We had been curious about scuba diving in the Bahamas for a while. We have friends that had spent time at Stuart Cove’s in Nassau, and we also heard about other good dive spots on Grand Bahama. The Bahamas is well known for its shark diving, and I must say, that made us a little nervous.
We found a deal on a 4-day cruise with 3 stops in the Bahamas and we decided this could be a way to at least sample some of the dive sites and get a sense of whether or not we’d like to return for a longer stay on one of the islands.
Cruising is not always the ideal way to go on a scuba trip but in this case we thought that the short distance and special price made it a good choice.
This time we decided not to bring all our dive gear. We usually do when staying at a resort, but we had done this before on a cruise ship and it was a pain to carry around the wet gear. On top of that the cabins are also too small and ill equipped for rinsing and drying anything.
We did bring our prescription masks, computers and of course my camera. We also brought hoods and gloves as water temperature in Miami had been getting into the mid 70s and we were not sure what to expect in the Bahamas.
First stop: Great Stirrup Cay
This private island belongs to NCL and is really an extension of the cruise ship. There was no scuba offered but we figured we could at least try our luck at snorkeling a little. There was really not much to see here. A couple of empty anemones. A few small reef fishes. Ho hum! We’ve been spoiled by our local Florida diving and it was not even worth getting the camera wet.
We had more fun taking a small tour to visit the swimming pigs on a neighboring island. Yes, pigs! We had read about these cute little guys that had learned to swim and would come up to passing boats looking for food. I suppose NCL had relocated some of these pigs or perhaps trained their own because the official island is further south in the Exuma district of the Bahamas.
Either way, they were eager to get the little bits of apple the local guides had prepared on skewers and they would follow us into the water and swim for their treats. This I suppose was the commercial version of Pig Island.
For the “security” of the pigs (and the financial security of the photographers and NCL) you cannot bring your phone or camera to take your own pictures, but you can buy theirs of course.
Day 2: Nassau, Bahamas
Our first day of real diving. We were excited about it and lined up to get off the ship to meet our dive operator from Stuart Cove’s. We had heard good things about them from friends that had dove with them many years ago.
They do specialized shark dives where they feed the sharks too, but we’re not keen on these kinds of dives. We have a diving friend who once told us: “You don’t feed lions on safari to make them come closer. You don’t feed alligators to see them up close. Why would you do that in an environment where you need breathing apparatus?”. We could not think of a good argument against this view!
With our computers and masks in our dry bag, we headed off the ship as part of the ship’s scuba diving excursion. We had actually contacted Stuart Cove’s to see if we could book direct, but the pricing surprisingly was the same if not slightly higher. I guess it’s big business and they want a minimum number of divers from the cruise ship and we were encouraged to join the ship excursion. No worries, we’re going diving in the Bahamas! Yay!
In our case, we were scheduled for a two-tank morning dive doing a wall as well as a famous wreck. I had my wide-angle lens set up on my camera in anticipation of some cool viewing.
Jumping into the water we were immediately impressed with the 100+ feet of visibility. Comparable to what we had experienced in Cozumel and Grand Cayman. On a good day in Florida, we may get 40-60 feet. We were also surprised with the temperature. We had felt 75 degrees in Florida and were worried we’d get cold. After all it’s not that far but we were not cold at all with our rented 3mm wetsuits.
At first, we were somewhat shocked pulling into Stuart Cove’s. We had heard that they had moved, so we were expecting a brand new operation. What greeted us instead was an unfinished driveway and what looked like falling apart buildings missing windows with others closed with plywood. It really seemed old and decrepit, if it wasn’t for the reputation and the fact that we had paid our ship excursion we might have turned around.
That said, the equipment we got was in good shape. We did see some ratty dive suits but ours were quite new. All the hoses on the Aqualung regulators and BCDs were in great shape. We always check these carefully after having a hose burst on rental gear in Belize.
Our first dive was marred with a little drama as the aluminum tanks and buoyant suits required more weight than anticipated and we had to return to the dive boat for a few more pounds.
Once that was resolved we descended the crystal-clear waters to meet our group and started off towards the drop-off. The Bahamas sits on the Tongue of the Ocean (TOTO), a deep oceanic trench of the Great Bahama Canyon, and the drop-off goes down to between 3600 feet and 6600 feet. Very cool.
We were heading out towards the wall with our huge group of 12 divers and then suddenly the divemaster gave us the turn around sign. We had just started to descend the wall but had to come up and follow the group into the shallow sandy patch. The divemaster went around asking for everyone’s remaining air reading. We gave him a 2,000 psi and he looked surprised. We thought we had guzzled our air swimming back to the dive boat for the extra weights, but I guess we were the ones with the most air remaining.
As we sat on the anchor line doing our 3-minute stop, a couple of large reef sharks came to check us out. The curious creatures circled around us to get a closer look. Such graceful creatures!
Once out of the water we didn’t ask what went wrong but passed our surface interval talking about DRYFOB with Ryan, an instructor and equipment geek from Ohio.
The second dive was on a couple of wrecks, including the Ray of Hope shipwreck, a purpose-sunk 200-ft freighter. As we descended, we saw the two wrecks sitting on a sandy bottom and there were reef sharks circling with giant groupers and rays. What a scene. This part was amazing, but as we started to navigate the wreck, we were discouraged to see divers in the group kicking up a storm of sand and completely unaware of their surroundings. My husband even got his reg kicked out of his mouth! This all made us wonder about the possibility of chartering the boat next time.
It also made us think about going with a dive group or dive shop. We know that if we were diving with our local dive group they know how to dive, and we’d likely not have the kickers or the guzzlers. I mean sure we were all new once but a responsible dive charter might at least split up the divers into groups. First dive was only 25 minutes, and we came up with half a tank!
Sightings included a huge Southern stingray, a 4-ft grouper, and at least a dozen large reef sharks.
Day 3: Freeport, Grand Bahama
We were anticipating diving with Sunn Odyssey Divers in Freeport and had everything arranged. It started to go sideways when we rushed off the ship and went outside but could not find our driver. We called the dive shop and they said he may be running late.
After almost an hour we called again and were told the waves were picking up and we could not go out. Bummer. We tried a last-minute excursion but the disappointment of missing out on the dive had our heart below the waves so nothing was all that exciting!
Note of caution: There is a beach not to far from the cruise port but it’s full of sharks because there’s a local restaurant that feeds them regularly.
Conclusion
And with that, our scuba diving cruise was kind of a bust. Turned out to be a very expensive two dives in Nassau. We did see lots of sharks which was cool, but it honestly wasn’t worth the overall cost of the cruise.
We can’t say we were not well prepared, I guess the weather can be unpredictable but should the dive operator have cancelled the night before we might have tried another shop. That was not possible to organize at the last minute with the cruise ship departing at 4:30 pm.
Basically, we left this 4-day cruise to the Bahamas not being very satisfied with cruising and we will likely plan a more targeted dive holiday with a resort stay in the future.
Check out our dive resorts reviews.