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Exumas Diving Expedition
The Aqua Cat offers 7-day liveaboard dive cruises from Nassau, Bahamas, to the Exuma Islands. A yacht-style catamaran fitted out with 11 en suite passenger cabins, the Aqua Cat has a spacious main salon and the accommodation is comparable to a good standard hotel. She is also equipped with kayaks and a 28 foot launch to take you to some of the area's stunning isolated beaches.
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| Details | | eWaterways | | | | Day | Destination | Description | | Day 1 | Nassau | Boarding begins at 18:00 on Saturday. Dinner is an informal barbecue on deck, followed by introductions and an orientation talk. The yacht stays in port overnight so you can enjoy the evening on board or out and about in Nassau and Paradise Island. The Aqua Cat sets out for the Exuma Islands at 04:00 on Sunday morning. | | Day 2 | Bahamas | Sunday is the first diving day in the Northern Exumas. The islands are wonderful for exploring underwater, with many caves and reefs for diving and snorkelling. You can do four day dives and a night dive each day. Many dive sites are frequented by Lemon, Caribbean Reef, and Nurse Sharks and a shark feed dive is usually offered during your trip. If you are not a certified scuba diver, the Aqua Cat can offer PADI diving courses, subject to prior request. | | Day 3 | Bahamas | The week's dive cruise offers a variety of dives - shark feeding dives, blue holes, high speed drift dives, walls and shallow patch reefs. Much of the northern Exumas is a National Underwater Park with no fishing, spearfishing or collecting allowed. Because of these laws there are miles and miles of undersea gardens. You can scuba dive remote walls, wrecks, and coral reefs with sharks. | | Day 4 | Bahamas | There's more to the cruise adventure than diving. The Aqua Cat has kayaks and a launch to take you ashore on the uninhabited islands of the Northern Exumas. You can see endangered iguanas on Allen's Cay. You can visit the headquarters of the Exumas Land and Sea Park on Warderick Wells Cay and hike to Boo Hoo Hill. A guided tour of the trails is available to observe the local plants and wildlife. Warderick Wells is usually the furthest southern point. Sometimes the cruise heads further south but this is a decision that has to be agreed upon by all passengers as it can mean missing a dive to travel to Staniel Cay. The Exumas are great for bird watching and are a nesting area for a range of seabirds including White-Tailed Tropicbirds, Audubon Shearwaters, Brown Noddies, and Bridled and Sooty Terns. Photographers will find underwater life in the Exumas some of the most prolific and varied of any coral reef in the world. The Aqua Cat is equipped with video editing gear and a photo light table. E-6 photo processing is available onboard. | | Day 5 | Bahamas | The Aqua Cat has 12 kayaks onboard. You can explore the creeks on Shroud Cay or Ship's Channel Cay or visit Pirate's Lair, so called because it's where pirates would hide to avoid capture some 200 years ago. The creeks of Shroud Cay great for snorkelling among the mangroves. Mangroves provide haven for marine nurseries for the juveniles of many fish species including gray snapper, barracuda and grunt. On the way to the beach at Saddleback Cay you'll almost certainly encounter stingrays that come up close to snorkelers expecting to be fed. | | Day 6 | Bahamas | The Aqua Cat heads back to Nassau after two dives, and usually arrives back in port at Paradise Island around 15:00. There is a captain's farewell cocktail party at 6 pm for guests and crew. Dinner is not included on Friday evening so many passengers make reservations and head off together to dine in town and enjoy the evening. | | Day 7 | Bahamas | Check out and disembark 09:00. |
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