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#1
08-09-2018, 08:06 AM
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Trials, Tribulations and some very good Diving
Trials, Tribulations and good Bahama Diving
A good trip in “Someday Came”, my 25 Seafari. I had the spare parts that I needed, when I needed them, the weather was mostly outstanding, found a bunch of new places and everything was mostly great, except for the ciguatera. This will be a bit of “stream of consciousness,” so bear with me. Crossed from Ft Lauderdale to Bimini on June 26, Gulf Stream like a lake(check out the video). it was even calm in the first few miles that are always bumpy. Had one CSC member with me, Matt, or “Tiny” as he is known here. Best boat buddy in the universe and a very good diver. This was his second trip with me and I was lucky to have him aboard. Also, Ilya, 81 year old Russian, built like a tank, still diving 50-60 ft. For him, diving is a side line. He really likes whitewater kayaking (like in seriously dangerous rapids) He is almost as deaf as me and has a strong Russian accent that doesn’t go all that well with my southern drawl. Watching us try to communicate must have been a hoot. July 27, dolphins in the morning (WOW!!, just crazy), on to the Berrys in the afternoon, stopping at new spots (mostly wreaks) along the way. We were not the first to get to these, but they are far enough out on the banks to have little traffic. Lots of fish and wreaks are always interesting. One was loaded with twitchy sharks. Below is a link to some Utube dolphin videos we took and a look at how calm the Stream was. Quality ain’t much and vis was bad, but they provide a good idea of dolphin diving. https:// http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvg3..._as=subscriber As we were almost to the marina in Great Harbor, the engine sputtered and quit. Sure sounded like fuel. We got a tow for the last hundred yards and settled down to figure out what was wrong, pulling out engine manuals, various tools, etc. Runs fine on starter fluid, Racors were fine, switching filters and tanks had no effect, checked the injectors (throttle body, so we could easily check), yep only a dribble of fuel. At this point, I was very tired, overheated and more than a little punchy. Discovered to my delight that Tiny has a PhD in afro-engineering and a fine analytical mind that can think out of the box. He quickly figured out how to use a siphon pump I had to check fuel availability to the engine, (it was just fine) and was invaluable in thinking out the next steps. We checked both fuel pumps, cursing Volvo engineering and deciding the singing high pressure pump was the culprit, changed it and seemed ok, for maybe 10 minutes, then the singing started again. Low pressure pump seemed to be working, but maybe not, fuel pumps can be intermittant. Changed the low pressure pump and the on engine filter just to be sure. Viola, problem solved. The back story to this episode is the fuel pressure gauge that I carefully packed to bring with us. It makes troubleshooting fuel pump problems quick and easy. Only I could not remember if I had definitely loaded it or where I put the damn thing. On to Hole in the Wall. Another flat crossing. Arrived and went straight to my best spot, a place where you could always see at least 3 or 4 big black grouper, a big Nassau or two and 20 or so dog snapper, some also giants. I had bragged unmercifully on this spot and the area in general. This time however, things were different. Not a fish. Serious embarrassment. It was a preview of what this area has become. The first time I saw it, maybe 20 years back, there were clouds of hogfish, grouper all over the place and dog snapper beyond counting. Every year, fish were less, but still good. This year was different, a huge decline since last year, almost everywhere we went. I had no idea who to kill, but sure wanted to kill somebody. We had been anchoring for the night in a big bay north of the diving area, far enough offshore so there were no bugs. Screwed up once, anchored too close and the biters mobbed us right at sundown. Mad, Keystone Cops scramble, the guys trying to get the curtains down and secured (they had never had to do this), Me trying to get the mosquito coils out and lit. All the while being chewed on by several million hungry biters. Finally, a determined effort by me and Tiny to kill the ones trapped inside the curtains, so we could get some un-disturbed sleep. Only made that mistake once. More to come, but I just lost the rest of it. 
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#3
08-10-2018, 03:21 PM
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the rest of the trip.
We spread out, dived some spots that looked good on Google Earth, some of my old spots, and some pot luck. Pretty diving, but the same lack of fish. Finally got to try an area i”d want to dive for years, but conditions were never right. From Hole in the Wall an underwater spine goes out to the SE for miles. About 7 miles off, it comes up to 56 ft. Conditions were finally perfect and out we went. Shallowest we could find was 65 ft, but that was enough. Lots of current and no wind, so drift dives were the thing. Oh Boy, this was fun. Very clear water. We would start a drift in about 90 ft, just able to see the bottom, big Muttons all around, coming up off the bottom half way to meet us. Once my buddy got all excited, pointing behind me. I whipped around, expecting a big shark, only to find a wahoo, first I’d ever seen. The kind of thing I came for. Big structure, ledges, etc in the shallower areas, fairly numerous and BIG grouper. We did drifts till we got tired, didn’t even have to go to the bottom, Drop to 50 and we could ride the current for a great show. We did a beach survey at Hole in the Wall and found a wreaked rowing boat, a big one. Discovered later it was an English boat, rowing across the Atlantic. They lost a crewman in mid ocean and abandoned the boat several thousand miles from HITW. Next day we went out on the east side of HITW, Strange place, smooth hard bottom, little structure and no fish. Oh well, that’s how you learn. Somewhere in here we picked up a case of ciguatera. We think it was a mid size hogfish, but not certain(pic below). Tiny had it worse and knew immediately what he had. My symptoms developed slowly and it was 3 or 4 days before I began to believe I had a dose. Made us feel lousy, not up to deep diving, so we headed back to the Berrys. Dived a nice ledge on the north end and found more fish than in most of HITW, go figure. Tried to fuel in Great Harbor, only to find the tanker unloading, so we spent most of the day waiting and diving grass beds. There is a bright side to this. The island had been out of fuel for almost the whole time we were in HITW, We must have gotten some of the last fuel available on our way out. This happened to me once before and we had to get fuel at the cruise ship terminal just to the north. Something to consider if you are headed that way. We all felt pretty crummy, but I wasn’t ready to quit, so we ran down to the middle Berrys, lots shallow diving and the best elkhorn coral left in the northern Bahamas. We started with the famous blue hole. Weird place and weirder than usual. Normally, it gets steadily hotter as you descend and very milky looking at depth. This time it was normal temp on top then there was a very hot layer and cooler underneath, then the vis went to zero, I mean BLACK, instantly, scary place, and very different from normal. It looked like some of the Cenotes in Mexico. Anybody seen this place like that? Father Frank? Ok, I give up,none of us felt like even shallow diving, time to head home. I didn’t like the look of the weather, but the forecast was perfect, so off we went (fools can ALWAYS find ways to justify stupidity). It was a mess. First, the raw water pressure started dropping, time to change the pump before we got out on the banks. Got squalled on (only one of the trip) just as we got into it. Headed for Bimini in a rising NE wind. As we got into deeper water it got rougher and rougher, till the boat started jumping out out the water, something my boat seldom does, and it kept doing it even after slowing down to 19 knots,. Screw this and we headed south for shallower water as the wind shifted around to the SE and kept blowing. My boat is normally very dry, but this got to be like a fire hose across the bow. We had left a small crack in the side curtains and poor Ilya was getting sloshed every 10 seconds or so. Had to stop once and I discovered that the square 2 ft+ that I thought it was, was actually 3-4 and crazy disorganized. The water was jumping up and down like a bunch of jack rabbits high on meth. Not dangerous, but nasty to run through. Of course, all this was local wind and it was beautiful by the time we got to Bimini. Tried for dolphins the next morning, no luck and back to Ft Lauderdale by noon. I wanted to try something that I’d never done, a solo trip. Probably not the wisest thing, but I'm good at doing stupid stuff and this was a good opportunity, so what the heck, I dropped the guys off and headed back to Bimini,deciding I wasn't feeling all that bad. I wanted to explore some places that make no sense if other divers were on the boat, places like the east side of Bimini, which turned out to be gorgeous, miles long beach, totally deserted, not a person, not a boat, not even a footprint. On the south end was an inlet I could just squeeze into (low tide). Enough conch and summer crab inside for a good feed. My kind of place. Next, went way south and dived some likely looking spots on the banks that turned out to be mostly wreaks. One of them had incredible numbers of cobia two years ago, but not this year. The best was the remains of Sylvia Beacon, lots of twisted steel up off the bottom and jammed with fish. Also a good size male nurse shark. Its mating season and their vision isn’t too good. I finally had to kick the idiot in the head before he figured out I wasn’t a lady. There is a video of that somewhere. I’ll try to find it and put it on that Utube link above. Ended up at South Riding Rock, farther south than I had ever been. Lots of eating type fish. I’ll remember that one. Next day was spent exploring, found a wreak I had dived years before. Nice spot. I’d looked for it several times but never had the time to really search. Went north from there to an area I thought might have good grass ledges. It did, lots and lots of conch and lobster. Good place for the next trip. Finally crossed to Ft Lauderdale in nice weather and spent the night in Lake Magdalene. Up early to catch the high tide (the ramp I use is worthless to recover the Seafari at less that half tide). And a good time was had by all, even with the ciguatera. NEXT YEAR!!! I’ll get some pics up over the weekend and Tiny has some more. Connor
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#4
08-10-2018, 04:37 PM
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Connor's Adventure
Connor- Once again I enjoyed reading of your Bahama exploits with a decent dose of sense of humor! Printed it to show to Anita. Man, you are the MAN, in the tradition of Carl. I enjoy my 20' Seafari, but my usage is real tame in comparison. Yesterday was first time in a long time I hit a Biscayne Bay type chop on Lake Hartwell, which kind of took me by surprise. Until we meet again cheers and keep it going!
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#5
08-10-2018, 06:50 PM
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Glad you and Tiny had fun.
Very disturbing to hear of the changes in the reef systems.
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#6
08-11-2018, 07:24 PM
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Capt Terry, comparing my wanderings with Carl is like comparing a summer shower to a hurricane. I'm not anywhere close to his class, but thanks for the thought.
That 20 of yours is a sweet boat. One of these days I'm going to get too old for the 25 and will be looking for a 20. Sandy, watching the reefs and fish life go down hill is an unpleasant part of my life, wish it wasn't so.
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#7
08-11-2018, 08:17 PM
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Quote:
No grass. No periwinkles. No oysters.
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#10
08-13-2018, 10:15 AM
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As a Bahamian I find it quite disappointing that you, as a seemingly experienced diver, can complain about lack of fish in the Bahamas in one breath and brag of spearing "summer crab" and lobster in the next breath. I'm sure you respect bag limits and sizes while in the USA, why not in the Bahamas. As you stated you began your trip on the 26th of june. In case you forgot lobster season is closed April 1st to July 31st in the Bahamas. We appreciate that you come and enjoy our Country, but all we ask is that you abide by the rules we have set in place to protect our resources, so that future generations of divers can experience what we get to experience now. I don't want to rain on your parade here but please be respectful when you do come and visit is all I, and all Bahamians, ask for. Otherwise there will be nothing left... as you have already seen first hand with the lack of fish. It is one thing for Bahamians to feed their families with fish and sell to local markets but it is the illegal poaching and filling of coolers and freezers and being taken back to the States, among other places (Dominican republic, Cuba, etc) that has gotten us to the point we are at.
Best Regards CAPT. Brown
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No seeums are the worst thing God ever made here on Earth! Two little itty bitty wings and one gigantic tooth!!
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