Diving the Bahamas with Max Gilbert

For the next four out of five days Max and his group were taken to different sites around Nassau to enjoy some great dives. This was his second or third time leading a group, which consisted of first time divers and experienced technical divers. He loves making sure everyone is having a great time BUT tells us that it's very different from diving for fun with a couple of buddies.

You're pretty much responsible for everyone and you want to make sure everyone is having a good time and diving safely, he explains.

Other than that it's just good old diving fun  PLUS the Stuart Cove dive operation picked everyone up from the hotel each morning and took everyone to great spots like:

Port Nelson wreck a small cutter coming in at about 110 long and sitting upright on the bottom at about 75 feet.  Her engine hatches are missing but her deck gun still stands ready. Max wiggled his way through the wreck and took a few snapshots inside.

Treasure Cove is a sunken barge, The Bahama Mama (you can thank Mother Nature for sinking this one). Her bow section is badly twisted, but her stern section has a nice covered walkway that made it an easy swim. The best part about this dive? The SHARKS!

We probably saw seven or eight because the site we were diving is where Stuart Cove does some of their feeding dives, so the sharks like to check out the dive boats to see if it's chow time, Max recalled.

Mikes Reef was the final dive on the roster for the first day. The group enjoyed lots of great corals, but the main attraction was a monster of a sea turtle. And after watching it feed on the corals for a good 10 minutes, the group swam back to their anchor line.

Mikes is also where Stuart Cove performs their shark feeds, but we will get to that in a bit.

Will Laurie wreck Wreck is an old mail boat that freighter that was sunk for divers.  There is a  cage built on her decks amidships for soft corals to grow on and that growth is coming along great. (According to Max, but we want to see for ourselves!)

Razorback is a huge coral mountain that sticks up out of a sandy flat like a razor. Max and his partner spotted a nice scorpion fish, lion fish, barracuda and a ray.

The dive master led the group to corals, marine life, and even shark feeding dive, which Max recalls everyone on the boat was tickled to have such a close encounter.

The sharks they encountered were Blacktip Reef sharks and were easily about twice the size of everyone there. I had done a shark dive before in Honduras and the sharks were maybe about 10 feet away, but on this dive the dive master who was doing the feeding came at arms reach to the sharks, he tells us.

Talk about up close and personal  we are excited to try this one soon! Another line on the bucket list perhaps?