Well, its been 4 years and both boat and divers (Me, unirdna (Ted) and my 16 year old son, Preston) were very glad to get back to the Bahamas. I've been doing these trips for many years and most are amazingly smooth, mostly. 2005 changed that. I went three times that year and hit the edges of hurricanes twice, very different experience. One developed right over the top of us. Diving in 30 knots of wind is just not my cup of tea. So I decided that flying to diving sounded good and, over the next 3 years, spent time at Little Cayman, Traverse City, and Vancouver Island, Canada. Great destinations all, but they just aren't the Bahamas.
After a while the pull became too strong and we decided to make another try at Bimini and south. The plan was to stay on my 24 ft power boat, spend 7 days diving, including 3 or 4 days at Riding Rock, 40 miles south of Bimini and out of range of most boats. Hoping for lots of tame fish and big coral. Great diving buddies, great place, good boat, what could possibly go wrong? However, I had not counted on how much my island skills had slipped in a 4 year absence. More on that later. Ted will soon post some of the fabulous pics and video he took, so enjoy.
It looked like Ted's incredible weather luck, juju, or whatever you call it, was working great. The forecast was fabulous way in advance of the trip. Too good, because by trip day south Florida was getting pounded by huge thunder storms. Ever been in a storm that rains 8 inches(20 cm) in 4 hours and blows 40-60 knots for most of that? Ruin your day if you get caught offshore in one of those. And these were big boys, extended for miles. Ted's plane landed into a 50 knot squall. But, true to form, by the time his taxi arrived at the boat, his magic was in full force and all was calm. The weather radio was still freaking out about 60 knot gusts and nickel sized (2 cm) hail and I had more than a little doubt about crossing the Gulf Stream that day, but we got a look at the weather radar and found a 30 mile gap in between lines of big storms, just for us. We slipped across in that gap, a bit bumpy, but no problem.
The first day started with the obligatory visit to the “Sapoma”, a wrecked freighter constructed of concrete during WWI. It went ashore in the 20s and was used a storage depot for smuggled liquor during Prohibition and a bombing target during WWII. The bomber pilots must not have been very good, because its still in surprisingly good shape and is an excellent shallow dive. Ted got some great pics this year. Next followed visits to well known conch and lobster sites to collect dinner and a long, long wait at Cat Cay to top off fuel for the trip south. I don't quite know how it can take 3 hours to get 40 gallons of gas from a fuel dock that is open, but it did. Charge it off to being on Bahamian time and a holiday to boot. We were probably lucky to get fuel at all.
Now comes the point when you make some bad karma and it waits to get you. As we left Cat Cay, a sailboat was going up on the rock reef in the pass. I tried to get in close enough to get him a line before he got too grounded, but something was not right with my reverse gear and it seemed like too much chance of loosing my own boat. The weather was calm with only a little swell, so he was in no personal danger, but I figured his boat was toast. Within minutes it was already too high on the reef for me to pull it off. Anyway, a small dingy was on the way and I couldn't help him, so we radioed the marina for help(the guy had no radio or engine) and went on our way. I should have known better.
That night it started. Turns out absence has done damage to my boating and anchoring skills. I did a miserable job of anchoring the second night and we played drag the anchor towards the rocks for an hour or so when the thunder storms caught up with us at sunset. Took two attempts(and two drags) to finally get anchored right. Ah, nothing like being back in the Bahamas. But, the lobster and conch were soooo good! They are my excuse.
The next day was working south in still familiar territory. I tried out FRC as a spearfishing technique and it worked great at 15 m when I wasn't in a hurry. Very long dives. Seems like the slow descent required for FRC doesn't spook the fish near as much as full lung diving. I was getting very close to lots of good sized fish.
We are now 15 miles south of Cat and the nearest help, behind an uninhabited island, ready to strike out for Riding Rock. Get up in the am, beautiful day, and then bad karma came to get us. Ted gets buzzed by a 5 ft reef shark while he is doing his morning business behind the boat. Amazing how fast he got back in the boat. Then, the engine won't start and somehow I had not checked to make sure starting fluid was in the boat. This engine floods easy and starter fluid is a standard part of the stores list. I ALWAYS carry some, but have never needed it in the Bahamas. We did everything. Waited to get over being flooded, pull the plugs to dry it out, wait some more, Checked operation of ignition components and fuel system, changed all the ignition components and spark plugs anyway. You name it, we did it and got nothing, absolutely nothing. So, no help for it, I crank op the kicker(small auxiliary engine) and off we go, back to Cat Cay at 4 knots, ugh. First time in 14 years of carrying that kicker around that I needed to use it. Got back to Cat, found some carb cleaner, almost as flammable as starter fluid, and it cranked right up. Ran back to Bimini and found some of the real stuff and we were back in business. Ended the day with a nice line dive in deep water that used up some more bad karma. As we were still warming up, Ted B0ed on a perfectly reasonable 80 ft, 1:45 dive, well within his capabilities. It shocked us all and we have yet to figure it out. He had the video on until the BO and we can tell from it that he lost little or no memory time prior to the BO. Felt perfect, not sign of any problem. I was watching him come up and all of a sudden he wasn't moving like a surfacing diver, he was a jelly fish. I was maybe 6-8 ft away and moving before I figured out what was going on. He was above water and breathing within 5-6 seconds with no adverse effect. Came around very fast. Ted will provide some more detail and if any of you very experienced types can shed any light on this, I would appreciate it.
Seems like that experience had expended the last of our bad karma. I losing track here, but the next days were near perfect, found a new area with tall, beautiful heads in 50 ft (15 m), gorgeous diving. Ted's taking pics like mad. Preston started exploring spearfishing, Lots of fish, pretty reef, nothing spectacular, but everything just the way its supposed to be. One morning we dove the caves inside of Beach Cay and then headed for Riding Rock. RR turned out to be quite good, although we didn't find the fabled deep water heads that I had heard about. The spearfishing in 10 meters was excellent, seeing a few big grouper and lots and lots of small ones and hogfish. Preston got his first fish. Ted and I both got a kick out of watching him. It's amazing to watch a beginner and realize just how much there is to shooting fish. Also how fast the beginner learns. There is not enough ice on the boat to shoot a lot, so we stop when dinner is in the boat. Really, better anyway. Ah, fresh hogfish and small grouper! Absolutely heavenly. We stuffed out faces very night until we couldn't eat any more and started having hogfish sandwiches for lunch.
The only drawback we discovered with RR is lack of an anchorage. With lots of thundercells around, it might get real uncomfortable anchored in the open, so we went back to Beach Cay for the night. Another great day the next morning, but a thundercell ended it by noon. More fish for Preston. Then it was back to Cat to fuel up for the trip home. Huge thunder storms that night, you could have read the newspaper by the continuous flashes for at least 20 minutes or so.
With listening to further freaking out from the weather radio, we decided to call it quits and head back early, so as to be in before any possible boomers could develop. On the trip home we ran into some kind of oceanic dolphin, much smaller than the bottlenose dolphin in shallow water, but looked just like them. They were feeding and as we went by pretty close, they came over to play. They would ride our bow, jump beside the boat, great stuff. I haven't seen the video yet, but it should be below if it came out.
All in all, a great but a bit challenging trip: a good time was had by all.
Connor
After a while the pull became too strong and we decided to make another try at Bimini and south. The plan was to stay on my 24 ft power boat, spend 7 days diving, including 3 or 4 days at Riding Rock, 40 miles south of Bimini and out of range of most boats. Hoping for lots of tame fish and big coral. Great diving buddies, great place, good boat, what could possibly go wrong? However, I had not counted on how much my island skills had slipped in a 4 year absence. More on that later. Ted will soon post some of the fabulous pics and video he took, so enjoy.
It looked like Ted's incredible weather luck, juju, or whatever you call it, was working great. The forecast was fabulous way in advance of the trip. Too good, because by trip day south Florida was getting pounded by huge thunder storms. Ever been in a storm that rains 8 inches(20 cm) in 4 hours and blows 40-60 knots for most of that? Ruin your day if you get caught offshore in one of those. And these were big boys, extended for miles. Ted's plane landed into a 50 knot squall. But, true to form, by the time his taxi arrived at the boat, his magic was in full force and all was calm. The weather radio was still freaking out about 60 knot gusts and nickel sized (2 cm) hail and I had more than a little doubt about crossing the Gulf Stream that day, but we got a look at the weather radar and found a 30 mile gap in between lines of big storms, just for us. We slipped across in that gap, a bit bumpy, but no problem.
The first day started with the obligatory visit to the “Sapoma”, a wrecked freighter constructed of concrete during WWI. It went ashore in the 20s and was used a storage depot for smuggled liquor during Prohibition and a bombing target during WWII. The bomber pilots must not have been very good, because its still in surprisingly good shape and is an excellent shallow dive. Ted got some great pics this year. Next followed visits to well known conch and lobster sites to collect dinner and a long, long wait at Cat Cay to top off fuel for the trip south. I don't quite know how it can take 3 hours to get 40 gallons of gas from a fuel dock that is open, but it did. Charge it off to being on Bahamian time and a holiday to boot. We were probably lucky to get fuel at all.
Now comes the point when you make some bad karma and it waits to get you. As we left Cat Cay, a sailboat was going up on the rock reef in the pass. I tried to get in close enough to get him a line before he got too grounded, but something was not right with my reverse gear and it seemed like too much chance of loosing my own boat. The weather was calm with only a little swell, so he was in no personal danger, but I figured his boat was toast. Within minutes it was already too high on the reef for me to pull it off. Anyway, a small dingy was on the way and I couldn't help him, so we radioed the marina for help(the guy had no radio or engine) and went on our way. I should have known better.
That night it started. Turns out absence has done damage to my boating and anchoring skills. I did a miserable job of anchoring the second night and we played drag the anchor towards the rocks for an hour or so when the thunder storms caught up with us at sunset. Took two attempts(and two drags) to finally get anchored right. Ah, nothing like being back in the Bahamas. But, the lobster and conch were soooo good! They are my excuse.
The next day was working south in still familiar territory. I tried out FRC as a spearfishing technique and it worked great at 15 m when I wasn't in a hurry. Very long dives. Seems like the slow descent required for FRC doesn't spook the fish near as much as full lung diving. I was getting very close to lots of good sized fish.
We are now 15 miles south of Cat and the nearest help, behind an uninhabited island, ready to strike out for Riding Rock. Get up in the am, beautiful day, and then bad karma came to get us. Ted gets buzzed by a 5 ft reef shark while he is doing his morning business behind the boat. Amazing how fast he got back in the boat. Then, the engine won't start and somehow I had not checked to make sure starting fluid was in the boat. This engine floods easy and starter fluid is a standard part of the stores list. I ALWAYS carry some, but have never needed it in the Bahamas. We did everything. Waited to get over being flooded, pull the plugs to dry it out, wait some more, Checked operation of ignition components and fuel system, changed all the ignition components and spark plugs anyway. You name it, we did it and got nothing, absolutely nothing. So, no help for it, I crank op the kicker(small auxiliary engine) and off we go, back to Cat Cay at 4 knots, ugh. First time in 14 years of carrying that kicker around that I needed to use it. Got back to Cat, found some carb cleaner, almost as flammable as starter fluid, and it cranked right up. Ran back to Bimini and found some of the real stuff and we were back in business. Ended the day with a nice line dive in deep water that used up some more bad karma. As we were still warming up, Ted B0ed on a perfectly reasonable 80 ft, 1:45 dive, well within his capabilities. It shocked us all and we have yet to figure it out. He had the video on until the BO and we can tell from it that he lost little or no memory time prior to the BO. Felt perfect, not sign of any problem. I was watching him come up and all of a sudden he wasn't moving like a surfacing diver, he was a jelly fish. I was maybe 6-8 ft away and moving before I figured out what was going on. He was above water and breathing within 5-6 seconds with no adverse effect. Came around very fast. Ted will provide some more detail and if any of you very experienced types can shed any light on this, I would appreciate it.
Seems like that experience had expended the last of our bad karma. I losing track here, but the next days were near perfect, found a new area with tall, beautiful heads in 50 ft (15 m), gorgeous diving. Ted's taking pics like mad. Preston started exploring spearfishing, Lots of fish, pretty reef, nothing spectacular, but everything just the way its supposed to be. One morning we dove the caves inside of Beach Cay and then headed for Riding Rock. RR turned out to be quite good, although we didn't find the fabled deep water heads that I had heard about. The spearfishing in 10 meters was excellent, seeing a few big grouper and lots and lots of small ones and hogfish. Preston got his first fish. Ted and I both got a kick out of watching him. It's amazing to watch a beginner and realize just how much there is to shooting fish. Also how fast the beginner learns. There is not enough ice on the boat to shoot a lot, so we stop when dinner is in the boat. Really, better anyway. Ah, fresh hogfish and small grouper! Absolutely heavenly. We stuffed out faces very night until we couldn't eat any more and started having hogfish sandwiches for lunch.
The only drawback we discovered with RR is lack of an anchorage. With lots of thundercells around, it might get real uncomfortable anchored in the open, so we went back to Beach Cay for the night. Another great day the next morning, but a thundercell ended it by noon. More fish for Preston. Then it was back to Cat to fuel up for the trip home. Huge thunder storms that night, you could have read the newspaper by the continuous flashes for at least 20 minutes or so.
With listening to further freaking out from the weather radio, we decided to call it quits and head back early, so as to be in before any possible boomers could develop. On the trip home we ran into some kind of oceanic dolphin, much smaller than the bottlenose dolphin in shallow water, but looked just like them. They were feeding and as we went by pretty close, they came over to play. They would ride our bow, jump beside the boat, great stuff. I haven't seen the video yet, but it should be below if it came out.
All in all, a great but a bit challenging trip: a good time was had by all.
Connor
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