Atlantis - Paradise Island

I will be staying at the Atlantis in about ten days. I will only have
time for two mornings or one full day for diving. I see many folks
like each of the dive shops. Have sent emails to four and received a
personal response from DiveDiveDive, a form response from Nassau
Divers and none yet from the others. I would like to do wreck dives,
sharks are ok but not necessary unless you all say it's a "gotto do".
Any thoughts on what shop to use. They all seem to have the same
price but I do not know how far they are from the Atlantis. I don't
particularily like cattle boats. Thanks, Don

"Lou Vallone" wrote

A lot of good stuff before I got to:

> The Bond wrecks are on that side of the island as well.

In my personal opinion, the Bond wrecks were the most disappointing dive I
ever did in the Bahamas.

Aside from all the reasons Lou cited, I'll add one. Those that respond
personally, tend to get more of my business than those that send me form
responses or, worst of all, don't respond at all.

Lee

Lou Vallone wrote

> In general, I agree with you, Lee. However, the Vulcan Bomber is one of
the
> greatest night dives I have done. You are confined to a very limited
space -
> about 20 feet vertical, maybe 30 by 20 breadth and depth. At night, the
> coral is all out, the macro stuff is very dense, and there are a lot of
> critters - lobster, eel, octopus, that are attracted. I have several times
> spent close to 2 hours on this site at night ( not dusk - you have to go
> down after 9 PM when all the good stuff has come out) not hardly moving
> around at all, and have been thoroughly entertained.
>
> In fact, last year I did what I consider one of the most engrossing dives
I
> have ever done with D3 at night at the Bond wrecks. I had just arrived at
> the airport, was picked up by Tony, and was told they were holding the
boat
> for me at the dock. I did not get to even unpack anything but my dive gear
> when I arrived. There were 8 guys from the Canadian military who were
doing
> night maneuvers from their boat. I went off on my own, and within 10
> minutes came across an octopus out feeding. I followed him for 22 minutes,
> watching him feed, change colors, go through his normal night's routine. I
> was utterly enthralled. I dove without my light on, just viewing by the
> ambient light. It might have lasted longer, except at one point, the
octopus
> latched onto my arm, wrapped itself around my limb, and placed its mouth
> over the palm of my hand. When it began to dig into my palm with its
> "parrot beak", it drew blood. I had to shake it off and it left me with a
> squirt of ink and thereby ended our encounter. But it was one of the most
> memorable dives I have ever done.

I should have known better. I responded only realative to the trip to see a
Bond set only to find that it wasn't what I expected. I didn't even think
about the surrounding area which, like you, is were I spent all my time.
I've not done the site at night.

Perhaps my favorite night dive in the Bahamas is a moderately shallow wreck
off the north end of Bimini. For some reason, the sea turtles seem to
congregate there after dark, in noticable numbers.

> OTOH, any dive I come up from I consider a good dive :-)

If I could figure out an acceptable way to stay down, it would be a better
dive. Death is not an acceptable way. 8^)

Lee

"Lou Vallone" <LouVallone@bigfoot.com> wrote in message
news:vmmjkq9a13i6f3@corp.supernews.com...
>
> "Lee Bell" <leebell@ix.remove.netcom.com> wrote in message

> > Perhaps my favorite night dive in the Bahamas is a moderately shallow
> wreck
> > off the north end of Bimini. For some reason, the sea turtles seem to
> > congregate there after dark, in noticable numbers.
>
> If that is the one sometimes called "Wreck of the Hesperus" - 20 fsw,
> scattered wooden debris, life so prolific that you can't see another diver
> 15 feet away - I have done it from a liveaboard. I spent almost 2 hours on
a
> night dive with 5 loggerheads, as big around as a card table, each with 2
> large remora attached. It was after midnight, no one else was in the
water,
> and it was so relaxing it was surreal.

It might well have been the Hesperus. It's been long enough I don't
remember the name. We were on Blackbeards at the time.

moyo wrote

> Hi Lee, I asked Stuart's to let me dive solo because I was doing
> underwater photography but they are PADI and since I do not have a
> specialty card for solo diving (and will not ever get one) they said
> that I had to have a buddy. There were other divers with greater skill
> but it was a cattle boat operation so I guess I got the bums rush. I
> generally don't do cattle boats but never having been to bahamas
> before I had nothing to compare to for dive operators. Alas,,,it's
> over and life goes on...

In my experience in the Bahamas and, for that matter in Florida and the
Caribbean, few operators will accept solo divers that they don't know. The
operators around here that know us, look the other way when we obviously
aren't following strict buddy protocols, but their rules all seem to require
buddy pairs. Such is life.

Generally, I travel with my buddy. Usually it's my wife, but sometimes it's
just somebody I've known for a while. We tend to book together at least
partly so that we can have a known buddy. When traveling, I also tend to
dive with the same operator enough that I am able to meet and make
arrangements with people of comparable preferences, if not comparable
skills. It is tough, however, to get a good buddy if you're taking
pictures. The fact is, us photographers are not particularly attentive to
our buddy's needs. That's at least part of the reason that my camera says
dry much more often than it used to.

Lee