Bimini by Jose Sanchez

Bimini, 1999
Author: Jose Sanchez

Posted by Jose on September 12, 1999 at 03:50:42:

Here is the report for our Labor Day dive trip to Bimini, Bahamas. The trip came out cheaper than we had originally planned because we shortened it by one day to accommodate a couple of people who had to work early on Tuesday morning. The total cost including food, beer, and customs fees was $320.00

After finding a diver and a snorkeler to fill the sailboat, we sailed out of Miami's Government Cut last week's Thursday at 11:00 p.m. The seas were very calm while the sky was quite dark until the half moon rose in a beautiful red color around 2:00 a.m. We sailed all nite at about five to six knots, and arrived at Cat Cay around 6:45 a.m. in time to witness the sun rising from behind Gun Cay.

Once we cleared customs, we sailed south towards The Nodules, and then west towards the continental shelf drop-off, better known as The Wall. After entering the water, we reached the edge of the wall at about 110 feet, went over it down to 135 feet, and flew over the abyss enjoying the big coral formations and barrel sponges growing on the wall aided by the 120 foot visibility. A Caribbean reef shark curiously swam around, checking us out, and then continued on his way. We were down for 19 minutes, and had an awesome dive.

During the surface interval we refilled the tanks, and sailed on to Shark Reef, also known as Bull Run Reef. There are huge coral heads at this site with plenty of swimthroughs and finger canals. Some of the coral heads form a semicircle around a expanse of sand where Caribbean reef sharks, nurse sharks, and black groupers swim around. At the center of it, there is a concrete block with a ring where you can tie a line to feed sharks from the dive boat by sending down fish chunks. Since we hadn't caught any fish, we had to content ourselves with swimming with the sharks without offering them lunch.

The visibility was about 100 feet and the sharks were as friendly as usual, coming up to us close enough to snap pictures before turning away. Being used to divers and strobes, they make really nice subjects. There may have been some six or seven reef sharks in all, but the most we saw together at any one time was four, along with their sergeant major friends. There were two big nurse sharks, and two black groupers, one larger than the other one. We lied down on the sand snapping pics of the sharks until we ran out of film. Then we swam along with them while hopping from coral head to coral head. I explored the swimthroughs and crevices before going back to the boat. Total dive time was one hour and my maximum depth reached 60 feet in a swimthrough (everywhere else at the site, the depth is 58 feet).

Sailing on to the Miami Rita wreck, we spotted a couple of wild dolphins. We jumped in the water with masks and snorkels and managed to hang around with them for about 10 minutes before they swam away. The water was very clear at the Miami Rita and we had a really nice dive. Wreckage is scattered all over the place providing a haven for tropical marine life and a substrate for corals to grow. A wide piece of pipe that stands on end is full of branch corals and looks like a pot with plants. Total dive time was 41 minutes and the maximum depth was 37 feet.

The anchorage at Honeymoon Harbor in Gun Cay had plenty of mosquitoes, so we anchored off the east side of the island to spend the nite, sleeping on deck under a million stars and the glow of the Milky Way.

In the morning, we dove the Bimini Barge off South Bimini after waiting a bit for the Keefes' dive boat to pick up its divers. The current was about 1 ½ knots and the visibility around 120 feet at the bottom. The barge's got big holes that allow you to safely penetrate it without lights or lines, and plenty of fish all over. At the stern, there is a gap between the bottom of the barge and the sand. We stuck our heads in there and saw a huge crab with claws big enough to break your fingers. While admiring the crab, we noticed how our bubbles were forming an air pocket with a mirror-like surface where the yellow sponges growing under the barge reflected beautifully. Maximum depth was 94 feet and the total dive time was 31 minutes.

From the barge, we went all the way to North Bimini to snorkel the Atlantis Road. True, there are square boulders down there, but there are also plenty more in all kinds of sizes and shapes, so I really couldn't tell for sure whether they are part of a man-made sunken road or just a curious natural formation. I swam back and forth over the "road" and found it kind of overrated. The maximum depth here is like 12-15 feet.

Once we were all back in the boat, we had a great BBQ, and then set sail southbound to dive the Bimini Trader, at the southern tip of North Bimini. This is a small wreck in 87 feet of water, still pretty clean, and broken down on both sides, so you can swim through it. We were finished quickly with it, and then went on to explore an adjacent patch reef where there were the usual tropical fish along with lobsters under the rocky ledges. There being not much to see, we surfaced after half hour.

We arrived at South Turtle Rocks Reef shortly before sunset to do a twilight-nite dive in 36 feet of water. After a few minutes underwater, the visibility worsened noticeably as clouds of sand began to float past. The culprit was a school of big midnight parrot fish that were shitting sand all at once. It was an amazing sight! The beam of my King Pelican dive lite was clouded by the floating sand grains. I swam in the opposite direction and found a huge black sea urchin in a hole by a rock, and next to it a cute stick crab with tiny purple claws. It would have made a great close-up, but unfortunately, I had used off the remaining film bracketing to get a decently-exposed pic of the shitting parrot fish (I did). I was happy to see the black sea urchin. Some unknown disease wiped them out from South Florida a few years ago, and I had not seen one since diving in Grand Cayman two years ago. Last year, though, I saw a yellow and purple sea urchin in a nite dive in Bimini. Well, anyway, after 56 minutes, it was nice to surface to another starry nite.

On Sunday morning, we stopped at the Sapona wreck to do some snorkeling. This is an old cement-steel ship built by Henry Ford which was used first as a freighter, then as a gambling saloon, and finally as a shooting target for World War II naval aviators to practice on. The Sapona sits in the sand upright and it's half-submerged in 13 feet of water with its rust-stained hull full of gaping holes, and its broken off stern siting at angle to it. It looks like one of those junky structures called "atolls" in the movie Waterworld. I went in through one of the holes and snorkeled the cargo holds and engine room, where you can still see the crankshafts and gears. Then I swam around the broken-off stern to the propeller, which is still intact and encrusted with corals before returning to the sailboat.

From the Sapona, we sailed to another part of the continental shelf to end the trip with a wall dive. The current was running about 2 knots and we drifted for a mile reaching a maximum depth of 134 feet. The visibility was about 150 feet and we saw a big hogfish that would have made a great meal in addition to a hawksbill turtle. My computer went into deco, asking for a 1 minute stop at 10 feet. However, we ascended very slowly, and after the three-minute safety stop, we exited the water with computers on the green after a total dive time of 26 minutes.

The trip back to Miami was very relaxing, as the boat was gently rocked by the wide, low swells from Dennis that were traveling down the east coast all the way from the Carolinas. The surface of the water had hardly a ripple, yet it seemed like if the sea was a giant carpet being slowly waved by giant hands. And for a grand finale to the trip, we witnessed an awesome, deep red sunset in the unusually clear sky behind the Miami skyline.