Happy diving from Fish Cay in the Acklins!
I'm very happy to report that there's wonderful diving here. I've been looking for diving like this since we left Belize and after our experiences in Andros and the Abacos, I began to doubt that I would find good diving. Well, I did and it's right here.
If you're into shallow diving and/or snorkeling, there are small patch reefs within a mile of the edge of the bank. These are in about 15-20 feet of water and are relatively low. It's easy to spot them as they show up as big black spots against the blue water. Some of the patch reefs have well formed coral formations and are 10 feet high. You don't want to cross over them with your boat. I'd say that these are the exception as most of the patch reefs are relatively low. We found lots of small fish at these patch reefs and it was enjoyable.
The thing that really got me mad was seeing hundreds of conch shells which had been dropped on top of the reef by locals cleaning them. I spent a lot of time moving the shells off of the coral onto the sand. Don't these people understand that they're killing the reefs? They could easily have anchored elsewhere and harmlessly dropped the shells onto the sand.
The real diving is at the edge of of the bank. There's no doubt as to where it is, as the water goes from light blue to dark blue in a clear line. In many places the edge of the bank is at about 55' and then there's a wall that goes pretty much straight down. The coral is in OK shape; not great, but OK. I'd guess that about 40% of it is alive. There are hugh elephant ear and tube sponges. I was surprised at how few big fish that we saw. Almost everything was in the small to medium size. There's lots of medium groupers. It's full moon and perhaps the big boys are at an aggregation site.
We experienced very little current. You want to dive on the incoming tide as the outgoing tide carries a lot of silt with it. The visibility was outstanding. From the dinghy we could see minute details in the sand. At times I would guess that we had 200' visibility. On a typical dive we would descend to about 70-80' and swing into the current until we hit 1700 lbs of air and then swim along the top of the reef at 55-65' until we arrived back at the boat. Be sure to bring plenty of anchor line as you're anchoring in 55+ feet.
My biggest issue is that my camera housing has developed a leak and I haven't been able to determine where it's coming in. I've thoroughly cleaned the housing and replaced the o-rings, but it hasn't stopped. I keep bringing it out to the reef without the camera and checking to see if I fixed the problem. The other problem is that the camera isn't made anymore and finding a replacement housing is challenging. Thankfully my friend Irv provided some pointers and I know where I can get one. Getting it here is a different matter!
Today we're moving 20 miles S to Castle Island where there's also supposed to be wonderful diving.
-- Geoff & Sue
For the cruiser:
The patch reefs are within a mile of the bank. They clearly stand out against the sand. As I stated earlier, you don't want to take your boat over these, especially at low tide. As you work your way in you'll see lots of other dark patches. These aren't as well defined and are sea fans. We spent a lot of time dodging them, and it wasn't until we had a really calm day and flew over them in the dinghy that we confirmed that they were sea fans.
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