Scuba dive in warm water of Nassau, Bahamas… it sounds like a dream when you live in freezing cold Connecticut. We always try to pick a new location to dive, and while Bahamas is a very popular scuba diving spot for Americans, we hadn’t been there, yet. Also, we usually have a Winter family vacation booked much earlier, but we didn’t get to it till late November this time, and while other locations in Caribbeans were impossible to book, there were still some openings for Bahamas trip. So, Bahamas, it is!
The Bahamas consists of many islands, and there are many good diving spots. We chose Nassau for a couple of reasons. 1: It’s close to Paradise Island where we decided to stay. 2: We heard lots of good things about Nassau diving from other scuba divers. There are two big dive shops in Nassau, Stuart Cove and Bahama Divers. We booked 2 tanks morning dives for 3 days with Stuart Cove from their website. Since I found out about the Bahamas trip, I got a new BC, a new wet suit, a new mask, and a new pair of boots. 
This new wet suit – 3mm Henderson – stretches so nicely, it doesn’t take much of efforts to put on at all. I love it.
The 1st day of the scuba diving in Nassau, Stuart Cobe picked us up at our hotel in Paradise Island at 8:30am. It took about 45 min. to Stuart Cobe in Nassau. (Bad morning traffic… by the way, the traffic can get really bad in Nassau anytime of the day, but especially during the morning/evening commute time.) We were told to fill out the form/agreement on bus, which we turned in at the counter inside the shop. After that’s taken care of, they tell you which boat to get on, and you pick up your gears. We brought our own gears, so weight is the only thing we needed.
We got on a mid size boat, and there were full of people already. I had a really hard time finding a two-tank spot to set up my gear. They we found out that people with different skill levels are all on one boat. Usually, a dive shop separate people in different group according to their skill level so that a skilled diver won’t be diving at above 40feet the whole time with beginners. Obviously someone complained that the boat being too clouded and they pulled Open water class students to another boat. Thank you!
The first spot was a good size wreck at 70-90feet. The visibility was good, and the wrecked ship was in good condition, but there weren’t many marine lives. We saw some fish, a ray, a shark, a few lion fish… After moving around a wreck a few times, I was bored already. By the way, the water was around 72 degrees and it gave me a brain freeze when I went under the water the first time. It didn’t bother me by the time I was down to the wreck, though.
The second dive was…. guess what, another wreck diving. There were 3 wrecked ships resting on white sand very close together. I’m not a certified wreck diver so they couldn’t let me go inside the ship, and all I could was moving around these three ships. And, there weren’t many fish or anything else, either. I was really bored again. Evidently, I wasn’t the only one who weren’t happy with these locations as I heard other people talking about it, too. Let’s just hope that we get to see more things tomorrow. No more wreck diving, please. Some coral reeves would be so nice!
On the second day and the third day, they took us to nice reef locations with less people on a boat. It was pleasant, and I really enjoyed the dives. A lot more Marine lives there wish colorful fish, corals, rays, sharks, lobsters, etc. for great photo opportunities. Though, still far less things there compared to most of other places where we dove before.
While the diving locations weren’t that great, it was still a nice experience, and enjoyed being under water very much. Since Nassau is easy to get to by air (a direct flight from JFK by JetBlue or 1 connection flight from BDL), I can understand why so many people from New England visit there, and this won’t be our last time, either.
