed, stingrays seen, and other denizens of the diving depths were admired as sites both new and familiar were dove.
On the first day, we met up at the boat at noon, got our safety and dive briefings done, setup our gear, had lunch, and began the trip to the exumas.
Everyone needed to be off the boat by 9am, so we had a coffee and a continental breakfast, said our goodbyes. Some people headed right to the airport or their hotels if they were staying for another day, and the rest of us hung around the pool area at the dock waiitng for our scheduled shuttles to the airport.
Since we had plenty of time, I suggested we walk over and visit a fort that was nearby. So Gio, Jay, Morgan and I walked about 15 minutes along the shore to Ft. Montagu.
Ft. Montagu has an interesting history. The oldest extant fort in the Bahamas, it was built starting in June 1741 and completed in July 1742 by the British.
The Americans then captured the Fort, along with the Bahamas governor, in 1776. The British then retook it. The Spanish then captured it in 1782, and then the British retook it once again, and in British hands it remained.
Several cannons remain at the fort, on their swiveling gun carriages.
The fort has a lovely and commanding view of the Harbor entrance;
It's a very nice, if rather small fort, and worth the small admission fee to get in and wander around.
Then, being thirsty on the way back in the heat, we stopped at a stand for some very fresh coconut water.
That was as fresh as you can get, and it was indeed very refreshing.
We then got back to the harbor area and waited for our shuttles to the airport.
After the last dive of the trip we headed back to Nassau and docked.
We then all started packing, and most importantly, enjoying lengthy, hot, showers available at the dock. On the boat, its a salt water shower that you lather up in and you can use cold fresh water to rinse for 30 seconds. It works for cleanliness, but it's not exactly a luxurious experience.
Showers done, everyone mostly packed their things to be ready for departure on the morrow.
The sunset and everyone changed into outfits, and put shoes on once again (everyone was generally in bare feet or scuba boots on board), and we headed out for a night on the town.
We again headed to the Pirate Republic Bar/Brewery and it was reserved for the passengers and crew of the Morningstar, Sea Explorer, and Cat Ppalu.
We had one heckuva good time, and after a few hours we all headed back to the dock, where the party continued pool side.
First we appropriated the rum punch from the Morningstar and broguht it poolside to enjoy. That soon ran out so we decided that we needed to test Sea Explorer's rum punch for freshness and stealthy boarded her.
We decided their punch was too sweet and weak, but we appropriated it anyways, brought it pool side, and then fortified it with more rum from the Morningstar.
We did graciously offer Sea Explorer's crew and divers who showed up pool side some of their now improved rum punch, and they were rather appreciative.
Then one of our crew remembered that we had caught a mahi mahi at sea the day before. We retrieved it and then stealthily reboarded Sea Explorer and he filleted the fish right there and made fresh mahi mahi sashimi for all who were awake and hungry.
Served with soy sauce and wasabi liberated from the galley, it was some of the best I've ever had anywhere.
What it lacked in presentation, it more than made up for in flavor and freshness.
I'm not saying that after the sashimi we went back to the pool and multiple people jumped in, in their clothes, and the fun continued, but I'm not saying that didn't happen either.
Somewhat waterlogged after that event, we made our way back to Morningstar, rinsed off, and went to bed.
The Sea Explorer joined us at the dive site, and yes there is a rivalry between the boats. We were informed that if you ended your dive by getting back on the wrong boat after the dive, you owed a case of beer to that boat. I'm not saying there was an effort to convince Sea Explorer divers that they needed to ascend on our upline rather than theirs . . .
Jay, Gino and I decided to enjoy a nice deep dive for our final dive. This would work as we all had later flights out on Friday, allowing for a full 24 hour no-flying period.
So we did a solid descent and dropped down to 108 feet.
We also checked out the cave that's at around 70 feet as well.
There was a lot of particulate in the water that made photos less than awesome.
A nice little cave.
We then ascended and hung around the top of the blue hole to admire the sea life there.
A gorgeous Triggerfish:
The happiest blue parrotfish I've ever seen:
This fish had a great smile and waved his fins at the divers.
Some quick headshots under water, and then that was the dive.
The last dive with Blackbeard's was a great success. Our last dive together as a buddy team, at least for now.
We then got back on the Morningstar, hung up our gear, started packing things away, and began the voyage back to Nassau.
Average depth was 45 feet for a nice 42 minute dive and it was dive #300 for me, so a nice milestone to achieve on the last dive of the trip.
The last day of diving was both sad as it was the last day of diving, and amazing at the same time.
We got up to a fantastic breakfast as usual, and then headed to the Lobster No Lobster dive site.
It's named Lobster No Lobster as it is the site where Jacques Cousteau learned that Lobsters migrate (without the help of either European or African Swallows).
They do go at times en masse from reef to reef, hence the first dive he did at this particular reef had a ton of lobster, and on a return dive a few days later he found it had none. He later saw a lobster migration as it happened, but he did not confirm or deny that the lobsters were banging coconuts together that they had gripped in their claws as they migrated.
On our dive we did indeed find lobster, and real big ones too:
This lobster actually turned and then used his antennae to smack Gio on his head as he got close to it.
Quite a few reef fish around to enjoy looking at, but then the main even soon arrived.
As you can see in the video, I got some up close face-time with an inquisitive Caribbean Reef Shark. It also startled a few other divers as you can see in the video near the end.
He came close enough on multiple passes that I could've Booped the Snoot, but happily, no snoots were booped in the making of this video.
The shark was rather chill and was content to make quite a few passes checking things out. Two other sharks were also frolicking about the area as well. The idea when a shark comes to check you out is to keep your cool, maintain eye contact, don't try and swim rapidly away from an approaching shark or make any panicked movements. You should be ready to put something like your fins or camera between you and the shark should that be necessary, in this case it was not.
This extended shark encounter made for a fantastic first dive of the last day, and a highlight of the entire trip.
The first dive we did was Morgan's Peak and it got a bit sporty.
It has a shallow area and a wall dive, and of course our dive team went for the wall dive.
We dropped on down the wall and started exploring.
We found a very large crab on the way down to 94 feet.
Some fish and interesting coral down there.
We then started getting close to our No-Deco-Limit and I signaled for us to ascend somewhat to keep within the proper NDL range and let everyone know the air situation. I signaled that we should turn the dive and head back to the upline then, but Jay kept us moving along the wall instead of cutting back immediately, planning to do a rectangular path. That didn't quite work out as he intended.
Unfortunately he made the wrong turn at Albuquerque and we were starting to get low on air and ended up ascending and doing our safety stop kinda far from the boat as he didn't quite close the rectangle he was trying to make.
So we surfaced a pretty darn good distance from the boat, which was still in sight, and signaled we were ok, and we inflated a marker buoy so they would be able to see us.
We then tried swimming to the boat. No dice. The current was against us and the surface was pretty choppy and all we were getting was tired for our efforts. We were also down to around 500 psi each so descending and trying to swim to the boat against the current was also not a great option.
So we signaled we needed a pickup, and the dingy came to get us and we got to ride back to the boat in style. Not a preferred technique, but it gave the deckhand something to do, and was a safe means of getting back. After that dive, the three of us did a debrief and affirmed some better safety procedures to adopt for all future dives.
Unfortunately, at some point after we doffed our gear in the water and got it in the dingy, something had to have hit my primary second stage of my regulator. This apparently hit it just right to mess it up and cause it to do a slow almost silent leak. This would bite me later.
So safely aboard, we headed to the Island of the Iguanas to enjoy a surface interval.
These iguanas are cute and will eat right out of your hand, if you don't mind them biting your hand, as such stick feeding is the way to go:
Lots of fun, and they move real fast when they want to.
Then we got set to dive the Washing Machine, which I had been very much looking forward to doing.
I then discovered the issue with my regulator and we could not get it fixed in time for me to make the Washing Machine dive. This dive is a cool drift dive where the current tumbles you about. We ended up swapping out the entire hose so I was good for subsequent dives but I missed that one.
On the upside, it turned out the Washing Machine had been set to the gentle cycle so I didn't miss much at all. Next time.
We headed back to the Exumas and soon arrived at the Pablo Escobar Plane site - the place I did my first dive with Blackbeard's. Our dive master euphemistically noted the plane had been carrying a cargo of "soccer balls" , and while most had been recovered by the authorities, if we happened to find a "soccer ball" during the dive it needed to be turned over ASAP.
It was a great relaxing dive, at 22 feet for an hour.
Some nice big fish were hanging around the plane wreck.
No sharks were seen, so we likely won't see a Cocaine Shark movie anytime soon. This is good as a shark hyped up on cocaine is a rather scary thought.
It's a fun wreck to dive.
Then for the night dive, my buddies declared themselves too cold to dive, so I went out with Megan. Megan is a newer diver who was getting her Advanced Open Water certification done on the boat.
She was a good dive buddy, needs to work on her trim a bit.
The wreck at night was pretty cool to see, with a big fish hiding underneath it.
Megan was getting cold, so we turned the dive and ended it after 31 minutes. Still, a nice fun dive and neat to see the plane wreck at night.
We got out, hung up our gear, and warmed up with some adult beverages.
Day 5 had some challenges, but it was still a darn good day.
Monolith is a great wall dive that looks like it can go down forever.
There were lionfish at 100 feet.
A nice dive to a max of 101 feet with an average of 57 feet.
After the Monolith, we motored to our next dive site, Split Coralhead.
The crew put the shark feeding hats went on, signaling the fun was about to begin.
It was Shark Feeding Dive time!
It would be a group entry, with everyone prepped in their gear lined up and ready to go at both exit points from the boat, and dropping into the water via negative entries in the shortest time possible.
At 50 feet we would be kneeling on the bottom watching the sharks get fed.
The sharks knew we were coming and were already circling to meet us for a meal.
We all got into position, then the chiumsicle was brought in and the fun began.
Much Shark feeding then took place, along with swarms of hungry jacks.
After the feed, we got to swim around the reef and see some of the sharks up close.
It was a great 47-minute Shark dive with the feeding frenzy itself lasting around 14 minutes. Getting back on the boat with the sharks circling around below was a rather fun feeling, but they were content after the feeding and didn't bother any of us lined up waiting on the tagline to get back on the boat.
We then dove the Cannonball reef.
This was a nice shallow dive with a max depth of 25 feet and average of 20 feet and we got a solid hour bottom time.
Not too much to see except for typical reef fish after the action of the shark dive, but it was a nice relaxing dive indeed.
There were a couple highlights, including a good looking triggerfish there.
It wasn't triggered, which is good as there have been more divers bit by triggerfish than by sharks and triggerfish bites can hurt.
We also found out that fish do grow on trees!
On top of that, there was a cool puffer-fish in the area
After an hour dive, everyone was quite chilled at that point and then getting out of the water with a very cold wind and air temps in the low 60s it felt even worse. As a result, all but 4 divers who were doing their advanced certification on the boat skipped the night dive.
I almost went but both my buddies bailed and convinced me that there wasn't anything too special about the dive site worth getting even more chilled for. Then they plied me with beer, and then the rum punch called, and all the divers not diving had one heckuva fun party on deck.
The next day we dove Cut 'N' Run, Cobia Cage, and Kraken's Lair both during the day and at night.
The Cut N Run site was an anchorage by the where ships would cut their anchor lines and run when they spotted a pirate ship approaching.
So there's a large old anchor chain encrusted in coral that goes for a long way at the site.
There's also a neat plane wreck there as well.
While that plane will never fly again, there was a cool turtle flying through the water:
A fun dive to a max depth 72 feet for 38 minutes.
Cobia Cage is a very cool site, with a huge cage designed to farm cobia. It didn't work as sharks, that love to eat cobia figured out how to get in the cage and its now an encrusted spherical empty cage that is just cool to see. And yes there was a shark circling around that was pretty neat.
And, sadly you can't see it the cage or that shark, as I had a camera housing malfunction. I then had it fixed for the next dive and all was well, but no images from this dive to a max depth of 102 feet (average of 56 feet) for 36 minutes.
Kraken's Lair didn't have any krakens.
It did have some cool tight coral swim-throughs:
And some large barracuda
At night some other creatures would come out.
That lobster was huge. But, not lobster season, you can't take lobster on scuba in the Bahamas anyways, and lobster that large are apparently not very tasty. So, he got to continue going about his underwater nighttime business unhampered.
It was a cool dive. Indeed, the night-time dive was rather chilly getting out in a cold wind.
