Nekton Bahamas - Cay Sal or NW itenerary?

[robint]

It sounds like a really fun trip!

We are looking forward to the trip for ourselves and as a scouting mission for our LDS (where I work). They have been very skeptical about booking a group trip on the Nekton due to mixed reports in things like the "chapbook" where it gets mixed reviews. I don't take things like that too seriously myself - I like talking with people about their trips. Every time we go on a dive trip I talk to everyone on the dive boat and ask where they have been, what they liked and didn't like, etc. And I have never met anyone who went on the Nekton who didn't say they loved it and would go again. So this trip is going to be fun for me and my hubby, we've never done a liveaboard or been shark diving, but also it is an "I told you so!" trip........ I can't wait to go back to work and rave about it. tehehehehe

robint

 

[Ber Rabbit]

I've only met one group who had a bad time. They said the crew was fighting among themselves on the trip that goes out of Honduras I believe. The tension between the crew members spoiled their trip for them but it sounded like it was a new crew and their group had gone soon after that itinerary was established (going from memory here). Everyone else I've ever talked to enjoyed their trip, our crew was great! Our friend's husband was lifted off the Nekton by Coast Guard helicopter and the Captain told our friend he would turn the boat around and head back to port (it was a 2 day trip back) or they would make flight arrangements out of Bimini for her (it was a 2 day trip to Bimini). She opted to fly out of Bimini and the crew made sure she had access to their satellite phone so she could stay in contact with her husband and the hospital. The plane tickets were waiting when we got to Bimini, the office had made all the arrangements as promised.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[Ber Rabbit]

I brought a couple pages from my logbook to work, this is just the first 2 1/2 days of diving here are the entries I made:

Dive 1--Tuna Alley, Cat Cay:
Water temp 86 degrees
Visibility 60-70 feet
Depth 74 feet. Bottom time :35
Dove between N. Cat Cay, S. Cat Cay, & Gun Cay. Saw a school of 9 barracuda. Extremely strong current! Enough to make me burn almost 1000psi in 10 min! Dove steel 95's. This dive sucked, way too much work! Went to a swim through that didn't have a top. There was less current there but I'd burned so much air it was time to turn back into the current. Saw a shrimp with white antennae and a purple body.

Dive 2--Victory Reef, Cat Cay:
Water temp 87 degrees
Visibility 80 feet
Depth 48 feet. Bottom time :45
Better! Saw a big stone crab, cleaner shrimp, gray angels and a trumpetfish with a bright yellow nose. Looks like hills and valleys here, cuts in the coral show sand bottoms and occasional fish-size swim throughs. Saw a big barracuda whose black marks were very prominent. Current was strong in places but we were able to just cruise most of the dive. Missed the boat mooring again. Found one behind ours that we thought was the right one but when as we ascended we noticed there was no boat attached to the mooring. Did our safety stop on that mooring line and noticed the buoy at the end of our boat's trail line nearby as we hovered. We weren't too far from that so getting back to the boat was no problem.

Dive 3--Last Chance Reef, Orange Cay:
Water temp 86 degrees
Visibility 80 feet
Depth 62 feet. Bottom time :50
Saw a 3-foot barracuda facing a brain coral while being cleaned. Got a good photo of him as he approached the camera. I went beside him, close enough to touch him & Bruce took a photo. Saw tunnicates that were mostly clear with dark rings but we did see one red cluster. Saw 4 Pederson cleaning shrimp waving their arms waiting for something to come by for a cleaning. I found a crab tucked in a hole in a coral head. He was hard to see, I just happened to notice as I swam over. It was a nice, relaxing dive. Not much current today so you could just float and look for critters. Saw 2 remoras harassing divers on the hang bar, they were probably 2 feet long. There was a puffer sleeping under a branching coral.

Dive 4--Last Chance Reef, Orange Cay:
Water temp 86 degrees
Visibility 80 feet
Depth 63 feet. Bottom time :30
Saw huge barrel sponges. Were harassed by 5 remora's hanging under the boat. Nothing "new" on this dive just enjoying the same critters from last dive.

Dive 5--Playground, Orange Cay:
Water temp 86 degrees
Visibility 70 feet
Depth 28 feet. Bottom time :28
STRONG CURRENT! Got lost again so most of what we saw was turtle grass. Once we found where we were supposed to be the current was manageable. Saw my first nurse shark! I saw it first too so I actually found something cool on my own! Safety stop was hanging on the mooring line flapping at a 90 degree angle like a flag. I got tied up in the rope (granny line) on the way out to the mooring line when we started our dive. Bruce is freaking out a bit about how I take my fins off. I usually end up sliding the length of the trail line while taking my fins off and that worries him. My booties have a lip and the fin straps get hung up so it's hard to get them off.

Dive 6--Playground (night), Orange Cay:
Water temp 86 degrees
Visibility length of light beam
Depth 28 feet. Bottom time :41
Saw a stingray and 2 lobsters one of which was in a bad mood and tried attacking Bruce as we cruised by. I found a scorpion fish and showed it to another buddy pair. Saw a small and a large hermit crab and a honeycomb cowfish who came toward the camera for a photo. The current wasn't as bad this time but it started to pick up at the end of the dive. Ended up going the wrong way when we started our dive; the boat had turned so we should have made a right turn from the mooring block but we went left. Weren't the only ones though so we just toured with the other divers.

Dive 7--Big Hole, Cay Sal Banks:
Water temp 86 degrees
Visibility 60 feet
Depth 97 feet. Bottom time :35
Saw my first blacktip reef shark! Saw a total of 4, 3 were on the safety stop! School of small barracuda, arrow crab, a pair of french angels and a pair of queen angels, 2 stingrays (one with no tail) and lots of moon jellies were some of the highlights. We saw a barracuda with a fish head in its mouth heading for the surface. Dive was very similar to a quarry dive due to the walls and, at 80+ feet the lack of coral. Thermocline at 60 feet.

Dive 8--Big Hole, Cay Sal Banks:
Water temp 86 degrees
Visibility 80 feet
Depth 49 feet. Bottom time :33
Black tip shark about 4 feet long came over to investigate us but didn't stay long. Saw several stingrays including one that was 2-3 feet across. There were some really neat light purple sponges, a tiger cucumber, donkey dung cucumber, and a queen conch whose "walking trail" could be seen in the sand. Saw a bunch of jellies of all sizes while hanging on the safety bar.

Ber :lilbunny:

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Pictures are going up in my gallery as I post, they have their own album called Nekton, ENJOY!
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[Ber Rabbit]

More logbook entries:

Dive 9--Sistine Chapel, Cay Sal Banks:
Water temp 86 degrees
Visibility 80 feet
Depth 80 feet. Bottom time :46
Sall nurse shark & a blacktip reef shark, both were beating feet for someplace with fewer divers. Banded coral shrimp, wire coral, stalactites and moon jellies were features here. This was a blue hole that's 125 feet across. Once you get to 75-80 feet it opens out like a bottle and you can swim under the shelves where you can find stalactites and wire coral. Looking down and trying to look across the blue hole resulted in seeing nothing but blue, like you were inside a blue screen on t.v. Tons of coral and sponges, very colorful and full of life around the lip of the hole. We went around twice, once at 50-80 feet and once at 25-40 feet.

Dive 10--Sistine Chapel (night), Cay Sal Banks:
Water temp 86 degrees
Visibility 30 feet
Depth 29 feet. Bottom time :46
Got lost on the night dive AGAIN! Never found the blue hole even though we went west from the pin. We probably didn't go far enough. Saw a nurse shark and a blackfin reef shark (4 times) who was probably laughing at us for not finding the blue hole. Long-spined urchins and giant basket stars made appearances tonight, boy were those basket stars cool! Saw 2 spiny lobsters but they were fairly small. Saw a red snapping shrimp, blackbar soldierfish and tons of squirrelfish. It was raining, waves had picked up and there was lightening in the distance; pretty creepy way to start a dive! Near the end of the dive we turned off our dive lights and cruised around for a few minutes in the glow from the boat's lights, that was cool!

Dive 11--Silversides, Cay Sal Banks:
Water temp 86 degrees
Visibility 60 feet
Depth 105 feet. Bottom time :44
Bruce lost my green dive light, it came unclipped from his camera at 62 feet; I started to go after it but it was falling quickly and I was afraid I'd have to go over 100 feet to catch it. I didn't want to get hurt over a $20 light so we watched it fall. Caught a glimpse of a shark but don't know what kind, it was too far away. Saw 2 spiny lobsters, a french angel and a tigertail cucumber as well as a blue tang who was eating or just biting a moon jelly that was under a small coral ledge. Went through a 50-60 foot long swim through; it has a guide rope through it but still looks and feels like a cave since you cannot see light at the other end until after you round a curve. A large triggerfish was swimming undet the boat along with a 3 or 4 foot barracuda who came to look me over during the safety stop. This is another blue hole, about 150 feet across. We swam all the way around it once then just nosed around near the boat. The site is named for the silver baitfish you see schooling in the swim through, it's like swimming through liquid silver.

Dive 12--Big Hole (shark dive) Cay Sal Banks:
Water temp 86 degrees
Visibility 40 feet
Depth 53 feet. Bottom time :35
My first shark dive! Sat on the bottom in the front row! Roughly 2 body lengths from the feeding chain. Teh ball that stops the bait from falling was 15-20 feet above us and nearly directly over our heads. We had to make sure no chum landed in our laps while the sharks ripped the frozen barracuda apart. There were 6-10 blacktip reef sharks ranging from 3-7 feet long. Pretty anticlimatic actually, once the food was gone John, the captain, hung on the feeding chain rattling it to get the sharks to come back. A couple of DM's (Raul & Malcolm) made quick passes & hits at the chain to simulate feeding. This got the attention of one big shark but he didn't get too close. Saw a small stingray on the way back to the boat and there was a huge triggerfish hanging around the feeding line.

Dive 13--Damas Rocks, Cay Sal Banks:
Water temp 86 degrees
Visibility "GREAT"
Depth 29 feet. Bottom time :48
Fantastic! Laid down in the sand nose to nose with a stingray that had a 2 foot "wingspan" and never disturbed him. Was able to slowly lift away using my BC and he never moved Saw a huge loggerhead turtle, small queen angel, huge trumpetfish and lots of other tropicals some of which were very large. There was a rock hind hiding in a crevice, a flamingo tongue, 2 christmas tree worms on a neon green coral and a ton of silver fish with red bars down their tails under a small swim through.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[Ber Rabbit]

The last of the "down and dirty" from the logbook:

Dive 14--Elbow Cay (drift dive), Cay Sal Banks:
Water temp 86 degrees
Visibility GREAT!
Depth 104 feet. Bottom time :33
My first drift dive! Saw a huge barrel sponge that was bent over in the direction the current flows. The opening was shaped like an upside down "U". Lots of blue chromis and triggerfish, a barracuda, queen angel, black durgons, creole wrasse and various other tropicals; reef looked very healthy. Dive was really nothing to write home about, pretty typical reef dive. It was interesting to watch the props on the Nekton start turning while we were underwater. They were following us with the big boat as we dove in a group following the DM who was towing the float ball.

Dive 15--Elbow Cay (drift dive), Cay Sal Banks:
Water temp 85 degrees
Visibility GREAT!
Depth 100 feet. Bottom time :34
Saw a small spotted moray out of his hole and a couple of queen angels. I was narced at 86 feet, suddenly everything seemed really funny and I couldn't get the stupid smile off of my face! A barracuda followed us the whole time, he was probably 4 feet long and kept getting closer and closer. Brent took some video of me blowing air rings. We finished the dive, boarded the boat and Bruce asked how deep I went and I realized I couldn't find my computer. I was looking all over for it afraid it had fallen overboard. One of the girls said, "Are you looking for your computer?" and I shook my head "Yes." Then she said, "It's in your mouth." DOH! I was holding the strap in my teeth, that's why I couldn't answer her except with a head nod when she asked if that's what I was looking for.

Dive 16--Thumbnail, Bimini, Bahamas:
Water temp 86 degrees
Visibility 100 feet
Depth 104 feet. Bottom time :31
Saw 2 HUGE parrotfish, one was so big that its nose was squared off with the beak at the bottom. Lots of black deepwater fans, plenty of giant barrel sponges as well as other sponges accompanied by honeycomb cowfish and assorted other tropicals. This site is a plateau with walls that drop to 130-140 feet. The deepwater fans were on the wall where we also watched a large queen angel chasing a smaller one around a sponge.

Dive 17--The Strip, Alicetown, Bimini:
Water temp 87 degrees
Visibility 40 feet
Depth 42 feet. Bottom time :42
Saw a HUGE gray angel that was probably 2 feet from nose to tail! A couple of huge hogfish or grunts, not sure which, as well as several spotted morays and one green moray. Lots of schooling grunts & soldierfish and we even saw 2 scorpionfish. All in all a pretty good dive even though the visibility was low. Saw one barracuda under the boat and several conch trails; one of the trails dead ended and you could see where the conch had backed tracked to its current position.

Dive 18--The Strip (night), Alicetown, Bimini:
Water temp 87 degrees
Visibility 40 feet
Depth 41 feet. Bottom time :43
Great way to end the trip! Lots to see on this dive including 3 GIGANTIC parrotfish sleeping under a coral head, they were nearly as big as me! Saw a flounder, slipper lobsters, scorpionfish (one was in the sand??) a spiny lobster, a ruby brittle star which looks like a peppermint candy with arms, banded coral shrimp, a stone crab, lots of spotted morays and a queen conch that was cruising through the sand toward the reef. We saw something that looked like a dark colored slug with nubby protrusions on its body and something that looked like a jewelry moray. There was a small crab tucked in the coral and we also saw a large puffer and a large honeycomb cowfish. All in all a FANTASTIC dive!

Well, there you have it--my dive log entries from the Nekton trip, hope they help give a picture of what the diving is like.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[robint]

wow wow wow ber! It sounds like a great trip - other than your getting lost a few times! Thanks for pulling out your dive log and pics for me. I noticed the water temps were around 86 - what month were you there?

More silly questions:
How was food? (not that it matters, neither of us is picky!) Rooms? Did your group have the whole boat? (when we booked they said that it was all small groups on our trip) Neither of us is prone to seasickness, but then this is our first liveaboard too........ any recommendations? I think we will take some ginger tablets with us just in case but I don't know if I want to get anything stronger.
Did you do air or nitrox? We are scheduled for nitrox - love that geezer gas!

robint

 

[Ber Rabbit]

We were there the week of August 19.

We were really surprised by how good the food was, I would rather eat on that boat than in a restaurant the food was that good. Fresh cookies and warm towels after the dives were a bonus

It was just my husband and I and another couple. Our rooms were on the same floor as the salon, there were other rooms downstairs. I prefer the salon floor but all of the rooms were nice and had "big" windows. I wasn't sure what to expect as far as the beds went (I've been on a train) but they were either full or queen size (foggy memory) and I slept better on that boat than I've ever slept in my life. It rocks you like a baby as it waddles through the water. Each room had its own shower/toilet and a sink beside a closet. We had plenty of storage space but we had packed pretty light since all you really wear is your swimsuit and a cover-up. I took enough swim suits to be able to change into a dry one after the morning dives so I wasn't wet at lunch but was ready to gear up as soon as the "pool" opened. You DO NOT need very many clothes, I think I took a weeks worth of undies then 1 skirt and a pair of shorts plus 3 tank tops for the daytime on the boat as well as a pair of sweats in case it was chilly at night. I literally had all of my clothes in two gallon size ziploc bags.

I think our trip was completely full but it never felt like there were a lot of people on the boat. They have some puzzles, movies, books and games on board and some people would bring some along to leave for others to enjoy. There were educational presentations in the evenings that were really good as was the photo contest. I'm not sure what they do now that digital photography is so prevalent, they could develop slide film on board and those are the pictures that competed in the photo contest.

I had to take my non-drowsy Dramamine the whole time but I get seasick if I look at a boat, I was able to keep to a very low dose though. I would definitely have something on hand just in case, the boat doesn't rise and fall with the swells it "wobbles" and some people deal with that easily. I still didn't have my "sea legs" after a week which amused everyone else

We dive air and back then the Pilot didn't have nitrox available. The nitrox will be nice at the end of the week when you are carrying a lot more residual nitrogen. We did end up having to alter our plans a bit the last day or so due to that issue.

We had a wonderful time and met a lot of great people! I hope you enjoy your trip as much as we did. They probably still shoot a video and if you do interesting things you'll get quite a bit of tape time. The video is a little expensive to buy but we thought it was well worth it. Tips are put in an envelope at the end of the trip then they split it among the crew. The recommended amount is 10% of the trip price ($200 each that trip) and my husband said before the trip there was no way he was going to tip $200. Lets just say the service was so good and we were so impressed that both of us slipped $200 into the envelope--the crew really did a great job.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[peanut]

We have been on the Nekton Pilot 3 times. Twice to Belize and once to Cay Sal Banks. Cay Sal can have some currents but if you drop down below the boat immediately and not try to do the granny line it's not much of a problem. The Pilot does the shark dive in Cay Sal where the put a chum sickle on the chain and the sharks come in. It's the only time all the DM's are in the water. I had the good luck (or bad according to how you look at it) to be the first person to actually be hit by one of the sharks. A big shark had taken a bit of fish and was swimming off with it with a littler (about 6 feet) shark behind it wanting the fish. The bigger fish dropped his bite for a second, giving the little shark hope at getting it. Both were coming right at me. We were told in advance to look them in the eyes and not make big movements and duck if they come toward you. Being good at following directions, I ducked. The bigger shark got his fish back and made the little fellow a bit mad. When he swam over me he took his frustration out on my tank. Took his head and gave me a bump on the top of my tank as he went over. At the time my husband was shooting digital stills and his camera happeded to be in that 3 second period of recyclying, after that we went to video. He decided he didn't want to miss the opportunity in the future of seeing me get eaten. Anyway, love the Nekton but prefer the Belize trip to the Bahamas. I'm a sucker for a good wall.