Lobster, No Lobster. Yes Lobster

After the shark feed we dove Lobster No Lobster.

Did you know that lobsters migrate?  They do, and neither European nor African swallows are involved.

Jacques Cousteau named this site because on one dive he found this reef just teeming with lobster. The next time he dove it there wasn't a lobster to be found.

Yes Lobster do indeed move around and migrate. 

We first dove Lobster No Lobster during the day and didn't see a single lobster.

There was a rather healthy reef system there.

 And smiling fish

 

There were also some quite large Lion fish.

 

Each spine on a lion fish is venomous and if you touch it, it hurts, a lot. So avoiding these invasive species is a really good idea, and there are unfortunately quite a few of them around.

 No lobster in sight.

Still a nice dive. 

The night dive however did have lobster.

Big. Lobster.

 

And a big Crab:

And a tiny Stingray

 

And best of all, a tiny and cute Octopus!

First time seeing an Octopus in the wild.  Very cool. 

That was a night dive for the books, we just kept finding cool creatures.

Day Dive: 44 minutes, average depth 27 feet, and a max depth of 32 feet.

Night dive:  1 hour, average depth 24 feet, and a max depth of 31 feet. 

Shark Dive

The highlight of the Blackbeard's trip is the Shark Feeding Dive.

After seeing some sharks while you dive, there's nothing like watching a bunch of them go after a nice chumsicle.

The boat headed to Split Coralhead for the feed. Split Coralhead is one of two shark feeding sites Blackbeards go to, the other being the Henry Smith wreck.

Just like the drift dive, the entire boat of divers gearded up and lined up to jump in together with a negative entry to drop to the bottom as quickly as possible. 

As we dove in, the sharks were already there waiting. 

 All the divers sat or knelt on a circle and then the chumsicle was brought out.

 

With only four sharks hanging out to be taking care of busienss, the shark feed lasted a long time. it was interesting that only four showed up, normally it's about a dozen.

They got to eat well. 

 

This made the chumsicle last awhile, and even split apart and fall to the ocean floor and the sharks really chowed down on it.

 

This had the sharks get nice and close. 

The expression on this yellow snapper's face as the shark was close behind was like "Dude, I'm outta here!"

 A very enjoyable dive.

It's always an experience seeing eye to eye with sharks.

Seriously eye to eye.

 Yep, that one came rather close.

Dive time of 1 hour and 2 minutes, the longest shark dive I've had yet, with an average depth of 49 feet with a 56 foot max. 

Diving: Cut 'N' Run

On July 7, we dove the Cut 'N' Run site.

Named because there's an anchor and chain on the bottom left there by a merchant ship that upon spying a pirate ship in the distance cut the anchor and ran for it. 

The site has a 50 foot depth by the anchor that slopes down to 70 feet and then 90 at the ledge, and then drops straight down to 1000 feet plus. 

We dropped down the anchor line to the anchor and chain.

 We were joined by a local resident:

 The shark was curious, but as more divers came it took off.

We then headed off into the deep two more recent additions to the bottom. 

Ran and sailed great when last run, prior to sinking in 2024, this sailboat is now available to the discerning diver.

 

 No lowballs, we know what we've got.

Leaving the sailboat behind, we then inspected another wreck.

 

 

A nice airplane wreck.

 it's been there longer than the sailboat by quote soem time.

 There was a nice Black grouper by the wreck.

 

We then headed to the ledge, and off it dropping down the wall.

No bottom in sight.

Dropped to 90 feet along the wall still no bottom in sight.

But there was a big Barracuda.

 Still no bottom, just a blue void below.

After being at 90 feet for a couple minutes I got a NDL (no decompression limit) alarm on my computer so we needed to ascend to avoid a decompression situation that we were really no equipped for handling.

We then went back up and started tracing our way back to the boat. 

We saw some pretty fish on the way.

 

Ended up doing a 5 minute safety stop at 20 feet.

Total dive time of 41 minutes and got to see a shark, fish, two wrecks and an anchor chain.  Quite a nice and enjoyable dive. 

Of Drift Dives And BCDs

A drift dive is when there's a strong enough current that you can jump in the water and get pulled along by it and it takes you on a tour.

We dove Cousteau's Drift. 

You tend to get a longer dive out of it as you're suing less air by not kicking nearly as much as the current takes you where you want to go.

The downside is you're not fighting against the current to get back to where you entered the water, so the boat is going to come pick you up. Everyone sticks together and the divemaster tows a float so the boat knows where you are.

Entry is fun too,  you gear up, buddy check, line up at both exits on the boat and as the boat drifts in the current when you reach the starting point for the dive the Captain yells "Dive, Dive, Dive" and in you go with a negative entry to drop down into the current as rapidly as possible.

Thus turned into quite a cluster of a dive entry.

People all over the place trying to keep an eye on the divemaster and not run into anyone else. 

 

 There's the divemaster with the float in tow.

You could just take a seat and flow with the current.

 

The current was zipping along, as you can see form the coral bending in the current:

 

Got to see a stingray flying in the current as well.

 

This was fun until I started rising a bit. Took some air out of my BCD and that did it. The BCD is the wing on my back behind the tank that you can and or remove air from to adjust your buoyancy.

Then I started rising again, took even more air out wondering how there could still be air in it as I had jumped in with a deflated BCD.

It happened yet again,

Yep, BCD was malfunctioning and it was doing a slow inflate all on its own.

So I removed the hose connecting it to my tank and problem solved for the rest of the dive. The slow leak was taking quite a fair bit of air over time.

At the surface we all were told to inflate out BCDs  so I reattached the hose and Whompf! 

The BCD inflated 100% in seconds and started over-inflating in a very loud manner and spilling air loudly out the overpressure valve.  So I took the hose off again and took some air out as well. The inflator on the BCD had a leak and was staying open. Not a big deal but an annoying that needs to be dealt with and they didnt have the tools on the boat to fix it.  I dove with it a few more times inflating it manually, and then swapped it out for a rental BCD for the rest of the trip.

It was a fun dive and drifting away was kinda relaxing. 

A 37 minute drift dive with a max depth of 29 feet and an average of 18 feet. 

Diving: The Underwater Airplane

Returning to our diving posts, the next dives were on the Pablo Escobar Plane Wreck. 

It's called the Pablo Escobar Plane because it was carrying a rather illicit product from Columbia for smuggling into the US when it crashed. The Bahamas were a major smuggling route at the time for the cocaine trade.

The plane crash has since formed a nice artificial reef for fish to hang around.  All the illicit contents of the plane have long since been removed from the site, leaving aircraft wreckage behind for fish to frolic.

I've dove it quite a few times now, and each time there's something new to see.

 

 

 

Quite a number of big fish were swimming around the wreck too.

 

There were also a some barracuda circling around the wreck, looking for a meal:

 It was a nice dive maximum depth of 23 feet for 57 minutes.

 

Then we went to Barracuda Reef and did a dive there down to 30 feet for 41 minutes.

As night fell, we returned to the Pablo Escobar Plane for a night dive.

 

I did the night dive with Kevin and Jim, two true southern gentlemen from South Carolina.

The wreck looks different at night.

 It was a nice first night dive with a max depth of 21 feet for a 61 minutes.

Dive 1 - North House Reef

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.

Not a bad first dive in the Bahamas at all. 

Back From Diving Paradise

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.

 

Blackbeards Recap 7 - Pre-Airport Perambulations

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.