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Grand Bahama Island June 2000

In June of 2000, Dawn and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. In a step quite contrary to our usual activities, we took a trip that had nothing to do with paintball, turned off our cell phone, and did not read e-mail for more than a day! It made for a nice getaway, and time to de-stress, that is for certain.

We had recently learned from a neighbor about SEAJETS, a passenger service running from the Port Of Palm Beach to Grand Bahama Island. Sea Jets uses a Boeng 797 hydrofoil that makes the trip in just under 90 minutes. Not only was their price affordable, but so were the package deals they have with various hotels on the island. After a bit of web based research, I booked us a trip with a couple of nights at the Lucayan Resort. Since we usually work weekends, booking a mid-week trip worked well for us, plus it meant a lower chance of crowds on GBI.

The Seajet Kara slipped out of the lagoon and into open water in the morning. After a couple of failed attempts to get foil-borne, the captain announced that we needn't be allarmed by the explosive sounds coming from under the hull, that a blast of compressed air was going to be used to clear seaweed from the propulsion intakes. After a few more minutes the hull was up out of the water, and we were making good time to the Bahamas. I was surprised by the number of flying fish we saw on the way. I'd never seen them in Florida before, and singles, doubles, and even schools of 30 or more would pop from the waves and fly as far as 100 yards, fleeing the boat's path.

We arrived in GBI uneventfully, and shared a cab with some others headed to the Lucayan. We had a grouchy driver who tried to take us to the Port Lucayan hotel, rather than the Lucayan resort. He was really upset that he had gone so far out of his way due to the misscommunication through his thick accent. The two hotels were literally across the street from one another, and I was really tempted to just get out and cross the street with our luggage.

We settled into our room, and went out to the hotel pools and the beach. A bit of a swim and we found that the beach there was really about the same as the beach at home. The amazing super-clear waters we've seen in photos weren't to be found there that day. It was comfortable, and people who had aparently never been in the ocean before proved rather entertaining. Leading into one of the hotel pools is the "sugarmill slide". In the picture above of the resort, it is the tall brown cylinder. It's taller than it looks, and a spiraling water slide heads from the top to the pool. I discovered halfway down, that it was designed in such a way to take me just to the edge of what I could endure for claustrophobia, shooting through a tube in total darkness.

We stopped at one of the resort's bar & grill huts between the beach and the pool for dinner. A burger and a couple of drinks - no big deal right? We got the bill and it was $44! Eeek, lesson learned, the rest of our meals would be in the Port Lucaya shops, which wasn't such a bad deal, meeting people visiting from various parts of the world, and listening to live music - and much more acceptable prices, like $5 for a decent, thick burger and $1.50 for a soda.

We also spent some time hiking around looking for Carribian Divers. They are located in the Bell Channel Inn, and most of the maps we found show the hotel on the wrong side of the channel. After a couple of mis-directed hiking attempts, combined with helpful directions from a couple of locals, one of whom highly recommended the shop, we found it. It's a little place, and they informed us that there would be two others on our outing, making it a nice small group. We also learned that they did not have soft-weights, only hard-weights. Both Dawn and I have BCs with integrated weights, so the switch to hard weights on a belt was a little discomfort. The water was warm enough that our skins proved perfect, the shop had recommended skins or only a shorty wetsuit.

We met the other half of our dive group waiting at the hotel the next morning. Captain JT, and Nancy Hite would be joining us on our excursion. Nancy is a dive instructor, and JT is a serious technical wreck diver. We learned a bit from them about the differences in dive styles in the northeast, and JT mentioned he's planning a 500 foot dive later in the year - now that's deep.

We met Presley Knowles when he picked the four of us up in a van and shuttled us over to the dive shop and boat. We quickly got situated and were on our way out of the harbor. Presly questioned us briefly about our dive experience and gave us a rundown on the dive. There was a pretty heavy current, so we would roll off the boat, grab a line that ran from the bow to a bouy behind us, and walk it up to the anchor line that was tied from a bouy to a railing on the wreck's stern. Expecting a rough entry, Presly sent the more experienced JT and Nancy first, followed by myself and Dawn, while he brought up the rear.

We walked hand over hand down the line, and soon found ourselves at the aft of Theo's Wreck, a cement freighter that had settled on her port side largely in one piece. I let go of the line, and in a couple of kicks I was on the leeward side of the wreck, sheltered from the current. I looked up to see Dawn aproaching. I glanced down and saw Presley - he'd left the line earlier, gone down, and was coming up on the wreck a couple feet off of the sand, with a fin in his hand. I thought it was a find, but it was Nancy's fin, and he had swooped down to save it before the current carried it over the shelf.

The 5 of us surveyed the wreck, swimming its length. The hold is open, and well lit, making it accessible for open water certified divers. JT, with his wreck experience and training took a quick peek through a hatchway into a deck below the main hold. We worked our way from the stern toward the bow, checking out the growth on the vessel, and the fish that had decided to call it home.

After exiting the bow of the main hold, I was edging on 1500 psi remaining in my tank. As per our dive plan, that signaled it was time to head back to our line at the stern. That's one area of my diving that still needs improvement - air consumption. I think in part that has to come with getting in beter shape physically. After regrouping at the stern, it was back up the line, and a safety stop before we were back in the boat.

Once we were all aboard, Presly moved like lightning. I found myself nauseated, and a little mentally sluggish. Before I knew what had happened, Presly had changed our tanks, stowed our gear, and we were underway to our next dive. After feeding the fish a couple of times, my head cleared. I mentioned that I wasn't sure if I'd take the next dive, as I felt a little seasick. JT commented that it was probably vertigo from pressure changes on the inner ear. I also felt a bit of a headache, and think I may have had some pressure trapped in my sinuses still. By the time we'd finished our surface interval I felt fine, and was ready to roll.

Our second dive was to 40 feet, on a reef just outside of the Port Lucaya inlet. Calm. clear water gave us a good view of the reefs, but I was a bit dissapointed to see less fish and invertibrates than I am used to seeing on dives at home in Florida. On rolling into the water I managed to clock myself on the head with my camera, and either then, or when at depth on Theo's Wreck, some water got into the case. It fogged the case on the second dive, so there was no picture taking for me.

We did see a few shark, my first, and a ray with at least a 5 or 6 foot wingspan. All in all, while the second dive was enjoyable, it made me appreciate the easy access we have to south Florida dive sites all the more. This especially true, as after we came home, we spent Sunday morning on Riviera Beach. The water was calm and clear - and azure blue, and even without a mask it was clear enough to have at least 20 to 30 feet of visibility, right at the shore.

All in all, our trip made a wonderful vacation and chance to get away. When we return, and are looking for more dives, it's definitely Caribian Diver's that we'll be calling.

Click Photos to Enlarge

A couple of fish in the bridge	Dawn, aft of the whellhouse	Dawn inside the hold	The main deck where the wheelhouse protrudes from it	Growth near the stern
Growth in the aft end of the hold	Contents of the hold had shifted against the port side, and were now a protectie shelter for fish	JT near the aft as we prepare to explore Theo's Wreck	JT checks out a space below the hold - my flash probably left him seeing spots	JT on the left and Nancy on the right (with one fin)
Presly cruises along underneath us.	This shot of the top of the wheelhouse gives a good idea of the angle at which the wreck lies, and the color of light at that depth	Some of the growth on the roof of the wheelhouse.