i got back from the bahamas and had a great time. we stayed at atlantis, and i did two morning, 2 tank dives with stewart cove dives. when i got on the courtesy shuttle it was packed and i felt a little foolish with all my gear, i had a boat bag with all my gear but my tank, everyone else just had a small bag with them. the ride over from atlantis took about 40 minutes. we checked in and were assigned to our boat, turns out all but one of the people on the shuttle were snorkelers. we took off about 30 minutes after check in(the snorklers were on a different boat). i have heard that cove was a cattle car type dive outfit, but on this day we had 8 divers and this included an instructor and student. we wnet out to the Davud Tucker wreck, we got instruction from the dive master. i had informed him earlier that this was my first blue water dive and that i had only 12 dives prior to this. he had me stay with him on the first dive and gave us a guided tour of a wall right off the wreck. this was amazing, the plant and animal life was great. our second dive was at the bond wrecks, the DM said he had watched us and felt we were competent to dive on our own in buddy teams, but if we wanted he would stay with us. these wrecks were an old jet and a ship, from "Die Another Day" and "Thunderball". there was an abundance of fish and i saw a blueheaded parrot fish and what i now belive was a lionfish. again the marine life was amazing.
the second day we went to the playground, aptly named for all the fish playing around there. we did a wall dive here to, again amazing. we then went to the Willaurie wreck and this was awesome. lots of life around, saw a yellowfin tuna i belive.( i am not up on my tropical fish species, but hopefully santa will remedy that). also on this day we had 10 divers.
on review i would say that every aspect of these dives far exceeded my expectations. the DM and the crew were helpful on both days, they helped us put and take gear off, watched over us, and in general made sure we had a good time. the boats were clean and my tanks had a shade over 3200 psi in each. this was my first bluewater dive and i can say that i am hooked. it was great. i cant wait to go back and do some of the other sites they have, also to explore other places around the world. many thanks to those who responded to an earlier post on dive operators in the bahamas. and thanks to Stewart Cove Dives for making this a memorable first trip.
the second day we went to the playground, aptly named for all the fish playing around there. we did a wall dive here to, again amazing. we then went to the Willaurie wreck and this was awesome. lots of life around, saw a yellowfin tuna i belive.( i am not up on my tropical fish species, but hopefully santa will remedy that). also on this day we had 10 divers.
on review i would say that every aspect of these dives far exceeded my expectations. the DM and the crew were helpful on both days, they helped us put and take gear off, watched over us, and in general made sure we had a good time. the boats were clean and my tanks had a shade over 3200 psi in each. this was my first bluewater dive and i can say that i am hooked. it was great. i cant wait to go back and do some of the other sites they have, also to explore other places around the world. many thanks to those who responded to an earlier post on dive operators in the bahamas. and thanks to Stewart Cove Dives for making this a memorable first trip.
