RadHal
Contributor
Just returned from a 3 day, 12 dive trip to Nassau Bahamas diving with my good buddy Craig66 and Stuart Cove (SC). We flew in from Boston, MA and East Brunswick, NJ and stayed at the Sheraton Resort and Casino, through a stay and dive package with SC. We were picked up by their van at 8am and the trip to the dock was about 25minutes including multiple pick ups along the way.
Stuart Cove is a large, well oiled machine, probably the largest dive op I've been with. One would expect a less personal, cattle-boat type experience, on the contrary, all the staff were engaging, pleasant, professional and happy to serve their clients. They have at least 5 boats and cater to the cruise ship and on-island visitors. There is a quick efficient sign in process and with little time wasted you are assigned a boat and heading out.
The boat captains all gave a boat safety briefing and the dive masters, a dive site and safety briefing. We had our own gear and used Nitrox (32 and 34%). The dive sites were varied, including reefs, walls, and wrecks with about 50ft viz. They were conscious not to take one to the same site twice during your time with them. The air temp was around 80F and the water 75-76F. The first day was a little rough and I returned my breakfast to the fish more than once, even under water. I was a lot better on day 2 and 3 after using a scopace patch. If you are sensitive to sea sickness take pre-medication.
We did two, afternoon two tank Shark Adventures, the first dive is an acclimation dive on a wall or wreck with the Caribbean Reef sharks gliding by. The second dive was the feeding dive were the sharks became a lot more aggressive, swimming up, over and around you to access the free food fed from the chain-suited dive master. We did one feed kneeling on a sandy bottom and another on the bow of a wreck, the latter was a much better. I really enjoyed the intimate encounter, never felt unsafe or afraid. One can certainly debate the ethics of this practice but I felt it was done professionally and was safe to the divers and sharks.
There were less Lion Fish that expected, the reefs are relatively healthy and there is certainly more to see than just the pelagics. Overall we had a great time and I would recommend spending a few days diving with Stuart Cove.
Hal
:shark2:
Here are links to my photos taken with an Olympus EPL3, Oly Housing, 9-18mm lens, Zen Dome Port and dual Sea and Sea Strobes, shooting manual, RAW and post processing with Adobe Lightroom 4.1
Bahamas - Shark Adventure - a set on Flickr
or
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/1...67288597139377
Stuart Cove is a large, well oiled machine, probably the largest dive op I've been with. One would expect a less personal, cattle-boat type experience, on the contrary, all the staff were engaging, pleasant, professional and happy to serve their clients. They have at least 5 boats and cater to the cruise ship and on-island visitors. There is a quick efficient sign in process and with little time wasted you are assigned a boat and heading out.
The boat captains all gave a boat safety briefing and the dive masters, a dive site and safety briefing. We had our own gear and used Nitrox (32 and 34%). The dive sites were varied, including reefs, walls, and wrecks with about 50ft viz. They were conscious not to take one to the same site twice during your time with them. The air temp was around 80F and the water 75-76F. The first day was a little rough and I returned my breakfast to the fish more than once, even under water. I was a lot better on day 2 and 3 after using a scopace patch. If you are sensitive to sea sickness take pre-medication.
We did two, afternoon two tank Shark Adventures, the first dive is an acclimation dive on a wall or wreck with the Caribbean Reef sharks gliding by. The second dive was the feeding dive were the sharks became a lot more aggressive, swimming up, over and around you to access the free food fed from the chain-suited dive master. We did one feed kneeling on a sandy bottom and another on the bow of a wreck, the latter was a much better. I really enjoyed the intimate encounter, never felt unsafe or afraid. One can certainly debate the ethics of this practice but I felt it was done professionally and was safe to the divers and sharks.
There were less Lion Fish that expected, the reefs are relatively healthy and there is certainly more to see than just the pelagics. Overall we had a great time and I would recommend spending a few days diving with Stuart Cove.
Hal
:shark2:
Here are links to my photos taken with an Olympus EPL3, Oly Housing, 9-18mm lens, Zen Dome Port and dual Sea and Sea Strobes, shooting manual, RAW and post processing with Adobe Lightroom 4.1
Bahamas - Shark Adventure - a set on Flickr
or
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/1...67288597139377