Adam’s blog day 2

Saturday dawned fine and clear on Long Island. We left Maris Stella and set out for the jetty in a ….school bus.

As we arrived, Alex appeared, straight from the airstrip and with cameras, clothes and diving gear still in suitcases. We joined a group of divers holidaying and diving here on Maris Stella aboard Maris Stella Water Sport’s 65’ boat the Sol Mar III.

As we set out for our first dive, Alex was still assembling his gear. Nothing like straight from the airplane and into the water.

Our first dive was on the Island’s only purpose sunk wreck, MV Comberbach. She was sunk by the resort as an artificial reef and an attraction for visiting divers and lies in around 100’ (30m). Now fairly encrusted with coral, she made an ideal shake down dive for Alex.

Alex even found macro life to study on the mooring rope during the ascent!

We then steamed into to a sheltered beach for lunch and a surface interval’

Alex amused himself shooting over and unders in the clear blue water, and persuading the entire entourage to leap into the water for photographs!

Dive 2 was a shark dive. Upon arriving at the site, the 4 or 5 blacktip (Carcharhinus melanopterus) and Caribbean reef sharks (Carcharhinus perezi)) were already circling the back of the boat. We had organized for AJ up on the boat to drop a bucket of fish over the back once we were all in place. Unbeknown to him, the boat was swinging on its mooring, so when he dropped the bait, it was too far away for us to get a great view. By the time we had moved in to it, the action had pretty much all happened.

There were still a few sharks circling however, with some passing quite close. Going on the stories that we are hearing from our fellow photographers elsewhere in the islands, this was not in the “major league” but judging by our fellow divers’ reactions, they really enjoyed the experience.

Alex has some fun shooting the sharks from the dive deck.

We then steamed back to port, whereupon Alex and I cajoled poor Pascal to take us out for a third dive. We headed back out to the picturesque reefs at Split Reef that I visited yesterday. Alex was shooting the plentiful macro subjects on the coral heads, while In was shooting wide angle images of him and the coral.

We got back to hotel at sunset and Alex was finally able to put his suitcases into his hotel room!

Alex is sat next to me as I write, and he comments that:

“We’re really away from it all down in Stella Maris, Long Island. We’re not just the only dive boat out on the water, we hardly saw another person today. Just a big, beautiful blue ocean to ourselves. There is a great vacation vibe here, super relaxed and lots of fun. I suspect it is a real contrast to the destinations that the other photographers are doing. It isn’t really photography focused diving here, but everyone on the boat had a fantastic day out, with lots of laughs and the experiences that live long in the memory once you’re back in the office. The dive trip was about much more than the dives, we ate lunch on board, pulled into a stunning beach, which was totally deserted. Paradise.”

Many thanks to our dive guides and boat crew from Stella Maris Water Sports(who held an impromptu Mr. Universe competition in our honor!)

Of interest to those with a technical mind, I was shooting my D800 with a Tokina 17mm wide-angle lens and a Zen 170mm dome port. Although the water and light here is suited to keeping my aperture at f8 and above, the corners seem pretty sharp!

The plan for tomorrow is to make a one and half hour boat trip out to Conception wall, which has been described as “one of the most dramatic and colorful walls in all of the archipelago. The wall begins in 45 to 60 feet of water, its entire length decorated with spectacular sponge and coral formations.” It does mean at 8am start so I had better go and get some sleep! More tomorrow.

1. Introduction.
2. Adam’s blog day 1.
3. Bahamas Photos by the photographers.
4. Adam’s blog day 2.
5. Press conference and kickoff.
6. Adam’s blog day 3.
7. Adam’s blog day 4.
8. Abi in Grand Bahama.