On the heels of Hurricane Dennis and just a step ahead of Hurricane Floyd, your fearless publisher recently set sail for Bimini for a week long adventure aboard a dive boat. The trip was fantastic and Bahamas are beautiful -- but I'm not willing to trade my blue crabs for conch, so I'm glad to be home.

We set sail from Miami aboard Pirate's Lady at approximately 4 pm on Saturday 9/4 and arrived in Bimini at about 11 pm after a very smooth crossing. We headed south to Orange Cay and over the next 3 days worked our way back north diving locations such as Antler, Fantastic, Bull Run, North Turtle Rock, Piquet's Rock, the wreck Miami Rita, the wreck Sepona, and many other spots.

Highlights for the week, for me at least, would have been the large number of nurse and reef sharks and swimming in the open ocean with wild dolphins. We saw at least one or two sharks on almost every dive, and about 25-30 on the shark feeding dive at Bull Run. During one of our motors from one dive location to the next we came across a small group of 4 wild dolphins that seemed ready to play. We got to spend about 20-30 minutes snorkeling with them in the open ocean before they had enough and took off.

Our crew enjoyed fishing and we consistently trolled a couple of lines when feasible. We caught quite a few barracuda (used for chum on the shark dive), one mackerel, and a very nice 45 lb. yellowfin tuna. Wednesday night was port night in Bimini, Alicetown to be exact, where the "Compleat Angler" hotel and bar is located. This is the same location that served as Hemingway's home during the sportfishing hay-days in Bimini in the 30's and 40's. And they have the pictures on the walls to prove it!

The crossing back to Miami on Thursday night was a little rough, but I enjoyed it -- how many times do you get to cross the ocean in a 65 foot sailboat in the middle of the night in 8 to 10 foot seas?

It was quite the adventure.

This nurse shark was photographed while snorkeling a small reef between dives. It surfaced to investigate our snorkeling activities.

The dolpins got even closer than this, but I kept forgetting to wind the film in my camera.

This picture took some doing. I stayed below the waterline and held the camera above so I could get the picture at just the right time.

Tell me -- what do you do with a 45 lb. yellowfin tuna when you don't have a fish box and where he's going nuts on the deck is the same place you set up your dive gear? Of course, you pour a bottle of Bacardi 151 rum through his gills so you can clean him right away.

Pirate's Lady Capt. Nancy Mallet showing off her great catch -- a 45 lb. yellowfin on 30 lb. test stand up gear.