Scuba Diving in Bahamas aboard the Carib Dancer

Just a little over a week ago Hurricane Joaquin was crashing into the Bahamas and threatening to derail a much anticipated Caribbean scuba trip. Our flight got cancelled and it looked like there was no way a boat would be going out into such stormy seas. Luckily, we made it to Nassau just a day late and, amazingly, there were very few signs of the hurricane. It just missed us.

The Carib Dancer is a small but comfortable live-aboard dive boat. Captain Denis and his crew of four welcomed us on board and wasted no time in serving up some tasty food (a theme that would happily become a highlight of the trip). There is room for 14 passengers but we were only 10, so there was lots of space to move about. After getting settled in and enjoying the first of many delicious meals we headed to our cozy cabin for a good night’s sleep.

Normally the boat would leave port and head out to the reefs shortly after all the passengers have arrived but with the waters still a bit rough we had to wait until the following morning. After a few hours busy Nassau disappeared, replaced with little sandy islands and wide open ocean. We jumped in for our first dive to find the water a bit murky (after being stirred up by the storm) but it still felt great to be back in the underwater world.

In February earlier this year I completed the PADI Advanced and PADI Rescue Diver certifications while in Utila, Honduras. This trip was mostly about simply enjoying some fun diving, but we did add on the PADI Enriched Air Diver certification (that allows a diver to use air with extra oxygen added). Scuba can be a very relaxing sport and one that lets you observe nature very intimately but it can also be very technical. There’s a lot of physics and physiology involved. I hope to continue learning that side of it.

Each day up to five dives were offered. That’s a bit intense for me. I didn’t do every dive but I made a point of doing at least one dive at each different reef or site that we visited. Here are some photos from a great trip, both above and below the water…