dirtfarmer
Contributor
Screw this pandemic, I wanna go diving, but where should I go? My regular go to's of Indonesia and the Phillipines are out of bounds, (open now though) closed to tourisim or with challenging hoops to jump thru, and I"m in need somewhere open, close, and epic. Hmmm, some shark diving sounds good and meets the above criteria, open, no seemingly endless rounds of 'rona tests-quarenteen and pretty easy and close to get to. So pandemic be damned, I booked a trip on the dolphin Dream headingout to Tiger Beach in late January 2022 which is one of the time frames I can leave the farm and it's a really good time for seeing both Tigers and Hammerheads.
I've been to Tiger Beach before in Jan 2019 on the Shearwater run by Jim Abernathys Scuba Adventures. But this time I choose the Dolphin Dream, I enjoy branching out and trying new things and though I thourouly enjoyed my trip on the shearwater in 2019 (mostly- more on this later) I had a reccomendation from a friend that I ought to give the dream a try.
Nowadays with Yelp and Trip Advisor everybodys a critic, so along the way I'll have some comparisons and contrasts.
The Shearwater office booking queen Susan is awesome she returns messages with lightning speed , is helpfull knowlegable and friendly, two years ago I was trying to book one of the last open spots on a trip to Soccoro, but the boat I selected wouldnt confirm my spot as they had a large group dilly dallying trying to make a decision wheather to book, so precious time is going by and I wasn't going to get skunked with no trip so in the meantime I'm messaging Susan to see if they have space on the Shearwater if I can't get to Soccoro, shes top notch and will let me know if i need to pull the trigger and book Tiger Beach so I don't end up sitting at home bored out of my skull. Eventually my booking to Soccoro came through so I ended up thanking Susan and booking a trip to Soccoro which was right before the big shutdown. My booking with the Dolphin Dream took longer for communications but went smoothly, if you are in need of alot of back and forth communication just be aware that it takes a while for that to happen with the DD.
On both trips out to Tiger Beach the conditions were rough, the Dolphin Dream is a much bigger boat than the Shearwater calming the conditions some, the beam is much wider on the DD and the swells were coming more broadside making the boat roll and pitch quite a bit and I ended up getting seasick which is a rare occurance, while on the Shearwater we were hitting the swells straight on pitching the boat up and down, on that ride ended up coming up off my bunk completely about 3 times and yes i was completly airborne...my whole body in the air flying up and crashing back to the surface of my bed. I was really crossing my fingers that the hull was I good shape I I wouldn't end up drowned in my bunk from a failed hull. It did we arrived safe and sound but I got zero sleep.
The Dolphin Dream is much larger than the Shearwater, it has actual cabins and the salon is much larger giving more room and comfort and space in general. The dive deck is also larger on the DD but still cozy. For comfort the DD outpaces the Shearwater by a mile.
Our first day started in earnest everyone excited to get #sharkywidit. The Dolphin Dream feeds on some of the dives so the tigers tend to stay close and not swim off to far. On the Shearwater they have a baitbox but don't feed so the tigers tend to make a pass or two then swim off looking for something to put in their belly, yes they come back but there tends to be more time when the big girls aren't there.
Our dives the first day were a blast, it was great to get back in the water and even more so with some lovely tiger sharks. The Tigers showed up almost immediately and there were no other boats in the area so they came and stayed for long periods of time. The vis was mostly really good at around 80' and very little haze and the sun came out from the clouds for most the day.
At the last dive of our first day the vis got pretty bad down to about 20'. The low vis made the photos from that dive look a bit like i was shooting black and white on an old timey camera. I'm told that since one of the hurricanes since 2019 that there is quite a bit of fine sand silt that gets stirred up during tidal changes and storms. On my first trip in 2019 we never experienced that kind of low visibility.
For the first dive of our second day they did a swim around since the viz was on the low side. It was Tutu Teusday so all the divers donned TuTu's for fun. It's a fun sight to see Finch one of the DD crew give the morning briefing in a TuTu with his my pony swim shorts on and a cute rainbow t-shirt. His choice of apparel is always interesting and humorous for a guy that feeds sharks for a living. I skipped the first dive to save my core temperature for later and on the first shark feed dive the action got HOT 4 Tigers showwed up and promptly got my heartbeat pumping. Early on a tiger coming at me didn't turn but with a gentle push with my camera she moved off, then a bit later she decided to come straight at me no turning in mind and then she opened her mouth and gave my camera rig a bite, I let go as not to get in a tugging match with a big ass tiger shark, she turned away with my rig hanging from her jaws swam a few feet and let go, my rig is positively bouyant and ryan the saftey diver recovered it. Happily my gopro which is attatched to my photo housing was running so you can see her coming at me then you see her ampuli of lorenzini some blue water then more of the action. All the camera equipment came out unscathed cept for a remembrance scratch or two on my dome housing, not the actuall dome so no problem no worries. It was quite the addrenaline rush and I'll remember it for the rest of my life and have a great story to tell to everyone but my wife cause if I tell her about it she'll never let me leave the house again.
Our second feed dive we had 5 tigers 3 of which are extra fat so most likley preggo. One of them is new to the crew, she was named Alli, and she is still learning the ropes about being a shark being fed with a bunch of strange creatures watching her and filming her. She is the one that chomped my rig and she mouthed a go pro without her teeth, (really cool video shot by another diver where you can see her chomp on a go-pro with a dome but she doesn't use her teeth just her gums. Alli also had the tendency to occasionally cruise down the lines of divers looking for her fish snacks, she is still learning that the snacks come from the human in the middle with the bait box, this behavior most prevelent when the current wasn't as strong making it clear to her that the fish came from the box in the middle. The other girls were well behaved, doing their sharky job of being magnificent wowing us divers with their prescence and powerful grace.
For the third day he weather turned for the worse with thicker cloud cover, wind, and choppy seas, we were able to get two dives in both feeds one where they set divers up for open jaw shots. All the divers set up in the normal horsehoe but then one diver sets up 5 feet behind the baitbox and shark feeder with another saftey diver right behind them, the feeder then sets the feeding up so the photographer has the best opportunity to get the classic mouth open teeth showing shot. With the saftey diver right behind you can concentrate on whats right in front of you and not have to worry about the action going on behind you, its conforting and gives you the ability to focus on whats in front of you. Its a really awesome experience and i wasn't nervous knowing someone had my back.
The exit on both dives that day were pretty hairy with 5-6 foot swells, the crew did a really good job at getting the divers out of the water safely. We could only get 2 dives in as the swells got even bigger and had to move to cover. The Dolphin Dream entry deck is fixed as opposed to the Shearwaters which is on hinges, this allowed us to exit the water with a bit more saftey as the deck is a bit more predictable. Still hazardous and a mini adventure but the crew was really on top of their game and we all made it out of the water without getting knocked on the head.
On my previous trip on the Shearwater we wouldnt have even tried diving with such big swells. We did have a day of diving we missed due to weather on the Shearwater, Captain Scott on the DD did say that its pretty normal to have weather systems affect the diving at this part of the year. Captain Scott did inform us of a weather system due to come in with 30 knot winds making the trip back in those conditions would be hazardous so the trip would need to be cut short by a day.
Continued in 2nd part
I've been to Tiger Beach before in Jan 2019 on the Shearwater run by Jim Abernathys Scuba Adventures. But this time I choose the Dolphin Dream, I enjoy branching out and trying new things and though I thourouly enjoyed my trip on the shearwater in 2019 (mostly- more on this later) I had a reccomendation from a friend that I ought to give the dream a try.
Nowadays with Yelp and Trip Advisor everybodys a critic, so along the way I'll have some comparisons and contrasts.
The Shearwater office booking queen Susan is awesome she returns messages with lightning speed , is helpfull knowlegable and friendly, two years ago I was trying to book one of the last open spots on a trip to Soccoro, but the boat I selected wouldnt confirm my spot as they had a large group dilly dallying trying to make a decision wheather to book, so precious time is going by and I wasn't going to get skunked with no trip so in the meantime I'm messaging Susan to see if they have space on the Shearwater if I can't get to Soccoro, shes top notch and will let me know if i need to pull the trigger and book Tiger Beach so I don't end up sitting at home bored out of my skull. Eventually my booking to Soccoro came through so I ended up thanking Susan and booking a trip to Soccoro which was right before the big shutdown. My booking with the Dolphin Dream took longer for communications but went smoothly, if you are in need of alot of back and forth communication just be aware that it takes a while for that to happen with the DD.
On both trips out to Tiger Beach the conditions were rough, the Dolphin Dream is a much bigger boat than the Shearwater calming the conditions some, the beam is much wider on the DD and the swells were coming more broadside making the boat roll and pitch quite a bit and I ended up getting seasick which is a rare occurance, while on the Shearwater we were hitting the swells straight on pitching the boat up and down, on that ride ended up coming up off my bunk completely about 3 times and yes i was completly airborne...my whole body in the air flying up and crashing back to the surface of my bed. I was really crossing my fingers that the hull was I good shape I I wouldn't end up drowned in my bunk from a failed hull. It did we arrived safe and sound but I got zero sleep.
The Dolphin Dream is much larger than the Shearwater, it has actual cabins and the salon is much larger giving more room and comfort and space in general. The dive deck is also larger on the DD but still cozy. For comfort the DD outpaces the Shearwater by a mile.
Our first day started in earnest everyone excited to get #sharkywidit. The Dolphin Dream feeds on some of the dives so the tigers tend to stay close and not swim off to far. On the Shearwater they have a baitbox but don't feed so the tigers tend to make a pass or two then swim off looking for something to put in their belly, yes they come back but there tends to be more time when the big girls aren't there.
Our dives the first day were a blast, it was great to get back in the water and even more so with some lovely tiger sharks. The Tigers showed up almost immediately and there were no other boats in the area so they came and stayed for long periods of time. The vis was mostly really good at around 80' and very little haze and the sun came out from the clouds for most the day.
At the last dive of our first day the vis got pretty bad down to about 20'. The low vis made the photos from that dive look a bit like i was shooting black and white on an old timey camera. I'm told that since one of the hurricanes since 2019 that there is quite a bit of fine sand silt that gets stirred up during tidal changes and storms. On my first trip in 2019 we never experienced that kind of low visibility.
For the first dive of our second day they did a swim around since the viz was on the low side. It was Tutu Teusday so all the divers donned TuTu's for fun. It's a fun sight to see Finch one of the DD crew give the morning briefing in a TuTu with his my pony swim shorts on and a cute rainbow t-shirt. His choice of apparel is always interesting and humorous for a guy that feeds sharks for a living. I skipped the first dive to save my core temperature for later and on the first shark feed dive the action got HOT 4 Tigers showwed up and promptly got my heartbeat pumping. Early on a tiger coming at me didn't turn but with a gentle push with my camera she moved off, then a bit later she decided to come straight at me no turning in mind and then she opened her mouth and gave my camera rig a bite, I let go as not to get in a tugging match with a big ass tiger shark, she turned away with my rig hanging from her jaws swam a few feet and let go, my rig is positively bouyant and ryan the saftey diver recovered it. Happily my gopro which is attatched to my photo housing was running so you can see her coming at me then you see her ampuli of lorenzini some blue water then more of the action. All the camera equipment came out unscathed cept for a remembrance scratch or two on my dome housing, not the actuall dome so no problem no worries. It was quite the addrenaline rush and I'll remember it for the rest of my life and have a great story to tell to everyone but my wife cause if I tell her about it she'll never let me leave the house again.
Our second feed dive we had 5 tigers 3 of which are extra fat so most likley preggo. One of them is new to the crew, she was named Alli, and she is still learning the ropes about being a shark being fed with a bunch of strange creatures watching her and filming her. She is the one that chomped my rig and she mouthed a go pro without her teeth, (really cool video shot by another diver where you can see her chomp on a go-pro with a dome but she doesn't use her teeth just her gums. Alli also had the tendency to occasionally cruise down the lines of divers looking for her fish snacks, she is still learning that the snacks come from the human in the middle with the bait box, this behavior most prevelent when the current wasn't as strong making it clear to her that the fish came from the box in the middle. The other girls were well behaved, doing their sharky job of being magnificent wowing us divers with their prescence and powerful grace.
For the third day he weather turned for the worse with thicker cloud cover, wind, and choppy seas, we were able to get two dives in both feeds one where they set divers up for open jaw shots. All the divers set up in the normal horsehoe but then one diver sets up 5 feet behind the baitbox and shark feeder with another saftey diver right behind them, the feeder then sets the feeding up so the photographer has the best opportunity to get the classic mouth open teeth showing shot. With the saftey diver right behind you can concentrate on whats right in front of you and not have to worry about the action going on behind you, its conforting and gives you the ability to focus on whats in front of you. Its a really awesome experience and i wasn't nervous knowing someone had my back.
The exit on both dives that day were pretty hairy with 5-6 foot swells, the crew did a really good job at getting the divers out of the water safely. We could only get 2 dives in as the swells got even bigger and had to move to cover. The Dolphin Dream entry deck is fixed as opposed to the Shearwaters which is on hinges, this allowed us to exit the water with a bit more saftey as the deck is a bit more predictable. Still hazardous and a mini adventure but the crew was really on top of their game and we all made it out of the water without getting knocked on the head.
On my previous trip on the Shearwater we wouldnt have even tried diving with such big swells. We did have a day of diving we missed due to weather on the Shearwater, Captain Scott on the DD did say that its pretty normal to have weather systems affect the diving at this part of the year. Captain Scott did inform us of a weather system due to come in with 30 knot winds making the trip back in those conditions would be hazardous so the trip would need to be cut short by a day.
Continued in 2nd part