Has anyone dove with Small Hope Bay but not stayed with them?

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silvernotch

Contributor
Messages
231
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Location
SW NJ
# of dives
25 - 49
Hey everyone. We are looking to go down to Andros mid July and are renting a cottage a little bit down the road from SHB. I reached out to Small Hope today and felt a little shot down. I asked a few questions but was pretty much told that they will cater to the people staying with them (totally understand that) and they couldn't guarantee us ANY dives.

From what I've read they have 3 boats but I don't know what kind of traffic the island sees that time of year. I just don't want to pay all this money to get down there and not be able to do any diving. I almost booked our flight this morning. Glad I didn't now.

Anyone have experience diving but not staying with them? Are there any other ops on the island?
 
A short google search showed this----click link..
Recommended Scuba Dive Shops, Andros Island, Bahamas

AND, my very 1st thought on "what kind of traffic the island sees that time of year" would be ???maybe a little low------with it being right in the middle of (possible) severe hurricane season.........good luck on your diving 'reservations' though......

EDIT..:...forgot to put I have no experience there-------
 
Dive Andros | The Official Site of The Bahamas - all 4 are private resorts that offer diving. Bahamas Diving Assn. only lists two of them.

Since you mentioned SHBL, I assume you were planning to stay on North Andros? I think Neil Watson's had a shop at Coral Caverns Resort there also. I'm actually not sure if Coral Caverns even exists any longer. They don't list it on their website: Neal Watson's Locations

If not it appears that Andros Diving on South Andros might be able to accommodate you. Andros Island Bahamas All Inclusive Dive Vacations Resort
If you’re not staying at the Andros Beach Club we’ll arrange daily dive trips including transfers.

The link posted by Diver 85 is vaporware. I'm sure he wasn't aware of it but SDA is a scam online nitrox class company - there's several links to it here on SB. They copy website listings from other shops and pretend they're affiliated with them to give some credence to the online class they're trying to sell you. A couple were contacted once and had never heard of SDA.
 
A short google search showed this----click link..
Recommended Scuba Dive Shops, Andros Island, Bahamas

AND, my very 1st thought on "what kind of traffic the island sees that time of year" would be ???maybe a little low------with it being right in the middle of (possible) severe hurricane season.........good luck on your diving 'reservations' though......

EDIT..:...forgot to put I have no experience there-------

My first thought too was how many divers are they going to have that time of year? We usually always travel in July and the boats are light no matter where we go. But I asked a few questions, one was about shark dives and another was about gear storage and the person didn't even answer either question. I could be reading it wrong but I just got the feeling that unless I was staying there they couldn't care less. And the end of the email they gave me two cell numbers for guys to contact after 8 the night before to see if there were spots available. I may call one of them tonight to see if they can provide some better info. I may have just gotten someone in the office that really doesn't do much with the diving there. Either way I feel like it could have been worded better.

Dive Andros | The Official Site of The Bahamas - all 4 are private resorts that offer diving. Bahamas Diving Assn. only lists two of them.

Since you mentioned SHBL, I assume you were planning to stay on North Andros?
If not it appears that Andros Diving on South Andros might be able to accommodate you. Andros Island Bahamas All Inclusive Dive Vacations Resort


The link posted by Diver 85 is vaporware. I'm sure he wasn't aware of it but SDA is a scam online dive class company - there's several links to it here on SB. They copy website listings from other shops and pretend they're affiliated with them to give some credence to the online class they're trying to sell you. A couple of those shops were contacted once and had never heard of SDA.

So I wouldn't put a lot of credence in their links.

The cottage we were going to rent was only a mile down the road from SHBR so it would have worked out perfect. Our cottage comes with a truck rental but I don't know how feasible it is to drive to South Andros. It seems like a fairly big island.
 
I don't know how feasible it is to drive to South Andros.
It's possible but scheduling might be the issue. The problem with that is the two Andros Islands are separated by the Bight - an area of wetlands and inlets between them.

View attachment 204827

As you can see there is a road (yellow line) along the east side of all 3 Andros Islands - I suspect there might be plans for a bridge someday. But afaik there isn't one yet. Apparently there's a ferry:
The island's main road runs along coconut tree shaded beaches to Lisbon Creek. From there a free government ferry makes trips twice daily across the South Bight to Driggs Hill on South Andros.

And beacause I was curious myself:
Ferries

Government Ferry
Lisbon Creek, Mangrove Cay
Phone: (242) 357-2926
Email: briancmoxey@hotmail.com

The ferry travels daily between Lisbon Creek (Mangrove Cay) and Driggs Hill (South Andros) as follows: Lisbon Creek to Driggs Hill - departs 8:30 a.m. & 4:00 p.m. Driggs Hill to Lisbon Creek - departs 4:30 p.m.


How To Get Around - Andros - Ferries | The Official Site of The Bahamas

Hope it all works out for you, Small Hope has been on our list for years.
 
It's possible but scheduling might be the issue. The problem with that is the two Andros Islands are separated by the Bight - an area of wetlands and inlets between them.

View attachment 204827

As you can see there is a road (yellow line) along the east side of all 3 Andros Islands - I suspect there might be plans for a bridge someday. But afaik there isn't one yet. Apparently there's a ferry:

And beacause I was curious myself:



How To Get Around - Andros - Ferries | The Official Site of The Bahamas

Hope it all works out for you, Small Hope has been on our list for years.

Thanks - and I would have loved to have stayed there too but it was more than we wanted to spend. The cottage rental comes with a truck and was only going to cost us $1300 for the week and it sat right on the beach. Small Hope was going to cost us over 4 grand, not even including our flights or diving.
 
Great price! Do you mind letting us know which cottage? We stayed at Davis Harbour which is just up the road from Small Hope. We did not get to dive when we were there due to weather but all the dive staff we interacted with were very nice. We ended up having dinner there one night and were not made to feel like outsiders. Did you talk to one of the DMs? I think the guy that emailed me was Andre or Alton? Can't remember. Anyway, keep trying. I bet they will have plenty of divers in July. It's a very popular resort. Did you see Brian Kakuk's recent pics from his dive with them? Check them out on Facebook. The reefs look amazing.
 
We took a sailboat to Andros in May 2013. Tied up at Lighthouse Yacht Club and Marina. About a 20-30 min cab ride to Small Hope Bay Lodge. We had called SHBL previously and tried to arrange some dives with them, but we received the same indefinite answer you did. So when we got there we drove directly to SHBL and were able to work out a dive package that included lunch daily. There were 4 of us and we made 8 dives in 3 days and they were all great. I highly recommend the Blue Hole and shark dives, but all were at good dive sites. Boats were never crowded. One of group was able to finish his AOW.
The folks at SHBL could not have been nicer or more accommodating. One dive master took the time to fix a leaking reg. The dive boats are great platforms to dive from and the food at the Lodge was good. We were able to store our gear there overnight. We all agreed we would do it again.
 
I almost booked our flight this morning. Glad I didn't now.

Just out of curiosity, what was the flight itinerary and price? We are thinking of doing an Andros trip but can't find any precise information about flights and prices. TIA
 
Just out of curiosity, what was the flight itinerary and price? We are thinking of doing an Andros trip but can't find any precise information about flights and prices. TIA

We were looking at places on vrbo. Flights from PHL flew into Nassau fairly inexpensively but once you get into getting to the outer islands it starts to get costly.
 
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