Diving with the Avalon: Lost Island Voyages June 6 2015

[SIUegyptiandiver]

I started planning a family vacation a few months ago. After looking at several options, we decided to dive with Lost Island Voyages aboard the Avalon in June of 2015. Obviously, we have not taken the trip yet, but if the pre-trip service is half as good as the dive experience, we are looking forward to a great trip. Jeanie and Ray Temeyer have been outstanding thus far in helping us plan and organize the trip. Jeanine has answered all my questions promptly and worked with me for several months to make sure our first live aboard experience as a family will be an experience of a lifetime.

I couldn't be happier with the pre-trip planning, and it seems as though the Temeyers have bent over backwards to ensure that we will have a great dive vacation. They even agreed to take us on as a family of four when there were no other divers scheduled for the week of June 6. That was a risk for them since a full boat includes 12 divers, but luckily they have filled all the other available slots for that week.

We look forward to our trip and to meeting the crew and the other divers onboard the Avalon. If anyone on ScubaBoard reading this is going on that trip, I'd love to "meet" you through this site and maybe discuss the trip and what sort of diving you are interested in doing.

I will try to update this thread as the trip draws near, and will plan on providing a review and posting some photos and/or video after we get back. If anyone is interested in learning about the Avalon and Lost Island Voyages, I encourage you to visit their web page Welcome to Lost Island Voyages | Scuba Diving Adventures in the Bahamas | Miami, FL.

 

[ppatin]

If you could let us know how the trip was (with pictures would be even better!) that would be awesome. Lost Island Voyages is close to the top of my "Want to Try" list. I've heard nothing but good things about them so far.

 

[SIUegyptiandiver]

I will be happy to provide a trip summary and will do my best to post pix and/or vids when we return!

 

[SIUegyptiandiver]

Just got back last night. I have a lot of editing and cropping to do before anything is presentable, but suffice to say that it was an amazing week aboard the Avalon.

Captain Ray, dive instructor Brad and ship's first lady of cuisine Sara were outstanding. The Avalon is very comfortable and welcoming with each couple or pair of travelers sharing one berth. Each berth has a curtain and the bunks are soft, clean and cozy. We slept like babies. Meals were banquet style and there was always plenty of delicious food for every meal. Whether eating fish we caught or speared, or eating something Sara kept pulling from a seemingly never-ending supply of good eats, no one went hungry. I think I gained weight, actually!

The diving was world-class with everything from shallow coral heads to deep reefs to walls, wrecks, swim-throughs, tunnels, blue holes and even a cavern-like hole to explore. No one at any experience level was left wanting for more. Night dives were offered most nights and we did at least 3 to 4 dives every day. Deeper dives were available at the beginning of each day, and got generally shallower as the day progressed. My daughter is a fairly new diver and had just as much fun with my wife exploring at 60 feet as my son and I did dropping off of walls to 130.

I will provide a complete trip summary with pictures and (if I can figure out how to do it....) video as I go through my files in the next few days. Aside from diving, we were able to snorkel and spear fish coral reefs, explore remote islands and experience a drifting snorkel through a crystal clear mangrove creek.

You need to do this trip!

Suffice to say, this is a live-aboard experience for everyone. I hope this helps.

 

[SIUegyptiandiver]

Dive Schedule aboard Avalon June 6 - June 11, 2015

This is the schedule of dives offered for the week of June 6 through June 11 2015. A brief summary of each dive from my log follows (sorry for lack of pix shot mostly video and still learning how to post):

Periwinkle: shallow patch reef about 25 feet in depth. Plenty of tropical fish and coral heads to enjoy.
Dog Rocks: wall dive, excellent visibility, deep swim-thrus, large amber jack and lion fish at depth. soft and hard corals of all shapes and sizes.
Clancy 25 Wall: wall dive, overly friendly remora greeted us at end of dive, large school of horse-eyed jacks near boat
Kracken: beautiful rocky shoreline off of Eleuthera with large coral heads/rocks, swim-thrus, tiger tail sea cucumbers, barracuda under boat looking for handouts
Night dive at Kracken: calm seas, good vis, lobster, stingray, bioluminescent plankton
Cobia Cage: incredible structure, looks like a spaceship underwater. large jacks and snapper, some sharks, yellow tail snapper, tiny shrimp and fish. wall near cage
Hole in the Wall: nice swim thrus, tunnel at about 60 feet descending to 90, ending at the wall running about 40 feet - light all the way through.
Knuckleheads: did not dive, did shore excursion to see ruins of old plantation
Thru da Hoops: similar to Kracken, very pretty coral heads and tunnels. felt like diving in an aquarium. daughter shot 2 lion fish with pole spear
Thru da Hoops night: did not dive
Premo wall: nice wall, swim thrus at 100+ feet, shark, lion fish, jacks, lots of tropicals even at depth.
Split Coral and wall: dove wall for about 5 min, some very cool sponges - elephant ear and very big tube sponges growing downward off bottom of ledges. several sharks patrolling area, some boats feed them here. Split coral is a very large coral head, friendly grouper played with son
Jake's Fountain: small hole in reef leading down to branching caverns. cold, fresh water discharging out of hole. turtle at entrance to hole, lots of shallow areas to dive with very tiny to large reef fish all around. Very large grouper (Nassau, Black, Red) around boat.
Jake's Fountain Nite: dove with wife, saw octopus, lobster, trigger fish, hogfish. speared a yellow tail while snorkeling before dinner - very tasty!
Blacktip wall: someone on board actually saw a blacktip! go figure . Huge cuts in reef leading down to wall. great experience, like being underwater at Giant City State Park (look it up)
Washing Machine: OMG FUN! fast drift dive, throws you all around, churns, twists and spits you out onto a nice drift dive over soft corals
Austin Smith: smaller cutter type boat. sits upright in about 60 feet. can safely penetrate small holds. 2 GIANT lobster inside wreck, reef sharks swimming around the wreck, deflated life raft in aft hold
Hammerhead Gulch: ok, no hammerheads, but a nice nite dive. shallow area with several coral heads to explore. big puffer fish keeping us company, stingray, vis "down" to less than 60 feet from tidal current carrying suspended particulates
Blue Hole: called Lost Blue Hole on google earth. silky sharks in hole, darting up, down and all around the hole. some patch reef on top of hole. puffer fish swam right into camera lens!
Tri-Wrecks: just off Paradise Island, Atlantis about a mile away. Very interesting site. 3 good sized wrecks lying in various positions. lots to explore inside and outside of wrecks. debris field around wrecks is very big.
Trinity Caves: shallow ledge reef with small "cave" openings. stonefish at mouth of one cave. parrotfish played with and all around daughter. sea fans swaying in surge

Average visibility was 80+ feet with several dives even better. Water temp was 80 degrees F all week long. Dove comfortably in dive skins, lavacore or 3mm suits/shorties. Several of these sites have you tube video already posted if you would like to see them before I post mine.

Again, hope this helps.