rdougmatthews
Registered
Great Abaco Trip Report
5/18/04 - 5/22/04
Just spent a week with a couple of buddies in Abaco, so I figured I'd post up a trip report for folks that are considering it as a dive destination. It's long, so here's the summary:
- The reefs are remarkably healthy and the "landscape" of corals and limestone caverns is stunning.
- The blue hole diving was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
- The fish life was variable, a little thin outside of the marine preserve, but abundant inside.
- The dive 'industry' there appears to be getting its sea legs, but isn't yet totally professional-quality -- which is both good and bad.
- The island itself is not exciting, so bring friends.
- Net-net: I'm glad I went, but would recommend the nearby Turks & Caicos over Abaco based on my experiences in both places.
A few logistical details for the folks who care about such things.
Getting There and Away
My dive buddy flew American Eagle out of Miami and a friend & I took Continental out of West Palm. None of us had any complaints about the trip over, but there are a number of charter services out of different airports including Jacksonville, Daytona, Orlando, and others, so make sure to check those if you're not near an airport with commercial service (PBI, FLL, and MIA). Also, when leaving, give yourself a little time at the airport -- it gets pretty jammed up in there in the early afternoon when the charters & commercial flights start queuing up. Taxis will be waiting for you when you arrive, and will come get you within minutes of calling them to go back -- the whole island uses VHF radio to communicate, so anyone -- taxis, resorts, restaurants, marinas -- can call or be called easily.
Lodging and Food
We decided to stay in Marsh Harbour so that we'd be in 'town' and wouldn't have to rent a car to go do anything. This is because we assumed that there would be anything to do. There was not. As lodging goes, there are pretty limited options in Marsh Harbour itself -- a resort or two, a few condo complexes, lots of rental houses. We stayed at the Regattas of Abaco, a condo / timeshare community, and paid about $1500 for a two-bedroom unit for the entire week. The rooms are fine, and they have a pool, a nice little beach area and deck. There is no restaurant in the compound, but there are several within walking distance. The resort next door, Abaco Beach Resort, was more inclusive, as resorts tend to be, with the dive operator on-premises, a restaurant and bar, a pool & jacuzzi area, etc. Given the choice, as a group of guys who would have enjoyed after-diving actvities, I probably would spend the extra money and stay at the resort. For couples, early-to-bed types, or cost-conscious travellers, the Regattas are a better option.
The restaurants around Marsh Harbour are all pretty good, tending to be in the $20/person range for dinner. Sapodilly's was our favorite (always choose the Catch of the Day), and the breakfast buffet at the Abaco Beach Resort was good and cheaper than expected. Be warned, though -- when you get back from a morning dive (which tends to leave around 9 or 9:30) at 2 PM or so, there will be nothing open other than the snack shack -- the restaurants keep tight meal hours during the day, and they don't correspond to the dive schedules.
The Dives
We decided to dive with Abaco Dive Adventures (http://www.abacodiveadventures.com/) based on a trip report here on ScubaBoard. It's one of the newer dive operations on the island, and the newness showed during our trip -- in good and bad ways. There is another operator, Dive Abaco, which is more established but which has garnered a not-so-good reputation in the community since it was sold by its founder to another management team. To be fair to Abaco Dive Adventures, all but one of the managing partners of the shop were off-island while we were there. As a result, Kay, the remaining boss, was a bit frantic during our time there, leading to a more disorganized experience than I was used to in a dive operation. The boat left late consistently, the boat was empty then overbooked then available all in a 30-minute span before launch time, trips didn't go out because people had to be picked up from the airport, and so on -- the usual stuff when you're understaffed. My guess is that when they're at full staff capacity, it's a very different experience. And the flip side of disorganization is flexibility (see, the glass is half-full!), which meant that we got to see and do a few things that we might not have otherwise. In addition, they have a great gear locker, and rinse, hang, and store all of your equipment after each day's dives -- a huge selling point for me.
Day 1
We got to Marsh Harbour at the tail end of a pretty big wind storm, and Kay said that the water was still churned up. She suggested that we try an inland site, a blue hole that they had just recently started diving. Now, I'm from north Florida, and my training dives were in some of the most pristine springs in the country, so I was a little skeptical. But, it sounded better than whitecaps and silt, and my dive buddy Jason was excited about it. The hole itself was completely unremarkable at the surface -- it looked like a 30'-wide puddle surrounded by mud and weeds. We climbed in over a few wooden palates that had been put next to it as marsh platforms, and went in.
Kay had explained to us that there was a collection of fresh water on top of the underground salt water, so when we went in, we wouldn't see the bottom, then we'd get into a blurry section of brackish water, and then we'd be in the salt section, where the visibility would be back up. It was dark going in, and my heart rate definitely went up a little -- I've never enjoyed descending into blackness. I was a little underweighted going down, so I had to flip over and swim down headfirst to get to depth. This turned out to be a mistake. The blurry section where fresh and saltwater met was *really* blurry -- it looked like I was looking through the heat distortion over a very hot fire. And right as I hit that, upside down, my second stage filled with water. So I was now upside down, drinking where I should have been breathing, and everything looked like I had 20/400 vision (and the 72-degree water didn't help). I freaked out a little, paused, swished the brackish water around in my mouth, remembered that this is what that octopus is for, switched over and started to breathe, turned upright, and stared forward for a few seconds, reminding myself to thank my Stress & Rescue instructor for all of those drills he put us through.
After that little episode, I descended down to my buddy -- feet first this time -- and actually got into the salt water section. Boy, what a difference 20 feet can make. Above the salt layer, I couldn't see 15 feet -- below it, I could see from our level -- about 70 feet -- down to the bottom, which was at about 250' or so. The hole itself had widened to about 80' in diameter, and it was clear and well lit. There were stalactites that were 10 and 15 feet long and other beautiful limestone formations, and the water warmed up to a very manageable 78 degrees. There were a number of cave entrances below 100' -- I only got down to about 99 feet -- and Kay told us that a few cavers had explored some of the areas off the hole. We made a few circuits around the walls of the holes and ascended through the brackish layer back into the freshwater. Now that my eyes had adjusted, the freshwater layer was actually quite pretty, and the limestone formations along the walls were as interesting.
Our second dive was like the first, except that I was now calm, properly weighted, and wearing a loaner regulator. The silt we'd kicked in during our entry & exit was falling in layers through the hole, and in the clear lower salt layer, it gave the impression of waves of fog sinking through the chamber. I also confirmed that the blind cave fish swimming in the hole were, in fact, blind -- I held out my hand in front of one and it swam right into my palm. Of course then I felt terrible, but the fish seemed unfazed. I guess blind fish grow used to running into things. All in all, the blue hole dives have to be the most interesting dives I've ever done (even though I've only done 60-ish dives). Kay told us that some divers have said the blue hole dive alone made the trip worthwhile, and I'd tend to agree with them.
5/18/04 - 5/22/04
Just spent a week with a couple of buddies in Abaco, so I figured I'd post up a trip report for folks that are considering it as a dive destination. It's long, so here's the summary:
- The reefs are remarkably healthy and the "landscape" of corals and limestone caverns is stunning.
- The blue hole diving was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
- The fish life was variable, a little thin outside of the marine preserve, but abundant inside.
- The dive 'industry' there appears to be getting its sea legs, but isn't yet totally professional-quality -- which is both good and bad.
- The island itself is not exciting, so bring friends.
- Net-net: I'm glad I went, but would recommend the nearby Turks & Caicos over Abaco based on my experiences in both places.
A few logistical details for the folks who care about such things.
Getting There and Away
My dive buddy flew American Eagle out of Miami and a friend & I took Continental out of West Palm. None of us had any complaints about the trip over, but there are a number of charter services out of different airports including Jacksonville, Daytona, Orlando, and others, so make sure to check those if you're not near an airport with commercial service (PBI, FLL, and MIA). Also, when leaving, give yourself a little time at the airport -- it gets pretty jammed up in there in the early afternoon when the charters & commercial flights start queuing up. Taxis will be waiting for you when you arrive, and will come get you within minutes of calling them to go back -- the whole island uses VHF radio to communicate, so anyone -- taxis, resorts, restaurants, marinas -- can call or be called easily.
Lodging and Food
We decided to stay in Marsh Harbour so that we'd be in 'town' and wouldn't have to rent a car to go do anything. This is because we assumed that there would be anything to do. There was not. As lodging goes, there are pretty limited options in Marsh Harbour itself -- a resort or two, a few condo complexes, lots of rental houses. We stayed at the Regattas of Abaco, a condo / timeshare community, and paid about $1500 for a two-bedroom unit for the entire week. The rooms are fine, and they have a pool, a nice little beach area and deck. There is no restaurant in the compound, but there are several within walking distance. The resort next door, Abaco Beach Resort, was more inclusive, as resorts tend to be, with the dive operator on-premises, a restaurant and bar, a pool & jacuzzi area, etc. Given the choice, as a group of guys who would have enjoyed after-diving actvities, I probably would spend the extra money and stay at the resort. For couples, early-to-bed types, or cost-conscious travellers, the Regattas are a better option.
The restaurants around Marsh Harbour are all pretty good, tending to be in the $20/person range for dinner. Sapodilly's was our favorite (always choose the Catch of the Day), and the breakfast buffet at the Abaco Beach Resort was good and cheaper than expected. Be warned, though -- when you get back from a morning dive (which tends to leave around 9 or 9:30) at 2 PM or so, there will be nothing open other than the snack shack -- the restaurants keep tight meal hours during the day, and they don't correspond to the dive schedules.
The Dives
We decided to dive with Abaco Dive Adventures (http://www.abacodiveadventures.com/) based on a trip report here on ScubaBoard. It's one of the newer dive operations on the island, and the newness showed during our trip -- in good and bad ways. There is another operator, Dive Abaco, which is more established but which has garnered a not-so-good reputation in the community since it was sold by its founder to another management team. To be fair to Abaco Dive Adventures, all but one of the managing partners of the shop were off-island while we were there. As a result, Kay, the remaining boss, was a bit frantic during our time there, leading to a more disorganized experience than I was used to in a dive operation. The boat left late consistently, the boat was empty then overbooked then available all in a 30-minute span before launch time, trips didn't go out because people had to be picked up from the airport, and so on -- the usual stuff when you're understaffed. My guess is that when they're at full staff capacity, it's a very different experience. And the flip side of disorganization is flexibility (see, the glass is half-full!), which meant that we got to see and do a few things that we might not have otherwise. In addition, they have a great gear locker, and rinse, hang, and store all of your equipment after each day's dives -- a huge selling point for me.
Day 1
We got to Marsh Harbour at the tail end of a pretty big wind storm, and Kay said that the water was still churned up. She suggested that we try an inland site, a blue hole that they had just recently started diving. Now, I'm from north Florida, and my training dives were in some of the most pristine springs in the country, so I was a little skeptical. But, it sounded better than whitecaps and silt, and my dive buddy Jason was excited about it. The hole itself was completely unremarkable at the surface -- it looked like a 30'-wide puddle surrounded by mud and weeds. We climbed in over a few wooden palates that had been put next to it as marsh platforms, and went in.
Kay had explained to us that there was a collection of fresh water on top of the underground salt water, so when we went in, we wouldn't see the bottom, then we'd get into a blurry section of brackish water, and then we'd be in the salt section, where the visibility would be back up. It was dark going in, and my heart rate definitely went up a little -- I've never enjoyed descending into blackness. I was a little underweighted going down, so I had to flip over and swim down headfirst to get to depth. This turned out to be a mistake. The blurry section where fresh and saltwater met was *really* blurry -- it looked like I was looking through the heat distortion over a very hot fire. And right as I hit that, upside down, my second stage filled with water. So I was now upside down, drinking where I should have been breathing, and everything looked like I had 20/400 vision (and the 72-degree water didn't help). I freaked out a little, paused, swished the brackish water around in my mouth, remembered that this is what that octopus is for, switched over and started to breathe, turned upright, and stared forward for a few seconds, reminding myself to thank my Stress & Rescue instructor for all of those drills he put us through.
After that little episode, I descended down to my buddy -- feet first this time -- and actually got into the salt water section. Boy, what a difference 20 feet can make. Above the salt layer, I couldn't see 15 feet -- below it, I could see from our level -- about 70 feet -- down to the bottom, which was at about 250' or so. The hole itself had widened to about 80' in diameter, and it was clear and well lit. There were stalactites that were 10 and 15 feet long and other beautiful limestone formations, and the water warmed up to a very manageable 78 degrees. There were a number of cave entrances below 100' -- I only got down to about 99 feet -- and Kay told us that a few cavers had explored some of the areas off the hole. We made a few circuits around the walls of the holes and ascended through the brackish layer back into the freshwater. Now that my eyes had adjusted, the freshwater layer was actually quite pretty, and the limestone formations along the walls were as interesting.
Our second dive was like the first, except that I was now calm, properly weighted, and wearing a loaner regulator. The silt we'd kicked in during our entry & exit was falling in layers through the hole, and in the clear lower salt layer, it gave the impression of waves of fog sinking through the chamber. I also confirmed that the blind cave fish swimming in the hole were, in fact, blind -- I held out my hand in front of one and it swam right into my palm. Of course then I felt terrible, but the fish seemed unfazed. I guess blind fish grow used to running into things. All in all, the blue hole dives have to be the most interesting dives I've ever done (even though I've only done 60-ish dives). Kay told us that some divers have said the blue hole dive alone made the trip worthwhile, and I'd tend to agree with them.