Back in one piece from an 8 day shakedown trip to the Bahamas in my new (to me) 25 ft seacraft, 300 hp 5.7 V8 with a Volvo duoprop drive. I call her “Someday Came” because I've been thinking about the perfect boat for a lot of years. She comes real close; just don't ask about the fuel bill. Divers: me, Preston, my youngest(and tallest, he's 16 and 6'2”)son, and Unirdna, the best diving buddy known to man. I think Unirdna is designing one of his outstanding video/slide shows. If not, I'll post pics, but don't expect the same quality. Six days of solid diving, touched land only twice for fuel and once to walk a deserted beach, and we are very, very tired.
We crossed the Gulfstream in flat conditions from Ft Lauderdale to Bimini and had it very calm for the first diving day. Unirdna's weather juju looked strong, a possible tropical cyclone had fallen apart and it had been calm for weeks. Then the wind started and blew a little harder each day. Still, no mega-boomer thunderstorms like last year. The wind did not slow down the diving much until the last day, and not too much then. Unirdna was his usual efficient, killer self, super long dives and as deep as we cared to go. I don't attempt to give him any more advise about how to shoot Bahamian fish. He does it all wrong and still gets the most fish. The guy is smooth. For once, no blackouts. He gets big points for that; after a while that kind of stuff gets old. I was diving exhale, hit 94 feet, finally getting well past the 90 ft barrier and further extended dive time, with lots of spearfishing type, swim around dives in the 1:45-1:56 range, very pleased. No alligator to blame it on this time. Preston is getting to be a good spearo, pole-gunning grouper in 40 ft, very smooth and comfortable to 50. It's such a kick to see your kids getting to be good divers.
The boat worked out great, much better cabin, bunks, top and side curtains,. Better designed and slightly bigger than my last one. Unirdna expressed great relief at not having to move 6 gallon jugs of fuel around every time we made dinner or looked at the engine. Having a looong berth and not having to dodge dripping leaks when it rained on his mattress was no small improvement for Preston. I was just glad to have a rough water capable hull under me and no mechanical problems that we could not handle.
This was pretty much a spearo trip with Preston and Unirdna competing for who would get the most fish. The wind was blowing too hard to get very far offshore, but there was plenty of 30-50 ft stuff to keep us occupied. It doesn't take very long to shoot dinner and, on a long trip like this, I can't carry enough ice for more, so we did a lot of scouting and sight seeing. Also ate fabulously well, Coney grouper(my favorite), hogfish, mutton snapper, conch, lobster, as much as we could eat.
Lion fish are getting more and more common. We killed several, including one very big one. If they keep getting bigger, I'm going to have to figure out how to de-spine these guys, big ones are plenty big enough to eat.
Gear: Unirdnas got a new camera and I inherited all his Canon S80 stuff. I'll let him describe the differences. I had a busted knee, not quite healed, and Unirdna gave me a set of short plastic sporasub blades which were very nice. Soft enough for my knee but plenty enough power for the depth we were diving, surprisingly efficient. I could kick much more straight-legged and a fast flutter was very fast indeed. Only one down side, they did not dolphin very well, just not enough blade surface. Speaking of dolphin, I also used a monoflap for a while, see the monoflap thread for a review. Preston's Christmas diving present was a JBL pole gun, which he put to very good use. I'm a Hawaiian sling shooter, never been much of a fan of pole guns in the Bahamas, but both Preston and Unirdna were very effective. I shot Preston's once. Considering I had not shot a pole gun in 30? years, I was pleased to nail a hog with it. Note for spearos in sharky water. Doing 360s on the way up with a fish isn't enough. Look down, the guys in the grey suits with sneak right up to your fins. Unirdna should have some comment on that as well.
All in all a great trip. A good time was had by all.
Connor
We crossed the Gulfstream in flat conditions from Ft Lauderdale to Bimini and had it very calm for the first diving day. Unirdna's weather juju looked strong, a possible tropical cyclone had fallen apart and it had been calm for weeks. Then the wind started and blew a little harder each day. Still, no mega-boomer thunderstorms like last year. The wind did not slow down the diving much until the last day, and not too much then. Unirdna was his usual efficient, killer self, super long dives and as deep as we cared to go. I don't attempt to give him any more advise about how to shoot Bahamian fish. He does it all wrong and still gets the most fish. The guy is smooth. For once, no blackouts. He gets big points for that; after a while that kind of stuff gets old. I was diving exhale, hit 94 feet, finally getting well past the 90 ft barrier and further extended dive time, with lots of spearfishing type, swim around dives in the 1:45-1:56 range, very pleased. No alligator to blame it on this time. Preston is getting to be a good spearo, pole-gunning grouper in 40 ft, very smooth and comfortable to 50. It's such a kick to see your kids getting to be good divers.
The boat worked out great, much better cabin, bunks, top and side curtains,. Better designed and slightly bigger than my last one. Unirdna expressed great relief at not having to move 6 gallon jugs of fuel around every time we made dinner or looked at the engine. Having a looong berth and not having to dodge dripping leaks when it rained on his mattress was no small improvement for Preston. I was just glad to have a rough water capable hull under me and no mechanical problems that we could not handle.
This was pretty much a spearo trip with Preston and Unirdna competing for who would get the most fish. The wind was blowing too hard to get very far offshore, but there was plenty of 30-50 ft stuff to keep us occupied. It doesn't take very long to shoot dinner and, on a long trip like this, I can't carry enough ice for more, so we did a lot of scouting and sight seeing. Also ate fabulously well, Coney grouper(my favorite), hogfish, mutton snapper, conch, lobster, as much as we could eat.
Lion fish are getting more and more common. We killed several, including one very big one. If they keep getting bigger, I'm going to have to figure out how to de-spine these guys, big ones are plenty big enough to eat.
Gear: Unirdnas got a new camera and I inherited all his Canon S80 stuff. I'll let him describe the differences. I had a busted knee, not quite healed, and Unirdna gave me a set of short plastic sporasub blades which were very nice. Soft enough for my knee but plenty enough power for the depth we were diving, surprisingly efficient. I could kick much more straight-legged and a fast flutter was very fast indeed. Only one down side, they did not dolphin very well, just not enough blade surface. Speaking of dolphin, I also used a monoflap for a while, see the monoflap thread for a review. Preston's Christmas diving present was a JBL pole gun, which he put to very good use. I'm a Hawaiian sling shooter, never been much of a fan of pole guns in the Bahamas, but both Preston and Unirdna were very effective. I shot Preston's once. Considering I had not shot a pole gun in 30? years, I was pleased to nail a hog with it. Note for spearos in sharky water. Doing 360s on the way up with a fish isn't enough. Look down, the guys in the grey suits with sneak right up to your fins. Unirdna should have some comment on that as well.
All in all a great trip. A good time was had by all.
Connor
