Back to the Brac ... December 2011 Trip Report

[Scuba Monster]

We were back on the Brac December 3, 2011 - December 11, 2011 staying at Brac Reef Beach Resort and diving with Reef Divers ... here's a quick report.

Diving

• We had a great time! All 20 dives were enjoyable!
• Dived the South Side for the first part of the week, wind direction was making the North Side rough
• South dives were good - some exciting dives with reef sharks; Wilderness Wall
• The wind died down the 2nd half and we were able to dive the North Side, which was good too
• Usual suspects ... turtles, stingrays, lots of friendly grouper were always my favorites, plus the reef sharks
• Lion fish population, relative to some Caribbean places, was pretty good; the dive op worked toward controlling the number on the dive sites and did spear them
• Wreck of Mr. Tibbetts, the Russian Destroyer, was a awesome as I remembered and enjoyed the dives there

Dive Staff

• Our crew was Menne (pronounced Manny), Barbie and Paul; the last day we dived with Ian and Manny
• Staff was fabulous, enthuiastic, enjoyed diving and told funny jokes on surface intervals to entertain the guests
• Menne was a great DM an enjoys showing divers new things ... new to me on this trip were pipefish blenny and sailfin blenny

Resort & Staff

• Food was great
• Restaurant staff, friendly and outgoing
• Omar was fun as last time, joking with customers and ensuring you have a good time
• The morning person, Jeraldine (I think was her name ... I should have got her name for sure), was so friendly, always said hello, greeted me by name and asked about our day
• Resort manager, Trudy, will help with anything that you need such as setting up an excursion
• Enjoyed watching the eagle rays come in around the dive dock area at night after dinner

Other Stuff

• We rented a car for 24 hours
• After diving our last day we hired a guide, TJ - it's free, except for the tip you choose to give. You hire the car and the guide comes along. Ask Trudy to arrange this for you.
• TJ was fantastic! We went to a few differnent caves (bring good shoes and flashlight) and he showed us all kinds of stuff about the local plants and wildlife topside. I was very glad that we hired a guide to show us something differnent that we would have missed on our own. I highly recomend a guided tour, if you like to explore the island above water.
• Painting a coral stone at the resort is a fun too ... look for three stones near the dive shop - Find Your Path, dive toe and Brac Again (my husband and I painted those)

This is one of my favorite resorts and worth repeating ... we'll be Brac Again!

-SM

 

[caymaniac]

Were you able to dive Strawberry Wall at all? Is there a bouy there yet? Did you dive Stingray tower? Did you shore dive anywhere like Radar reef? Did you dive East chute at all, the wreck is partially gone but it used to be really interesting, here's what it used to look like:

Did you dive bus stop wall and find flying gunards?

 

[Scuba Monster]

We did not get to dive Strawberry Wall. There were a couple of mornings broken and they were putting them back after we finished diving, as the sea calmed down. Maybe that was one of the broken mornings, but I am not for sure. Stingray Tower and Bus Stop were not on this list this trip, but maybe next time. I would have liked to see a flying gunard under water. Since we had a boat dive package and we like boat diving, shore diving wasn't on the list this trip.

We did East Chute and West Chute. Actually they let us do a "drift" (there wasn't much current) dive a couple of times, so we swam from one site to the other. It was different to dive a couple of sites that way, which we enjoyed. There was a little wreck at the end of one of our drifts on the chutes, but definitely not like your photo.

I was happy with the diving we did get to do.