Eleuthera Trip Report

[Bbarnes]

My family spent a week and did extensive diving with Cape Eleuthera in southern Eleuthera and found this to be an outstanding dive trip. We researched Eleuthera and found very little about diving on south Eleuthera but after spending a week there would highly recommend it for divers who are not concerned about extensive night life activities and prefer quiet locations. Eleuthera is only 1 - 2 miles in width but is over 100 miles long and has three airports. It is important to know which airport you are flying into as it can take 3 hours to travel the length of the island. Flights from the U.S. generally fly to the North Eleuthera airport, and that is where you will find the cheaper flights. Most tourists fly into that aiport and stay on Harbour Island or the north part of the island. We flew into the North Eleuthera airport and rented a minivan for the week. Our entire reservations were done through Cape Eleuthera resort as they offered a special for two free airline tickets when staying at their resort for over 5 days which was an outstanding deal for my family. When we arrived at the airport, our minivan was not there. We called the resort and they quickly arranged for a air-conditioned minivan taxi to transport our family to their resort on the south island. This was a 2.5 hour drive. The cab driver allowed us to stop at a grocery store in Rock Sound on the way to the resort to purchase groceries. The Cape Eleuthera resort is magnificent. There are approximately 18 - 20 two story condos that are fully furnished. We stayed in a beatiful 2-BR condo and loved it. The resort is right on the tip of a cape between Exuma Sound and the Blight of Eleuthera and is quiet and beautiful. It has a full marina, it's own dive shop and a small grocery store though you will need to go to a grocery store in Rock Sound for more extensive groceries. You can order loaves of wonderful fresh baked bahamian bread from the hotel snack bar. The condos sit right on the marina and there is an extensive collection of sharks that hang out right at the marina. Fisherman will clean their catch at the marina right outside the condos and the sharks congregate there. There were generally 3 - 15 large nurse sharks in the 10 feet of water only steps outside our back door. We snorkeled with them several times. I am told that lemon sharks and the occasional bull shark will frequent this area on the marina in search of fish scraps. We dove with Cape Eleuthera Divers, run by Neal Watson who was absolutely outstanding. Our emails in advance were answered by Neal and we did 2-tank morning and afternoon dives with him most days. Nitrox was available, the boat was large enough to easily accomodate 16 - 20 divers but we never had more than 8 and Neal was happy to take out several trips with only two of us. Dive sites were 10 - 45 minutes away from the resort, usually 15 - 20 minutes or so. As is typical of the Bahamas, the visibility was outstanding, usually over 100 feet. We did 14 dives through the week and repeated a dive site only once at our request. Cape Eleuthera sits on the Exuma Sound with a vertical wall not far off the shore so there is extensive wall diving. The coral is much healthier than in New Providence and fish life was good. There was not a huge amount of large fish. There are virtually no wrecks in southern Eleuthera though a barge was sunk several years ago and is beginning to have growth and is interesting to dive. I would highly recommend diving the Drug Smuggler's Airplane Wreck which was a small plane reportedly flown by a drug smuggler that went down at night. It is largely intact and makes for great wide-angle photos. On that dive we saw a pod of 5 large eagle rays. Do not miss diving the Fish Cage. This is a unique dive with the potential to be one of the better dives in all of the Bahamas. It is a very large structure placed by the Island School there and sits in about 85 feet of water coming up to within 30 feet of the surface. It is used to grow cobia as sustainable food products ecologically. Obviously, the high concentration of fish in the fish cage attracts sharks and larger fish. There were no cobia in the fish cage when we dove, but we still had an 8-foot bull shark that stayed with us for the entire dive and were briefly visited by a 10-foot great hammerhead. It was interesting to see some of the holes in the netting of the fish cage as the resident bull sharks routinely try to tear into the cage to get access to the cobia. Also highly recommended is Christmas Tree Reef which is a site on the wall where some feeding of sharks have occurred in the past. This was a beautiful wall dive and we were visited by 8 - 10 caribbean reef sharks who stayed with us for most of the dive. Neal Watson was great to dive with, he is very laid back and there were virtually no restrictions on our diving. A guide was always available but we did not have to follow them and usually dove our own profile. We are extensive photographers and a large rinse bucket was available and our cameras were taken care of well. Overall, we found the diving on south Eleuthera to be very good with outstanding visibility, healthy corals, stunning walls and fairly good macro life. We saw more lettuce leaf slugs than most other places and several nudibranches, mantis shrimp and other macro critters. When staying at Cape Eleuthera, do rent a car as there are several places on the southern island to visit. I am generally not a big beach person, but the 4th Hole Beach at Cape Eleuthera was outstanding. Do not miss visiting the southern Lighthouse beach at the very tip of the island. It is a challenge to get to as the last several miles are unpaved road but if you go slowly you can make it safely, even in a minivan. The beach is one of the most stunning beaches I have seen and the best part was that there was no other person that could be seen for miles. Also, note that the Cape Eleuthera resort does not have a pool but it really is not needed as the swimming is good in the ocean and bay areas. There is a quarter of a mile channel cut from the ocean to the bay and it is a blast to swim or snorkel that when the tide is running in or out. The kids loved floating down it on inner tubes that we had brought from home. Overall, Cape Eleuthera is a great choice for those looking for excellent diving, very nice accomodations, superb and deserted beaches but also desire quiet with little night life other than the sounds of the ocean and the stars.

 

[tac747]

Sounds awesome. Thanks for the report

 

[Heatheroe]

Thanks for the report. We will be there in October and are getting certified now. Do they rent equipment there? We are trying to decide between Cape Eleuthera Divers and Ocean Fox Cotton Bay at Davis Harbour. We will be newbies, do you think that will matter with either operator?

 

[shawrg]

Thanks for the useful information. Will you be posting photos?

 

[moneysavr]

Thank's nice report,
Kids are older I think its time to get back to the Island's