Sometimes you just never know what you might end up doing whilst on holiday. Swimming with sharks was pretty far up there on my “not-gonna-happen list.” We booked a snorkeling excursion with Neal Watson’s Bimini SCUBA Center to the SS Sapona, a concrete-hulled cargo steamer sitting offshore. It ran aground in 1926 and now functions as an artificial reef and a popular dive/snorkel site.
Now, you would think that an excursion entitled Reef Shark Safari + Sapona Wreck Adventure would be a big clue. Nope, didn’t even occur to us that we would potentially be swimming among reef sharks.
This snorkeling excursion starts at the Sapona. We saw lots of fish, rays and a cute sea turtle.
The Sapona has the look of a haunted site. That makes it all the more cool in my opinion. The water was a bit rough while we were out, but we could still swim and snorkel throughout the wreck.
After snorkeling in and around the Sapona, we boarded the boat to the next stop at Triangle Rocks. This is the shark portion I mentioned earlier.
Plenty of instructions were given. We were required to hold onto that yellow line while in water, no sudden movements, no flapping of flippers, etc…etc…
Honestly, this was an incredibly peaceful experience. The sharks know you’re not a fish (i.e. “food”) from your heartbeat. They simply swam about minding their own business.
After everyone was out of the water, we treated the sharks to a chum buffet. This is where you don’t want to be anywhere near the water as there is quite the feeding frenzy.
… And now for the serene (and tasty) side of Bimini’s blue waters.
I may have had second thoughts about the safety of this particular toothy experience, but I’m pretty sure I would do it again in a heartbeat. How about you?
If You Go
- The Balearia fast cat is a popular form of transport to Bimini, which is about 58 miles off the coast from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It takes approximately two hours to get there.
- We stayed at Resorts World Bimini on North Bimini.
- The Bimini Big Game Club Resort and Marina is another on-island resort option. There really aren’t many hotels on North or South Bimini as the islands are quite small. North Bimini is about seven miles long and 700 feet wide. South Bimini is about four square miles in size.
- If you prefer to fly, there’s an airport in South Bimini (BIM) — from there, you would take a ferry to get to North Bimini.
- I highly recommend Edith’s Pizza for the best homemade Bimini bread pizza.
