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Part 2
Friday, May 02, 2008. We departed the Cat Ppalu this morning after breakfast and returned to the Orange Hill Inn for our remaining 3 days. We dove with Stuart Cove’s in the afternoon. 6 of us did the Shark feed dive and 2 did the regular afternoon dive. The 2 on the afternoon dive advised it was a cattle boat, 25 divers on their boat and many had not been diving in some time. They did the James Bond DC-3 airplane movie set and a wall dive. More about that tomorrow when our whole group does the regular dives. On the Shark Dive the boat had about 20 divers on it. It is a two tank dive, with both dives done on the same site. The first dive is to familiarize you with the site, let you look at the sharks before the feed, and then do a short wall dive. Time was to be 35 minutes. The second dive is on the same site. They have everyone descend together, where 2 of the divemasters (actually the video and still photographers) position you in a circle kneeling on the sand. During this time the sharks are all gathering and some good photo ops abound. After everyone is settled, the divemaster with the steel crate of food comes down and the action starts. The shark feeder uses a spear to pull one fish at a time from the crate and feed it to the sharks. He moves around the circle several times bringing the sharks up close and personal to everyone. The sharks are everywhere!!! The feed lasts about 25-30 minutes and when all the fish is gone the divemaster ascends. The sharks realize at this point the feeding is over and start departing the area; however several continue to hang around for more video and photos. You can search in the sand for shark teeth for about 5 minutes before they signal everyone to ascend. Total dive time was 46 minutes. Stuart Cove’s insists on a full wet suit for everyone on this dive and you can rent one there. I was glad I was wearing my 5mm since you don’t move around much on this dive and it started getting cold near the end. I had a water temp of 72F. Overall it was worth the $150 price tag at least once.
Dive 3 with Stuart Cove’s was Runway Wall with 95 feet for 43 min
Dive 4 with Stuart Cove’s was a shark feed with 38 feet for 46 min.
More to come as I'm still in the Bahamas
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