jonhall
Contributor
Spent 2 weeks at the Ocean Reef Yacht Club and Resort where the dive op Grand Bahama Scuba was conveniently located for us. There are other ops, Sunn Odyssey Divers about a 2 minute dirve away, Unexso 5 minutes away, and Caribbean Divers a little farther away. We did dive with GBS with the only drawback being they only dive Mon-Fri. Do know that Caribbean Divers didn't go out everyday because of too few divers.
GBS is run by Fred and Melinda Riger who generally both go down on dives. The boat is manned by a couple of nice, young local boys as the crew. We had anywhere from 4 - 9 divers over the course of 5 days. The boat easily handled all of the divers with plenty of room to move about and be in shade if needed.
The routine is pretty much the same daily. New divers for the day show up at 9:00 to sign a waiver while those who have dived with GBS already show up at 9:15. The boat doesn't leave the dock until around 9:45 which takes divers to a deep dive site that has been vacated by the dive ops that all go out earlier. First dive starts about 10:30. Divers take fins to and sit on the back of the boat. With fins on, facing the back, your BC is brought to you by the crew. Once they help you put it on, you giant stride into the water. With safety lines, divers make their way to the front of the boat and go down by the mooring line. Dives are not guided - Fred and Melinda go down and take pictures - you are free to follow them or you can dive the area. Dive times are dictated by air, deco, or 1 hour. They prefer you do a 1 minute stop at 25' and a 4 minute stop at 15'. Back on the boat, the crew takes your bc and fins. Surface intervals are 45-60 minutes. The crew switches tanks over, although you can if you want. The second dive is a shallower site, again usually open as the other ops have vacated them after their second dive. Made it back to the pier each day between 2 - 2:15 pm.
Guessing the water temp around 75º F (everyone had different readings - mine read 79º every dive) with great visibility (up to 100') and no currents. Water was calm each day. There were days GBS and the other ops didn't go out due to storms during the night and rough waters. There are, as we were told, only 13 moorings that each dive op uses. Reef sharks and nurse sharks are likely to be seen on dives. Saw some of the largest lion fish I've seen, spotted eels, stingrays, loggerhead turtles, file clam, conch, and some huge grouper. Saw eagle rays, jellyfish, stingrays, and sharks from the dock around the resort.
The island is not in great shape. Many of the businesses were damaged from past hurricanes/storms and have not been repaired/reopened. An example is the International Bazaar which has a few shops and a few small restaurants open of the 100 I read used to be there, but the majority are boarded up with debris lying around and damaged roofs. The biggest land excursion draws are the Lucayan Marketplace (straw market and restaurants), Garden of the Groves botanical garden, and Lucaya National Park which has 2 small caves and Gold Rock Beach. There are also day and night sails, beach clubs, and other types of tours that seem to include the botanical garden and/or National Park. The beaches aren't too bad, with some being better than others. Gold Rock Beach in the National Park is a must see at $5.
Non-divers looking for something to do might get bored if staying more than 1 week, but divers can keep pretty busy.
GBS is run by Fred and Melinda Riger who generally both go down on dives. The boat is manned by a couple of nice, young local boys as the crew. We had anywhere from 4 - 9 divers over the course of 5 days. The boat easily handled all of the divers with plenty of room to move about and be in shade if needed.
The routine is pretty much the same daily. New divers for the day show up at 9:00 to sign a waiver while those who have dived with GBS already show up at 9:15. The boat doesn't leave the dock until around 9:45 which takes divers to a deep dive site that has been vacated by the dive ops that all go out earlier. First dive starts about 10:30. Divers take fins to and sit on the back of the boat. With fins on, facing the back, your BC is brought to you by the crew. Once they help you put it on, you giant stride into the water. With safety lines, divers make their way to the front of the boat and go down by the mooring line. Dives are not guided - Fred and Melinda go down and take pictures - you are free to follow them or you can dive the area. Dive times are dictated by air, deco, or 1 hour. They prefer you do a 1 minute stop at 25' and a 4 minute stop at 15'. Back on the boat, the crew takes your bc and fins. Surface intervals are 45-60 minutes. The crew switches tanks over, although you can if you want. The second dive is a shallower site, again usually open as the other ops have vacated them after their second dive. Made it back to the pier each day between 2 - 2:15 pm.
Guessing the water temp around 75º F (everyone had different readings - mine read 79º every dive) with great visibility (up to 100') and no currents. Water was calm each day. There were days GBS and the other ops didn't go out due to storms during the night and rough waters. There are, as we were told, only 13 moorings that each dive op uses. Reef sharks and nurse sharks are likely to be seen on dives. Saw some of the largest lion fish I've seen, spotted eels, stingrays, loggerhead turtles, file clam, conch, and some huge grouper. Saw eagle rays, jellyfish, stingrays, and sharks from the dock around the resort.
The island is not in great shape. Many of the businesses were damaged from past hurricanes/storms and have not been repaired/reopened. An example is the International Bazaar which has a few shops and a few small restaurants open of the 100 I read used to be there, but the majority are boarded up with debris lying around and damaged roofs. The biggest land excursion draws are the Lucayan Marketplace (straw market and restaurants), Garden of the Groves botanical garden, and Lucaya National Park which has 2 small caves and Gold Rock Beach. There are also day and night sails, beach clubs, and other types of tours that seem to include the botanical garden and/or National Park. The beaches aren't too bad, with some being better than others. Gold Rock Beach in the National Park is a must see at $5.
Non-divers looking for something to do might get bored if staying more than 1 week, but divers can keep pretty busy.
