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BASKING IN THE
BAHAMAS Continuing on with my tour of the world’s best dive sites, and my homes, we now land in the Bahamas, where l lived and worked for two years before being ‘blown’ off the island. By Maarten Hoffmann
After completing my Master Scuba Instructor training in Miami, the Bahamas was my first port of call. The plan was to dive the world before starting a diving resort development business, and Harbour Island in the Bahamas seemed like an excellent place to start. Known officially as the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, it is a country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies. Columbus was the first European to land there in 1492, followed by the Spanish who enslaved the population and then the Brits arrived from Bermuda in 1648. It became a British Crown Colony and gained independence in 1973. The Bahamas comprises 700 islands and over 2000 rocks and cays sprinkled over 100,000 square miles
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of ocean. They rightly boast the clearest water on the planet which is a prize for divers. The Bahamians are amongst the friendliest people l have met on my travels and the islands are sublime ‘Robinson Crusoe’ desert islands and the water is clear and warm – a divers paradise. I made my home on Harbour Island, part of the Eleuthera chain, in the northeast corner. With an elevation of barley a metre, it comprises pink sand beaches, secluded coves and, inland, endless pineapple fields. The architecture is very European as this was the first island the Brits landed on when they arrived making these islands the birthplace of the entire country. Here are just a few of the hundreds of great dive sites:
