Raise your hand if you’ve ever struggled putting on a wetsuit. When you try to slide the neoprene over your skin, it sticks and bunches, destroying any dive excitement you may have felt, little by little. Forget trying to put on a damp wetsuit, and never mind if you’re hot […]
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You may have heard your instructor or dive shop mention the PADI Advanced Open Water (AOW) Diver course. You may have even thought about enrolling in the course. But are you still wondering how the AOW course differs from the PADI Open Water Diver (OWD) course, and what new things […]
What’s the Difference between PADI Open Water Diver and Advanced Open Water? Read More »
Featured from Sport Diver Magazine: Small critters are cool, but we’re betting that most of us became divers to see the big stuff. If you signed up to see sharks, whales and mantas, check out Sport Diver Magazine’s incredible collection of the world’s 36 best big-animal encounters. BELUGA WHALES | WHITE […]
World’s Best Big Animal Dives Read More »
The humphead wrasse (Cheilinus undulates), commonly referred to as the Napoleon wrasse, Maori wrasse, or Napoleon fish, can be found hanging around coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific Oceans “from the Red Sea and the coast of East Africa to the central Pacific, south from Japan to New Caledonia”. Most people […]
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You’re tickled. As your dive party rounds the next bommie like clockwork, you have to wonder: Will there be lobsters?
The divemaster teased their appearance before entry, even before counting down to “dive!” — massive creatures weighing as much as 200 pounds. Lobsters have crawled around this gorgeous reef for more than 200 years; some of them could be just as ancient.
Granted by Jacques Cousteau, Lobster No Lobster’s 1970s namesake is its reputation; crustaceans and the seasonal lack thereof, at depths of 25 to 30 feet. From April to the end of July? No lobster luck. From August to March? Lobsters prowl.
You glide over polyps and fans dolloping a narrow little island beyond the dive. Each reef bank begets another in a circular daisy chain, sprouting like bonsai branches or flower petals. You dived off a boat’s mooring and backward in time, and you’re delighted.
Each turn has yielded bounties of flatworms, brilliant nudis and other mollusks — the usual Caribbean suspects — but no lobsters. Slack tide is drawing, and this is it: your last chance for a glimpse. You bank around the last curve, and the ocean erupts with underwater life. Yellow-headed jawfish whip up tiny sand clouds from the seafloor, and you bubble with laughter as several long, silvery fish dart toward you for a play date.
There are no claw-pinching giants. Instead, a kaleidoscopic fairyland has made this last bommie its home, giving you five or six dives’ worth of creatures to relish. A school of barracuda meanders by for a peek, but you’re not afraid — they have just as much right to this spectacle. And you remember that rock ‘n’ roll chestnut: You can’t always get what you want, but you just might find, you get what you need.
For more of Blackbeard’s Cruises best dive experiences, check out The Washing Machine’s Spin.
Visit blackbeard-cruises.com to learn more, check out current dive deals or contact Blackbeard’s Cruises today to book your next trip.
Aboard Blackbeard’s Cruises: Lobster No Lobster Read More »