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Explore The Exumas, Bahamas
If you want to take a break from all the fantastic shark diving, maybe spend some time without a cylinder on your back, and want to simply take in the wonderful topside treats the Bahamas have to offer, then you cannot go far wrong with The Exumas.
The Exumas are made up of 365 tiny islands and cays that stretch out over 120 miles of gorgeous blue sea. Grab your camera (and underwater housing), sunglasses and some snorkelling gear and you are all set to spend a day exploring by boat. The Exumas are most famous for being a location for two James Bond films. But now, perhaps, the swimming pigs might be their most popular attraction.
The best way to see the islands is to hire a private speed boat for a small group of adventurous people. Ask them to take you to see the swimming pigs early, to beat the other tourist crowds that flock here each day. By missing out on the tours that include all the famous people’s houses, you can spend more time in the water with the lovely pigs of Big Major Cay. The pigs are now familiar with visitors and expect a treat or two as they swim out to all arriving boats. The water is crystal clear and so wide angle photography is a treat here.
Also make sure that your boat captain has the tide times in hand for another great underwater photography location, Compass Cay. If you time your visit right, and they are not dredging as they were on our only visit, then you can photograph nurse sharks in shallow water, as they swim over the pier in search of fish scraps. Even if the tide is too low for them to venture onto the pier, they will swim up to anyone wading into the water.
Thunderball Grotto is another popular spot to stop and cool off in the water. Here you can snorkel into the cave where a scene from the James Bond film of the same name was filmed. Light penetrates down into the water creating dramatic effects.
There is also a sunken plane to snorkel over. This was a drug running plane that came down in very shallow water and can be seen from the boat. Get into the water and you can snorkel right into the open cockpit, which now is home to lots of colourful fish.
The Exumas offers a perfect place to wind down and relax whilst still coming up with the goods when it comes to underwater photography. The tour is suitable for all ages and non-divers will really enjoy seeing such a wide variety of wildlife, wrecks and underwater scenery. Combine all this with wonderful white beaches and this will be a day out to remember.
For more from Nick and Caroline, visit www.frogfishphotography.com.
BVI Wreck Week allowed us to dive several of the wrecks the BVI has to offer, as well as sampling some of the best reef sites too. Our previous blog focused on the wreck of the RMS Rhone, so in this one we will try to give you a taste of the rest of the diving on offer.
And there is a great deal of wonderful diving to tell you about. Our first day of diving did not offer the best visibility due to heavy rain earlier in the week. However, we were taken to a rugged dive site that had Caribbean and Lemon Sharks swimming all around us. If we had been able to see the usual 20m+ I am sure we would have been able to talk of dozens of sharks on the site.
The BVI has plenty of artificial reefs, created from wrecks deliberately sunk. A couple of these are artistic creations from Beyond the Reef. The Willy T is a pirate themed party boat sunk in shallow water that now has skeletons of pirates duelling on the deck and going about their dastardly ways. It is a lot of fun and once you have had your fill, you can head up onto the shallow reef. Shark-plano is a series of three planes that were damaged in a hurricane, that have been turned into shark species and sunk. Both these sites are perfect for the diver that loves a bit of Instagram appeal!
Wreck Alley has a series of three boats sunk to create a super dive site perfectly aligned for a single dive where you can explore them all. Moray eels can be seen free swimming along the decks, huge stingrays back the sandy seabed their home. Turtles cruise past as you make your way around and then up onto the reef for your safety stop.
On every dive we did we saw sharks which absolutely delighted us. The local dive shops seem to be particularly engaged in conserving the reefs, taking part in coral reef restoration, lionfish hunting, cleanups and logging their sightings. We were filled with positivity at the end of each day.
We hope that we can return to do it all again at BVI Wreck Week 2024!
Watch out for our full feature on BVI Wreck Week in the next issue of Dive Travel Adventures coming out in July.
For more information about BVI Wreck Week 2024 visit their website here.
Nick and Caroline were hosted by BVI Wreck Week
The Moorings provided their yacht for the week
Host Dive Centres:
You cannot talk about BVI Wreck Week, or diving in the British Virgin Islands, without spending some time on the jewel in their crown of wreck diving – the RMS Rhone. So this blog is going to be dedicated to a wreck dive that we were happy to dive three times on our trip and would have been happy to dive every day!
The RMS Rhone was a UK Royal Mail Ship wrecked off the coast of Salt Island on 29 October 1867 in a deadly hurricane. Now it is the most popular dive site in the region. The dive briefings for the site are filled with stories of the fate of the ship and some eye-opening tales since.
The wreck and surrounding area become the British Virgin Island’s first national marine park in 1980. Many of the underwater segments of the 1977 thriller The Deep were filmed on the Rhone, requiring actors Jacqueline Bisset, Nick Nolte and Robert Shaw to learn how to scuba dive.
You’ll need at least two dives to fully experience the RMS Rhone. The ship split apart on sinking and the bow drifted just a little before sinking. The two halves are about 100 feet apart with the bow sitting in deeper water (around 25 meters / 80ft). So you are best to explore the bow fully on a single dive and then head to the stern on your second dive.
Whilst the history, artifacts and stories from the movies are absorbing, as soon as we got underwater to dive her, it was the incredible marine life that had us hooked. Two seahorses had made their home right at the bow of the wreck. Stingrays lay buried in the sandy sea bed. The structure is covered in colourful corals and sponges. Schools of fish occupy the overhangs and metal remains. We saw sharks on all three dives and were treated to a huge spotted eagle ray gliding over the wreck. Lobsters waved their antennae at us from every crevice. Life is everywhere you look on this dive.
The marine park status has certainly ensured that this is one of the best wrecks we have dived in the Caribbean. Whilst we did not get the chance to do this – we bet it would make an awesome night dive.
Check out our next blog to find out more about the diving and watch out for our full feature in the next edition of Dive Travel Adventures Magazine in July!
For more information about BVI Wreck Week 2024 visit their website here.
Nick and Caroline were hosted by BVI Wreck Week
The Moorings provided their yacht for the week
Host Dive Centres:
Seahorse National Park announced on Eleuthera in The Bahamas
PADI Club invites Ocean Lovers on exclusive dive trip to Bonaire this September
BVI Wreck Week – Diving (Part 3)
BVI Wreck Week – Diving the RMS Rhone (Part 2)
Top 5 Caribbean Wreck Diving Destinations
Barbados – The Shipwreck Capital of the Caribbean
Caribbean Conservation in Action: Tagging Turtles in the BVI
Caribbean Conservation in Action: Coral Conservation during Covid
Jeff chats to… Christopher Bartlett, MD of Indigo Safaris, about scuba diving in Dominica and Mexico (3 of 5)
Curaçao Dive Site of the Month – Smokeys (Watch Video)
Jeff chats to… Dr Katey Lesneski from Coral Vita, winners of the Earthshot Prize (Watch Video)
