Bill's Bahama Trip

The Following is instructor Bill Straus's Log of his Trip to Cat Island Bahamas. I hope you enjoy it.

Cat Island Bahamas has some of the most diverse reef formations I have ever seen. Our first dive called Coral Gardens was from the beach a short ride from the resort. Max depth was 20 feet and it was a good place for novice divers to get their first experience. From there a short boat ride took us to Hammer Reef max depth of 59 ft. The diverse reef made for excellent exploration as there were plenty of nooks and crannies for creatures to hide.
The Resort owner Waldermar, we called him Val, knows every site inside and out so he was always pointing out stuff. Val is 70 yrs old and all he loves doing is diving. The rest of the dives Canyon, Elfie’s Point, The Blue Hole, and The Anchor, were all along different areas of the Island and all as good as the last. And even though we dove each site on 2 dives we never saw the same part of the reef until our exit, extraordinary! Depths ranged on every dive from reef tops around 40 feet to canyon swim-throughs that let you out on the wall around 100 ft. Greenwood Resort is the kind of small facility that will allow divers to make the decisions on the dives. Val set no time limits and we dove on our schedule not a set one. The dive boat can hold up to 8 divers, there are no bungie racks, so tanks laid on the deck but we never felt cramped, and entries are seated entries. Dinners were always appetizer soup salad fish entrée and desert. Breakfast had some fresh fruit, meats and cheese, cereal, and several menu items like Eggs, French Toast, or Pancakes. Lunch menu was basic sandwiches or burgers. The Bar was an honor bar so if you didn’t watch yourself the bar tab could outdo the cost of the entire trip. Whew, thank God I learned hangovers don’t mix with diving. Cat and Greenwood are exactly what the serious diver who wants peace in the evenings is looking for. Also as Greenwood is not a resort dominated by a lot of dive groups you can bank on Val and his staff being totally committed to your group. The Divemaster Pedro was on top of everything, and Tim, Val’s son was great, he put all my pictures and video on 3 copies of DVD for us to take home. Anna, Val’s wife, asked me the first day if there was any liquor I liked they didn’t have, I said yes Captain Morgan and the next day there were 2 bottles behind the bar. Sadly I could only finish one.
All there is left to say is “God I love this job”