My favorite dive ( . . . so far) at Small Hope, Bahamas

With the third largest barrier reef in the world just minutes away from the Small Hope Bay Lodge dock, and being virtually the only dive operation on that reef, there are literally dozens of really, really great dives at my fingertips. I have been enjoying my time underwater at Small Hope for a little over two years now and have gotten to experience some truly amazing dives. I've done mind-blowing wall dives - the drop from the reef into the "Tongue of the Ocean", basically a 6,000 foot drop straight down, with little to no current, making some really awesome wall cruises. I've done coral garden and shark dives - one of my favorite sites, Brad's Mountain combines the two, beautiful coral growth with cracks and crevices, all flourishing with tons of different fish, and pretty much guaranteed sharks every time. I've been diving in the Blue Hole of Andros - both ocean and inland blue holes, I have gotten to experience the full cave dive of the Guardian, as well as the Ocean Blue Hole, an incredibly beautiful cavern dive.

Well, the coolest, most jaw-dropping, kick butt dive so far? 2nd Level of the Blue Hole (into Backside of the Blue Hole). This is one of the custom specialty dives Small Hope offers. We went to the Ocean Blue Hole and timed the dive perfectly with the tides (very important). This is a "live" blue hole, meaning fresh water is sucked through underground caves as the tide goes out. 

2nd Level - This is a deeper circuit around the blue hole dive than the typical blue hole dive we take most of our guests on (usually done at 100'). 2nd Level goes down to about 140' and also passes through a smaller "room", creating a cave-like atmosphere for the first part of the dive. At the beginning of the dive you pass over the rim of the hole and start descending in to the surrounding crevice. Down below, you see a triangular entry. This is the first "restriction" and even though it looks really little divers have no problem getting through. This takes you to the "room" which is quite dark and about 5' high, 8' wide and maybe 6' deep in size. At the back of the room there is a passage down and to the left which takes you through a tunnel that continues to widen until you can see the upper levels of the blue hole. Now it starts to become so incredibly gorgeous. Big skylights letting the turquoise blue stream down through massive boulders strategically placed. Great rock formations, including one we call E.T.'s head (because from the right angle, its shape is just like E.T.'s). And great dark chasms below, where the light will never reach. It is the most awe inspiring dive I've been on.

Backside of the Blue Hole - The Backside dive usually goes to about 70 feet deep and goes over the top of the sinkhole and out the back where all the ancient streams and riverbeds lie. We time the dive so the tides have pushed tons of fresh water through and formed a halocline where the fresh water below is green and significantly cooler, and the salt water above is blue and warm. If you catch the tides just right, the line between fresh and salt water will be so distinct, you could cut it with a knife. In addition to all this, sediment that gets pushed with the fresh water forms what we call "whale snot" and drapes over the coral and looks like Halloween cobweb decor. It also floats around making this dive completely other-worldly as well as a one-of-a-kind experience.

On this particular dive, we timed it just right and at the end of our circuit around the 2nd Level of the Blue Hole we came up in to the Backside of the Blue Hole and finished the dive cruising in and out of green and turquoise waters, playing with the "snot", spotted a reef shark, a giant Nassau grouper, an Atlantic spadefish. All in all, the best of both worlds - unbelievable deep cavern dive, followed by eeire and awesome backside dive. SO GREAT! I love my life! Pin It Now!

Jonathan Bird's Blue World Comes to SHBL

Jonathan Bird's Blue World is an Emmy Award winning underwater adventure series. Hosted by the charismatic underwater cinematographer Jonathan Bird, this show explores all areas of our world's oceans. Jonathan and his crew travel the globe filming marine animals small and large, from the tropical waters of the Caribbean to the frozen waters of Antarctica. Episodes focus not only on the marine life that live in these incredible places but also on marine research and the scientists involved, underwater exploration of ship wrecks and caves and shedding some light on the recent discoveries within the oceans. Jonathan Bird's Blue World is both educational and exciting and perfect for viewers of any age. The Oceanic Research Group is the principle partner in the production of the show along with Jonathan Bird Productions and the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation.  The Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation funds inspired scientific research and innovative educational programs to encourage conservation and practices for sustainable marine environments.


Back in 2010 Jonathan brought his team down to Small Hope Bay Lodge on Andros Island in the Bahamas to explore the underwater caves systems that exist within the many Blue Holes on the island. Jonathan, along with cameraman Tim and Mike Hornby of SHBL packed up their gear and headed for the Guardian, an inland Blue Hole with an extensive cave system.  Jonathan and Tim both had an incredible time filming in the cave and got some great footage for the first episode of their third season.



It has been nearly two years since the film crew has been here at the lodge but early in December they were back again and eager to start filming for their fourth season. This time Jonathan, Cameraman Tim and tech diver Todd came to Andros hoping to dive the incredible Stargate Blue Hole located on South Andros. This blue hole took the team through sulfur layers and past large stalactite and flow stone formations. It is a beautiful dive and no doubt gave the crew some amazing footage. We are all eager to watch Small Hope Bay Lodge on the episode which should air summer 2013. 

 All of us here on Andros Island would like to send out a big thanks to Jonathan and his team. It was great to have the Blue World crew back and we look forward to their next trip. Perhaps they will explore the Ocean Blue Hole next. 

Pin It Now!

Friends and Family

Small Hope Bay Honors Two Very Dear Friends

 Small Hope has been around since 1960. It was built by Dick Birch and the Birch family still owns and operates the resort. Family has always been a fundamental part of life at Small Hope. The Birch family has grown and grown since Dick first arrived on Andros. And it continues to grow to this day. This is because once you come to stay with us you are part of the family here. We are lucky to be a part of so many people’s lives. Like all families we have our share of good times and bad, but we go through these times together.

Small Hope Bay Lodge recently helped to remember and celebrate two very dear friends. 



The Laing’s have been coming to Small Hope for decades. Patrick Laing was a diver, a father and a good friend. His daughter Elizabeth has come to fulfill his final wish of being laid to rest with Small Hope in The Tongue of the Ocean. His ashes and plaque will be placed near Whip Wire Wall and we hope his spirit will roam the ocean forever. Watch Patrick's final dive here and see as he is laid to rest in the Tongue of the Ocean Memorial Dive

Jim Spencer was another good friend of ours. He and his wife Lynndale made us a part of their lives and shared many happy moments here at Small Hope throughout the years. His ashes and plaque will be laid to rest in the ocean Blue Hole, one of his favorite places in the world. His wife, children and grandchildren all came to Small Hope to celebrate his life and say goodbye.

All of us at Small Hope feel so proud and privileged to have been a part of such special moments. That these men loved Small Hope and our beautiful ocean so much that they have chosen to spend eternity with us says it all. We are moved and so thankful to have touched the lives of these families.

Pin It Now!

Stargate!!!

We have had several divers doing some Specialty dives lately. Last week one of our guests, along with Jeff and Divemaster Fede took the short flight down to one of our most spectacular dive sites . . . Stargate. Stargate is an inland blue hole only accessible by plane. The dive is 120 feet deep and is one of the most incredible dives you will ever do!

 

Pin It Now!

Learning how to Cave Dive...........

In October Small Hope dive masters Joe and Antonio were lucky enough to go to Abaco and learn how to dive in caves. Here is an account of how the training went from dive master Joe

Cave Training Day 1
01/10/2010

OK Antonio and I arrived on Abaco Island Friday afternoon and spent the evening in the classroom looking through the manual and watching the slide show. We are doing 4 courses Cavern Diver, Intro to Cave, Apprentice Cave Diver and Full Cave Diver. Our instructor Brian Kakuk who runs Bahamas Underground has been exploring and surveying the caves of the Bahamas for 20 years.

We started today by getting all our equipment together and running through some of the drills for laying lines, low visibility and gas management issues in the yard where questions were easy to ask...

Trying on all the gear



Antonio



Joe










We then went down to Mermaid reef a shallow 10’ dive to practice what we had learnt in the yard and get used to the new equipment setup. We spent over an hour doing line drills, practising buoyancy and doing out of air situations.
After lunch we did our first cavern dive at Dan’s Cave which was spectacular...

Cave Training Day 2

02/10/2010

Today has been a busy day we have done 3 dives in 3 different caves all staying inside the cavern zone. The first was at Magic Blue Hole which is an enormous cone with the top cut off the pool is about 30’ across but just below the surface it opens out to about 100’ and it is DEEP.

Magic Blue Hole

For the next dive we went back to Dan’s Cave Which is a MASSIVE Cavern but it is silty so you have to be careful with buoyancy and fining.





Brian showing us Dan's Cave



Then we did Reel Breaker which is one of the ocean blue holes as our last cavern dive. This one was flowing so hard you had to drag yourself along the bottom to get in but the ride on the way out was fun and the amount of lobsters in the cavern was staggering.

Once we got back to the shop we tidied up and then took the test.

Cave Training Day 3

03/10/2010

WOW started Intro to cave today and did 2 mind blowing dives in Dan’s cave. We are allowed to go past the STOP sign now and into the dark. WOW Check out this video I found of Dan’s Cave they go much further than us... We got to about their 03:40 mark http://vimeo.com/897430

Cave Training Day 4
04/10/2010

OK so today we have finished off intro to cave with two amazing dives the first was at Dan’s cave and the second at Ralph’s cave.We PASSED the exam so we are starting Apprentice Cave tomorrow. Yeah!!
http://vimeo.com/10402471

Cave Training Day 5
05/10/2010

Now its all starting to come together we did 2 dives at Dan,s Cave today the first was 120’ for 75mins and the second was 74’ for 104mins. We are allowed to go deeper and stay longer now and do some more complex navigation which opens up much more of the cave. Today we went to the Good Lands and the Bad Lands.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg_FIWUsd94&feature=player_embedded

Cave Training Day 6
06/10/2010

Two more dives out of the way today and we are done with apprentice cave. Tomorrow we are starting Full Cave which means that we will have to do more of the planning and navigation ourselves. Today we dived a new cave called Lost Reel it was darker and spookier than the others. There are the remains of crocodile skeletons and giant tortoise shells preserved in the oxygen free water it was a strange place. The second dive was back at Dan’s cave, here we did the second half of a circuit that we had set up the day before.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iFBKxvcHq4&feature=player_embedded

Cave Training Day 7
07/10/2010

Full Cave started today and we were back at Dan’s Cave for 2 dives. Now we are doing more complex navigation with multiple jumps and we are going deeper in to the cave system.

Cave Training Day 8 LAST DIVES
08/10/2010

We have done our last two dives for the course today and all has gone well. We dived at Dan’s cave this morning and Ralph’s Cave after lunch, both dives were spectacular and I am going to miss not diving in caves every day.
We have still got to take the final exam but we are going to do it tomorrow which gives us time to study up It is also good to have a night off book work.
Tomorrow Brian is going to take us on a special dive which we are excited about it will be much longer and more challenging than the dives we did for the course but there will be no skills to do which will be nice...

Fangorn Forest

09/10/2010

Today we have gone deep into Dan’s cave to an area called Fangorn Forest. It is about 2000’ into the cave and you have to drop down to 150’ for a bit so it is a long dive with some long deco stops on the way out. The dive was 120mins long and there was a lot of swimming to get there and back but it was amazing

http://vimeo.com/3528068

Small Hope has two more cave certified dive masters. So a big congratulations to Joe and Antonio. Pin It Now!