auchmeddan

I had some footage from our Reef Dive in the middle of our Shark Trip, and have put together a short clip of some of the highlights. It made sense to leave this out of the original video, but I wanted to put it up so friends back in Bermuda can see the difference between what they are used to and what they can see if they head to the Bahamas. If you can take your eyes off the reef sharks you’ll see there are a lot of fish out there.

I shot some video with my underwater camera while we were on the trip and have compiled a short video. The video gives a better impression of how busy Tiger Beach is in a way still photos can’t capture.

The video is around 18MB and runs for 2:30 mins. More photos will be added to the Bahamas Photo Gallery when I get onto a high speed line here.

This was our last day at Tiger Beach, and we managed to get 4 dives in totalling around 5 hours of underwater time.

For me one of the highlights was watching the small Tigers sniffing around in the sand for dead fish, and then working some scraps through their jaws. We also saw a large Tiger flex it’s jaw outwards out of it’s mouth, and got a good idea of what the bite radius of one of these sharks would be. It was a pretty fearsome sight and a good reminder just how dangerous the Tiger Sharks are, just in case anyone had gotten too complacent around them. Jim Abernethy’s words of warning from early in the trip came back to me.. “If a Lemon bites you I can take care of that. If a Tiger bites you you’ll die out here”.

By the end of our 4th dive all of our group were tired and agreed we were finished, and as we rinsed off our gear I said a silent, sad goodbye to the Sharks of Tiger Beach. The week was an incredible experience that we’d repeat again in a heartbeat if we can ever afford to fly back from New Zealand.

The crew of the “Shear Water” were great and maybe someday we’ll get to see Ed, Lew, Wade and Jim again. I hope so.

This turned out to be a much easier day. After a morning dive at Tiger Beach we moved to a beautiful reef at around 60ft and did a couple of dives here with some Caribbean Reef Sharks. These guys were so small (5ft or so) that they were cute.

The reef itself was beautiful and was home to more fish than you could count. We saw everything from friendly Grouper to Rock Beauties, with highlights including a large Green Moray Eel, a Nassau Grouper that followed me around like a little dog, and a small school of Tuna.

It was nice to have a couple of dives where we could just relax and enjoy the scenery.

I didn’t change my camera batteries before the first dive, and as a result I ran out of camera power after 2 minutes. As it happened, that turned out to be a good thing as we ended up with 3 large Tigers on this dive and 2 of them circled each of us in turn. The worst part was when 2 Tigers swam towards me then split to both sides and circled me in different directions, making it impossible to keep my stick between both of them or watch them both. It was a very hectic dive and would have been even harder with a camera.

The 2nd Dive was a lot calmer and gave me time to shoot some video and stills. The 3rd Dive was the highlight of the day, as a 16ft Great Hammerhead came in for a look at us. Unfortunately, he didn’t get close enough to me for a decent photo but it was incredible just being in the water with this large prehistoric-looking fish.

We did a night dive this day, and as 8 of us nervously prepared to get into the water with the sharks Wade (The Chef) had the funny idea to play Jaws on the video player inside the cabin and blast the music outside. In a strange way, the humour of it calmed me a little and made my step into the water easier. He might have been nice enough to spare us the opening shark attack though, as I could have done without donning my gear to the sound of a woman’s death screams!

This was our first day in the water with the sharks, and we were both a little nervous. Armed with our 3ft poles to stick in the sand in front of us, we made our initial step/fall off the platform into shark-infested waters. As soon as we got down we put our poles in front of us and started scanning all around for Tiger Sharks - it was impossible to miss the Lemons who were swarming everywhere.

The important thing about all the dives is you have to keep looking around for Tiger Sharks and make sure you are always facing them when they come in close to you. Jim stressed to us that the Tiger should never be able to bump us - it should bump either the pole or your camera, and you should always be looking right at it. You learn quickly to ignore and just admire the Lemon Sharks, which for some reason made me think of Spaniels sniffing around for a biscuit. I’ll admit that the first time I saw a Tiger my heart raced, and the first time it came near me I had to keep telling myself to stay calm. As the Day and Dives progressed I got more and more comfortable and was really able to admire how beautiful the Tigers are. To look a large shark in the eye from only a foot or so away is really a humbling experience.

Oh, and to watch Jim Abernethy wrangle sharks with a crate full of dead fish in one hand and his Camera in the other is an incredible sight. The guy is definately slightly nuts, but in a fantastic way.

Photos below are a Lemon about to pass over my head, and a swarm of Sharks surrounding Jim (a Tiger is in the centre of the photo)

We had a full briefing from Jim while at dock in the Bahamas, then headed out in 6-9ft seas to make our way to Tiger Beach.

While a lot calmer at Tiger Beach, the weather was too rough to dive as the water was a little bumpy and the vis wasn’t that great. The crew still managed to entertain us all though by chumming the water for a while until Lemon Sharks started to show up. When they did, Jim got down on the back step as the crew slapped fish on the water in front of his Camera and attempted to wrangle the sharks onto the swim platform. They did pretty well, and everyone got their first good look at some of the Lemon Sharks and a very brave little Reef Shark that came in for some of the bait.

Jim liked the little Reefie’s spirit so much he asked Ed to let the Reefie take a bit of the fish. It was quite Joyous to see it grab a piece and race off.

The Video below is some Shark Wrangling from Day 2 (much calmer weather) and ends with the little Reefie from Day 1.

Did some pretty good diving this morning, the highlight being our safety stop hanging out with two Remoras. I hadn’t really noticed them gunning for us so when they abruptly arrived right at my face I nearly had a heart attack. I didn’t know what they were but they were about 2 feet long and looked kinda shark like. Wasn’t too sure about them to start with and when one of them swam right up my body then to my face I actually made a little whimpering noise. I saw Dave laugh at me then give me the “OK” sign, so I figured they couldn’t be that bad if he was laughing.

Our safety stop was long over but as they were still hanging around we stayed down for 10 mins or so. One of them tried to attach itself to Dave’s arm while he was filming. Was so cool having them playing with us and coming in so close. What a great morning diving on Jim Abernethy’s day trip boat, the 6 day shark trip on “Shear Water” should be awesome.

We just did our first Drift dive off West Palm Beach at a site called “South Ledges” this morning. We had a great experience zipping along in the current, but it was hard to stop and take photos. I did get a shot of a large Turtle though, which is below.

On our second dive we had some Remoras come play with us on our safety stop and try and attach themselves to us. I have some video of our playtime with them that I’ll put up later.

This was our last day diving with Blue Water First dive was the Hermes and as we’ve done it a few times we just decided to stay on the boat. Was pretty funny watching as chaos enused with all the divers trying to get themselves in the water and down to the wreck. When they were all eventually away I took another couple of leaps off the boat from the top deck, its not that high up but I still get a wee bit of a rush jumping off.

After we got back wanted a group shot of everyone. While waiting to get them all together Tracy was kind enough to do a cartwheel up the lovely plastic dock, the dock which by the way Dave fell off while exiting the boat one day, ha, ha. Finally got the group shot so I’ve put that photo along with Tracy’s stellar gymnastics below.