My Top Dive: Grand Bahama Reef, Bahamas

by Jim Whitehead
(Starkville, MS, USA)

My wife and I had a great dive on the reef off of Freeport, which is on Grand Bahama Island. I can't recall the exact name of the spot but it was in front of Freeport.

It was one of those shore excursions that was part of a Carnival Cruise we were on, but it wasn't so crowded that all you could see was a someone else's rear end in front of you throughout the dive. This dive took place in early November, 2006.

We had gone on a skin diving trip in Cozumel a few days earlier and were disappointed due to cloudy skies and murky water. The same had happened the previous year on our honeymoon cruise to Nassau. I grew up with parents who were active divers, and had several chances to go on trips with them in Florida, but my wife had never been in the open ocean before we met.

This stop in Freeport was our last chance for a good dive before returning home, and I was really hoping for nice conditions, more for her than for me.

We couldn't have lucked out for a more perfect day. You could look over the side of the boat and see the different colored corals and the fish swimming among them. We followed a school of fish around for a while, and spent the rest of our time just going with the flow. It was awesome.