NEW PROVIDENCE (NASSAU & PARADISE ISLAND)
The capital of the Bahamas, Nassau, is located on the northeastern corner of the northeastern corner of New Providence Island and, together with adjoining Cable Beach and Paradise Island, is the most popular destination in the Bahamas, attracting upwards of a million visitors a year. It developed principally due to its superb natural harbor, its docks can now accommodate up to 12 cruise ships at any one time, and quickly became the commercial and banking centre of the islands. New Providence itself, which is around 21 miles long and 7 miles wide, is home to 200,000 people, about 2/3 of the Bahamian population.
To the west of Nassau, Cable Beach is a sandy stretch backed by a number of luxury hotels. Lying opposite Nassau is Paradise Island, which has fine white sand beach. Originally known as Hog Island (after the wild boar which once roamed here), it was developed extensively in the 1980s to cater for a wealthy American clientele and, although possibly now over commercialized, is considerably more up marked than either Freeport / Port Lucaya or Cable Beach. Paradise Island has more than its fair share of glitzy nightlife, with casinos, Las Vegas style cabaret shows and other entertainment. The Island is connected to Nassau by a toll bridge.
THE DIVING
On New Providence, most diving is off the southwest coast, which has a spectacular wall on the eastern edge of the Tongue of the Ocean and some mesmerizing shark dives. However, the north shore also has some incredible wrecks, kilometers of shallow coral reefs with spectacular forests of Elkhorn and Staghorn coral and amazing phenomena such as the Lost Blue Hole. Traveling to the northeast from Paradise Island, a series of low cays have developed over the centuries into a massive barrier of reefs and shoals which stretch all the way up to North Eleuthera. North of these low cays is the edge of the continental shelf, which plunges down amidst a stretched out line of ancient spur and groove reef. To the south of the cays lie enormous shallow sandbanks that stretch south to the northwestern Exumas and are together known as the Middle Ground of the Great Bahama Bank. Although the north shores of New Providence are still little explored, there are fish in abundance and the diving is excellent.
The diving along the south shore of New Providence Island is incredibly diverse. Besides a huge number of wrecks (the majority of which have been used as film props at one time or another0, this coastline offers divers one of the best chances in the world to dive with sharks in a relatively controlled situation. The sharks, primarily Caribbean reef sharks are the backbone of the island’s diving industry, but one should remember that they are wild animals and can exhibit aggressive and competitive behavior.
Diving with sharks is so popular that it is easy to overlook the fact that the island has another compelling magnet, the continental shelf. This starts in relatively shallow water (around 40 ft), from where it drops (600 ft) into the depths. The wall dives here, where divers will encounter large schools of pelagic fish, are readily accessible, in contrast to other areas of the Bahamas where you have to undertake a deep dive with limited bottom time just to reach the drop off.
