Subscribe via RSSThis week’s guests came from all over the US including Maui, San Diego, and Minnesota. We also had two guys from Finland. With Jim away, in Mexico, swimming with whale sharks, Jamin took responsibilities as master and Christina was more than happy to get out of the office and go back to Tiger Beach. The week started off stormy and with a little chop in the sea. Luckily, after a few days the clouds went away and we had the sunny, warm weather and calm, clear water we hope for in a Bahamian summer.
We started the week in the shallows at Tiger Beach at a site we call Crystal Tiger. It gave us a chance to catch some lionfish (which made a great meal later that week) before the lemon sharks started to show. It wasn’t long before we had quite a few lemons. It took a little while for the first tiger shark, but it was worth the wait. We eventually saw a very young tiger, only about 6 feet. We think this might have been Gabi, from our last trip. Once she got comfortable with the divers, and vice-versa, more tigers started to show. Eventually Emma came in, looking as pregnant as can be. By the end of the week we got up to 7 tiger sharks at once, including 3 babies and 2 very large tigers.
We mixed in some beautiful reef dives, including Hammertime and Ginormous, where we were able to enjoy the company of Max, the grouper, one friendly nurse shark and, of course, countless reef sharks. We also did two night dives. About 30 minutes into the first night dive, a large tiger named TC showed up and gave the divers quite a show. The second night dive had 3 tigers around, including one baby tiger that seemed to have never seen a dive light before. In addition to diving, we spent some time getting lemon snaps and Mike brought out the “fin cam” to get the shark’s view of the boat during lemon snaps (see video below.)
To change up the shark action, we spent a day looking for dolphins. We were very lucky to have some of the best encounters the crew has enjoyed to date. Before we even made it to the dolphin grounds, we had a pod of Atlantic spotted dolphins riding the bow of the boat. By the end of the afternoon we had come across a very playful pod that was playing keep-away with one of our guest’s scarf. Luckily, Mike was able to get some great video of the encounter with his GoPro camera. A few of the guests were lucky enough to spot a sailfish cruising by. We wouldn’t have believed it, but one of them snapped a beautiful picture. We finished off the day with night dolphins. There were more than we could count playing around the boat. The guests and crew all enjoyed sharing in the excitement.
One of our guest, “Minki,” did her 600th dive with us this week – Congratulations! We then ended the week with a macro dive on the Sugar wreck, where we saw some nurse sharks, a stingray, many juvenile tropical fish and my favorite – some flamingo tongues. It was an amazing week, with an amazing group. Matt spent his free time making an awesome video of the trip, (he also wrote most of the blog – I just edited and posted.) Enjoy!
