April 18-20 Grand Bahama Dive Weekend

Organised by George McGuire

Six Lockheed Martin Dive Club members (Heidi Camarillo, Sigornee Colby, Deborah Scott, George McGuire, Don Russ, and Mike Gracey) had a fabulous time in Grand Bahama over the weekend of April 18 through 20.

The adventure began with a voyage to Freeport on the Discovery Sun, a cruise ship that functions as a ferry between Ft. Lauderdale and Freeport. During the 5 hour voyage, we were served two very tasty buffet meals, breakfast and lunch. In Freeport, we were met by a representative of UNEXSO divers and taken to the Pelican Bay Resort in Port Lucaya. A quick change later and we were on a boat heading for our first dive.

We jumped into the beautifully clear but cool water (the recent unseasonable cold snap had lowered both air and water temperatures a little below normal) where we were greeted by reef sharks. Milling about below us but not coming too close, they were early arrivals for the next day's shark feeding dive.

The following afternoon we returned to the same site and lined up in a row on the bottom. A diver wearing a chain-mail suit began feeding sharks in front of us. The sharks came from all directions, some from behind us swimming past only a few inches above our heads. They swarmed about the showman as he carefully fed them dead fish he carried in a metal tube.

The highlight of the show was when he reached beneath a shark's head and gently stroked the area behind its mouth, putting it to sleep. He carried the sleeping shark about, at one point balancing it vertically on his hand, at another presenting it to us so we could stroke it. We discovered shark skin is velvet smooth if you stroke the animal from front to back but as rough as coarse sandpaper if you stroke it from back to front.

During our dives, we saw many different creatures, including a lot of lionfish. The lionfish are thriving, as plentiful as if they were in their natural home waters in the Western Pacific. The dive sites were mostly reefs but also featured two wrecks, a freighter and a small tug-boat.

Sunday afternoon came too soon. The Discovery Sun left Freeport in the late afternoon for the voyage back to Ft. Lauderdale. Along the way, we were served a very nice buffet dinner. During the weekend, we had accomplished six dives in beautifully clear water that ranged between 75°F and 77°F. We had hoped to get in a night dive, but it was cancelled due to current, which wasn't very strong but greater than UNEXSO's standards for a night dive. Both UNEXSO and Pelican Bay Resort are good operations and ideal for a weekend get-away.

Pictures from the trip are on George McGuire's website.