News for Ocean Fox Cotton Bay - Spring 2012

"Eleuthera it's not for everybody" as the saying goes is true, but we have had more clients who came to Eleuthera to dive and fish exactly for that reason. They continue to talk about the beautiful beaches with almost no one on them, love the quite life style, and are amazed at the clarity of the water. Quoting writer Tarra Gaines, writing for Culturemap Houston in the Houston/Austin Texas area, "The only real challenge would be to look for an ugly or populous beach." Well said.

Now we have a saying that speaks to the quality of diving we offer on South Eleuthera, "Ocean Fox Cotton Bay diving………….anything else is just a surface interval." We have been working diligently to provide even more outstanding dive opportunities on South Eleuthera and over to Little San Salvador.

The diving continues to be spectacular; we are finding new Wall Dives, Bridge Drift Dives and Reefs, from Bamboo Point to Little San Salvador. The Little San Salvador trip is an all day, 3 tank dive, with a boat ride of 22 miles each way; which means the weather has to be cooperating to make the trek. But the coral on the reefs is absolutely clean; the fish appear to have never seen divers, along with the occasional turtle. We typically do two wall dives, one of which includes a Pinnacle with swim through, with a Bridge Drift Dive or Boiling Hole Dive on the return trip.

Bridge Drift Dives on the bridge between SE Eleuthera and Little San Salvador are becoming a favorite dive when the weather cooperates, summer offers more opportunities whereas winter weather can be challenging. Typically we do free descents in water depths ranging from 35-60', drift or swim at a leisurely pace and explore hills and valleys with vertical relief of 20-25', with experienced divers having dives lasting 35-45 minutes. The marine life and species are different from the wall dives and to a lesser extent the Pinnacle Reefs, visibility is never less than 100' and most of the time the visibility is "clearer than pool water".

Our latest addition is the Exploration Wall Dive, for those experienced divers who want the ultimate diving experience. There are literally miles of walls, which have not been explored, which we from time to time will dive in search of new dive sites. You will do a free descent from an unanchored boat in 50-75' of water, and swim along the wall in search of potential new dive sites. We deploy a reel with a surface buoy for the dive boat to follow and use that to signal the dive boat when we are ascending. We do the three minute safety stop without a line or mooring, so buoyancy control is paramount. If on the first dive we locate a potential new dive site, we return on the second or third tank of air to "map" the new dive site. If no potential dive site is located on dive one, on dive two we continue our exploration along the wall. In Early April 2012 we added two new dives, "The Canyon of Anchors" and "Rich's Canyon" (see blog for pictures), both of which we discovered on an exploration dive day. We then returned the following day to map out the sites. We ask the divers on the exploration dive to assist in naming the new site.

Fishing has been great, catching good Dolphin, Wahoo and Black Fin Tuna, along with an occasional Blue or White Marlin. We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the 40-60 pound Yellow Fin Tuna, a summer treat. We have been surprised by the number of divers who want to dive in the morning and deep sea fish in the afternoon, or do a day of diving and a day of fishing. What a great combination for those who enjoy both fishing and diving.
So far this late winter/spring we have done two fishing tournaments, one three-boat and one two-boat tournament. The first was for Max who was celebrating his birthday; we took Max and 17 of his close friends out for a half day of fishing. The second was for a bachelor party for Beau, who got married the following day in Rainbow Bay; two boats full of guys who underestimated how much beer they could drink (next time bring more beer). Details are on the blog site under the March 2012 folder. Both groups went home with lots of freshly filleted fish, and had great dinners.

Thanks to everyone who has gone diving and fishing with Ocean Fox Cotton Bay. We are on Facebook; have a blog site www.overthewalldiving.com which will post blogs directly to Facebook (see blog site tag on home page). We post diving, deep sea fishing, fishing tournaments, snorkeling and beach combing outing updates regularly. Thanks to those who have been impressed with our diving or fishing and have taken the time to do some very nice write-ups on Trip Advisor. Al is now a PADI dive instructor, so a great way to get certified is to do your classroom and pool work at home and come dive with us for your four (4) open water dives and get certified where the water is crystal clear and you have something really nice to look at while doing the fin pivot or hovering skills demonstration.

If you are coming this way and need some help with where to stay, how to get around, where to eat and so forth, please contact us. Enjoy the summer and we hope to see you soon!