Conception Island is a small uninhabited island in the Bahamas that is designated completely as a National Park. It is absolutely gorgeous, renowned for its wildlife both above and below water. It is truly a piece of paradise and we had the entire island to ourselves for three days!
Questioning our decision
The forecast has been calling for 25-30 knot winds out of the northeast. We have spoken with a few different boats, discussing plans of where and how to wait out the blow. Initially, we were thinking we might head back to a marina around Georgetown like our friends aboard S/V Dorothy Rose. The Thompson Bay anchorage on Long Island looked well protected from the northeast, though, so that became our second plan. While actually in Thompson Bay, we notice the forecast has lightened a bit with winds not predicted much above 20-25. We speak with two couples on a trawler who indicated Thompson Bay would be a great place to wait out the blow and exactly what they are doing.
We think about it and decide this could be our chance to check out one additional island in the Bahamas; we’re headed for Conception! It’s only 15 miles or so from the northeast corner of Long Island – back by one of our favorite spots, Calabash Bay. Unfortunately, it’s 40-some miles from where we are at Thompson’s Bay. We get a reasonably early start, promising we will continue to evaluate the weather and stop at Calabash Bay instead if needed. We are headed dead straight into the wind, per usual, which hurts our speed a bit and means we have to strictly motor. The first 20 miles are easy as the island is providing quite a bit of protection from the waves. As we round the tip of Long Island, the real waves start to hit us. It’s quite rough with winds 20-25 knots on our nose and large swells reaching 8-10 feet. We know our boat can handle it, though – it’s only my stomach that may not be able to.
As we get within 10 miles of Conception, we start to notice our speed dropping even lower to 5-6 miles per hour. The wind is against us and the big waves are slowing us down, but that seems really slow. Until it drops even lower. For quite some time, we motor along at a mere 3-4 miles per hour. I’m starting to have crazy thoughts like maybe we lost a prop. Between the dread of something being wrong and the drop in my stomach from sliding down a large wave every so often – I’m struggling bad. We finally do make it though, and are excited when we locate 4 different dive moorings which we plan to check out the next day.
As we are pulling up to our anchorage, we notice some nasty storm clouds nearby. We are anxious to get anchored before the rain begins, but we don’t make it. It starts just absolutely pouring. We can’t see much, so I’m glad that it’s a large, sandy anchorage. I put on my wet suit jacket and head up front to drop the anchor. For once, Monster decides not to help me – go figure. The wet suit jacket is an amazing trick though – I stay almost completely dry and quite warm underneath of it. So much better than a rain jacket.
Bottom cleaning
We put new bottom paint on our boat in February when we had it hauled out in Fort Pierce. The idea was that we would use our hookah dive system to clean the bottom of the boat every month, but then life and repairs got in the way. We haven’t done a single bottom cleaning – yikes! Fortunately, the bottom doesn’t even look all that bad – likely because we’ve stayed moving so much and not spent much time in mucky water or marinas. It’s much overdo, though, and we decide that this large, private, and shallow anchorage would be a great spot.
Tangent: It is important that we keep good bottom paint on the hull of our boat. This helps protect it from barnacles and other growth – which in turn, improves the boat’s speed and performance. There are two types of paint used to paint the bottom of boats: ablative and hard. We have ablative paint on ours, which means that the layers of paint slowly wear away taking the growth with them and exposing new paint. Moving through the water can largely allow for the paint to slowly shed away, but a bottom cleaning helps and makes sure to get rid of any hard barnacles – especially on and around the props. Bottom paint typically needs to be re-done every 1-3 years, which requires hauling the boat out of the water and costs a couple thousand dollars. We definitely want to take as good care of our paint as possible!
We start up the Brownie, put on our dive hoods (to protect our ears from nasty parasites and such – a glamorous life, I know), and jump in the water. We each have a soft 3M sponge that was recommended to us by the diver who previously cleaned the boat. It’s pretty quick to actually clean the growth off, but there’s just so much boat hull to cover. It’s taking longer than we initially thought it might, but luckily we’re getting some visitors to keep us company.
First to visit is a Caribbean reef shark – a nice change to the usual nurse sharks we see hanging around anchorages. As if the sharks can hear my thoughts, next to visit is a large nurse shark. It sneaks up underneath Matt as he is cleaning at the bow. When I finally get his attention and he spots the shark next to him, he seems a bit startled. I think he’s glad it’s the nurse shark and not the previous reef shark. At this point, I’m starting to wonder if I should have brought the GoPro with me. Shortly after, I know I should have! Another larger shark swims up underneath of us. He’s surrounded by a small school of fish, and although he looks a bit similar to a nurse shark, I instantly know (or am 85% sure) that this is a lemon shark. We have never spotted a lemon shark before this moment!
Matt looks at me inquisitively as if asking what type of shark it is. I give him an “L” in sign language to indicate it’s a lemon shark, but my message doesn’t get through. We pop up a couple feet to the surface to exchange a few words and conclude that I should try to get the GoPro in case the shark sticks around. I run inside, making a huge mess, and get the GoPro together. When I hop back in the water, the shark is still there and we are able to get some awesome shots. Eventually, we realize that this visitor isn’t leaving anytime soon, but we need to get back to our task at hand. We finish cleaning the boat, keeping a close eye on our friend.
Three sharks of three different species within an hour period while cleaning our boat in clear 8 foot deep water – definitely a win.
A perfect beach
This bay truly has a perfect beach. It’s white and soft, but not too soft that you sink into it and have to march instead of walk. It’s perfect – and we have it all to ourselves. It must be a mile or so in length, and Monster is absolutely loving running up and down it. We enjoy watching her run while taking in the serenity of this wonderful place. Above us are a steady stream of graceful birds with the longest tails you’ve ever seen. We know that Conception acts as a protected sanctuary for numerous types of birds, many of which are endangered. This isolated piece of paradise unfortunately does not have cell service, so there’s no Google to help us determine what type of birds these are. They sure are pretty, though. Later, we are able to determine they are “long tailed tropic birds.” So basically we knew their name all along!
One day we decide to swim into shore rather than take the dinghy. Per usual, Monster is less impressed, but still game since she knows she’ll soon be running on the beach. After our long walk, as we are swimming back to the boat, I spot a perfect, completely exposed sand dollar. I’m so excited as I dive down to get it. Matt is a ways ahead of me at this point, so I wait to surprise him back on the boat. This is our first (non-living) sand dollar that we’ve found since beginning this journey. We did find dozens of living sand dollars in shallow sand bars of the Exumas a couple weeks ago. Given that Conception Island is a National Park, I’m guessing I’m not technically supposed to take the sand dollar (shh… don’t tell).
Playing with dolphins
That’s right – we don’t just spot dolphins this time, we swim and play with them! It’s a moment like this that makes everything feel worth it.
Before finding the dolphins, we were planning to get some hookah dives in at the dive site moorings we spotted the other day. The wind and waves are quite strong which make for an interesting time trying to get tied up to a mooring. We choose one in shallower depths and finally manage to get securely tied. We hop in the water to snorkel first, checking out the landscape and if there’s any current. What we see is – well, nothing really. Where is the reef? We kick around for a bit, but with little reef to be seen and large waves bouncing us around, I’m not impressed. I also left Monster outside on the boat and it’s rocking so much that I’m getting worried about her. AND there’s dark storm clouds in the distance. I love to snorkel. I love to dive even more. I’m getting a little freaked out, though – there’s just too many “not ideal” factors. We climb back on to the boat and decide to call diving for the day a fail.
As we are motoring back to our anchorage, Matt spots dolphins! We’re extremely excited and since I’m still wearing my wet suit, Matt suggests I grab a mask and fins and hop in. I contemplate for half a second before rushing around to get in the water as quick as possible before the dolphins leave. I do a classic long stride off the back and spot a dolphin underneath of me the second before I hit the water. I panic a bit, especially since now there are bubbles blocking any view around me from my jump. Dolphins are supposed to be nice, though – right? I start swimming towards the starboard side of the boat per Matt’s excited instructions. Within a second or two, my panic subsides and I’m thrilled to see three dolphins swimming right towards me! There are so close, I feel like I could probably touch them. After a quick day dream about being a Disney princess who is able to speak to dolphins and get a ride on their dorsal fin, I’m back to reality and making sure to capture as much as possible with the GoPro. There are five dolphins swimming around me – my favorite of which is spotted (so cute!).
After what I think is around 10 minutes, I yell at Matt to get his fins on as I swim back to the boat. I want to change places so that he can hopefully enjoy swimming with the dolphins as well. We do exactly that and within seconds he’s in the water. The dolphins continue to swim around him and our boat. From above the surface I can see that they are having a lot of fun “surfing” the waves around us. I also spot on THREE separate occasions, a dolphin jump and/or flip 100% out of the water. Absolutely incredible – and once I even caught it on my iPhone (pretty proud of myself!). I try to get as much video above water as I can while spotting and directing Matt where the dolphins are headed. He’s hard at work diving under the water, getting videos.
This entire time, we have our engines in idle and are just floating where the wind takes us. We started in 20 feet of water, which is why we felt comfortable with one person getting in while the other kept a general eye on our boat and surroundings. By the time Matt decided to get back on board (as strong current was picking up), we were in 70 feet of water and then 250 feet of water. No wonder his visibility seemed to be getting worse. We slowly motor back over to the 20 foot depths where we initially spotted the dolphins. They follow us and I get back in the water one more time. The current definitely seems to have picked up though. I am having trouble staying close to the boat and then even holding onto a rope Matt throws to me. Feeling blessed enough, I climb back on-board to exchange stories with Matt.
It’s so obvious that the dolphins are playing and having an absolute blast. We debate whether they are showing off FOR us or USING us to show off to each other. Either way – I’ll take it! As we start motoring back to our anchorage, we quickly realize the dolphins aren’t done showing off just yet. They begin “racing” the boat, swimming along the sides and right in front of our bow. They flip over, swimming on their backs and then dive down under the boat, only to circle and race back to the front. We’re going about 5 miles per hour, which is a leisurely pace for these guys. Matt drives as I stand on the trampoline, laughing like a little kid yelling to him everything their doing. Luckily, I also got some video! About this time, some more storms start coming in. Once again, we are anchoring in a crazy downpour, but we don’t even mind.
Check out my favorite video we’ve ever made below!
Eventually the dolphins leave us. Although, that makes me a bit sad – how can I complain? We just spent over half an hour, literally playing with and admiring wild dolphins up close! Google later tells us that this was a small pod of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins. Apparently only one of the dolphins is mature enough to have developed its spots yet. So we’ve seen a new type of shark and a new type of dolphin in one day – wow. A few minutes after the dolphins leave, we look out in the distance to see a rainbow. As if this day needs to get any better.
Snorkeling
We have heard that there is some decent snorkeling in the area just off of the anchorage. We put Monster’s life jacket on and set out in our dinghy in search of the reef. **That last sentence probably best sums up how we spend most of our time!** Anyways, we have a few disappointing tries, but eventually we do actually find some really nice reef. Much of the area seems to have been exposed to bleaching, but there’s one (fairly large) section that has pretty, large coral heads in around 20 feet of water. There is a bit of a current, so we slowly drift along dragging Monster and the dinghy behind us. Although we don’t spot anything large or especially unique, it still turns out to be a really nice snorkel.
Feeling emboldened, we decide to head back to the dive site moorings to try again. The sun is out and the waves are a bit calmer, making all the difference. We tie up to the other shallower mooring and hop in. Once again, I think where is the reef? There’s another mooring ball a couple hundred feet behind us in deeper water. We decide to swim over to it, just to see. We know that it’s in deeper water and likely marking the wall. Conception is supposed to have gorgeous, deep wall diving. We see that it is indeed a wall – and it does look gorgeous. We stare down at the wall longingly for a while, wondering if there’s any way we can confidently and safely dive it. Ultimately, we decide no. The wall starts in 60-70 feet of water. Although our hookah reaches 60 feet or so, we agreed that we would try to only use it for shallower dives. We have full dive gear and tanks on-board too, so we could do a regular dive. Given that we know we’d want to be at 80+ feet depth along the wall, and we’re the only people at the entire island – we also give that a pass.
I’m disappointed, but I know that we’re being smart and extra cautious. Next year, I’m going to try to find dive buddies to do a wall dive here with us (so reach out if you’re interested!). While just floating on the surface at the wall, we still manage to spot a shark and a sting ray go by below – that’s at least a consolation.
We swim back to the boat, secure everything and start on our short journey back to Calabash Bay on Long Island. This time, the wind, waves, and current are behind us and we are flying at 9 miles per hour. That’s more my speed.
Conception is definitely on the list of must visit places for next year! I’m so, so happy that we decided to push through the waves and wind to visit.
