Getting There:

We (I) chose Spirit Airlines, flying out of Ft. Lauderdale.  It was
$200/ticket more to fly out of Orlando for the privilege of sitting for a
2.5 hour layover in Ft. Lauderdale.

I couldn't find a direct flight without stopping in Ft. Lauderdale or Miami
first.

We drove to Boynton and stayed at the family condo for the night, for a
fifteen minute ride to the airport the next day.

We got to Ft. Lauderdale Airport 2.5 hours early, and needed all of that
time to get to the gate.  The airport looks to be able to handle half of the
volume it has.  There was a line thirty yards long out the terminal door
just to get to the ticket counter lines.  We learned how lucky we are at OIA
for efficiency, and space.

I have flown Spirit for years with no problems, but ended up taking off and
hour late this time.  First delay was to catch a couple of bags from a
connecting flight...no problem.  All buttoned up, ramp retracted, ready to
push off from the gate.  Then they found a few "lost" passengers.  The pilot
said it should not effect our departure time more than ten minutes.  Most
airlines would have left.  We then waited for forty minutes in line while
fifteen planes ahead of us departed, intermixed with ten planes landing; all
on one runway.

Where We Stayed:

We (I) had chosen Cobalt Coast after reading some reviews years past, with
their location out near the north side (actually West Bay), and small size
of resort, and the good reviews of Divetech.  Their site is at:
http://www.cobaltcoast.com/

We loved Cobalt Coast.

I guess you could call it "Arie's Place".  Arie is the owner and proprietor
of Cobalt, and lives on the top floor of this 18 room resort.  Arie is there
to help with any needs that may arise, and is a wonderful host.  He
personally drove us over to Hell to mail some postcards, and say hello to
Mr. Farrington...dressed as the devil...what a hoot!  It doesn't get any
tackier than this!  Being from one of the biggest tourist destinations in
the world, I reveled in being a tourist for a change. This was mainly for
our twins to experience GC (gotta do the Turtle Farm, Georgetown, and visit
Hell at least once....besides the 100 + ft visibility GC has to offer).  The
Turtle Farm now costs $30, and the drop off in people going there is
dramatic, as Mr. Bush tells it.  No wonder; to go from $7 to $30 is a bit
steep.  The Turtle Farm is now part of a complex called Boatswains Bay, that
will include a water park... for $70, ouch!

Arie also arranged for Mr. Bush, who provides the airport transfer, to take
us to Georgetown, and then on to the Turtle Farm for a short
visit....without getting soaked for the steep cabfare and the full Turtle
Farm cost.  We were being quoted $47 dollars US...one way, from Georgetown
to Cobalt by the cabbies.  Mr. Bush also stopped at a liquor store for me to
pick up some spirits and beer (I would go broke sitting at a bar on GC).
The rooms have a refrigerator for the drinks.

This is also why we chose the full meal plan, since getting to somewhere to
eat was time consuming and expensive from Cobalt's location.  The food was
good, and it was nice eating oceanside...with sunsets as well, and for
$50/pp/per day for breakfast, lunch and dinner is cheap on GC.  It also
helped being able to get breakfast there, since the Divetech transportation
leaves at 8:00am for the boats, located at a marina on the North Sound.
They move the boats to the west side if the north side is too rough.

The Diving:

Divetech is a well run operation, although we realized how spoiled we had
become at Divi on the Brac.  All of the DM's were great, and after they get
used to your proficiency, you can dive your own profile without a guided
dive.  All of the DM's draw a rough topographical layout of each site before
you get in.  They have a dedicated camera tank on board, and are very
mindful of the camera equipment.

We dove the north side each day, and only one day was 2-3 ft seas, the rest
1-2 ft seas...pretty flat.  Visibility on all wall dives was in excess of
100 ft, and real pretty.  Water temperature was 82-84 F; perfect for my
t-shirt and shorts diving.

Cobalt does offer some great (so I'm told) shore diving.  Since we didn't
try it, I can't say for sure, but there were a lot of people doing shore
dives.

We did:

No Name Wall
Lemon Reef/Wall
Chinese Wall
Bears Paw reef
Stingray City
White Stroke Canyon
Leslie's Curl

Lemon Reef, and Leslie's Curl were nice in that one could cruise along the
top edge of the wall as a shallow dive at 60ft.

The two best walls were Chinese Wall, and White Stroke Canyon: absolutely
pristine.  White Stroke was a special request; I could see why.  Besides
going almost across the north sound to Rum Point to get there, the "canyon"
is a deep split in the wall, with sand at the bottom of the canyon, emptying
out on the wall somewhere near 90ft....I really was not paying attention to
my depth until getting out on the wall.  A great place for photography with
strawberry vase sponges as a foreground, with the deep blue of the abyss,
and sides of the canyon wall.  I hit 102ft on this one, but the DM's will
tell you 130 is your limit, and thus limiting your BT.  They do supply
Aladdin computers on all dives.  I found my old Cochran Captain differed by
about five feet on depth.

Okay,.... we HAD to do Stingray City with the kids.  One of those," you have
to do this once" things.  It turned out to be quite fun since we were not
mobbed by the rays, as was the case the last time we were there several
years ago.  What was so much fun was that we got to visit with, an play with
Psycho, the six foot green moray.  Poor Psycho is blind; its eyes are opaque
white, but it can sure smell when its dinner time.  It (don't know if its a
he, or she) came out, and the DM fed Psycho while everyone got a chance to
pet the moray, and get great pictures for those with cameras.  My kids
friends are going to think they are nuts with pictures of them petting
stingrays (after Steve Irwin's unfortunate demise) and moray eels....it was
great fun; a good time had by all:  Thanks to Arie and Cobalt Coast, and
Divetech.

George