BAHAMAS: GRAND BAHAMA

By Charles Stirling

I had a trip to the Bahamas with my partner Jenny in May 2007 which included 3 islands, Grand Bahama, Andros and New Providence/Nassau. I'm writing each island up separately as each offered a different life style and somewhat different diving opportunities. So check out the 3 reports as I get them done for a more complete view.

Grand Bahama is now second in size of population to Nassau\ Paradise Island on New Providence Island, fourth largest in land area. Until the development of Freeport/Lucaya area and its airport in the 1950s, much of the time it was nearly uninhabited. Now Freeport is bustling with activity and the Lucaya section is a tourist mecca. This still leaves many small towns or villages which have sprung up and large areas relatively undeveloped with great expanses of pristine beach to explore.

We flew into Freeport via a Miami change of airline, to stay in Port Lucaya for 3 nights each in two different hotels both easy walking distance of Underwater Explorers Society (UNEXSO) who we were diving with. Port Lucaya is a tourist development with luxury world class hotels/resorts (and some simply good ones), casinos and relaxed night life which brings tourists and locals together particularly on Fridays at Count Basie Square. Surrounding the square is the marketplace with numerous restaurants, bars and various gift shops and adjacent is a more local arts and crafts market. All of this offered things to do when not diving, touring, swimming in hotel pools or the local sandy beaches, so for non diving time or non diver family it isn't likely to be boring and it seemed very safe.

Port Lucaya is a little isolated from Freeport itself which can be easily reached by local bus ($1) during the day and offers respite from cosmopolitan tourism. Here you will find other markets and the more ordinary things in life along with designer and specialist shopping. We had a whirlwind tour and could easily have spent more time if we had it. A hire car or scooter would be useful.

UNEXSO

Our diving was with UNEXSO, but we had more than just diving on offer to us. They have a large building complex on the waters edge with one wing partly a leisure and sports shop where dives were booked. The other wing has lockers, hire shop, and the dive working side. There is a large training pool which would be the envy of nearly anyone in the UK. So, yes they do training. The various boats are moored on their own adjacent jetty and help with taking kit to the boat could be had. I was able to use an office for cleaning and doing camera related things, staff were all very helpful and it was a friendly place to be. Oh, they can train in the standard diving subject but also cave and shark diving, dolphin handling and in French, German and a few other languages.

The dives were organized as two tank in the morning and one tank in the afternoon, none were that far and though it was group diving it was never a crowd and other boats were not on the same site. Dive briefings were fine and safety was kept high on the agenda.

Wrecks

Grand Bahama has a lot of wrecks, some purpose sunk while others were accidental going back at least over 150 years. Probably many are still undiscovered as this was prime pirate and buccaneer territory then came the rum runners during American prohibition and gun runners latter. Our first wreck was Papa Doc, the location was that of a wooden hulled gun runner sunk in a storm in 1968 but the hull having rotten away it was replaced by a small steel shrimp boat to give a pleasant fun dive with coral reef near if you tire of rusting steel. It is a good warm up dive in 14m.

Much more fun is the signature dive of Theos Wreck, a 70 metres (230 feet) long cement hauling freighter which was purposely sunk in 1982 by the suggestion of Theo Galanopoulos who worked for the Bahama Cement Company, the vessel's owners . It started life in 1954 as a general cargo vessel sailing between Spain and Norway then was bought to carry sand between Florida and Nassau and Eleuthera, becoming redundant when a refit was deemed uneconomic. It's still in good condition perched on its side in 32 m looking like a wreck is supposed to look while offering open swim throughs and enough superstructure for a gradual interesting ascent. It has good growth of gorgonians, sponges and corals with grunts, a few lobster, eels and more making it home supposedly with visits from the occasional shark, ray or turtle none of which visited on our dive.

Sharks

The Bahamas do have a variety of sharks, at least 9 species are present with the largest being the Great Hammerheads and the Whale Sharks, but it is the Caribbean Reef Shark which will most frequently be seen followed by nurse sharks. Jenny had never been in the water with a shark so she was just a little apprehensive about this aspect of Bahamian diving. Her first encounter was at Shark Junction, not on a shark feed but on an ordinary scenic coral reef dive when, in less than 30m visibility and looking the other way, a small, 3 to 4 foot, reef shark loomed up and passed by not taking any notice whatsoever of her. An exciting moment she well remembers, but also one that allayed some of her fears which I hadn't been able to do. The following day we did one of the shark feed dives.

On this, after some rather thorough briefing on exactly what to do, then more on how sharks are in danger and not wanton killers of mankind, we descended as a group to the sandy patch which makes the site. Here, in front of an old hyperbaric chamber treated as a backdrop, divers were lined up kneeling and shoulder to shoulder. After all were settled a steel cylinder of fish was brought in and a chain mail clad shark feeder hand fed individual sharks individual fish. This started a little distance away and as shark temperaments were judged OK she fed closer to our line of divers so all could have a good view. Sharks were everywhere, coming in directly over head, squeezing past in front and along with the sharks were great hordes of fish after scraps. The food gone, she put her hand on the snout of a smaller 4 foot shark and gently carried it to our line of divers to touch and feel the skin. This over it was time to hunt for lost sharks teeth for a few minutes before the group was led back to the waiting boat. Yes, a bit of a circus but fabulous fun and it really did get any in the group not interested in shark conservation convinced they need protection. A dive definitely not to miss.

On each of the 3 islands we visited we did a shark dive, each different in approach and all excellent. This by UNEXSO was the most hands on, the only one with the shark feeder handling the animals, the only one having visitors touch the sharks (that long briefing had explained exactly what was permitted). Christina Zenato, the shark feeder, has worked with sharks for years and is really passionate to see them protected and to get across that they are wild creatures which are not out to kill people. Oh, and this handling also allowed her to remove fishing hooks and the odd ecto-parasite.

Scenic coral

Coral reefs were literally on all the dives here but due to time we weren't able to do much which was billed as specifically great for this. It does seem the sites vary, as might be expected, and the one shallow reef we went to was Angel Reef at 13 m. This was a 3nd dive of the day for us and an introduction to diving trip for new students; so it could have been one of those safe but nothing to see jobs. OK, it wasn't an adrenaline inducing adventure but was fun with sandy areas between discrete mushroom shaped hard coral heads. Soft corals, good size tube sponges, bannerfish, yellowtail snapper, good sized gorgonian sea fans, some arrow crabs I hadn't seen before and enough other invertebrate life was here to keep me down for a 72 minute bottom time, even longer than my memory card lasted in the camera (put a larger one in after this).

We also dove the shark junction area, going some distance along the adjacent reef with the normal mix of expected life but also some good sized Jacks, a few large lobster and the occasional patrolling shark off in the distance. The wall dive are rated highly, will try next time.

In the water not diving

One of the big attractions at UNEXSO besides the diving is their various dolphin experiences. We went on the Swim with Dolphins one. These are the Atlantic Bottlenose variety, used as the most predictable and which most enjoy interacting with people. They have 16, they original 3 caught in the wild off Texas many years ago, 2 more came from the film "Cocoon" and the rest have been born on site, now all living happily in large pens in a local bay.

On the Swim with Dolphins experience two animals joined 6 visitors in the water for interaction which started with simple play, swimming and splashing in the water with the dolphins coming up swimming alongside. Then various trained interactive acts finishing up with a pretend tow (not permitted to hold on, just touching and franticly finning trying to keep up). The whole set of activities were very closely controlled and time limited to not stress the dolphins and they seemed to enjoy the activity as much as the humans.

Two other types of encounters were also on offer, one had visitors standing on a platform in the water with the dolphins coming in for contact, ideal for non swimmers. The other has the dolphins freely swimming following a boat out into the open sea then interacting both with visitors snorkeling and scuba diving with them. I know the potential controversy of dolphins kept in captivity, but this operation was very well managed to not stress them, they could and sometimes did leave but always came back of their own accord. It was done in an educational fashion and Jenny (and others I talked with) certainly thought it was great. I was taking photos from the side and didn't have the chance to get in with them (a no underwater camera policy - could hurt the animals). Worth doing, very worth doing.

Other things

We spent our first 3 nights at Sheraton Our Lucaya hotel which is part of a larger Sheraton hotel complex all on the same site with facilities open between the two. We even managed to use one of the pools, the jacuzzi and have a swim off the sandy beach. Cost was about 160 pounds/night for the room.


We moved to the Pelican Bay Hotel a few hundred metres away for the final 3 nights (special deal on prices and so we could see something different). Cost was about 100 pounds/night. This is a smaller setup, only 3 pools, and also very nice, real luxury to our normal trips. In both hotels beds were excellent, both were quiet in the rooms which were reasonable size, and good facilities. Our eating was in one or another of the many restaurants in the market.

Besides our quick tour of Freeport we did have a day exploring Grand Bahama, way too much to see and do in a day, from horse riding, eco-kayaking, to botanical gardens, many beaches, small fishing villages and a lot more. We did get to the Lucayan National Park, about 26 miles along the island, with its absolutely fantastic Gold Rock Beach and wooden boardwalk through mangroves. We didn't get into its caves or the inland habitat, maybe next time. Driving was a surprise, the roads were good but also nearly empty out of town and not that congested even in town. The island is nearly flat, none of it much above sea level with the interior covered in open, tall, spindly pine trees with silver palms as the understory.

Before we left on the trip we kept hearing and seeing comments on how expensive the Bahamas are. I would guess most of these come from Americans with their low prices, compared to British prices most things were a little less than home, with quality often better. We certainly enjoyed Grand Bahama, as we did the other 2 islands on this trip. The water was very comfortable in a 5mm wetsuit, probably in a 3mm, visibility was good and the people friendly.

UNEXSO Website
Pelican Bay Hotel Website

Photographs by Charles Stirling

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