I'm just back from the Bahamas (Freeport) and the trip and the diving were wonderful! Flight: Grand Bahamas Vacations, Cinci/Freeport direct flight (2 hours), 4 nites in the Royal Oasis Resort (formerly Bahamia, formerly Princess).  Cost per person, $359 + $61 fees and taxes for $420.00 pp. Accommodations: The newly named Royal Oasis is actually the Country Club at the casino resort.  Nice room, two double beds, good A/C, refrigerator, iron/ironing board, hair dryer and coffee maker included.  TV with cable (important to we Law and Order fans!), and phones were working and reasonable (6 minute phone call to Cincy from Freeport ran me $7.80, much cheaper than cell phone with their $9 per day roaming and .99 per minute). Restaurants: Several in the resort, and dozens in the International Bazaar next door.  All within a 5 minute walk.  Pricing is moderate.  Casino buffet is $22.50 a person, restaurants run from $6-$20 for sandwiches/entrees, a couple of VERY elegant restaurants where you can run up as high a bill as you like.  Same general pricing in the Bazaar.  I usually tell people btw Frisch's and Red Lobster pricing. Dive Op: We went with Fred Riger and Grand Bahama Scuba.  I chose them for a variety of reasons: 1) I've dove with them several times, 2) reasonable pricing, we got a 10 dive pkg for $250 (included a night dive), and 3) transportation (they pick us up and bring us back, that's a savings of an $18 cab fare each way that UNEXSO and others will not do..), 4) Nitrox.. GBS pumps Nitrox for you, to my knowledge, the only operation on Grand Bahama that does.  I've lobbied UNEXSO, but they have no interest at this time.. This 45 yo geezer does love his geezer gas.  There is also an outdoor cinderblock and locked equipment room so you can load in on arrival and not have to schlep equipment back and forth to your hotel if you choose that option (no extra charge), they will also set you up for the next day's dive if you leave your stuff there (even remembering what poundage of weight belt you require!). Fred Riger is an experienced dive op, originally from Connecticuit(sp!), and in biz in Freeport for 20 years.  He has two boats, The Lady Go-Dive max 8 divers, and the Good Start, which runs up to 14 divers.  He's friendly, has a zillion stories to tell, staff is helpful (I have a bad back, and need some help lugging stuff around),  and it is the most relaxed dive op I've come across in my limited (one year - 70 Carribean dives) experience.  He has no preset itinerary, opting to ask the divers their preferences prior to running out to see from the Ocean Reef Yacht Club where he is HQ'ed.  In cases where there is a large disparity of diving expertise, he'll split the group into two, taking both boats out.  There's NO hurry up and get back to the boat type dialogue with this this dive op.  The guided tour (for those that want it) will definately use up the air, and those that want to venture out on thier own can finish up at their leisure. Diving: We came in Thursday, arriving around 4pm, settled into the hotel room, got a lite dinner at the hamburger bar at the hotel, then met Fred to take all the equipment to the shop and run out for a night dive.  Fred took us out to a small tug wreck about 20 minutes from shore 40fsw.  It was a christening for me and my buddy as we were trying out our new OTS full face masks w/BuddyPhone comm gear, and I had a new Tek6000 60 LED light.  There were 7 divers + Fred and 1 crew for this trip. There was no current this nite, and we made our way to the front of the boat and dropped down the line. Full Face Mask de_script_ion: It's hard to describe using a full face mask (ffm) vs. a standard mask and reg setup, it's a very different feeling.  This equipment is setup as a semi positive pressure mask, which means if you don't have a good seal, air gets out, water does not get in.  Nose breathers will love it, as you can breathe normally as you do out of the water.  There's virtually no cracking resistance, you just plain breathe.  If you get a runny nose as sometimes happens, you can just sniff up your nose vs. taking off the mask and blowing..  As all the dry air blows across the lens of the mask, there is no fogging and no need for defog at any time, and the positive pressure features keeps the water out, so there's no clearing required.  It has 5 connections to the rubber multi-strap, one at the center top of the head, two at the temples, two at the jaw.  I experienced no jaw fatigue at any time..  The microphone is placed about 1/4 from where the mouth is in the mask, and the reg blows out below and to the right of the mask, no bubbles in sight.  The ear piece is setup on the left ear, no volume control, but if it's too loud (I can't imagine it being too quiet!) you just move it off of your ear and to the rear of your head a bit (it's on the rubber multi-strap).  The one comfort accomodation you must make with this particular model, is that the air supply to the reg comes from the left, as opposed to the right in most scuba gear (this is the same mask firemen use in SCBA).  This has proven no barrier for me and my buddy, we use the optional swivel connector and it keeps the hose out of the way.  After one or two dives, it was no issue at all, you don't even sense where the hose is anymore, since the swivel adapts to your turning head effortlessly, you don't get any hose pull .  Also, the mask seems positionally neutral.  With my Apeks TX100, I don't get a wet feeling when upside down, but there's definately a small resistance.  With the ffm, there is literally no breathing difference regardless of position.  I've been told the Navy tests them having divers sleep in the masks, I can believe that, it's that comfortable. Equalizing: The mask has a couple of rubber block inside near your nose.  To equalize, you push up on the reg section, causing the block to, well, block your nose so you can blow and equalize.  It was easy, quick and painless. Buddy had no problems, and he's a tough equalizer.  As soon as you release from pushing on the mask, the blocks are out of the way. Talking: The BuddyPhone is a PTT (push to talk) unit, with the button on the outside of the mask directly in front of your mouth (the reg is underneath toward your chin..). You press and yak.  Communications is affected via ultrasound communications at 32Khz.  Speech is very clear, BUT you have the sound of your own breathing to contend with while listening, either the inhale or the bubbles while exhaling.  After a little practice, you get accustomed to holding your breath either at mid in or exhale to hear your buddy.  The system has no encoding of any sort, if there are 12 guys on BuddyPhones (all models are compatible), you can hear all 12 guys if they are within the 50-500 meter (depending on water and obstruction conditions) limit of the transceiver.  The 9V battery we installed for a couple of pool dives prior to our trip lasted throughout this trip (8-9 dives). Our first communications were more of a giddy, hey I can talk! and Hey, I can too!  Once when I was making fun of the pink tank that was on my buddy for one of the dives (he's a manly man ), he decided to block me out, singing several verses of 100 bottles of beer on the wall..  The freedom along with the increased feeling of safety due to being able to contact a buddy at anytime was a decided plus.  This advantage is accellerated for us, since I'm the ass over head and get down type, and buddy's ears make him a more controlled descent.  We can now feel comfy that we can communicate in case of him having problems getting down, and I can go on down and still be in communication with him (this applies to day dives, not at nite, where we stick fairly close at all times). Air penalty:  These masks DEFINATELY use more air than the reg/mask. We guestimated from our 10 dives that all the depths we experienced on this trip (40-90fsw) that it was about a 3-7 minute difference, depending on the amount of activity, and the ability to concentrate on controlled breathing vs. the hey just breathe feeling you get while using the equipment.  More experience might negate this penalty a bit, but I don't think it will ever be completely eliminated.  Buddy and I felt for the freedom it provided (lack of having to search for buddy at all times while cruising around coral, for example, just being able to check air and the like via voice) was worth the faster air usage. Tek6000 LED lite:  I've been using the 7 LED version as a primary, mainly because we are true recreational divers.  My buddy uses one of those 8 D cell monsters that lights up the entire sea, and mine would just be enough light to see my immediate area.  I got the 60 LED light via the net, local dive shops don't carry it.  It uses 6 C cells, which will give full power for 4 hours, and lesser power for another 12, rated live on the bulbs is some 20,000 hours or so.  The unit with batteries is about 1.5#, 6 long and about 2 in diameter.  It gives an extremely bright light, somewhat comparable to the 8 D cell monsters, BUT, it's a diffused light instead of a sharp edged beam.  It's small enough that I attach it to one of my upper D rings using a magnetic lanyard (it has two strong magnets instead of a plastic quick connect with a coiled line btw segments).  On this particular dive, I didn't even find it necessary to un-connect the magnets, the distance provided while they were hooked up was adequate for my needs on this dive..  It has a very easy sliding on-off switch and double O Ring closure on the light head, and rated at 1000'. We descended to the tug wreck and did the usual once over and looking around the coral.  Nothing awesome to report, but it was a fun dive. Friday: We had a full boat of 12 divers and went out to do a couple of more familiar (to us) locations.  First dive was a plate reef 75fsw, second was SPID city (near Shark Junction) 40fsw.
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