Bahamas Trip Report 2004

1. Introduction
2. People
3. Dive Sites
4. Sponsored Demo Gear

After all passengers had arrived safely on the boat and set up their gear the M/V Shear Water left the harbour of West Palm Beach in the evening of the 19th of october. Everybody was excited to get wet and dive with big animals. After the usual warm up with some snacks and drinks everybody went to bed to get a good sleep in order to be prepared for the coming adventures. The boat arrived the West End harbour in morning. Unfortunately the weather was not with us this morning. Dark clouds and rain gave us as a small glimps of the strength and power of the hurricans, which had passed through just some weeks before the journey. After the immigration, customs and some small problems had been resolved we departed for the blue of the little Bahamas Bank. As soon as we had left, the sky began to open and all of us were relieved to see the sun shining.
All in all we did 17 dives during 5 days and all were a great pleasure. Everybody on board seemed to be very happy about the photographic opportunities and the resulting images. You can find some of these shots underneath each participants picture.

:: Crew
Jim Abernethy - Captain Canon D60 in a Sea & Sea housing Best Shots	Anna Abernethy - Captain Canon D60 in a Sea & Sea housing
Doug Nevitt - Engineer Olympus C4000 in a Olympus PT-010 housing	Paul Poutynen - Cook
:: Divers
Aline Kadach Canon S60 in a Canon WD-DC40 housing Best Shots It was a great trip and I learned so much about sharks! Special thanks to Doug for keeping an eye on me and the sharks. That way I felt much safer and enjoyed the time with Baby Cakes. Although I told everybody that I would never dive with tiger sharks. It was an awesome trip and I plan to go back as soon as possible.	Arlene Ferreira Sealife Reefmaster DC310 Digital Best Shots This was an amazing trip. Jim, Anna, Paul and Doug were incredible. This was the best dive trip I have been on. Diving with Tiger Sharks and Dolphins was amazing and the all the sites were beautiful. I can't wait to do it again.
Bettina Laier Canon D60 in a Sea & Sea housing Best Shots Thank you for a great Trip. Thanks to Anna and Jim for all those great shots we were able to get by visiting all your "friends", and thanks to Baby Cakes for letting us bring home pictures that people will think are "nuts"! Homepage	Robin Dyleski Nikon CP5000 in a Aquatica A5000 housing Bahamas trip was great fun, and you can't beat the show from "Baby Cakes", she really made the day! Swimming with dolphins and the massive numbers of reef sharks were fantastic, too.
Bill Hewitt Canon D60 in a custom made housing Best Shots Thank you for a great Trip. Thanks to Anna and Jim for all those great shots we were able to get by visiting all your "friends", and thanks to Baby Cakes for letting us bring home pictures that people will think are "nuts"!	Christian Kahlstorff Olympus µ[mju:] 410 Digital in an Olympus PT-016 housing Best Shots This was a wonderful Trip. Fantastic dives, excellent service and loads of fun. A big kudos for the crew. I felt most comfortable all the time. A special thanks to Paul to his splendid meals.
Derek Heasley Canon 300D in an Ikelite #6870 housing Best Shots As good as it gets. Shouts out to all the digideep.com team and all who was on board the M/V Shear Water. Highlights were, diving with them cool reef sharks and of course tiger beach was a day to remember !! Special thanks to the staff Anna, Jim, Paul and Doug, who were able to help with any problem that anyone had, oh, and for backing up my raw picture files onto dvds for me Its little things like this, that make the whole dive holiday with JASA highly recommendable! Homepage	Jason Grimes Canon 10D in a Jonah C10D housing Best Shots Homepage
Juerg Vonwil FujiFilm S2 Pro in a Subal FS2 housing Best Shots This was the ultimate dive trip experience! Can it be any better? Probably only at the next shark encounter in April 2005. I am in, assuming my wife let's me go again afterseeing the pictures from Tiger Beach, I am not so sure ... Thanks to Jim, Anna, Doug and Paul for their hospitality and making such an adventure happen. I have seldom seen a crew that helpful all week long.	Andreas Voeltz Sony DCR-HC1000 in a Bruder prototype housing I always told my guests and students that we do not dive in a supermarket and no encounter of any species is certain. After doing that trip I have to revise this statement. "JASA will not turn it into a supermarket either, but when you dive with Anna, Doug, Jim and Paul they will certainly do their best to turn the ocean into a very well sorted shopping mall!" This trip was awesome! Thanks to the crew for the great service and making many of the trip participants try things beyond their imagination.
Lars Kirchhoff Canon 10D in a Jonah C10D housing Best Shots This trip was awesome. I had so much fun playing with dolphins and being close to tiger and reef sharks. Big Thanks to Jim, Anna, Doug and Paul for your hospitality and the great time we had. Homepage

Dolphins were just passing us as we were ready to jump. Some of us lucky lucky enough to swim with the dolphins in full gear. The reef itself is a shallow sandy area with some nice coral pinnacles. For most of us it was time to get comfortable with our gear and the conditions in the Bahamas. Those who were lucky to see the dolphins had their first great underwater shots and were eager to get more exciting stuff.








We reached the Indian Key reef very late so that our last dive of the day became a dusk dive. On this site, which has a nice bottom structure, including pinnacles and small canyons, nurse sharks can be seen. We found one of them sleeping in a small canyon. The reef is abound with colourfull colonies of corals. Andi was playing with Anna's scooter and testing his ability to hold his breath.




Mount Olympus is one place where we could get a bit deeper than the usual shallow dives of the Bahamas. The site is rockier than others. There are some nice walls and bigger canyons than we saw the night before at Indian Key. One area of Mount Olympus reaches out to the big blue, where hammerheads can be seen. This was verified by Anna and Doug, who had an extraordinary dive. Once we were back onboard Doug and Anna went out for the blue and came up screaming and laughing. Anna told us (obviously still in high spirit) about how intriguing and graceful these animals are.




Our first real shark encounter took place at this site. Nobody except the crew knew, that their was bait in the water, and had been for quite a while. Jim suddenly came into the saloon and asked us if we would like to see something outside. As we were on the bow he pointed down from the boat to the water surface. Sharks, lots of grey reef sharks everywhere. Everybody got excited and Jim started to explain the rules for diving with the reef shark. One of the rules for diving with sharks is to be dressed as dark as possible. White and yellow are absolutely no,no colours on suits or any other equipment items. This turned out to be a problem for some of us, especially for Bettina and Bill, with their fancy 80's suits in bright yellow and pink colours (Bettina even brought her own tank, which was painted or airbrushed pink and yellow in a batik style). But they were well-prepared, because they had brought their spare suits as well . As soon as we were in the water the sharks surrounded us. Jim swam with the bait crate and positioned it at various locations to make get the sharks in good positions for photographs. First we had the chance to take some pictures in a reef scenery, then after a while he took it to a deeper area with a sandy bottom, so some shots against really blue water could be taken. A big grouper joined the show later on; he was almost the size of the sharks and scared some of them, too.




The Sugar Wreck is a small wreck, lays in a sand patch in very shallow water. It is actually not a wreck anymore, because you have to imagine loads of missing parts already. The remaining parts of the wreck creating a perfect living room for thousands of fishes. It is so enjoyable to dive there. Large schools of every type of reef fish can be seen here. If you venture away from the wreck schools of baracuda and tuna can be found circling around or staying in the current. But the wreck and its inhabitants are just so colourful that you want to stay forever. As we arrived in the evening the sun was very low again, which made it another dusk dive. This gave us the possibility to see how the barracudas and the tunas hunt. The wreck itself is perfect for the small critters, which makes this dive site very interesting for macro photography.




On the third day of our trip we stayed at Tiger Beach. Actually we anchored the night before. To attract the sharks bait crates had been placed into the water for the whole night. The crew even started betting on how long it would take until the first shark appeared. After two hours some thought they had seen a fin, but by then most of us had gone to bed to be prepared for the next day's adventure.
The morning began with another very serious briefing about the rules for the dive with the tiger sharks. Anna and Doug then started to prepare some rope with a white float and some bait on it, to wrangle with the sharks. To do this they threw the float as far away as they could from the boat and waited until a shark came close. As soon as a shark ventured close to the float, they started to pull the rope to get the shark closer to the boat and give it the idea of a living fish. This procedure was repeated for an hour and we could see that there was three or four different sharks around. As the sharks came very close to the boat we were able to get a very good impression of what we would have to face underwater.


Andreas, Jason and I were the first to go into the water with Doug. (All of us were grouped together in teams of three people and only one group was allowed to be in the water at one time. If the conditions were good more than one team could be in the water). Being the first group we had to wait for more then half an hour in very shallow water (2-3m) before even spotting one of the tiger sharks come close to the boat and to the bait crate and this was only due to the wrangling which was done from the surface. It was impressive to see from underwater, what we had seen from the surface only an hour before. Watching the open mouth of a tiger shark biting at something is an outstanding experience, especially if you are only 2-3m away without a cage. After 1,5 hours we had to leave the water to make room for the other groups
As we went out of the water one of the tiger sharks decided to take a closer look of these strange creatures sitting on the bottom huddled around something very interesting for the shark; the bait crate. Later we found out that this shark was Baby Cakes, one of Doug's favourites. Baby Cakes is a very calm and curious tiger shark. She always started down current to get closer to the bait crate. As it came closer it "sniffed" on the sand looking for some small parts of the bait, which may have fallen from the crate. Calm people who made less bubble were rewarded with a closer look at Baby Cakes. The strobes and the cameras seemed to be very attractive for the shark, because of the electrical signals. To be that close (20-50cm) to a 3-4m big shark was definitely one of the best experiences I've had so far.
On the first day on the boat Andi asked the people if they want to go to tiger beach. The group was devided; one group of people, who definitely wanted to go, another that didn't want to go and some who were undecided. At the end of the day everyone was diving with Baby Cakes and everybody was more than happy about that.



After Tiger Beach it was hard to thrill the crowd with more adventures. Nobody expected more than what had happened the day before. This must have been a hard time for Anna and Jim to decide what to do next with their guests.
On this morning we started with a rather shallow dive, which had a wall on one side and a plateau on the top. The reef was nice, but unfortunately the current started toto pick up and become troublesome, also causing the visibility to worsen.




On this dive we had another shark dive with grey reef sharks. This time most of the people felt comfortable from the beginning and could concentrate on taking pictures the whole dive. The dive site itself is a rockier site with small mountains and canyons, which makes nice coral walls. It makes nice scenery for shark shots. Derek was hiding behind the crate in a small whole in the reef. He could take very close pictures of the sharks close to crate.




The Sherwood Reef is a shallower dive with a nice structure on the bottom. It seems a bit like a maze with all its rocks and small canyons. We saw a turtle as some grey reef sharks patrolled in the distance.




On our last day we started with this wreck, which lies on a sand bank close to a wall, which goes down very deep. Nobody of the crew was sure whether it would still be there after the hurricanes. After the descent we were greeted by a big ray, which was lying in the sand just beneath the propeller of the wreck on the edge of the wall. The wreck itself is huge and is lying on its side. There is a big room, which can be entered very easily. Around the wreck there are some barracudas patrolling and the wreck itself is the living room for loads of small stuff, like corals and nudibranches.




The Freeport Reef is a very shallow dive with mainly sandy bottom and some rocks which provides the foundation for nice corals. Anna took the chance to practise her free diving skills. This was highly appreciated by the photographers. As soon as Anna started to free dive the reef was no longer of any importance. This reef is one of the reefs where you can just sit for hours watching what happens around. You can just swim around from a coral head to another and watching the behaviour of it's inhabitants.


At the end of our trip, Jim wanted us to see one of the blue holes of the Bahamas. The one we visited is actually the entrance for two holes. At the time we went into the water the current was flowing into the holes. The blue hole itself is about 7-10m in diameter and at a depth of 4m in the whole there are two more tunnels. The area around the hole is just a plane sea weed area. The most exciting event happened as suddenly some fish schooling, who were feeding on the sea weed, surged into the hole. As soon as we realized that, we looked around to see what could have caused this behaviour. And it was amazing. A group of 20 or more dolphins were just passing us. Jim told us to get out of the water. Anna was already waiting for us on the surface and ready to move the boat to follow the dolphins.


As soon as everybody was on the boat, we got rid of our dive gear and prepared ourselves for snorkling. Everybody was eager to get close to the dolphins. We were able to follow them and jump in. Unfortunately the group of dolphins had split and only a few were interested in playing with us. Anna had taken her scooter and played with them a lot. After half an hour the dolphins got more interested in a small fish, which was hiding behind a small coral on an otherwise sandy bottom. We could witness how the dolphins worked together to hunt these small fish. In the end we pitied this small guy. We spent almost an hour in the water and were totally exhausted afterwards. But it was worth every minute and every effort and every muscle ache. As we left the water and the boat started a group of dolphins followed us and played in the water around the bow. What could have been a more perfect ending to a wonderful trip?

Bruder		Sony DCR-HC1000 MiniDV prototype The first affordable 3CCD MiniDV camera introduced by SONY.
Canon		Canon Powershot S60 Underwater Housing WD-DC40 This setup features Canon's new underwater white balance algorithm.
Fantasea		Prototype of Fantasea Line's new LED mod light. It lasts for weeks with one set of five AA batteries and served us well during night dives.
Green Force		Set of two Squid HID 100 video lights Set of two Squid HID 50 video lights connected to a FlexiII battery pack.
Inon		INON Z2000 Strobe Just introduced at DEMA 2004 and first field test with this magic TTL device.
Olmypus		Olympus C-8080WZ camera stylus 410 (mju)camera with PT-016 housing
Sealife		Sealife Reefmaster DC310 Digital set.
ULCS		pivot tray and strobe arms operated on the Olympus cameras

Important note: If you missed our last opportunity to dive with the planet’s largest ocean predators, you should consider signing up for digideep’s search for the Great Hammerhead Shark in November and December 2005. Contact us if you want to go. Space is limited to eight participants on each trip. So do not hesitate to ask us for more details.