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#155
Help for Nassau Dive
juliekaye - 4/15/2012 3:44 PM
Category: Travel
Replies: 6

Need some help, my fellow divers~

My husband and I will be going to Nassau for the first time and I need some honest reviews about Stuart’s Cove and whether or not to bother. For the longest time it seemed the most recommended place to go, but now I’m reading reviews that say they are cattle-boating people and limiting dive times for the sake of moving on and getting back to shore to pick up the next group.

I’d be pissed if I had the experience another diver mentioned here where he was trying to watch some sharks but they motioned him up on the boat after only 30 minutes.

If this is the type of stuff going on there I have no interest in it and am therefore in need of another recommendation.

Any ideas and suggestions?

At the same time, if your experience was different and you think they’re great, please let me know that as well. I just want to make the absolute most of this trip since I’ve been waiting for a couple of years to make it.

Thanks, friends.
#20384
LatitudeAdjustment - 4/15/2012 6:29 PM
I’ve heard those stories too, here is an old trip report from a group trip in 2006;

http://divertodiver.scubadiving.com/tm.aspx?m=53652&mpage=1&key=Stuart%92s&#53661
#8046
Subscribed
Rich-D-Fish - 4/15/2012 11:17 PM
Yup, I’m the guy from the previous report. Below is a link to the video I made of the trip. I didn’t mean to steer anyone away from Stuart’s Cove, just give you a realistic expectation. The dives were good overall, they just could have been better. Perhaps I’m spoiled from trips to other locations which aren’t as popular, and they say come back with at least 500psi and see ya! Nassau has basically two big providers that I know of, Stuart’s and Bahama Divers. I’ve heard from others on my boat that BD is pretty much the same experience, but I have no first hand knowledge. It makes sense that they have to move fast to get so many divers through their program. So many cruise ships stop there plus all the hotels. I think if you are mentally ready for a fast load and unload, and you just accept that the dive may be 10 minutes shorter than at other locations, you will enjoy the dives. The water is clear and the sharks are cool! I wouldn’t shy away from diving Nassau just because of the rush. And you never know...you might get lucky to dive on a slow day....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnjS_qVKdJM&list=UU5fx4Hjx1Vdyduc1arCxu5A&index=6&feature=plcp



Rich
#4115
littlestar1157 - 4/16/2012 3:18 PM
Two summers ago I did an afternoon dive with Bahama divers, I was worried about some of the same things too before my trip. Overall I can’t say that I was disappointed. My dive was 45 minutes and granted I could have stayed down longer since we did a shallow reef (snorkelers were also in our group), overall I had a positive experience with them and would use them again.
#20384
LatitudeAdjustment - 4/17/2012 3:40 AM
You have to remember with ops like that catering to the vacation diver and the pod people from the cruise ships that the dive is set up for the least experienced and the air hog so it’s going to be shorter and shallow. That’s why I like ops that fill boats by experience level, beginners boat A, AOW boat B, ...............
#1600
lerpy - 4/17/2012 4:00 AM
Hey there, I just dove with Stuart Cove for a week in January and here is my honest opion. First and simple, I would dive with them again.

My advice, dive the mornings with them. I went in the mornings and in the afternoons. Yes the boats are full but in the morning, after my first dive, I was put on a boat with all experiences divers. The group on the boat were also diving the week, (it was a group of photographers from an aquarium in Chicago) so I ended up on the boat with them for the week.

I did not find the dives were restricted really, I listened to the dive brief, and the guide wants you to follow them, and generaly I found they showed you stuff, but I also just did my own dive when I wanted to. I didn’t always keep up with the group and at one point I took off following an eagle ray, and no one really seemed to care. I found chatting with the guide gave them a sense of your dive ability and they would not worry. Not one ever said anything to me for taking off. Only the fist of the two dives of the day were guided the second was pretty much do what you want. They normally gave you an hour to do your dive, which for me at least is fine especialy on an AL80.

My last day of diving the boat only had 6 people on it. Once we were away from the dock I chatted wiht the dive leader who had been on the boats with us a few times and suggested a drift on the reef as the currents were up from the full moon. She was cool with that being a small goup. We jumped in and driffted, the others on the boat were beginners and wanted to surface after only about 20 minutes. The dive leader signaled to me and my buddy to stay down as long as we want. I stayed down another almost 30 minutes drifing along the reef right into shark territory, drifting wiht the sharks was awesome. eventualy I sent a bag up and the boat came and got us.

I did the shark dive as well, first dive was on a wreck in shark territory and again there was a bit of following the dive guide, but I pretty much did my own thing on the wreck. The actualy shark feeding, my bottom time was 47 minutes, so it is a good stay on bottom and was well worth it.

The first day getting organized is a little chaotic, but after that all the paper work is done and when you show up you just grab your gear and hop on the boat.

I foudn the morning dive were early enough the cruise ship crowd was not there, however in the afternoon they were and that made it a little more annoying but I just avoided them. I am going to sound like an ass, but in some ways teh cruise ship crowd was entertaining. Watching the girl sitting there with her regulator flowing haivng no idea how to stop it and the several jumping in the water only to be dumbstruck that their regulartors aren’t working at all (tank not on).

Ok well there is my big long description, overall there is a bit of the cattle car factor, but no worse than I have seen in other island places. I would totaly use them again.
#155
Subscribed
juliekaye - 4/17/2012 5:13 AM
Thank you guys, so much. These comments have been very helpful. Overall, I am getting a sense that Stuart Cove is still a pretty good center and most would go ahead and use them again. This at least helps to give me an idea of what to prepare for so it won’t be a huge shock. And I’m thinking that doing the morning dives and then a night dive might be the way to go to avoid some of the crowd issues.

And from other things I’m hearing, crowds are just going to be a part of the trip. Seems Nassau has really come into its own with the help of Atlantis.

I knew I could count on DiveBuddy.com to help me out and really appreciate you guys taking the time to help.

We will be doing the Atlantis thing and if anyone has any other travel tips or any other sights we should see I’d love to know those, too.

Thanks again!

Julie