Dive Report James Bond Dive Nassau

My wife and I vacationed to Paradise Island Nassau and stayed at the Riu,
next to Atlantis. The weather was hot and sticky and twice tropical storms
came up late in the day, lasted about an hour, and made things hotter and
stickier. This was our third trip here and we stayed twice at the Sheraton,
now the Riu. The lobby has been redone, but the rooms were the same. The
biggest change was the all inclusive meal plan and we really enjoyed this.
All told, the flight, meals, and motel were cheaper than the Atlantis and we
ended up walking in and around Atlantis everyday anyway. I suppose if I had
kids, I would lean towards Atlantis as it is almost its own theme park and
always something for the kids to see and do.

Tuesday June 28, I was picked up by the Stuart Cove's bus and taken to their
dive operations. They treated me well and had excellent customer service
from pick-up to drop-off. I rented some equipment, boarded the dive boat,
Phoenicia, and the trip began. The sea was rough and we were told by the
dive master to take our sea sick medicine before we got started. Our first
dive was the Rock Wall, a reef that starts about 35 feet down and drops to
6500 feet. Our instructions were 35 minute dive time, don't go below 85
feet, and mandatory decompression stop at 15 feet for 3 minutes. I have a
Sony DCR-TR33 Handicam video camcorder. Last year for my Cayman Island
dives, I found Paul's homemade underwater housing on Google, downloaded the
blueprints, and had the housing made at an acrylic plastic fabricator, with
a few of my own modifications. I videoed the entire dive and finished
editing it last night.

You may want to consider going to video as I find my family and friends are
interested in watching and talking about my dives as they can, somewhat,
experience them with me through the video rather than just verbally
describing my thoughts and feelings. Plus too, my videos from last year
kept me going throughout the winter as I watched them probably four of five
times. Anyway, there was lots of coral reef life to film and that is pretty
much the content of the first video.

For the second dive, we dove the James Bond Dive, which is what I was hoping
for. I was swimming down to the bottom in about 40 feet of water, didn't
see much over than some rocks, corral, and sand, when something started
appearing in front of us, and this is the way it appeared on the video.
First, I thought it was a coral mount rising off the bottom, but the more I
kept going, the bow of the Tears of Allah wreck rose up. It reminded me of
Ballard's movies of the Titanic. This was my first wreck dive and I was
really excited. I videoed it from every angle, peered into the hole and
holds, but did not go in. Sadly, I did not see the movie, Never Say Never
(?), so I had no movie angle shots, but it is a famous wreck and I was glad
to dive it. After a time, we swam to the left of it and there was the tarp
covering framework of the Vulcan Bomber of Thunderball. I had seen
Thunderball many time so I got angle shots that I remembered from the movie.
Around the far end of it, a big happy faced dolphin swam past us and I got
it on video, too. Wow. After he swam on, me and my dive partner looked at
each other and through his mask I could tell that he had the same expression
of joy and wonderment that I had. I will be starting the editing on this
video next, but my wife and son really enjoyed just looking at the raw
footage. I'm telling you people again, you need to get into underwater
video so people can see what you experience and talk about.

More, about Bond, James Bond. The last day I visited the British Colonial
Hilton and the desk clerk, Chrissie, was nice enough to take a few minutes
to tell me about the Bond movie films that were shot there and around the
vicinity. She even took me up to the James Bond room on the fourth floor.
There was a plague on the door "Double O Seven". Inside, there was Bond
memorabilia and all the movie posters on the walls. She even showed me the
Bond bedroom with an enormous king bed. I have never been in a presidential
suite, but I bet they look like this. Chrissie said, "Maybe your next trip
here, you and your wife will stay here with us." Good public relations move
on her part to show me the Room, as maybe we will. Again, I photographed
and video taped our conversation and the room.

In all, just a wonderful experience and I can't wait to go back again. This
is truly our favorite vacation spot.