Bahamas

[Omicron]

That's bringing back some good memories of some great dives Doug. I was looking through those pictures not too long ago myself...ahhhhhhh.

I can't wait for some warm water!

[FreediveWI]

I did this trip about 10 years ago. I liked the diving, lots of sharks and turtles, but was highly unimpressed with Blackbeards. Besides the "camping" conditions on the boat, our diving was very restricted. I was lucky to get three dives a day in, compared with a trip to Cozumel which allows for an easy 5 dives a day.

I also have to agree with the water being cold. I wore a 6mm one-piece, with attached hood, and was never too warm through out the whole week. Other divers, who were wearing just a 3mm, got VERY cold after just two dives a day.

The Hesper was a good night dive, lot's of BIG turtles, and the Sapona was an interesting snorkel. THe best wreck we did was Theo's wreck off of Grand Bahama- big ship with some nice big eels on it.

Jon

[dfreeman]

We managed to get in 4 dives a day even when cold. It was 45 degrees out one night after the dive. I did not wear my shoes all week. Thank God the aluminum emergency hatches were warm.

My son wore his full 7 mm steam, hood and gloves like he does in Lake Superior. He get cold easy. Also, hard to get up in the morning.

We had a great group and crew. I think that this makes all of the difference.

Look forward to going again.

Planning on Cozumel in March. Five dives a day sounds good to me. Will post the better pictures here. DivePoint is setting up the trip. Should be a good time.

Doug

[Omicron]

We managed four dives a day more often than not. We were only limited by depth - they wanted us to stay above 130, which wasn't really an issue.

As far as conditions...well...what did you expect?

You are putting 30 people on a 60 foot sailboat. Not exactly luxury. I think if you go into it knowing what to expect you would enjoy it more.

[dfreeman]

Are we here to dive or have margaritas in the lawn chair? I get to spend enough time in fancy hotels due to work and find the lawn chair too boring. I am here to dive.

Doug

[FreediveWI]

I can handle sleeping in a bunk, but when I go on vacation I want to spend as much time in the water as possible.

We were limited to 3 dives a day and I was NOT impressed with the boat crew when I was on there- I even had to find the boat for the divemaster once when he got lost. Every other place I've been I have been able to dive my brains out, being stuck on a slow boat as you wait for hours as it slowly motors to the next spot was painfull. I would have rather stayed put and been in the water.

One of the more entertaining parts of the trip was when I would get up and hang out with the crew member on watch to see the sun rise. As soon as it broke the horizon you would see all of these people get up and move baqck to their original bunks.

As far as a depth limit went, there wasn't one when I was there. A couple of Canadians were doing 200' dives and I met another guy, when I was diving in Idaho, who hit 380' while on board the boat- and he even lived to tell! :o

If your into sitting around, getting some sun, and drinking, it seemed like a good time. I went expecting to dive and came away disapponited.

BTW: I was on the Sea Explorer.
Jon

[Omicron]

Huh...very strange. We dove like fiends.

Wake up dive, have breakfast. Dive, come up, have lunch. Dive again, have dinner. Dive again....usually four dives a day, I think I may have even had one five dive day - I'd have to check the log book to be sure.

There weren't any hardcore depth limits, they just kinda said "we'll check computers...." but they never did.

Yowza - 380' on air....how in the HECK did they even have the brains to come back up from that...

[FreediveWI]

He ran so low on gas that he had to suck off of other divers octo's on the way up to clear his computer. Not exactly tech diving- more like gene-pool math.

Jon

[Omicron]

I could see that on an AL80...

I just wouldn't be able to handle being that narced!! There is no way I would even remember to kick my fins...

[FreediveWI]

He did all of the silly deep air rules that we used to use.

- wear freedivng fins while on scuba to limit effort
- never kick up from the bottom, only use your bc
- drop down without kicking, to limit effort
- use the power inflator only while exhaling, so as not to overbreath your regualtor
- get in and out of the deep zone in less than 5 minutes
- did it in warm clear water to give yourslef the illusion of a clear head.
- slow deep "yoga" breaths to limit C02 buildup

All of the silly stuff that they teach in "extended range" classes.

Jon