50 Years All Around

Jo Ann came to visit Small Hope again this week and this is a woman who knows about longevity. She has been married to her husband for over 50 years! She took a break from the love of her life to spend some quality time underwater at SHBL. Jo Ann learned to dive in 1999 and loves coming to Small Hope because she can come here as a single diver and be taken care of. As Jo Ann liked to say, she come to "eat, sleep, and dive." She could do all three in style here on the bay!

International Flair at SHBL

Our first guest of the 50th Season at Small Hope Bay Lodge was Janine Rietdorf. Janine joined us all the way from Germany and Small Hope was one of the first stops on her three month whirlwind tour of the world. She used the relaxing atmosphere to recharge her batteries and prepare for all of her other stops in the US, South America and Australia. Janine took bike rides, went snorkeling and learned how to dive in one of our inland blue holes.

We also had a visitor from Norway, Jo. Jo stopped in for a couple of days to refresh himself after a conference in Florida. He spent time biking around the island, relaxing on the beach and did a refresher scuba diving course.

We had great fun with our international friends and hope to see them again soon!

Skeebo Goes Fishing

Skeebo was back fishing for a week in October with Steve and Mike from California.

They fished for 6 whole days in the Joulters and West Coast. The air temp was 90 degrees and sunny. They caught some 7-8 pound bonefish.

"You better believe it!"

Jander Family Returns

The Jander Family returned to Small Hope after a 15 year absence to celebrate Markus' 40th birthday. Markus and Philip came down first for Markus' surprise trip and the surprise got even bigger when the rest of his family showed up the next day!

Peter is a private pilot and he worked closely with Mike and Jeff at Small Hope to come up to date with the EPIS procedures and frequencies necessary to fly his small plane to the Bahamas. After he, his wife Susie, and his other son Jan arrived, they joined Markus and Philip in diving and relaxing at Small Hope. Philip even completed his Open Water Certification!

This is what Peter had to say about SHBL:

We spent another wonderful week at Small Hope Bay Lodge. As always the service was out of the world. The diving, in large part to the divemasters who will go out of their way to make the diving an unforgettable experience, was over the top. We very much enjoyed the food, three chefs who competed for our appreciation.

We hope that we can come back many more times as we have over the past 30 years.

The Stylings of Stan and Bob

We were lucky enough here at Small Hope Bay Lodge to have our 50th season kicked off with the presence of Bob and Stan. Buddies from Massachusetts, Stan and Bob travel all of the world for their annual dive vacations. They chose SHBL for their 25th (or was it 26th? We'll have to ask Bob's wife.) dive trip.

Not content to just dive, Stan and Bob took advantage of all that Small Hope had to offer. You could often see these two in the hot tub, or grabbing bikes to go see the island or heading off to Goat Cay in their kayaks. They were legendary hosts at the bar, teaching all the SHBL divemasters how to make the perfect Cosmo and entertaining and charming all the other guests.

The Lodge is definitely quieter now that they are gone but we hope that we get to see their smiling faces again soon!

We're almost ready for you!

We'll be opening for our 50th season on October 17th! We're working hard getting everything ready for a fantastic season!

Sonya's Praise

We recently received this email from Sonya, who visited us in July:

I was a solo diver with limited experience, looking for a nurturing dive environment where I could gain the practical knowledge and confidence I lacked. I decided on SHBL as part 2 of my dive vacation but did not sensibly plan how I would get there from my first destination, Aware of my dilemma, Jeff Birch, Very Graciiously offered to pick me up as my best other option would have been taking 2 planes approximately 8 hours apart.

Instead of showing my appreciation my first words to him were "where is the rest of the plane", when he showed up in the single engine cessna 182 pictured on the website. Wondering if it would be safer to swim to the lodge, I eventually boarded the plane and there began my relationship with the soothsayers of SHBL. Sometime after takeoff Jeff convinced me to open my eyes and something shifted at that moment. I don't know whether it was his calm demeanor or the the beautiful scene spread out below me, probably a bit of both, but my fear of flying in that "pint sized plane" was replaced by my gratitude for the sublime experience.

One by one, my fears were challenged. While diving, Ashley calmly and unhurriedly coaxed me through caverns that I had initially refused to enter. I set my depth goal at 90 feet and achieved 185. WOW!!! I dove with sharks, and the Back of the Blue Hole is an under water experience that I doubt I will ever surpass. But thats OK, as long as I get the chance to do it again.

I had a personal underwater guardian angel in Alex, always there when I needed him. And Danielle was the angel on land. I began my underwater photographic experience with the advice and guidance of Loren. "Thanks so much, Loren." Chef Renauldo went beyond expectations to accommodate the special requests of his guests. My inability to tolerate those weight belts was no problem for Amanda whose technological prowess had her whipping up an alternative in no time. Tonya is fun and spirited and Moose exhibits such calm and competence that I basically stuck to him like glue during my 185' dive. I hear Mike is "the man", but I didn't have the pleasure of diving with him. Looking forward to it in the future. Congrats to dive master Dennis, who I also look forward to diving with.

The guests are at least as lovely as the staff and interns. The British Padmores and the Mississippi McCalls really went out of their way to embrace a solo traveler and I look forward to seeing them again in the future. What great luck that there was another solo diver, Wes, that became my dive buddy for the rest of the trip.

When I compare my dive competence and level of comfort pre SHBL to post SHBL I can hardly believe it. These people are nothing less than bonafide Dive Whisperers!
I highly recommend Small Hope for a fantastic dive vacation and don't forget to bring your "extra baggage", I am sure you will leave a lot lighter. I did.

Thank you Jeff and the entire Small Hope Staff!

Sonya Preudhomme
@SHBL July 2009