anyone fancy the Bahamas 09

[samui13]

I am looking to charter a boat to go out and dive the Bahamas focusing on tiger sharks and great hammerheads( not to be confused with the scalloped hammerhead ). The trip would be between Jan - April 09 and would be suited to divers that have larger shark diving experience and preferably 100+ dives.

I am not in this to make any money, I am trying to do this so that I am not on a boat full of Americans. I am not saying all Americans are bad, but from previous experiences I would prefer my dive buddies to be European, preferably English spoken. I will try and make sure that the trip is ATOL bonded so that you are fully insured.

The boat would be the MV Shearwater which is operated by Jim Abernathy.

This would be a 7 day liveaboard, and would consist of between 5 - 7 days of diving.

I do not have exact prices yet, but I will be gathering information over the coming weeks. If you are seriously interested and would be in a position to pay a deposit of £300 in 10 weeks time then PM me.
As I say I do not have too much info on costs but as soon as I know I will PM everyone that has PM'd me showing an interest with costs and dates.

2009 might sound a long way off but 2008 is only a few weeks away.

[Fiona]

Wish you luck with your trip, not for me though. I like my boats with en-suite these days

and I like a natural approach to sharks and don't agree with chumming.

[samui13]

so do we. the trouble is if you want the best diving then you have to go with Jim. The areas he dives are unknown to most of the other operators. Sometimes you have to sacrifice a little to get the best. The boat is clean and tidy and the food is supposed to be amazing, so it isnt like a red sea boat with everyone wanting the loo at the same time all the time.
The charter will be based on 8 divers so it isnt as bad as it could be.

[jorawley]

The boat and itinery do look very good.
Hope u dont mind but added the link for th eboat, intinery description etc

Jim Abernethy's Scuba Adventures: Diving Palm Beach and the Bahamas

[samui13]

yea no worries. Most of the top photographers use JASA and the best photos that you will see published are generally from Jim's trips. This is hardcore tiger shark diving. NO Cages

JASA: Bahamas Itineraries

The above link is a link to the trip that we will be doing

[Daniel Taylor]

Do we even have a vague ballpark figure for the cost of the boat (assuming we make our own way to Florida).

[samui13]

I am waiting for a price to come back from Jim A. The flights can be sorted out by myself also and that would give you the ATOL bonded package. I should have all of the info by the early part of next week so I will be able to give you an exact amount. I would say the boat is going to be $3800 per person and i would guess flights from £500 depending on which airline.

[Narked@50]

Sounds great for the brave, I'm sure it will be a great trip, but Tigers and Great Hammerheads generaly have me leaving the water rather than entering it . If I had more bottle - or less family - I might have been tempted, PM me if you do a "sponge tour"

James

[arfy]

I went on this trip (tigers & great hammerheads) in February by myself - it was the best and most exciting dive trip I've ever done.

The diving was fantastic - the tigers are simply awesome and it's a great opportunity to take close-up photos of these incredible animals. We were a little unlucky in that we only got glimpses of great hammerheads as they were a bit wary on the day, but the number of close encounters with tigers, bull sharks, lemons and carribean reefies more than made up for it.

We had a fairly mixed group of guests on the boat...a few greeks, a dutchman, a brit (me!) and 5 americans - I got the impression that it's fairly unsual to have the boat with americans guests only.

Jim Abernethy is an amazing bloke - he is tireless, passionate and enthusiastic about what he does and does his utmost to get the best action possible for the guests. Safety is taken very seriously and to be honest as long as a few basic rules are observed (eg keep an eye on the tigers at all times and don't let them sneek up on you (makes for a sore neck!) and don't stay on the surface) there is no reason why there should be any problems.

Even when not diving there is stuff being done from the boat eg wrangling tigers and also lemons for photos from the dive platform. The crew are a great bunch and the food good - the boat is small but comfortable, but to be honest thie size of the boat is immaterial.

I',m also looking at going back between Jan-March 09 and am probably taking a couple of friends along, who have plucked up the courage given that I returned from the last trip with all limbs intact!

I have a few video clips of tiger sharks, bull sharks and lemons on myspace. to view go to MySpaceTV Videos: Watch and share your favorite videos, trailers, movies, tv shows, music videos, and clips type in 'tiger shark and bull sharks bahamas' in the search bar and you should get linked to around 5 clips in total

have also attached a few photos (i hope it worked!) including a couple that Jim took

[Sky]

I've done quite a bit of the Caribbean, but never the Bahamas
The video footage I saw of my friends at Stuarts Cove was fantastic, I hope you have a brilliant time