King’s Point, West End

West End Safari and Snorkeling Adventure Excursion out of Hamilton

Ship: Zenith (Celebrity Cruises)

Sailing Date: July 24, 2004

Date of Snorkel: July 27, 2004

Equipment Availability: we have our own which we take with us, but the extended family that operates this trip (Captain Ronnie and Co.) has a large and wide ranging size supply of snorkels, masks, fins and vests available.

Water Access: Swim Platform with ladder at the back of the Boat.

This is the third time we have done this excursion; it is also most likely the last time we will do it with the group off the ship.  The site is variably listed as King’s Point or Mangrove Bay (see our previous review under Mangrove Bay) and is a very popular snorkeling locale for excursions departing from Hamilton.  It lies at the Western End of the archipelago and features a small island surrounded with little beaches, with two small skarrys to its West.  It is an extremely popular site with local boaters and jet-skiers, and visibility if often poor at best given the traffic in the area.  On this excursion, we had 40+ snorkelers of varying age and ability from the ship along with us.  Many of them were teens and younger children.  Without proper instruction on what to do once in the water (the family of boat owners are VERY thorough on how to use the snorkeling gear, but say nothing about protocol for once you leave the boat), these folks made visibility much worse.  With a limited area in which to snorkel and multiple inexperienced snorkelers who don’t know how to observe fish without moving rapidly, kicking, screaming and violently churning up the bottom have got to spell the signal of doom for anyone with a professional underwater camera! On top of this, numerous boaters were arriving constantly to stake out their temporary territory for Bermuda’s Cup Match (Cricket), a national holiday to be held at this end of the island this year just a few days after our trip.  Visibility on their side of the little island was impossible for underwater photography or even just viewing any fish.

Given the devastation to Bermuda’s fish population from Hurricane Fabian, there was not much to see on this trip anyway.  We could count the number of adult fish that we saw on one hand.  Juvenile fish were, however, incredibly numerous.  We saw literally hundreds of immature Sergeant Majors, Puddingwife, Stoplight Parrots, Yellow Tail Parrots and other standard reef varieties.  Baby Sergeant Majors were especially numerous and complete camera-hams, butting into almost every shot for their own photo-ops!  Peg calculates that one particularly energetic baby SM swam into her shots at least 5 times.  Peg let him know (in no uncertain terms) that HE would have to photograph HER the next time he came near her lens!

This site is most likely not worth another visit for until at least 2006 or better yet 2007 when the Cup Match will be held at the East End of Bermuda.    

Snorkeling Grade: C-/D