Instant Reader Report on Diving
carnival cruise line affilate/carnival cruise ship fascination in
Bahamas/nassau in
2003/03

by
walter dudley, az, usa
Report Number 030307193329244

 [Unspecified]bonaire, curacao, belize, boniare, la parguera puerto rico,
tortola BVI, la paz mexico, pompano beach FL, panama city FL, san clemente
island CA, san carlos mexico,  

[Unspecified]our group of six were reqested to stay near one another and
follow the dive master, this was a 95 foot dive and our bottom time was to
be limited to 20-25 minutes.  we were asked to do a safety stop at 15 feet
for 3-5 minues.  

[None]  

Overall Rating

[None]This was a 95 foot wreck dive followed by a 35 foot wreck dive.  The
large freighter had begun accumulating encrustrations and attracted
numerous small fish.  The dive operator did check our certification but was
not concerned about our dive history. The dive operator is affilaited with
the cruise ships and picked up six from the carnival cruise ship and five
more from other cruise ships.

The captain, Alan or Andrew, divided us in to two groups and away we went.
 The first dive site was about 25 minutes out.  At that location the fish
life was not too exciting and there was little coral in the area.  Most of
our underwater time was spent inspecting the shipwreck and going in and out
of some of its passage ways.  Our dive master, Jovan, did check with us
fairly often to see that we were okay and asked for our remaining air
pressure on one occasion.  At the end he directed us to go back up the
anchor line.  It seems that everyone choose to do the 15 foot safety stop
before surfacing.  Before leaving the dive site the captain took roll
call.

The boat, Strike III, was spartan, yet clean and provided us with
complimentary water and punch.  The dive equipment provided by the dive
company was adequate. 

The second dive spot was about 10 minutes from the first and was at the
site of another wreck.  This time a much smaller ship that apparently made
a bee line for the Nassau lighthouse.  Unfortunately the ship ran a ground
and sunk about 100 feet from the lighthouse.

On this dive we once again divided into the same two groups.  One group
headed for the artifical breakwater cement blocks and the other for the
wrecked ship.  This ship was a more recent wreck and the encrustration was
not as developed.  There were a number of fish taking advantage of the
wreck.  Yellow tails, parrot, tang, and the usual assortment of caribean
fishes.  I did not see any turtles nor eels. However, not all was lost as I
did see a rather large grouper (appropriate as I think of the term Nassau
Grouper) and someone else saw a large ray.

After poking about the wreck our group swapped locations with the other
group.  We then investigated the cement breakwater barriers.  There were
many fish, and some coral was attching to some barriers.  We followed the
diver master by swimming in and out of the barriers before finishing this
35 foot deep dive.  However, the crew did not set out spare tanks for a
safety stop as they had done at the first dive. Our return trip to shore
was about 15 minutes and again the captain took roll call before we left
the dive location.

This is the first time I had been on a cruise ship and my expectations
about cruise ship arranged scuba dive were not too high as I thought it may
be a rather canned operation.  That being the case I found the dive to be
better than expected but clearly not at the level I have experienced on the
belize aggressor or better land based operations such as found on tortola.

I did take an afternoon tour with one of the local taxi drivers (Mr
Peepei) and found it a good, not cheap, value.  He had been on Nassau for
years and obvioulsy took pride in his country and sharing it with we
tourists.  The tour included many of the government buildings, a plethora
of bank (Nassau is a bank secrecy haven, although the IRS is working hard
to remove the secrecy), upper scale and poorer neighboorhoods, the
extragavant Atlantis resort complex.  The hugh Atlantis acquarium was
outstanding.  Manta Rays, Grouper, Sharks, and others were supberb.  I have
been to many acquariums Boston, Chicago, Curacuo, San Diego, and so on and
this Atlantis exhibit is as good or better than any others.  Mr Peepei
cautioned me about going out alone at night.  Of course that is the case in
most large cities.

Overall a good diving and sightseeing experience.
 

Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. It is presented here to provide Undercurrent readers with timely information on dive operations worldwide. The material may contain errors, typos, ... Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above. An edited version of this report will likely appear in the next Travelin' Divers' Chapbook, which will be sent to newsletter subscribers and published online for Online Members.