Dive Review of Xanadu Undersea Adventures/Mayfield Beach and Tennis Club in
Bahamas/Grand Bahama Island, Freeport

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Xanadu Undersea Adventures/Mayfield Beach and Tennis Club, Aug, 2002, by Jody and Elissa Thompson, CA, USA . Report 203.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	This was our 7th year diving with Xanadu Undersea Adventures. Each year just gets better. While other dive shops have stopped providing free hotel pickups for guests, Xanadu still does (even if you are staying in Lucaya). This year they bought a nice new van for pickups. They are very customer oriented and run a good shop. Don't get Xanadu Undersea Adventures confused with the Xanadu hotel. Though they are adjacent to each other, that is where the similarity ends. The Xanadu hotel is run down and in desperate need of repair. Apparently it is receiving some badly needed maintenance at this time. Until it is completed, don't stay there. Instead, Xanadu Undersea Adventures offers packages in association with the newly renovated Royal Oasis Golf Resort. We stay at the Mayfield Beach and Tennis Club, an older, very clean, well maintained beachfront 2 bedroom condo timeshare across the channel from Xanadu. Sometimes condos are available for rent. Email Christina at mayfield@coralwave.com for availablity. The reefs around Freeport are alive with fish and coral, but there are areas covered with algae. This year the visiblity was exceptional. Our favorite dive, Theo's wreck (max depth 110 feet, 200+ foot long freighter)could be seen from just below the surface! This dive is usually affected by currents but all week it was absent. This site makes an awsome night dive, but only for advanced, confident divers. Enormous sleeping parrot fish make their evening cocoons inside the wreck. Cuttlefish and crabs move about, and bristle worms crawl across the hull. Since this wreck has been down 20+ years it is encrusted with life. A new wreck, the Sea Star II was sunk 4 months ago. Sitting perfectly upright, it is also a great dive. Though not encrusted yet, it is surrounded by schools of fish. There are many interesting swim through features for those so trained. With enough interest, Xanadu Undersea Adventures will take divers to the West End, we did this a few years back, trying to discover new dive sites. We found a 40 F thermalcline produced by underground springs venting to the ocean. Dolphin pods are commonly encountered here. This trip, We encountered eagle rays, eels, grey reef sharks, and a good assortment of "caribbean reef fishes". Only occasionally did we see turtles. Shark feeding dives are perfomed on Tuesdays and Saturdays in an area known as shark alley. This year marked our 15th such dive. On the days between shark feeds, we dove here, encountering several grey reef sharks, all of which lazily swam around the reef. Freeport is easy to get to; a half hour plane or 4 hour boat ride from Miami. The diving is consistenly good and inexpensive. Many positive improvements have been made to Grand Bahama Island in the past year. See our website www.descentline.com for more info and photo gallery.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Bimini, Bahamas, Cozumel, Akumal, Palau, Papua New Guinea, California Channel Islands
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	calm, noCurrents
Water Temp	84-85°F / 29-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	0
Water Visibility	75-100 Ft/ 23-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Common Sense. Dive times were kept to 45-50 minutes
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Each boat has a seperate camera rinse tank and shaded seat area which easily served as a camera table. The dive shop has a nice classroom with some outlets available for recharging batteries. It is also air conditioned which allows for fog free film changes. The shop has MX-10 cameras available for rent as well as videographers on staff who shoot the shark dive as well as do custom videos. Underwater photo and video courses are available by arrangement. The Mayfield resort were we stayed has plenty of outlets for battery chargers.

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Dive Review of Xanadu Undersea Adventures/Mayfield Beach and Tennis Club in Bahamas/Grand Bahama Island, Freeport

Xanadu Undersea Adventures/Mayfield Beach and Tennis Club, Aug, 2002,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Xanadu Undersea Adventures/Mayfield Beach and Tennis Club in
Bahamas/Grand Bahama Island, Freeport