Well, It was one heck of a trip, 31 days, 450 miles out to San Salvador and back. Don't ask about the fuel bill. Great freediving all along the way. Some of it was world class, a privilege to be there. It takes a while to tell the tale, so relax and enjoy.
The plan was to string together several sets of divers,. The boat was my 25 Seafari, “Someday Came,” of course. First set of divers for two weeks plus, Ft Lauderdale to San Salvador then back to Georgetown, Exuma, with stops at Conceptcion and Rum Cay. All three world class dive spots. Drop the divers in Georgetown, pick up my wife, a week through the Exumas, drop my wife in Nassau, pick up two more divers and spend a week diving our way home. Dolphin diving on the last two days. Pulling all this off, given the vagueries of weather, airlines, boats, Bahamian efficiency, yada ,yada, was going to be some trick.
Everything came together wonderfully. Ted, Unirdna, and Simon, azapa, both extremely competent divers and long time crew on other trips, jumped at the chance to do the first leg. My wife's schedule allowed. Two other divers, a father son team, Dbers of course, signed up for the last leg. The weather looked perfect. El Nino was keeping the hurricanes away. The boat checked out great, and I started getting very nervous. This was way too easy.
Sure enough, a month before take off day, Ted hit a major personal problem and was out. Where in the world was I going to find a diver with the right combination of time, diving skill, boating experience, personality and cash on that kind of short notice? Ted volunteered his share of the expenses, which helped a lot, but that wasn't the major problem. The trip needs three to make the diving work right(one guy driving the boat and two diving). I emailed or called everybody who had ever made a trip with me or wanted to, all the divers I knew and some I didn't, Even asked them to ask their friends. No takers and only about 3 weeks to go. Desperation was setting in. Then I remembered a diver I had corresponded with several years before on another site. A Palm Beach spearo, so I knew he was a pretty good diver and seemed like a nice guy. He owned a Seafari, so he had to be ok. I PMed him and HALALEUYA, he could go. Kudos to his very understanding wife. Matt turned out to be a great shipmate, a real addition to the trip. Luck was working my way again.
The weather on take-off day was so good you could have gone to Bimini in a jet ski and it stayed like that all the way to Conceptcion. We ran pretty hard all the way down, stopping each day to do a little diving and collect some seafood. Some places I knew and some I did not, like Dog Rocks in the Exumas, where you can throw a rock from the island to 100+ feet of water. Nice ledge, but a cloudy day and we (especially me) were not in shape to really appreciate the depth. Tried a cave in the southern Exumas which promised to be as good as some of the springs I dive in Central Florida. It wasn't, dark, poor vis, generally spooky. I'll pass next time. Stopped in Georgetown to resupply and then it was on the the main event, starting at Conceptcion. We got there on the morning of the 6th day and immediately went north to a big reef that I remembered as spectacular. Time had not been kind to it. Mostly dead coral and no fish, as in zero, not even any small fish. Never saw anything like it. Matt did get a huge(7 lb) lobster, so we ate well that night. Next morning we tried the walls on the south end of the island and hit pay dirt. Good vis, healthy coral and spectacular terrain. It was fairly deep and I was pleased to realize how much better diver I had become since I'd been there in 1989. The wall started around 60 ft, more or less vertical to 110 or so then straight down. On top of the wall were these gigantic coral heads that extended out over the edge of the wall, 60 + feet wide and tops at 40 ft or so, bottoms blending into the wall at about 80. The things were hollow, sometimes you could see right through them at their base. You remember your childhood dreams of flying like Peter Pan? Well, freediving this stuff was like that. You could dive vertically to 50 or so, level out and fly along and around these coral heads, dropping slowly, vibrant corals of all sorts on one side, bottomless blue on the other, fish all around. You would come around the head as you dropped to 80 or so, to see another gigantic coral head in your path, rearing up 40 feet high above you. Underwater, it looked a lot higher than that. Just an incredible visual feast and what I came for.
Of course, nothing is perfect. The wind had hauled around to the south and picked up, so that a significant chop was coming from offshore of the wall. When it arrived, it jacked way up, very square and made the boat driver, Simon in this case, extremely uncomfortable. My boat has a pretty good roll and those conditions made it crazy.. I was so enamored with the underwater scenery that I hardly noticed until I looked up and could see the keel out of the water. I think Simon was a little spooked (rightly so).
What a day, but the next looked like more south wind, so we decided to go on the San Salvador, which had better sheltered walls.
More to come.
The plan was to string together several sets of divers,. The boat was my 25 Seafari, “Someday Came,” of course. First set of divers for two weeks plus, Ft Lauderdale to San Salvador then back to Georgetown, Exuma, with stops at Conceptcion and Rum Cay. All three world class dive spots. Drop the divers in Georgetown, pick up my wife, a week through the Exumas, drop my wife in Nassau, pick up two more divers and spend a week diving our way home. Dolphin diving on the last two days. Pulling all this off, given the vagueries of weather, airlines, boats, Bahamian efficiency, yada ,yada, was going to be some trick.
Everything came together wonderfully. Ted, Unirdna, and Simon, azapa, both extremely competent divers and long time crew on other trips, jumped at the chance to do the first leg. My wife's schedule allowed. Two other divers, a father son team, Dbers of course, signed up for the last leg. The weather looked perfect. El Nino was keeping the hurricanes away. The boat checked out great, and I started getting very nervous. This was way too easy.
Sure enough, a month before take off day, Ted hit a major personal problem and was out. Where in the world was I going to find a diver with the right combination of time, diving skill, boating experience, personality and cash on that kind of short notice? Ted volunteered his share of the expenses, which helped a lot, but that wasn't the major problem. The trip needs three to make the diving work right(one guy driving the boat and two diving). I emailed or called everybody who had ever made a trip with me or wanted to, all the divers I knew and some I didn't, Even asked them to ask their friends. No takers and only about 3 weeks to go. Desperation was setting in. Then I remembered a diver I had corresponded with several years before on another site. A Palm Beach spearo, so I knew he was a pretty good diver and seemed like a nice guy. He owned a Seafari, so he had to be ok. I PMed him and HALALEUYA, he could go. Kudos to his very understanding wife. Matt turned out to be a great shipmate, a real addition to the trip. Luck was working my way again.
The weather on take-off day was so good you could have gone to Bimini in a jet ski and it stayed like that all the way to Conceptcion. We ran pretty hard all the way down, stopping each day to do a little diving and collect some seafood. Some places I knew and some I did not, like Dog Rocks in the Exumas, where you can throw a rock from the island to 100+ feet of water. Nice ledge, but a cloudy day and we (especially me) were not in shape to really appreciate the depth. Tried a cave in the southern Exumas which promised to be as good as some of the springs I dive in Central Florida. It wasn't, dark, poor vis, generally spooky. I'll pass next time. Stopped in Georgetown to resupply and then it was on the the main event, starting at Conceptcion. We got there on the morning of the 6th day and immediately went north to a big reef that I remembered as spectacular. Time had not been kind to it. Mostly dead coral and no fish, as in zero, not even any small fish. Never saw anything like it. Matt did get a huge(7 lb) lobster, so we ate well that night. Next morning we tried the walls on the south end of the island and hit pay dirt. Good vis, healthy coral and spectacular terrain. It was fairly deep and I was pleased to realize how much better diver I had become since I'd been there in 1989. The wall started around 60 ft, more or less vertical to 110 or so then straight down. On top of the wall were these gigantic coral heads that extended out over the edge of the wall, 60 + feet wide and tops at 40 ft or so, bottoms blending into the wall at about 80. The things were hollow, sometimes you could see right through them at their base. You remember your childhood dreams of flying like Peter Pan? Well, freediving this stuff was like that. You could dive vertically to 50 or so, level out and fly along and around these coral heads, dropping slowly, vibrant corals of all sorts on one side, bottomless blue on the other, fish all around. You would come around the head as you dropped to 80 or so, to see another gigantic coral head in your path, rearing up 40 feet high above you. Underwater, it looked a lot higher than that. Just an incredible visual feast and what I came for.
Of course, nothing is perfect. The wind had hauled around to the south and picked up, so that a significant chop was coming from offshore of the wall. When it arrived, it jacked way up, very square and made the boat driver, Simon in this case, extremely uncomfortable. My boat has a pretty good roll and those conditions made it crazy.. I was so enamored with the underwater scenery that I hardly noticed until I looked up and could see the keel out of the water. I think Simon was a little spooked (rightly so).
What a day, but the next looked like more south wind, so we decided to go on the San Salvador, which had better sheltered walls.
More to come.
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