Bahamas 2017
One more year, one more Bahama trip, only this one did not go as well as planned. It all looked good, crew was new, but both were good divers, boat was in great shape, weather looked good, crossing was fine, calmer than normal, then it all when to s___. Wind picked up after we got to Bimini, could not find the dolphins, no lobster in my honey hole but we found a few otherwise. At least there was plenty of big conch. Conch is again legal for Americans, so we ate well the second night. Went south from Bimini to some spectacular spots south of Cat Cay. Screwed again, the vis was terrible. We kept working south for several days, down to Riding Rock,wind stayed too high and the vis stayed terrible, even at the top of the tide, which normally is crystal even when its rough. Never seen anything like it. Good enough vis to get dinner, but not much more. I’d been bragging on how good the Bahamas were. Neither of my crew had been there before. This was getting embarrassing.
Tried one thing that turned out great. Google Earth showed some funny looking spots, way out on the bank, nothing but sand around for miles. I thought they might be blue holes, might be great diving, so one day we went way out east to check them out. Went to six spots, 4 were zeros, one was a bunch of car bodies, somebody’s private spot and one was fabulous. We got there in the middle of a squall, could not see zip. I got right on the number and put a diver in the water. He goes down, comes up “SHARKS all over the place.” “How many did you see?” “Maybe 20” Now its dark and squally, the vis is something like 25 ft. No way he saw 20 sharks. So, what did he see? I anchored and jumped in. COBIA, big ones, very big ones, all over the place, right up in my face, WOW! Big mangoes, not spooky at all, swim right up to me. I started working in the direction the fish seemed to be coming from and ran into a cloud of barracuda and not small. Soon a wreak appeared, looked like an old fishing boat. Several medium big cuberas, grouper, gigantic white grunts, OH BOY!!! What a spot and we had nothing we could do with the fish except play with them. There were some hefty sharks there, not the normal reef sharks, looked like silkys, but I don’t think they occur in the Bahamas.
some pics:
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08-20-2017, 06:49 PM
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