M/V Shear Water - Tiger Beach (Bahamas)
The famous Tiger Beach – most divers have heard of it by now, shark-o-philes or not. It’s one of the best close-up shark encounters in the world, and even though there are never any guarantees in the natural world (especially not the ocean), you are pretty much guaranteed to swim with all the sharks you can handle at this otherwise unremarkable place. I have friends and colleagues who have come here via other charter boats as well as Jim Abernethy’s Shear Water, but I’ve been twice with the Shear Water and I very highly recommend his trips. Jim’s passion and knowledge are bar-none, and his very detailed 4-hour dive briefings keep everyone on the same page. Contrary to what media hype may have portrayed of the area and baited shark dives in general, I’ve found Jim’s dives to be some of the safest and best-organized of my entire dive travel ‘career’.
The biggest (and probably only) complaint you might hear of the Shear Water is its size; it’s a very small, very cramped boat. It is NOT what you might call “comfortable”, in the sense of larger luxury liveaboards, but let’s be very clear: you come to dive, eat & sleep. The group very quickly falls into a groove of sharing the cramped camera table and dining table, and there are small but usable cubby-hole shelves for cameras and batteries. There really isn’t room for lots of extra gear or large bags, and the best place to stretch out and relax is usually your military-like bunk. The dive deck is equally small and utilitarian, but serviceable for hanging out after dinner. You can also lounge on the bow, but there’s no furniture. I don’t see any this as a negative though – the boat is purpose-driven, the crew is efficient and professional, the food is tasty and varied, and the dives are awesome. So, a 3/5 for the rather Spartan accommodations, which could rub a more pampered diver the wrong way…?
The main site, “The” Tiger Beach, as it were, is a very broad, flat stretch of unremarkable sand, in about 20’ or so of water. You spend pretty much the whole of the day within a very small area in very shallow water, so divetimes can easily get up to 90 minutes or more. For this reason, I highly recommend a thicker wetsuit than you’d think for the temperatures (70’s in winter, 80’s in spring & summer), since you’re really just sitting around for hours at a time. You must have full coverage as well – no large patches of exposed skin, and no bright color dive gear – so the gloves, boots and hood you’ll need will help keep you warm throughout the day. (I wore a 7mil jumpsuit, 5mil boots, canvas “tropical” gloves, and a 1mil hood = not what you think of when you hear “Bahamas”!) Enriched Nitrox is available, and highly recommended; while you’re well within no-deco limits, you will be down there for a long time, even on the night dives. (– Oh, and don’t skip the night dives!)
So what’s the attraction? Sharks. Lots of ‘em. Easily a couple dozen lemons at any time, sometimes many more, and anywhere from a couple to more than a dozen (!) tiger sharks. Occasionally there might even be a passing bull or Caribbean reefie, but the big, awesome, gorgeous tigers are the stars. Most of them are regulars – what Jim calls “Supermodels”, since they slowly cruise the ‘runway’ all day long and even seem to deliberately pose for photos and videos. While most sharks quickly tire of divers and swim off, the Supermodels will hang out for hours upon hours.
For the shorter trips all you might see is Tiger Beach itself, but for the longer trips you get to dive several deeper sites. We spent one day at a 90’ bottom looking for bull sharks, and another day at a 60-70’-deep reef system with scores of Caribbean reefies and lemons. Great hammerheads may show up as well, but this is very rare outside the winter months, and they’re very skittish around so many other species. Also, on our first day, we did a baby turtle release while close to port – Jim has some arrangement with the local scientists/research center/etc. where they let him release many of their hatchlings into the ocean, and this provides photographers with a great opportunity for some rare shots.
I rated “marine life” a four, because you don’t really come here to see anything but sharks, so I would almost rate it a two for variety – but I absolutely love sharks and this is an unmatched place to swim with them, so it’s back up to a four.
Overall, please don't be fooled by the less than perfect rating scores - this is a great trip to do if you like sharks at all, and Jim Abernethy is one of the very best in the business.
