By Brandi Mueller
I was a little worried my gear might be mad at me for leaving it abandoned in the basement for so long or perhaps I would have forgotten how to use it after almost nine months of being dry. But luckily, my beloved Ikelite and Nikon D850 set-up seemed just as excited to be back underwater as I was. After watching news of some countries opening for tourists and researching Covid travel requirements, including how the few dive operations that were opening were handling things, I decided to pack my gear and head back to the Bahamas. The trip was a reasonably short flight, and between the Bahama’s government requirements for entry and the new protocols occurring on the All Star Liveaboards boats, the safety measures that had been implemented made me feel more comfortable.
Who doesn't love a camera table full of gear? Especially after so many months of storage! • Photo © 2020 Brandi Mueller
Basslets tend to flitter around the reef like hummingbirds and they can be challenging to capture. I spent a good part of a dive taking photos of this one, trying to get it to look at me as I snapped the shutter. • Nikon D850 • ISO 250 • f/7.1 • 1/125 • Photo © 2020 Brandi Mueller
Entry Procedures
Getting permission to enter the Bahamas takes a bit of work, but the lovely people at All Star Liveaboards helped me navigate the process.
Bahamas requirements at the time of writing include:
- Negative Covid test taken no more than five days before your flight arrival in the Bahamas. I found a laboratory that would overnight a kit to my house, allowing me to test myself and overnight the sample back to them, results came via email within 24-48 hours.
- Bahamas Health Visa. This was an online process where I had to upload my negative test results, give information of my current health (no coughing, recent exposure, etc), and give information of where I would be staying during my time in the Bahamas.
- Current fee for the Health Visa is $60 and it also includes a sort of Covid Health Insurance that would cover some costs of quarantine, health care, and emergency return home, if necessary.
- After being in the Bahamas for five days, a second Covid test was required. The cost was covered in the health visa and because we were at sea until day 6, a nurse came to the boat when we got back to the dock to administer the tests and the results were emailed to us in less than two hours. This test currently meets requirements for returning to the USA.
A flamingo tongue on a sea fan shot during a night dive. • Nikon D850 • ISO 250 • f/16 • 1/200 • Photo © 2020 Brandi Mueller
The sun was about to set when we were diving the remains of this airplane with a history of drug smuggling and I like converting wreck photos to black and white to make them look a bit historical and mysterious. • Nikon D850 • ISO 250 • f/9 • 1/125 • Photo © 2020 Brandi Mueller
Flying was relatively painless, masks are required, but we are all pretty used to that by now. Arriving in the Bahamas they did a temperature check and asked us again if we had any symptoms, they scanned our health visas and then we were free to go.
It felt incredible to be traveling again and I couldn’t wait to get back in the water. I decided to stay two weeks because of the extra work to get there, so I spent one week on Blackbeard’s Cruises Sea Explorer sailboat and the second week on the Aqua Cat. We dived around the Exumas and Eleuthera doing a variety of dives including shallow reefs and wall dives; a few wreck dives; drift dives, shark dives and even a visit to a blue hole.
This turtle is a bit of a resident at the Lost Blue Hole and we found him sitting on a ledge around 70ft. I cannot get over how much their face’s look prehistoric. • Nikon D850 • ISO 250 • f/13 • 1/125 • Photo © 2020 Brandi Mueller
After a shark dive the sun was getting low in the sky and a few sharks hung out at the surface just as I was about to get out of the water. • Nikon D850 • ISO 250 • f/14 • 1/160 • Photo © 2020 Brandi Mueller
I love watching cleaning behaviors and this grouper was getting a dental treatment. He was positioned at the edge of a coral, allowing me to photograph from the side with nothing behind, helping to achieve a black background. • Nikon D850 • ISO 200 • f/16 • ISO 200 • Photo © 2020 Brandi Mueller
My camera got a work out as I snapped images of sharks, turtles, parrotfish being cleaned, airplane wrecks and a lot of macro. I even got my drone up into the air a few days when the wind was light.
Being on the surface was almost as good as being underwater with the excellent service All Star Liveaboards provides. Topside the amazing crew took care of everything from start to finish from helping us prepare for the dives, helping with fins and cameras, guiding dives, taking people fishing, on-shore excursions, keeping the rooms spotless, making fantastic meals, and always being around with a smile (or at least I’m pretty sure they smiled behind their masks) and ready to help.
A diver gets ready to descend into the Lost Blue Hole. Visibility was great that dive and I was able to be back far enough with my fisheye lens to get the whole blue hole in the shot. • Nikon D850 • ISO 250 • f/9 • 1/160 • Photo © 2020 Brandi Mueller
Zen Master Trunkfish - I can't even explain how this really happened. I was swimming along a shallow reef and saw this smooth trunkfish and he turned and swam right into my port. I think it may have been trying to scare away it’s refection in my port. I wasn't sure if I even got a shot until I got back to the boat to check. • Nikon D850 • ISO 250 • f/16 • 1/200 • Photo © 2020 Brandi Mueller
Ambassador Brandi Mueller has been nursing an addiction to WWII wrecks for years now. She fulfilled her childhood dream of becoming a Marine Biologist, then set off to travel the world exploring and teaching underwater photography. She published The Airplane Graveyard in 2018 documenting the history of wrecks photographed during her years in Kwajalein Atoll. She moved on to captain the MV Truk Odyssey in 2019 and we're never quite sure where she'll turn up next. Read more...
Additional Reading
The Airplane Graveyard by Brandi Mueller
Covid-19 Check-In | Ambassadors, Part 4
Scuba Diving St. Croix in the Age of Covid
Protecting the Natural Resources of the Bahamas with Bahamas Girl
