Bahamas

[jasondbaker]

I'm taking a much needed vacation to the Bahamas all next week. I'm staying onboard the Shear Water liveaboard based in West Palm Beach. We are crossing over to the west end area on Sunday and diving on the reefs, swimming with dolphins, and checking out the sharks. I'll post a full report when I get back

[jasondbaker]

Hey everybody I'm back!

I can't even begin to describe how amazing this trip was. I'm working on a full trip report and I should have incredible pictures to show within a week. I'll just tease you with a couple previews: 84deg water, 150+ ft vis, sharks every dive, loggerhead turtles, bottlenose dolphins, spotted dolphins, spear fishing, lobster hunting, remora attacks, petting octopus, sting rays, moray eels, wall dives and more.

The Shear Water is an incredible bahamas liveaboard and for the money cannot be beat. Stay tuned for a full report!

[Omicron]

Awesome - welcome back to the frigid waters Glad you had a good time!

[dfreeman]

A couple of weeks ago I took a week off and spent my time on Blackbeards Cruise.  I was on the Sea Explorer with the gand from DivePoint and an interesting selection of people from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Canada, Spain and Denmark.  For those that are not familiar with Blackbeards Cruise, this is a live aboard on a sailboat.  It is realatively inexpensive and is like a camping trip at sea.  This is my second trip, and I had a very enjoyable time.  About 1/3 of the group were repeat visitors to Blackbeards.

We leave from Miami to sail to the Bahamas.  The trusty craft the Sea Explorer is shown at the dock.  While heading out to sea, a quicker vessel passed us.  Looked like fun, but can you dive off of it?

[dfreeman]

We do some fishing off of the Sea Explorer.  Here is a nice catch that was turned into a good meal.  On the crossing to the Bahamas, there can be some great sunsets and we were not disappointed this time either.

[dfreeman]

We met the sun the next morning in Bimini.  Once we cleared Bahamas Immagration and Customs it was time to get serious with diving.  WIth water like this, you just can not wait to get in.

[dfreeman]

So here we go to the check out dive at The Strip.  First dive, first turtle.  So this is how it is going to be?  We for much of the trip that is the way it was.  Lots of interesting wild life(turtles, sharks, dolphins, even manta ray).

However, for those that were interested, there were many small things to look at also.  For example these fan worms.

[dfreeman]

The diving continued with brightly colored soldierfish to find.  On the wreck of the Sapona, you have some of the biggest pufferfish (porcupinefish) that you will ever see.  THis one was 2 feet in length.

[jasondbaker]

Doug, those pics bring back some great memories.  I'm thinking about doing the Bahamas in July again.  I've considered doing a Blackbeards.  But I was a little spoiled on the last liveaboard with all the extra room. 

[Omicron]

Great shots Doug...glad to see you had a good time!

The Blackbeards cruises are fun...but definitely not luxurious by any measurement