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With a great group above the water and in the water it seemed like the week flew by. The weather was beautiful with just enough wind to keep us cool on the back deck.

On our way out to Tiger Beach we stopped off in the Gulf Stream to release some very young turtles, hopefully giving them a much better chance at survival.

After a quick snorkel with the turtles we headed straight to one of our deeper reefs. All of our favorite supermodels were around, including Emma, Jamin and TC. The young tiger that we have seen on the past few trips was there. We were also greeted by Cristina, one of the sharks tagged with Guy Harvey and his team. It was good to see how healthy she is after almost a year, and by the end of the week she was starting to act like a supermodel.

Some of the dive sites we visited were Crystal Tiger, Ginormous, Shark Paradise and the Sugar Wreck. It seemed like the action on the deeper reefs was the best this week, so we were able to get some beautiful shots with the bright colors of the corals mixed in.

Of course we spent one afternoon with the dolphins. It didn’t take long before we had a group of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins riding the bow and ready to give the guests a great snorkel. The real dolphin action came at night though. With about a dozen of them feeding all around our boat, everyone got an amazing show. Some of the group would have stayed in till sunrise if possible.

After the last dive everyone agreed that it was an incredible trip. The only complaint was that it was already time to go home.

This 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!