Juardis
Contributor
First off, this was an anniversary trip with diving, not the other way around. Therefore, we went to Sandals Royal Bahamian and dove everyday the week of 11/12-11/19. I've never been to the Bahamas. Been to West Palm Beach FL 5 times, Cozumel, and St. Lucia (w/ Sandals again), but that's it. But based on those dive locations, Nassau (i.e., New Providence Island) is easily the worst of the bunch. Now keep in mind Hurricane Matthew ripped through the area about 6 weeks before we arrived and it's my understanding it did substantial damage to the reefs/wrecks. Never having been before, I can only take the word of the dive shop employees and those customers who have dove there before. My experience was that the sites on North side of the island (the side closest to Sandals) were not that good. Heavily silted, wrecks not in good shape, marine life relatively sparse. Word is the hurricane damaged those sites more than the southern sites because they were in shallower water closer to shore. I believe it. Dive leaders speared a LOT of lionfish on the north side sites and fed them to spotted moray's. That was cool watching a eel come all the way out of it's hole to feed. Never seen that before.
The southern dive sites were much better but we only spent 2 days over there due to distance from Sandals. They were also much further offshore so maybe not AS affected by Matthew? Anyway, these were wall dives and they were pretty good. Coral still not that colorful, but more abundant than the sites we dove on the north side. Lots of reef sharks, a few turtles, eels, and interesting nooks in crannies. We had a 4-5 ft black tip take a particular interest in our group and he circled around and among us. At one point, he swam up behind me and just underneath me close enough I could've grabbed it's tail had I not been surprised. Pretty cool. Pumpkin Patch and BBC sites were my favorites. There was one site (James Bond Wreck?) where the dive leader was pointing out a 5-10 ft wide gap in the reef caused by Matthew and the wreck was supposedly damaged as well, but again, I have to take his word for it.
Water temp was 79 °F on my Suunto D6i, 77 °F on my wifes Suunto Viper air, so let's call it 78 °F. Didn't hit a thermocline and my deepest dive was 70 ft. I was comfortable in my 3mm. Air temp was about 75 °F plus/minus with a breeze that made it feel colder. Viz was about 50 feet most days I'd guesstimate, more some days, a little less when it clouded up. Dive times were generally 35-40 minutes irrespective of depth. Our group was pretty good with air consumption so we usually surfaced with 1000-1500 psi still in our tanks, which is expected when diving with Sandals.
If there were resort divers on the boat with us, they only dove the second dive which was shallower. Much shallower sometimes, like 20 ft deep one day. That sucked but I don't know if having resort divers was the reason for such shallow dives. I suspect it was, which again, is somewhat expected when diving with Sandals.
Overall, this being my first time diving in New Providence island, I'd probably say it was my last time diving in New Providence. I like Sandals, but certainly the diving in St. Lucia was 10x better than Nassau so I'd probably pick a different Sandals for our next anniversary trip (Grenada maybe?).
The southern dive sites were much better but we only spent 2 days over there due to distance from Sandals. They were also much further offshore so maybe not AS affected by Matthew? Anyway, these were wall dives and they were pretty good. Coral still not that colorful, but more abundant than the sites we dove on the north side. Lots of reef sharks, a few turtles, eels, and interesting nooks in crannies. We had a 4-5 ft black tip take a particular interest in our group and he circled around and among us. At one point, he swam up behind me and just underneath me close enough I could've grabbed it's tail had I not been surprised. Pretty cool. Pumpkin Patch and BBC sites were my favorites. There was one site (James Bond Wreck?) where the dive leader was pointing out a 5-10 ft wide gap in the reef caused by Matthew and the wreck was supposedly damaged as well, but again, I have to take his word for it.
Water temp was 79 °F on my Suunto D6i, 77 °F on my wifes Suunto Viper air, so let's call it 78 °F. Didn't hit a thermocline and my deepest dive was 70 ft. I was comfortable in my 3mm. Air temp was about 75 °F plus/minus with a breeze that made it feel colder. Viz was about 50 feet most days I'd guesstimate, more some days, a little less when it clouded up. Dive times were generally 35-40 minutes irrespective of depth. Our group was pretty good with air consumption so we usually surfaced with 1000-1500 psi still in our tanks, which is expected when diving with Sandals.
If there were resort divers on the boat with us, they only dove the second dive which was shallower. Much shallower sometimes, like 20 ft deep one day. That sucked but I don't know if having resort divers was the reason for such shallow dives. I suspect it was, which again, is somewhat expected when diving with Sandals.
Overall, this being my first time diving in New Providence island, I'd probably say it was my last time diving in New Providence. I like Sandals, but certainly the diving in St. Lucia was 10x better than Nassau so I'd probably pick a different Sandals for our next anniversary trip (Grenada maybe?).
