Dive Review of Stuart Cove's Dive Bahamas/Sheraton Nassau in
Bahamas/Nassau, New Providence

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Stuart Cove's Dive Bahamas/Sheraton Nassau, Jan, 2010, by S Singer, Panama, Panama ( 2 reports). Report 5351.
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	I was joining two friends who were completing their open water dives to get basic certification. Getting to Nassau was basically smooth, except for American Airlines not being able to load the luggage on the plane properly, which then led to the pilots "timing out" and finally refueling the plane. Basically, it turned in to a 1 hour delay. Once I finally arrived to Nassau, the hotel was fine the three of us shared a room 2 beds & a cot, a little tight, but very manageable. The Sheraton is located on Cable Beach, which means that besides the restaurants and the casino at the hotel, there is not much to do, nearby. I do recommend going at least one night to the Fish Fry, its an outdoor area with about 20 different restaurants with different types of food. Personally, I found the food on the island to be expensive, even for an island, especially for local fish. Salmon (imported) and snapper or grouper (both local) are about the same price. The operation at Stuart Cove's is very well organized, especially for the size. Initially, I was a little apprehensive, as you can tell from their website that this is a large operation and I was concerned about cattle-car dive boats, but I was pleasantly surprised to not have that experience, I never felt rushed on any dive. They picked us up at the hotel every morning, however I would recommend that you be ready and waiting for them approximately 10-15 minutes before the time they said they will pick-up, as they do not wait very long even if they're early. This is important, because the dive shop is on the other side of the island, we had about a 30 minutes ride each way. Once there check-in is pretty smooth, but remember the main industry on the island is tourism, so they will try and up sell you, although they're nice about it. As I was not in a class and would be diving for several days, they gave me the option of opening a tab at the dive shop and settling the bill at the end, all they required was an authorization on my credit card. This was very convenient, as this way I did not have to pre-pay any of my dives and did not have to worry about carrying cash to purchase things while I was there. I dove for 3 days, 4 dives on the first 2 days and 2 dives on the last. The dive boats were comfortable with space for everyone, the morning dives always had more divers than the afternoon, probably on account of the shark dives being in the afternoons. On every trip there was a dive master who would lead the first dive and then stay on the boat for the second one. Additionally almost every trip had at least 1 student & instructor onboard, but they did not inconvenience anyone. The crew was accommodating of everyone, I personally like to put my BCD on in the water and they were very willing to pass my BCD to me once I was ready. First day we had great diving conditions, the ocean was completely glass, so easy diving. Second day, conditions got a little choppy, nothing too serious, but the crew made sure to warn everyone to be careful of the ladders as they were bouncing due to the ocean condition. Third day, ocean was a little rougher, so the crew took us to a site on a different part of the island in the hopes of calmer seas and good visibility. The ocean was calmer, but the visibility was really bad, amazingly there was better visibility in deeper water then shallower. On this day, one of the divers got in to some trouble as we were surfacing, leg cramps I believe, and the dive master was very quick to take care of this gentleman and send everyone else back to the boat. One of the instructors that was onboard jumped in to assist. I'd say the situation was handled very well. First dive was always deeper, generally 60-80 ft, 100ft if you and your buddy had a computer. These were generally a combination of the wall that surrounds New Providence and a wreck, the wreck generally being around 45-60ft. Second dive was almost always a reef, between 25-35ft. First dive was limited to about 35 minutes or 500psi, second dive was limited to 45-50 minutes or 500psi. These limits felt quite comfortable to me, as I returned to the boat on almost every dive as time was ending. On all trips, you were required to sign-in on a roster on the boat and after each dive. The crew was very strict about each person signing themselves in, even if you were wet, my dive buddy was not permitted to sign me in. Surface intervals ranged between 30 - 60 minutes, some done while traveling from one dive site to another or in one case in a small cove, while some students were practicing skills. Upon return to the docks, the crew would take care of all the rental equipment and the tanks (they were always on the boats for us). As I was using my own equipment, I was responsible for taking it off the boat. I was permitted to use the rinse tanks for my equipment and to store my gear in their equipment room, where it was locked up every night. One thing that I found very interesting, was separate rinse tanks for wetsuits and all other gear. We saw a few sharks and a couple of turtles, and a lot of lion fish. I don't recall seeing less then 2-3 on each dive, on at least 1 dive I saw well over 10 of them. All and all, I had a great experience at Stuart Cove's, I wish I would have done a specialty with them, as I noticed that all the instructors were very attentive of their students.
Websites	Stuart Cove's Dive Bahamas
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	South Florida, Mexico, Grenada, Tobago, Panama, Curacao, Belize
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy	Seas	calm, choppy
Water Temp	72-74°F / 22-23°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	15-60 Ft/ 5-18 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Depth limits were set depending on experience and use of a computer. Time limits were set, but generally long enough
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Boats had a special rinse tank only for cameras. Boat crew was very insistent that the tank only be used for cameras. A crew member was always willing to pass your camera to you in the water as well as taking it from you when coming up the ladder, if you asked.

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Dive Review of Stuart Cove's Dive Bahamas/Sheraton Nassau in Bahamas/Nassau, New Providence

Stuart Cove's Dive Bahamas/Sheraton Nassau, Jan, 2010,

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 Stuart Cove's Dive Bahamas/Sheraton Nassau in
Bahamas/Nassau, New Providence