Snorkeling in the Bahamas
     One of the highlights of this trip has been the variety of snorkeling adventures we have had in the various islands. We have found that snorkleling is very wind and weather dependent. We have developed an understanding of currents and locations in order to find the best spots. Each of the island chains have a series offshore reefs that protect them from the sometimes huge Atlantic swells. This is where one finds the most dramatic coral formations. Unfortunately in any type of ocean swell the waves break on these shallow spots. The best way to see them is on a calm day. We anchor in the lee of the island and take the dinghy through the cut out to the reef. They often have moorings set up so divers don't put anchors down into the coral. Then we jump off and swim around near the dinghy. I don't have a Go-Pro or underwater camera but yesterday it was so calm off No Name Cay that you could see the coral underwater.


Nico diving from the moored dingy. He wears his wet suit because even down here one can get cold swimming for a long time. He also wears a weight belt so he can get down and peer into caves, despite my warnings, at grouper and moray eels.


This particular reef had a heathy population of Elkhorn Coral  (the branched formation) and Sea Fans (the purple). Elkhorn has been suffering from disease and climate change. We saw examples of dead and broken Elkhorn in the Exuma Islands.


There were many examples of the spectacular circular Brain Coral.


The massive coral heads are surrounded by sandy patches which might have some small, isolated coral heads with feathery, bush like corals. Each coral head has its own resident fish. We watched a male Sargent Major fish defend his eggs from a school of neon blue fish swimming by. Once they passed he darted out and tried to intimidate me too. What did intimidate me were the barracuda who were aggressive and did not back off. They always looked in a bad mood and I often got out of the water when they came around despite reading that there have been relatively few attacks on swimmers.



Nico likes finding a wall with overhangs that he can dive down to inspect. In Abaco we saw three large Leopard Rays gliding slowly by the base of the wall.


The dark bands are the reefs with the best coral. This is off Great Guana Cay.


Not all dark patches are coral heads however. Many times we were fooled by patches of grass. Those environments had their own sights such as conch, whelks, sand dollars and worms.


Not all good snorkeling spots were off shore. This is Bell Rock on the eastern side of Cambridge Cay, Exuma. We snorkeled all around it and although it didn't have the colorful coral formations, we saw lots of fish.


Sometimes we dove right off the boat such as in the Berry Islands. We found four huge conch on this swim. Nico would also dive after anchoring to make sure the anchor had dug in securely. Sand was fine but sometimes it couldn't get in if there was grass or thin sand over rock.


My favorite spot was a little reef on the west side of Soldier Cay, The Berry Islands. It was calm with no current and I could drift, watching the fish and turtles. Although we saw plenty of Nurse Sharks and rays there were no scary shark encounters.


I borrowed Phoebe's scuba shirt which was a lifesaver from the relentless sun.