Blackbeards (Bahamas) in 5 days, anyone else?

[House]

I'm headed down to Miami on Friday and on a Blackbeard Cruises live-aboard on Saturday to the Bahamas. Very excited!
Blackbeard tells me there is another guy from Minneapolis going at that same time. Is it someone on this forum?

House

[Kirk]

That would be me. I'm leaving on Thursday. Do you need a ride? (though note, I'll be taking my time coming back to MPLS).

[House]

I didn't give much hope to finding the person, but here you are. Very cool!
I'm actualy flying down on Friday. I get into Miami at 10:00 PM. I'll send you an email.

[Omicron]

Have a good time - I did one of those trips a while back and had an awesome, awesome time. Do yourself a favor though - no matter how tough you think you are, swallow your pride and swallow some dramamine the first couple of days. The crossing is a killer - they just layed the people out on the back deck and let 'em throw up all over the back. They just had a rinsing every half hour. We loaded up on a couple of dramamine and were alright...but I wasn't feeling my best.

Get some rain gear for the crossings - you will get wet.
Bring strong clothespins - better yet, get those little mini-clamps from Menards/Home Depot/Hardware store - they are priceless for clipping your towels and clothes onto the railings.

Most of all, enjoy yourself!

[Freedive WI]

When I went I used a patch, don't know if you can still get them but I think you can. The crossing was rough, but it was smooth as glass the entire time we were over there. Didn't get rough again until the trip back.


This time of year I would bring a thicker wetsuit than you think you'll need- it gets cold doing long dives in 74 degree water. I wore a 6.5mm jumpsuit, with a hood, and people laughed at me- the first day. After that I found my dive times to be WAY longer than everyone else shivering away in their 3mm's. Since my dive trips are more about bottom time than looking pretty I never minded schlepping along some extra rubber. 8)

Make sure you set your expectations ahead of time with the captain about how many dives a day your going to do. Others on here had much better luck than I did with the number of dives per day they were allowed- as in I got shafted! Setting out your expectations before the trips starts should make all the difference in the world.

Jon

[Brian2MN]

Have a good time you guys. I was in the Bahamas (Nassau) 2 weeks ago and had a great time, the weather was great the whole time.

[Omicron]

Ditto on the thick wetsuit - I dove a 7 mil when there in early Feb and I was just right.

As far as discussing the dives...not sure if things have changed or not with blackbeards, but four dives a day was pretty much standard. 1 in the morning, one afternoon, one early evening and one at night. We didn't even have to make special arrangements.

[House]

Wow, thanks for all the great tips. I got a new 5mm full suit for the trip. Hopefully that will do the job. I leave in 5 hours, 10 minutes, and 52 seconds. ;D