Bahamarama 2010

The alarm went off at 3am, yikes! Limo ride to the airport was fast, no one on the roads. At the airport we met up with Eric and Jeremy. It wasn't until we were on the plane that we saw Matt, Marc and Tim. Slept a bit after takeoff, then watched some TV on the iPad. Flight attendant was really nice (and chatty :-)

Had a quick connection in Miami onto a small turbo-prop for our ride out to Nassau. Fred met us there and we all rode out to Paradise Island where we boarded our ship, the AquaCat. It's a 101 foot catamaran with three decks. On board we met Matt's Dad, Tom, a group of 13 from Cincinnati and a couple from Massachusetts. Our room was quite large for a live-aboard, with an actual king sized bed.

After dinner and a safety briefing we went up to the top deck for a few drinks and conversation. It was really nice sitting in the warm breeze. Around midnight we headed off to bed and a great night's sleep.

Woke up around 7, headed to the salon for a pancake breakfast. First dive was at Barracuda Shoal, a shallow site that was perfect for checking weights and such. Saw a barracuda, a stingray and some nice soft coral. We decided to sit out the second dive and relax a bit.

After lunch we took the skiff over to Alan Cay where we saw a bunch of iguanas who loved grapes. We fed them for a bit and then headed back to the main ship. We did the next dive at Pilar wall where we saw a reef shark in the distance. Randy was having some issues with his new camera, but Rick's was working fine.

After the dive Randy relaxed up on deck while Rick practiced his French. Then we both took a nap for a while in the cabin and skipped the fourth dive. After dinner we moved back to Barracuda Shoal for the night dive. For Marc and Jeremy it was their first night dive, very exciting! Didn't see too much, though Rick spotted a tiny octopus hiding in some soft coral.

Back on board we downloaded pictures and sampled Tim's piña coladas while Rick and Marc played "Angry Birds". There was lots of laughing and giggling.

First and second were at Black Tip Wall which was a fun site with a bunch of swim throughs. Randy tried out his new super-wide angle lens with his new camera and got some great pictures.

After lunch it was raining pretty hard so we were debating whether do do the third dive or not when they told us it was going to be at a site called "Washing Machine" and not to be missed. We all jumped in simultaneously and flew along in the current for about 30 minutes. Randy got separated from the group, but the skiff zipped over to pick him up when he surfaced. Definitely a fun dive! Afterwards we decided to relax a bit and skip the fourth dive. We hooked the laptop up to the big flat screen in the salon and showed some movies from past dive trips. Before dinner we all decided that we were going to skip the night dive as well, so we decided to have some wine and cocktails.

After dinner there was a big rain storm. We all sat inside laughing, joking and playing games on the iPads. We even put the 3D Aquarium screen saver on the flat screen and watched as it sloshed with the motion of the boat.