A long Bahama trip in a small boat
 

Well, it wasn't as far as the Sea of Cortez, but I'll steal some of Bruce Browns title, anyway. It was one heck of a trip, 31 days,450 miles out to San Salvador, a little farther coming back, 180 hours on the engine. 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.

When does the idea for a trip like this begin? Twenty-five years ago, when I got my first(and last) look at the mind boggling diving in the southern Bahamas? Eighteen years back when I acquired a Bahama capable 24 Seabird? One attempt and I knew the Seabird wasn't enough boat for that trip. Patience and belief were needed. I was good at the latter but very bad at patience. Then came the Seafari 25. That one can do it. Four years worth of ever longer trips and I was ready. San Salvador was in my sights.

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 and Simon, 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, 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, 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 CSC member I had corresponded with several years before. A Palm Beach spearo, so I knew he was a pretty good diver and seemed like a nice guy. He owned a Seafari (Father Franks old boat), so he had to be ok. I PMed him and HALALEUYA, he could go. Kudos to his very understanding wife. Matt, Tiny on CSC, 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 to the the main event, starting at Conceptcion. We got there on the morning of the 5th 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. 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. The 25 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.

Wow great read, sounds like something I would love to do myself one day. Any pics ?

what a trip, cant wait to hear more!

Very nice Conner. Waiting on chapter two. :)

Waiting for the next trip invite:D! I always look forward to reading your trip report. This years sounds like it's once again over-the-top!

It was. Lots of pics and videos, but I'm so tech challenged that it will take me a while to figure out how to get them on here.

Outstanding!

Sounds like the makings of a summer adventure movie.

Maybe some of us should start thinking of a similar group excursion. It would take some planning and commitment, but I think there are some here, including myself that would be up for such an adventure.... and even more so as a group (fleet).

Running from Conceptcion to San Sal was the only rough passage of the trip, about 40 miles, wind on the beam around 18 knts, sea 3-5 and surprisingly confused. Bumpy and wet, but no cause to slow down, even a little bit.

In San Salvador, we were finally back in the Bahama Out Islands I remembered. Poor development, very nice people, very limited stores, bad water, little ice available, hotter than blazes on land. I felt right at home. We refueled and went back out to dive the walls in the middle of the western shore.
Again disappointed, sick coral, few fish, and the wall started deeper than advertised, 60 instead of 40. Fun diving if you had never seen a wall, but I'd seen better. Then we ran up to the north end for a couple of days to explore, get out of the tourist areas and shoot some fish. Fish were slim, but we had little trouble loading several days worth of fish and conch to go with it. Scenery wasn't as spectacular, but coral was healthier and much more fish of all sorts. The wind was blowing pretty good for a couple of days, then started to die off. Time to try our luck on the south end of the island. Ran down there and dove an inside spot that was real nice, max depth less than 100, nice cliff, sheltered from the wind, which was still blowing. It really slowed down that night and the next morning we hauled around to French Bay, on the windward side. The wall diving was just plain beyond belief.

The current runs parallel to the wall, 1-1.5 knots, top of the wall in about 50, deep crevasses cut into the wall 20-30 feet deep, some just wide enough to swim into, some 40 ft wide. The bottom of these crevasses sloped down at about a 45 degree angle and they end on the wall at 100-120. Everything is covered with hard corals, soft corals, all around are big schools of horseeye jacks, sharks, grouper, turtles, and school after school of other kinds of reef fish. You could not decide what to look at next.
Visibility was about 80 ft on top, but much clearer below the top of the wall. As soon as you dropped below the lip – BOING – stuff that was far away in the hazy distance was suddenly so close you felt like you could touch it, way over 100 ft, hard to say how much.

Laying on the surface, waiting to dive,a crevasse would appear in the distance. Dive quick and you could arrive at the top of the crevasse just as the current swept you up to it. Drop into the crevasse and the current stopped, turn left and fly down the crevasse. The narrow ones were twisty so that you could not see very far in front of you until you came around a corner and there was the intense electric blue of the open ocean far out in front. Simon was in his element, coming out of a crevasse at 90+, turning right and flying further along the wall before he finally had to come up. I was stopping a 80 or so, shorter and shallower dives, but still fabulous.

Sometimes a big school of horseeyes would come blasting out of a deep crevasse and ball up around us as we started down. That was too good an opportunity, so we would stop in mid dive and play with them. Lots of sharks, off in the distance. Some turtles, big hawksbills and not shy. You could swim right up to them. They were used to scuba divers and could not quite figure us out. We moved way to fast.

At this point, Matt was getting good. He had not been all that much of a deep diver, but Simon taught him an equalization technique called “mouthfil” Works fabulous if you can do it (which I can't), and he was getting deeper and deeper, staying longer and longer. I watched all this with more than a little green around the ears. He learned the technique almost immediately and I've been trying for a long time.


Vis was best in the morning (usually was, not sure why). We did a morning session and an afternoon session on this wall. Afternoon vis got down to 50 or so on top and finally stopped us. We should have gone back the next day, but that was Sunday, no stores open and the boat had developed a leak in the power steering ram and I needed to buy some more fluid. That was the only mechanical failure of the trip, so I should not complain, but it made a mess. I went through a gallon and a half of fluid before we got home, was soaking it up with the few oilsorb cloths on board, wringing them out, storing the goo in old milk jugs and reusing the cloths.

Note on bad Volvo engineering. The belt for the hydraulic steering pump also turns the internal water pump, gotta have it to run the boat. Run out of fluid, seize the pump and the engine is down. there isn't any way to remove the pump and still tighten the belt, even if you had the right size. My old volvo did not have this weakness.

We had planned to get water in San Sal, but the dock water was undrinkable and buying bottled water was both difficult(getting to the store and back) and expensive. Supplies were tight for an extra week without resupply, so we took on some bad water and crossed our fingers we'd make Georgetown.

Anyway it was time to move on, Rum Cay was calling. I had done a very little diving there in 1988-89 and was eager to get back.

I know of the volvo belt issue but it can be overcome with a belt small enough to fit the water pump and drive pulley. You have to "bump" it on with a screwdriver but works.

You can get a belt on there that is short enough to work without slipping when you have no way to tighten it?? Any idea what size? I'd been planning to take a spare hydraulic pump next trip, but a belt would be a whole lot cheaper since I don't really need the power steering.

or maybe a cheap idler pulley from a junkyard - mount it and only use it if you need to.

It takes some measuring from around the pullies but an old belt you can cut up works great. Cut a piece that sits in the groove butted together and buy one 1/2 to 1" shorter. The belts have a considerable amount of stretch so don't worry. If you can get it on the big pulley and half way on the pump pulley it will go with just a bump or two of the starter.

That made me remember what someone told me he did years ago in the same situation - he had a short belt like what Moose said and just took out the pulley bolts to mount the belt then remounted the pulley and tightened the bolts.

It was an epic trip and I won't soon forget the walls at conception or San Salvador. For me it was spur of the moment, I got a PM on here, and next thing I know I’m leaving on the boat from Ft. Lauderdale for San Salvador. It was a great adventure along the way I made two new friends and great memories.
The hull/drive performance was fantastic, some due the designer (the ride) some due to the captains preparation (accommodations). It's a big 25 foot boat. There are few 25 foot boats that you can just put on a heading (any heading) in confused 3-5 foot sea's and never touch the throttle running 19 knots, while riding comfortably.

Connor did a great job preparing for the trip and had totally thought out accommodations down to the last detail, save one :-). He did a fantastic job in planning and execution. Simon had fantastic knowledge he passed along that really helped my diving as well. Much thanks to both of you!

Ok, so what did I forget? Surely I've got a great excuse.

The run to Rum, about 45 miles could have been very rough if we had to go into it, but quartering away was no problem. Sea started out a minimal 2-3, but ended up a steep, nasty 4-6++ . What looked like a tropical wave was moving through, cloudy, lots of squalls, generally unsettled. We started out exploring the reef that sticks north from Rum's NW corner, reputed to be extremely pretty. It had been, once, lots of dead elk horn and very few fish. You could tell it had been spectacular, once. Hit some deeper spots, but there did not seem to be a wall in decent depth. We covered enough ground that I'm confident there is not much there for freedivers today.

Next Flamingo Bay. This is a spot I'd heard of and been on my list for years, big protected bay, full of coral heads, long gorgeous beach, uninhabited, supposed to be outstanding.

It was.

Getting into the bay was an intricate dance with a jillion close together coral heads that came right up to the surface. Not a problem in good light but something I'd never try any other time. We anchored off one end of the beach, near a set of colonial era ruins and some coconut palms. Matt quickly produced and opened some coconuts. I'd long forgotten how good and how different fresh coconut tastes instead of the stuff we can buy in the store, outstanding! I took the opportunity to go for a long walk on the miles long beach. My kind of place, not a footprint on it but mine, and drop dead gorgeous.

Now we had a problem. We had come to Rum, found the diving I'd heard about to be mediocre. Now what? There is some great stuff on the south side, but its hard to find and I had not arranged for a guide. Nobody ever said anything about the north side, where we were, so we just went exploring. Did some diving on the coral heads just outside of Flamingo Bay. Heart breaking. They had been beautiful, but most of the coral was dead. You could get dinner there, with effort, but that was all. Ran about half way down the island to where the 100 fathom curve comes close in, thinking we might find some walls like San Sal, but no luck. We did find a real nice 60-100 ledge with good, coral covered spurs and a fair abundance of Nassau grouper. You had to be below 80 to really appreciate the place, so Simon loved it and I was a bit limited. Did my only 100 ft dive of the trip, so it wasn't all that bad, just limited. The weather was not great, cloudy, windy, dark diving. Again, Simon felt right at home. .In Chile, where he lives, he dives in 40 degree dirty water, on rocky shores with 12 ft swells(I ain't kidding) so these conditions were just fine. I thought it was a bit less so.

Back to Flamingo for the night. I'd seen enough to know that the north side was worth exploring for several more days, but Conceptcion was calling. The wall there was so great and the wind was much more easterly now, so the wall was sheltered. We were running out of time, but had saved a day for that wall. Next morning early we crossed, did a short wall diving session(vis was poor) then spent most of the rest of the day shooting dinner. Next morning we really hit it. Bright sunny, no current to speak of so we could tie up to buoys over the best part of the wall. All three of us in the water this time, near perfect conditions and we took advantage of it. Simon was doing ridiculously deep dives, Matt did his deepest, I'll let him chime in on that. I was having a wonderful time flying around the big heads. We spent pretty much the whole day there and I was so tired at the end that the next day I stayed in the boat. We crossed to Long Island and shot a fair load of fish on some heads I knew about.

Then it was back to Georgetown. Still had a gallon. of good water. We got there and fueled up no problem then discovered that the next day was Independence day, nobody was going to be open again until Monday (3 days off) the stores were crazy, and nobody had any large quantities of water left. Typical Bahamian snafu. I tried to envision my wife drinking the stuff we loaded in San Salvador. Not a pretty picture. So we spent minor megabucks buying water in quarts and smaller, only to discover that the dock water was free and just fine to drink., filled all the tanks . I loaded up on produce and more, even though Karen was bringing a cooler full with her. In the Bahamas, if its available and you might need it- BUY IT. From there it was easy. Divers caught their plane, Karen arrived, having been relived of all her produce in customs and it was off to the rest of the Exumas

We had cruised this area 25 years ago and were looking forward to seeing it again. Not much to report except it was very fun to be back. Second night we spent next to a wonderful blue hole(which happened to be full of lobster, so we ate well). Leaning back on the canvas on the back deck, holding hands,watching the sunset with the lines of a Buffet song running through my head, “and 25 years slipped away,” very very nice.

One thing that really struck me, the megayachts. I'm sure I saw over 50. Also much fewer of what used to be the normal cruising boat, 35-45 ft sailing monohulls. I'd read a lot about how well the rich have done in the last 30 years and how the middle class is being stressed, but it had not affected me much and I'd kind of ignored it. Seeing the result so graphically was eye opening.

Stopped in Staniel Cay for some extra fuel. Funny how places don't change their character. We had not liked Staniel before, bad atmosphere. Much more upscale now, full of megayacht passengers, but still the same boozy, unpleasant atmosphere. Stopped at Compass Cay at a marina owned by Tucker Rolle, who once invited us to dinner when he had no money, about 12 very well mannered kids, and one chicken to split between all. Impressive guy and I was delighted to see he'd done well. The place had its quota of megayachts, but the atmosphere was so good I would like to have stayed.

few days later we were in Nassau, again switching crews. Picked up Chris and Jake, a father son team who dive the springs in Central Florida. They had never spearfished, never spent any time on a small boat, or done much salt water diving, so this was an experience. They picked up spearfishing real fast. I was worried about having to feed us with little help, but, not a problem. Jake is 13, and already an outstanding diver. Know any 13 year olds who can dive 80 ft + and stay down a couple of minutes?? Very fun to dive with these guys. We spent a couple of days in the Berry Islands and then headed for Riding Rock, south of Bimini. Worked north, diving spots I knew about, especially a big ledge call Victory Reef, south of Cat Cay. 40-80 ft humongus ledge several miles long. The current blows you along it so its a different spot each time you dive. Good coral, lots of healthy soft corals, extremely nice place.

Next day was dolphins. Oh boy, did we get into them. Found them very early, almost the moment we arrived in the right area. Dolphins all around the boat. Divers getting gear on as fast as they can. I'm jumping up and down and screaming at the divers HURRY UP, GET IN THE WATER BEFORE WE LOSE' UM--- HURRY UP!! These guys are spring divers, where there is a premium on getting everything just right and none on speed. Afraid I was not too polite, but they were forgiving. Apparently the dolphins really wanted to play. They stayed around and went wild when Jake and Chris got in, tale slapping, mobbing the divers, just crazy. More than once I could see a diver with several dolphin in front of him only to have a couple of more surf a wave right over his back. 25 minutes of this and I couldn't stand it anymore. Switched places with Chris and got in with my Dol-Fin. Its a monofin with an aluminum blade that pivots much like a dolphin's tail. Unique design and these dolphins had never seen it before. They went nuts again. The reaction was much like two years ago with a different group, but even more so. They were so close and moving so fast, just amazing. I could not have stuck my arm out without sticking it through a dolphin. A couple of times, I was afraid of getting hit. Never did though. They seemed to like balling up around me as I a did loop-d-loops as fast as I could spin, the dolphins going very fast and chattering like crazy.

Maybe 40 minutes total that seemed like 30 seconds and the dolphins decided they had other things to do. We hunted for another group for several hours, found a big group, but they were going someplace and had no time for us. Oh well.

Next day we tried again, but had less luck, just one group of 3 who were not all that interested.
Broke off at 10 am and headed back to Ft Lauderdale. Uneventful crossing, nice and calm


Some trip, and a good time was had by all.






Notes

Performance

This is one that really needs a vacuum gauge. When you load it heavy, the vacuum drops a lot. To keep from burning valves you have to slow down, also a lot. Light loaded, vacuum at 7, I can run 3600-3700 rpms. Load it down and that drops to 3100-3200. Since the duoprop doesn't slip, that translates directly into boat speed. The engine is working much harder, but it sounds, feels and runs exactly the same unless you try to run it to WOT. The only reasonable way to know whats going on is the vacuum gauge. Heavy loaded, my speed was lower than I wanted, around 20-21 kts. That came up pretty fast as we burned off fuel, groceries and water.

Fuel economy the only time I checked it carefully on a long run was 1.7 kmiles/gallon. That was late in the trip and I had the sense that fuel economy was slightly better earlier, maybe 1.8 kmiles/gal.

The single I/0 duoprop combination works very well for this boat, but I'd like a bit more speed. The extra horsepower of a 383 stroker would be mighty welcome.

Trim is real interesting. As stated other places, this boat likes weight forward, lots of it. On the way home I had a chance to play with trim and found that at 21-22 knots (a) trim had very little affect on speed and (b) it ran most comfortably and often fastest with the tabs( 8x12 Bennets) far down and the drive trimed almost all the way down. This is not at all what I would have expected. It looked like the biggest possible tabs, molded to the hull shape (like Blue Herons, but even bigger) would reallly work well, cutd down on the roll as well. Anybody care to comment???

Roll

Of course, the 25, being so sharp, has a considerable roll, more than a 23 but no worse than a Formula 233. Thankfully it doesn't snap like many deepVs, so I have no trouble getting used to it. There is something else that is more annoying. The boat has a fast, short roll when the water is near but not quite flat, almost a skitter, +/- 5 degrees or less, but very fast. For me, this is annoying and hard to get used to.

Crew:

I can't say enough about the crew. A real pleasure to have such experienced guys aboard on the first leg. Simon has been on a number of trips and has the drill down pat. He cooks some(and better than me) and that takes a load off my back. Matt was the surprise. It usually takes a while for a new crew to adapt to a challenging and new situation. Matt, fit in immediately. He is a planner as well as a very experienced small boat operator. In no time, he was doing stuff on the boat that needed doing before I'd even thought of it much less asked for help. An enormous help. Both, of course, were congenial companions in a place that had no privacy and wasn't always as comfortable as you might want. All this and outstanding divers, too. I was blessed.


Chris and Jake were just fun. Neither had any experience at this sort of thing, but adapted quickly. It was a real pleasure to watch and seeing the dolphins go nuts was amazing. Almost as good as being in the water myself.

Food

Carl's fold down galley, a two burner white gas stove and I can feed 3 hungry divers no sweat. I had modified the forward storage compartments under the bunks to carry more cans and staples and in total had enough to carry food for a month, buying some produce along the way and gathering seafood. Fish were not nearly as thick as I expected. There are more grouper south of Bimini than in any of the places we went, and we did not even see any hogs in the three outer islands. Still there was enough. Lobster too. Matt figured out how to cook the big ones (the ones that usualy have the texture of tire rubber). We split them and cooked'em the shortest possible time. Tender and delicious. Conch salad was enjoyed by all, frequently on the first leg of the trip, less often there after. Very good stuff. Simon always brings some of his special Chilean spices and fish tacos with that stuff are to die for. Simon is a very good cook.



Whew! that's a lot of typing. Now for the pics. give me a little time on the videos, but I'll try to post a few pics tonight

:)

Another great story.....

a few pics:

Matt, who requires fins for this kind of thing

Simon, who doesn't

Me and M'boat

Crew for the first leg

amazing pic of your boat. love it

more pics


A gorgeous place

Your typical Bahamian grocery store. Amazing how well stocked some of these tiny places were.

Me, wearing a Dol-fin and a Freediver Recovery Vest (FRV)

Sometimes the weather was gorgeous and the hunting good

Sometimes not so gorgeous.

more pics

Simon, descending toward a crevasse in San Salvador


Getting deep into a crevasse

Dropping into a crevasse at about 60 with the bottom 25 feet below the camera

The galley


All these and all above are from Matt's camera. Videos will come tomorrow and then some from Simons gopro.

Dang it Conner!!!! I'm so jealous!!! Outstanding trip and documentation of the fun. Oh yeah, I see what you mean about three of you "roughing it" eating a single lobster!!! :)

By that time, our appetites were huge and we managed to eat all of it in one meal, not counting a lot of meat in the antennae and legs. Cooking it the minimum possible was the trick.

Another great adventure guys, I'm in awe of your collective diving feats, yeah, the Dol-fin, too.

Matt, that shot of Simon dropping into the crevice is awesome, if a bit creepy.
Great adventure! Can't wait to see more!

Living vicariously through you guys this week:cool:

The shots of the crevasses don't give anything like the impact they had. Videos will be better, but still not the same. It was an awesome place.


Simon is good, he has worked at it. The rest of us are just journeymen. Most anybody who is willing to acquire decent technique can do this stuff.

Bahamas Trip
 

Conner,
Thanks for sharing the highlights of your Bahamas trip with CSC. It looks like you and your crew had quite an adventure.
I liked the picture of 'Blew by You" anchored in Blue Bayou. Seems like a nice place to be marooned, if you had a choice.
On another note, is it pretty scary looking right down the road at Mile Marker 65? I'm glad you're going ahead and scouting this "Old" stuff out for Denny, Kenny, Kenny, Gillie, Padre, Donny, Skippie, Danny, Denny, GFS, Skiblet, Dave, Sully and I, because we'd be nervous if we had to go first. You're kinda' like the SCS Ice Breaker or Harbor Pilot for "old" - but we're right back there backin 'ya up 100%!!!!

Where's Mile Marker 65?

Back me up????

How about get in front?

I tried to get Denny interested in another Bahama explore, but he gives me some crap about age. Heck, he can't be more than 75, whats the problem?

OK,Ok, so I need somebody to lead me back to Bayport, you get in front.

Awesome trip Connor!! Please include me for a Seacraft Bahama Fleet Flotilla:D

On our way north with the big boat this spring, we spent a night at Conception. My boss had never been there before, he was blown away by the beach, and the water colors. He's not much of a swimmer, but I drag him out snorkeling on one of the shallow reefs, and he could not stop talking about it for days.

Many places you mention(not all) I am familiar with, I spent almost 9 years on a live-aboard dive boat cruising the Bahamas from 1988-1996. I know that dishearting feeling of jumping in on a spot that was always so beautiful and teaming with life 20 years ago, only to find it empty now:( But when you hit the good spots in the Bahamas, it doesn't get any better:)

Thanks for sharing the stories from your trip, great stuff!

Lloyd

Well, I just swallowed this whole thread in one delicious bite.

As Chuckles would say, Outstanding!!!

It is sad seeing dead reefs. Between the beach re-nourishment and the effluent runoff
here, I just shake my head in sorrow.

Glad to see some of your memories in full health.

What do chattering Dolphin sound like?

I wonder if they would respond to humans with clickers.

I hear Phanfare sp is a user friendly video hosting site with no music copyright police.

I`m hoping to go to Cayman after Christmas. This diving stuff is addictive.

Not to derail, but I am finally going to upgrade my Walmart mask and was at Fl Freedivers
last week. This mask really fit me well and had great suction when removing it. So much so that one of the shop guys said wow that sounded great.

This is a new company with new ideas and coatings. Anyone have thoughts???
Would the mirror be a benefit for hunting???

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SEADIVE-CatE..._qi=RTM1562569
.
Great adventure there Conner.

Cheers,
GFS

Capt Loyd. Its fun to find that somebody who has been there is reading this stuff. Come on over to Terry's at the November gatherng and tell us some tales.

Gofast: orange coating is like shooting glasses, helps contrast, but decreases light transmission. Its good sometimes and not others, depends a lot on water color. Some spearo's swear by mirrored masks, say the fish can't see your eyes move. I've no experience.

Cayman is great. Git rid of that tank and go on to Little Cayman. The freediving is beyond words

Dolphins when they get excited sound like real fast, staccato, loud clicks. Click rate seems to go up with excitement.

Glad you like it.

Gofastsandman, I have a mirrored omer mask. IMHO there really is no point. The whole idea goes counter to what you want....better vision underwater. Underwater things that inhib that are water color, clarity, silt...when you add to that tint...it just reduces viz. My two cents.

PS Do yourself a favor and take a lighter to the inside of your mask lenses, you'll see the leftover production silicone burn off, this is largely what keeps making masks fog up. After that a little dish washing liquid wash during the trip and you'll never have to worry about fogging up.

Thanks Tiny. My el cheapo us divers mask is constantly leaking even when cranked down.
Tired of clearing water every minnow. No fogging problem.

Tried to upload some videos, but I'm not smart enough. I posted a few on utube, here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClJ...kmXvUQA/videos

Connor,

I'll parrot what everyone else has said. Great trip! Great Pics! Great vids! Looks like you and your crew had some great weather. I know, with the 25, you almost want some rough weather at times so you can have some fun.

I'm scared crapless of diving as one of my friends died in a diving accident while being taught by an instructor but I sure would love to be camping on the 25 again. I'm extremely jealous! Especially jealous when I saw the galley set up. I think I'm going to have to take the 25 back to Georgian Bay cuz I think I'm also scared crapless of putting the 25 in the salt. lol.

As far as the 383, do you think that would increase you minimum planning speed? I'd be curious. It wouldn't be good if it did.

Tabs... I've never run ours without the tab extensions so I couldn't compare. I wonder if Dave has. I do think you should try to get some extensions. I always say, better to be looking at it, than looking for it. Seriously, maybe I'll take them off one day and see if I can tell a difference.

Roll? I've never noticed. I thought all boats rocked...

I may have travelled across the 6th great lake but your travels makes you the king of the 25s

Regards,
Brandon

Thanks for the compliments. We got very lucky on the weather, but I know what you mean. Just a little rough stuff can be great fun in that boat.

Carl's galley, in combination with a good stove, is a major advantage, if you want to camp and cook. I'm very grateful to have it.

I don't think the 383 would make any difference in low planing speed. Same weight, cg, and the duoprop has great low end torque whatever the engine. The difference would be in cruising speed, not sure what that would do to mpg. Of course, the boat's never needed the low end of the planning range. It will run down around 12 knots if I try, but never needed to slower than about 15 knots, that I can think of, and that is only in very short, ugly chop.

Connor,
Great trip, and great pics. Keep 'em coming.

Brandon,
I ran mine without the tab extensions at first. They were effective enough that if I hadn't already made the extensions, I might not have gone to the trouble. With the tab extensions, they are almost too effective. I installed Bennett's AC 3000 auto tab controller. It worked pretty well before the tab extensions went on. But with the extensions it over-corrects to the point that it's pretty much useless. I'll probably demount it and move it to my 20SF eventually. But the tabs are fun to play with. They have so much authority, I can steer the boat with them. And they have definitely helped the minimum planing speed. I can keep the boat on plane and perfectly level at 13mph.

Dave

They will keep coming, but its going to be a couple of years before the next big trip. Next summer is for my wife and she wants something "non-boat" Can't imagine why. I might get in a short trip.

The year after is up for grabs. Now I just gotta think of something that will top this year.