UnderwaterBumbleBee
Contributor
Just got back from the Exuma Islands, having withdrawals already. We spent 7 days on Explorer Ventures Caribbean Explorer II Southern Bahamas itinerary and a couple extra nights on Stocking Island afterward.
Getting There
Due to lack of sufficient flight times/schedules we decided to fly American to Miami on the Friday prior and spend the night near the airport. This insured our luggage would all make it on the Exuma flight since we had to re-check it. We arrived in Georgetown, Great Exuma on Saturday around 3:30pm and were greeted by live music in the arrival area/customs. This is one of my favorite international airports EVER! It's such a tiny place it was just our flight, no long lines, no extreme heat and pleasant customs agents and music! We breezed through the airport and met Les, a driver that coordinates pickups for Explorer Venture guests. It was the most luxurious taxi I have ever been on in a Caribbean destination (something like a suburban with leather seats). After a 20 min ride to the dock it was pouring rain so we sat there for awhile, then stood outside undercover for awhile before some of the crew ventured out to get us in the downpour.
Boat & Crew
We ended up having 12 guests out of a possible 18. Seven Crew members (Captain Ian, Engineer Robert, Cook Jane, Stewards & Dive staff Demi, Michelle, Rachel and Austin). We ended up in cabin 7 on the lower deck. No windows but it makes for good sleeping and naps. Bed was pretty comfy except for being a little short (and I'm not that tall). Water was super hot all week in shower (helps to keep people from using gallons). There is storage underneath the bed, above the bed and around the sink vanity. Similar to Nekton but I think this was a step above as far as the room quality.
Dive Deck & Upper Deck
Dive deck has a nice set up with large camera table in the middle. Liked that everything was on one level, gear, wetsuit hangers, camera station,etc... Upper Deck has a sun deck with about 8 lounge chairs and a Grill. Dining area has a covered roof with plastic roll up windows. Occasionally hot, depending on how the wind was blowing and how many of the windows were open. Typical 3 meals plus 2 snacks, also included alcohol (beer, wine and harder alcohol). Also have hot chocolate, tea, crystal lite, soda.... Food was pretty good. Jane apparently makes a lot of things from scratch, her dinner rolls were SO GOOD! We had steak, turkey dinner, tacos and fajitas, lasagna, pizza..... Everything was good. The crew do a great job of making sure you have everything you need.
Diving
Aside from rain in Georgetown, we only had a couple rainstorms pass over us during the week and were gone pretty quick. We started out off Long Island at Shark Reef. This was one of my favorite dives. It's about 38-40 feet with enormous sand hills and reef sharks cruising between the coral heads. Then we headed to Conception Island, saw my first Hammerhead at Wedge Point. We spent some time at Conception before heading to San Salvador. Runway 10 was a great dive, saw a hammerhead, flying gunnard. Sea Garden was a nice site also, finally saw a nice size turtle (think I saw 3 total), couple eels, big great barracuda, couple reef sharks, hammerhead, several cleaning stations. Back to Conception we hit Chutes & Ladders, another great site. A reef shark was cruising around in the shallows at the beginning of the dive, 2 big turtles, 3 juvenile drums dancing together around some coral, nice wall. Our last dive on Friday morning was the Comerbach wreck which was kind of boring and deep. There's a VW station wagon inside the hull and a toilet, small sailboat SS minnow sank nearby, just not a lot to see even in the surrounding coral. Personally I could have skipped two dives at this site at 98 feet for 25-30 minutes. Once the diving was done the boat takes several hours to head back into Georgetown. On many of the dives we saw huge lobsters, big groupers, big crabs, a few yellow stingrays, one large southern ray. One thing I left out was all the Lionfish we saw. I had never seen them before and I am sick of them now. We saw them on every single dive, sometimes 3 of them clustered together. Most of them were huge, they hang out everywhere all over the wall and along the shallower reefs. It was very discouraging to see. For liability reasons the boat does not have a capture program.
Coming to an End
Friday night the captian accompanied the group (minus the rest of the crew) for dinner at the St. Francis Resort. Afterwards, all of the younger group went with most of the crew to the FISH FRY where we all had a great time. Next morning we were off the boat by 9am. We spent 2 nights on Stocking Island (AKA Mosquito Island) at St. Francis before heading home.
Conclusion
Overall, we really liked the crew. Captain Ian had a great sense of humor but was professional and safety minded. Ask him for a bowl of shut up and eat it. He personally writes down all your dive stats when you come out of the water. Michelle was like Mom, making sure everyone was happy. Demi was hilarious, he's almost indescribable, not to be forgotten. Imagine a Japoriginal Rastafarian playing a didgeridoo made out of PVC pipe. Rachel and Austin were great dive guides. The price was one of the best parts of the trip, we got $400 off per person on a special. I noticed they extended this deal for several other dates. Although we had pretty good weather, we never felt sick and didn't take anything for seasickness. No one else was sick on our trip either. We'll definitely travel again with Explorer Ventures. As for this part of the Bahamas, (our last trip was Curacao which had loads of fish) I think the lionfish have made a impact on the fish populations in this area.
Check out my photos at the link below.
Getting There
Due to lack of sufficient flight times/schedules we decided to fly American to Miami on the Friday prior and spend the night near the airport. This insured our luggage would all make it on the Exuma flight since we had to re-check it. We arrived in Georgetown, Great Exuma on Saturday around 3:30pm and were greeted by live music in the arrival area/customs. This is one of my favorite international airports EVER! It's such a tiny place it was just our flight, no long lines, no extreme heat and pleasant customs agents and music! We breezed through the airport and met Les, a driver that coordinates pickups for Explorer Venture guests. It was the most luxurious taxi I have ever been on in a Caribbean destination (something like a suburban with leather seats). After a 20 min ride to the dock it was pouring rain so we sat there for awhile, then stood outside undercover for awhile before some of the crew ventured out to get us in the downpour.
Boat & Crew
We ended up having 12 guests out of a possible 18. Seven Crew members (Captain Ian, Engineer Robert, Cook Jane, Stewards & Dive staff Demi, Michelle, Rachel and Austin). We ended up in cabin 7 on the lower deck. No windows but it makes for good sleeping and naps. Bed was pretty comfy except for being a little short (and I'm not that tall). Water was super hot all week in shower (helps to keep people from using gallons). There is storage underneath the bed, above the bed and around the sink vanity. Similar to Nekton but I think this was a step above as far as the room quality.
Dive Deck & Upper Deck
Dive deck has a nice set up with large camera table in the middle. Liked that everything was on one level, gear, wetsuit hangers, camera station,etc... Upper Deck has a sun deck with about 8 lounge chairs and a Grill. Dining area has a covered roof with plastic roll up windows. Occasionally hot, depending on how the wind was blowing and how many of the windows were open. Typical 3 meals plus 2 snacks, also included alcohol (beer, wine and harder alcohol). Also have hot chocolate, tea, crystal lite, soda.... Food was pretty good. Jane apparently makes a lot of things from scratch, her dinner rolls were SO GOOD! We had steak, turkey dinner, tacos and fajitas, lasagna, pizza..... Everything was good. The crew do a great job of making sure you have everything you need.
Diving
Aside from rain in Georgetown, we only had a couple rainstorms pass over us during the week and were gone pretty quick. We started out off Long Island at Shark Reef. This was one of my favorite dives. It's about 38-40 feet with enormous sand hills and reef sharks cruising between the coral heads. Then we headed to Conception Island, saw my first Hammerhead at Wedge Point. We spent some time at Conception before heading to San Salvador. Runway 10 was a great dive, saw a hammerhead, flying gunnard. Sea Garden was a nice site also, finally saw a nice size turtle (think I saw 3 total), couple eels, big great barracuda, couple reef sharks, hammerhead, several cleaning stations. Back to Conception we hit Chutes & Ladders, another great site. A reef shark was cruising around in the shallows at the beginning of the dive, 2 big turtles, 3 juvenile drums dancing together around some coral, nice wall. Our last dive on Friday morning was the Comerbach wreck which was kind of boring and deep. There's a VW station wagon inside the hull and a toilet, small sailboat SS minnow sank nearby, just not a lot to see even in the surrounding coral. Personally I could have skipped two dives at this site at 98 feet for 25-30 minutes. Once the diving was done the boat takes several hours to head back into Georgetown. On many of the dives we saw huge lobsters, big groupers, big crabs, a few yellow stingrays, one large southern ray. One thing I left out was all the Lionfish we saw. I had never seen them before and I am sick of them now. We saw them on every single dive, sometimes 3 of them clustered together. Most of them were huge, they hang out everywhere all over the wall and along the shallower reefs. It was very discouraging to see. For liability reasons the boat does not have a capture program.
Coming to an End
Friday night the captian accompanied the group (minus the rest of the crew) for dinner at the St. Francis Resort. Afterwards, all of the younger group went with most of the crew to the FISH FRY where we all had a great time. Next morning we were off the boat by 9am. We spent 2 nights on Stocking Island (AKA Mosquito Island) at St. Francis before heading home.
Conclusion
Overall, we really liked the crew. Captain Ian had a great sense of humor but was professional and safety minded. Ask him for a bowl of shut up and eat it. He personally writes down all your dive stats when you come out of the water. Michelle was like Mom, making sure everyone was happy. Demi was hilarious, he's almost indescribable, not to be forgotten. Imagine a Japoriginal Rastafarian playing a didgeridoo made out of PVC pipe. Rachel and Austin were great dive guides. The price was one of the best parts of the trip, we got $400 off per person on a special. I noticed they extended this deal for several other dates. Although we had pretty good weather, we never felt sick and didn't take anything for seasickness. No one else was sick on our trip either. We'll definitely travel again with Explorer Ventures. As for this part of the Bahamas, (our last trip was Curacao which had loads of fish) I think the lionfish have made a impact on the fish populations in this area.
Check out my photos at the link below.
