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It was a sunny morning as we arrived at the dock in Miami to board the Sea Explorer, a 65-foot sailboat to load our gear to prepare for the crossing to the Bahamas. As everyone arrived, the customs paperwork was completed and you labeled your mug and nameplate for the trip. The other group on the boat was from Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. They brought a cement elephant with the name of their dive shop on it to sink on Redneck Reef. When everyone was checked in and their gear was stowed, there was a cookout of hot dogs and hamburgers on the dock. Once the cookout was over, everyone got onboard the boat, the lines were cast off, and we set sail for Bimini, 50 miles away.
The crossing was a little bumpy. Everyone onboard didn’t eat the first night’s dinner. Some stayed on deck until the crossing was over, while others enjoyed the dinner, eating enough for 2 or three, since there was “extra”, then went to sleep in their bunks. We arrived in Bimini later that night. The next morning, Jason, our Captain, took all of our paperwork and passports to the bright pink customs office so we could enter the Bahamas. While we were still at the dock, we saw one of Chalk’s seaplanes land, roll onto the shore, and then take off again beside the boat. Once breakfast was over, we cast off the lines on our way to the first dive site.
Karen, our dive mistress, gave us a briefing at each dive site and told us about a specific species of fish common to the dive site to look for. Our first dive site was North Turtle Rocks, a shallow site that allowed everyone to get acclimated back to diving, if they had been out of the water for a while. There were corals, French angels, sea fans, and 3 boat engines on the bottom. Troy got to see his first nurse shark. The next site was Stevie’s Wonder, the home of Redneck Reef. That is where the elephant was going to be sunk. Unfortunately, “Big Sexy” was in charge of swimming the elephant around and never found the site. The rest of his group left him and found the site, so he placed the elephant on Stevie’s Wonder, just not near the other cement statues. After the dive, we moved to a small island to do some snorkeling and to do some lobster hunting. Unlike North Carolina, you can use a pole spear, but you have to be snorkeling, not on scuba. The pole spears were passed out, but not many were caught. David, Troy, Sue, and some of the group from Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana didn’t get any, while Jason, the Captain, got 4. The next site was Moxon Rocks. We also did our first night dive here.
The next day we started out at Tuna Alley. And to answer your question, no, there weren’t any tuna there. The second dive was at Rainbow Valley. There were lots of tropical fish at this site. We saw a peacock flounder on this site. It has the same shape as a North Carolina flounder, but is lighter in color and more ornate. After the dive, we moved to a small island to do some snorkeling and to do some more lobster hunting. The pole spears were passed out and David, Troy, Sue, and some of the group from Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana got 1, and Jason got 3. Then we moved to the Miami Rita, a wreck. The wreck was in 3 pieces, all within swimming distance. We did our second night dive there. Lee and Troy were the first 2 into the water. The crew said there might be a little current. After they got into the water and swam down the mooring line to the wreck, the crew put the current lines into the water for the rest. There were several basket starfish on this dive.
After waking up to another great breakfast, we moved over to the Nodules for the first dive of the day. The tropicals were swimming along the bottom, providing many opportunities for photos. Then we moved over to Bull Run for the shark feeding. The water was a little cloudy so we couldn’t see the actual feeding, but the reef sharks were swimming around us as we sat on the bottom. The crew buoyed off frozen barracuda and then pulled in down to the sharks. As the frozen barracuda was pulled down, the sharks would swim in and take bites. Once the feeding was over, we swam around the site. The sharks were still there, as well as big grouper. One would even get in your face and look at his reflection in your mask. Since the water was cloudy and we couldn’t see the actual feeding, the crew saved one barracuda for a surface feeding. This isn’t a normal practice on the trip. They hooked the barracuda on a line and chummed the water with food scraps to attract the sharks. Once the sharks showed up, the barracuda was lowered into the water. The reef sharks would jump at the barracuda and would even be lifted out the water, not wanting to let go of the free meal. Once the barracuda was bitten off of the line, we moved to a small island to do some snorkeling and to do some more lobster hunting.
While some were hunting, David, Troy, Jessica, Sue, and Albert decided to explore the island. The ones hunting were quickly discouraged from spearing any lobsters. There were reef sharks that were swimming under the hunters. The reef sharks were mirroring every movement of the snorkelers. They knew they could get a free meal if they waited. The passengers returned to the ship with none, and Jason returned to the boat looking like a muscleman. He had stuffed 24 lobsters into his wetsuit. All of the lobsters that were caught were going to be part of our dinner in North Bimini, the following night. The crew rigged up a line for everyone to swing off of the boat and drop into the water. The first one on the line was David. After a few swing and drops by David, others decided to try it as well. Forrest, from Alabama, did a complete swing from the stern to the bow, colliding with the side of the ship. And no, his last name isn’t Gump. We moved to Big Greenie for the third dive of the day. Big Greenie was a big coral mound with a smaller one nearby. This was also the site for our third night dive. The dive site looked like the site of an alien invasion with all of the cylume sticks attached to the diver’s tanks. After the dive, the crew moved the boat to South Bimini for a night onshore. There is a hotel with a bar on the island. There were also showers on the island.
The next morning, we went over to Hawksbill for a dive. We saw some stonefish, long spine sea urchins, and sea cucumbers. The next dive site was The Strip. There were lots of porkfish, stingrays, and grouper on this site. There were peppermint shrimp on the site that set up cleaning stations to clean the grouper and other fish. Since the weather had the potential to get rough, we headed to Alice Town in North Bimini. This gave us more time on shore. We arrived at Weech’s Dock, a short walk to long freshwater showers and local bars. If you turned left on the street, you could go to the End of the World Bar, where underwear from tourists hangs on the wall and ceilings. If you turn right, you could go to the Compleat Angler, the bar once frequented by Ernest Hemingway. A few weeks after our visit, the Compleat Angler burned to the ground. All of the memorabilia from Hemingway and pictures of all of the large fish caught and weighted on the docks are now gone. Across the street from the dock is the Duty Free Liquor Store, conveniently located! For dinner, we had grilled lobster, pork chops, and corn on the cob. The dinner was grilled on the docks and we returned to the boat to eat. Sue rented a couple of scooters to tour the island. David and Troy ran all over the island on the scooters. Luckily, helmets were supplied with the rental.
There was a light rain the next morning, but some early risers got up and took a long freshwater shower. We moved over to the Bimini Barge for our first dive of the day. There were lobsters tucked up under the wreck as well as tropical fish around he wreck. The second dive of the day was Moray Alley. There were some moray eels at the sight, but not large numbers as the name suggests. The last dive was at The Sapona, a ship that rests mostly out of the water. The ship has appeared in many movies, mostly mainstream. There were a lot of squirrelfish on this site and well as Christmas tree worms. Once everyone was back onboard, we set sail for Miami.
We arrived in Miami around 11:00 that night. Even though we were inches from the dock and the United States, we couldn’t step foot on the dock until we cleared customs the following morning. At 9:00 am, our gear was loaded and we were heading home. There is another trip planned for October in 2006!!! Come join us for another fun week of diving in the Bahamas. This year, you’ll fly into Freeport and meet the ship there, which means you don’t have to do a crossing and you get diving quicker! You have the chance to dive 3 or 4 times a day, but you won’t lose any weight on this trip because the food is great at every meal.
Email
for more information.
414 Orange Street, Beaufort, NC 28516
(p) 252- 728-2265
(f) 252- 728-2581
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