We just returned from Nassau, Bahamas after a week long trip in Arpil 2008 We did the Sub dive at Stuart Cove's.
There were a total of 8 folks being helped by 4 divers at a depth of 15 feet under sea. My husband and I took turns to go underneath since we needed one of us to stay on the boat and watch our kids.
Both my husband and I do not know how to swim. My husband had a wonderful time and the staff were very helpful the entire time he was underneath.
I had a mixed experience. When we went underneath, the first few had to wait until everyone was down. All 8 were then instructed to follow the divers who showed where to 'drive' the subs while underwater.
When I started the power on my 'sub' , I noticed the gas cylinder on my sub was showing about 10 minutes (normally it shows around 25 -30 minutes or more) and falling fast. Unfortunately no divers noticed me giving the hand signals to indicate I felt something was wrong and wanted to go up. The entire group started following the divers who were upfront. I turned my sub to follow them and the next thing I know, the power died on the sub. I was underwater with very little oxygen, no power to manuover and no one to notice I wasnt with the group. For a while, I was sure I was going to be unconcious if not dead in a few minutes.
After more than 7 minutes like that, with the oxygen tank completely stopping to pump any more after 4 minutes or so ( the bubbles stopped and my glass slowly started to fog up) , I saw a diver come towards me. I was so relieved. Next thing I know, there were 2 divers, changing the O2 tank, but since the sub would not move at all, they manually pushed it around the reef for me to see it. Needless to say even though I totally appreciated the divers help and effort to show me around, the place lost its charm for me. I couldnt wait to get back on the boat.
Of course, at all times, the guys on the boat know where the visitors are underground since there is a big 'bubble' like stucture floating on the water surface to indicate the exact location of each sub underwater so I probably wasnt in any real danger.
That said, out of 16 folks who went down, I was the only one who had this problem. My suggestion would be to check everything before you start going down to avoid something like this. Also, I wish the folks would come up with some kind of voice or light transmission method underwater to give some added sense of security to folks going down. Inspite of my strange exerpience, I would totally try this again in a couple of years or so after my initial shock has worn out.
Hope this helps. My intention is not to give a bad name to the guys there who actually were very very helpful but to give a true account of what happened.
