Dive Review of Blackbeard Cruises in
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Blackbeard Cruises, Jan, 2009, by Lee Fenner, OH, USA ( Contributor 12 reports with 5 Helpful votes). Report 4596.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	My 18-dive cruise was from 27 Dec to 2 Jan on the Pirate’s Lady. We departed Blackbeard’s dock at about 4 pm on Saturday and did one dive prior to motoring to the Bimini area overnight. The next three days featured 4 dives including a night dive each evening. On New Year’s Eve, we dove three times near Port Lucaya, Grand Bahamas, and arrived at the dock about 4 pm. New Year’s Day featured two dives after leaving the port at about 8:30 am. Due to three foot swells, we ducked back into port for lunch in between dives. We were back at homeport by 3:30 pm and off the boat by 9 am on the 2nd. Blackbeard is an excellent value for a lot of diving in minimum time. The living conditions on the 65-foot boat are good, but Pirate’s Lady should have a refit soon as most wood surfaces need to be refinished, rust scraped, and surfaces repainted. The crew cleaned the marine heads three times a day keeping them in satisfactory but rustic condition. There were 13 divers on this trip, so there was plenty of room to spread out. The crew of five worked extremely hard to insure everyone had a good time. The skipper, Pedro, and the cook, Carrie, were exceptional. Food was plentiful and well-prepared. Rum punch, beer, and wine were included and available when done diving for the day. Diving was fun, but marine life is lacking compared to the Keys and Cozumel. Not too many large fish probably because there are no marine sanctuaries and spear fishing is allowed off scuba. You can spear lionfish on scuba. Several wrecks, particularly the Theos and Seastar were excellent. The shark dive was a highlight and run very safely. Exit from the boat was giant stride from either side and entry was from a long ladder on the stern. You had to remove your fins and put them on your wrist to safely climb the ladder. Once back on board a crew member guided you to a bench seat with a tank cut-out. They had whips to refill the tanks so your BC stayed on the same 80 cu ft AL tank for the entire trip. Tanks were filled consistently to 3000 psi. No nitrox available. Only the one drift dive was guided. Most dive sites had pretty straight forward natural navigation, but divers need to have reasonable situational awareness and compass skills since currents can pickup/change and the visibility made the anchor line difficult to see at times. Water temps varied from 73 to 78, mainly 75. With the wind, frequent cloud cover, and multiple dives I was very happy to have my dry suit and noticed most divers missed some dives because they were cold. The crew was very safety conscious but two incidents did occur that I felt could have been handled better. On the last diving day, the first dive was a wreck in about 95 ft. Swells were 3 ft and the wind was shifting in direction making the boat buck and roll pretty good. On the way back up at about 25 ft, we saw a crew member in the water motioning to us seeming to want to check our air status. We signaled OK, but then the propeller was turned on for several seconds a couple times. Divers were a safe distance away but it was still disconcerting. I asked about it on board and was told the sea conditions required a slight change in direction. While I can understand this need, the underwater communication would have been clearer with a slate or better hand signals. Then on the last dive of the trip, we dove on an old navy Higgins boat briefed at a max depth of 50 ft, but it was actually in 90 ft. A crew member had to set the anchor and then came back on board in time to correct the briefing, but didn’t. While divers should be able to handle this situation, briefings to known sites should have accurate max depths. A travel word to the wise. Don’t count on checking the Internet to reconfirm your flights since Wi-Fi is spotty. Make the phone call when in cellular range a couple days before. I neglected to do this and I missed my original Continental return flights as flights/times were changed to two hours earlier than I had booked.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	Great Lakes, Galapagos, Kauai, Kona, Roatan, Oriskany, Keys, Destin, Cozumel
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	windy, dry	Seas	surge
Water Temp	73-78°F / 23-26°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	50-150 Ft/ 15-46 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	No deco, max depths except one dive were above 130 ft
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	1 or 2	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	Plastic 55 gal drum with fresh water changed daily for rinse. No dedicated camera table.

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Dive Review of Blackbeard Cruises in Bahamas

Blackbeard Cruises, Jan, 2009,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Blackbeard Cruises in
Bahamas