Exuma diving / Cat Ppalu

[Kharon]

I'm considering a trip Sept 28 to Oct 4 on Cat Ppalu. I want to confirm some things because my last to trips were less than satisfactory (Bonaire - wrong time of year, and Placencia - total bust).

I like to see lots of fish and a lot of variety. Some of the reviews have said that fish are in short supply around Exuma. True?

I would be arriving the day before (27th), staying overnight, and boarding the afternoon of September 28th. On the homeward leg I'd be leaving the boat on October 4th, staying overnight, and my flight would be the afternoon of October 5th. Does this sound reasonable? Any suggestions for a place to crash near the dock overnight going and near the airport coming back?

I know September is peak hurricane season. I would want to buy real trip insurance, not just flight insurance. Any recommendations?

Any other things I might be missing?

 

[FettSolo]

I was in the Exumas last September on Blackbeard's. There was a decent amount of fish, but it all depends on your frame of reference. I greatly enjoyed my trip, but I wouldn't say the reefs and fish were so amazing that I am itching to return.

I have always used World Nomads for trip insurance and have been very happy (had one claim on a trip due to weather cancellation, which was a breeze and I was fully reimbursed).

 

[ColoDale]

It's been almost ten years since I dove Exuma and most dives were fairly shallow. Comparitively there were not alot to fish but, for me, better than dives around New Providence Bahamas. Much less than Cozumel for comparison. However we understand the diving on the walls around Long Island were supposed to be better but were cancelled due to storms (lightening). If you are on a LOB then I suspect the diving will be better - we did land based. There are a few wrecks and blueholes in the area- nothing fancy though.
We have not bought trip insurance for many years so no help on that.

 

[Damselfish]

We spent about 3-4 days of a 2 week LOB diving around the Exumas, in 2013. According to my rather minimalist dive log, it seems to have had some of the better coral we saw on that trip, and some unique dives and activities (like the washing machine, snorkeling Thunderball grotto, and of course visiting the famous swimming pigs (though that may be more restricted now.) But not lots for fish life, like anywhere we dove in those 2 weeks. Not counting the sharks, of course.

I get from past posts you're pretty fussy and not so much into rolling with things. We enjoyed our trip for what it was, in no small part because we were on the Aquacat which is a great boat. And we liked the variety, even though the diving was ok at best. But if you're looking for great fish life I suspect you'd be disappointed.

 

[potato cod]

We did the Exumas more recently on the Aggressor LOB this spring. Like Damselfish says, there was some good looking coral, but often eerily few fish. The dives we did within the Exumas Marine Park boundary were better, suggesting overfishing is a cause and the boat captain confirmed this was an issue. The shark dives were great, and there was good fish diversity with lots of different fish species present, they just weren't very abundant.