Louis LamprellYacht charter broker, DMA Yachting
Yes, and the Bahamas is one of the easier places to dive from a charter yacht. A good number of our Bahamas yachts carry full scuba setups onboard: tanks, gear, a compressor, and crew qualified to lead dives straight off the swim platform. We keep a live list of them here: charter yachts with scuba diving onboard, currently over a dozen boats from sailing catamarans to superyachts.
If the yacht you love does not carry gear, rendezvous diving covers it: a licensed local dive operator meets the yacht at the day’s anchorage with equipment and a divemaster, you dive, and the itinerary rolls on. It works anywhere on the route and suits mixed groups where only some guests dive.
No license? You can still dive. Uncertified guests can do a beginner “discover scuba” dive with a licensed instructor, either through the rendezvous operator or on yachts whose crew includes a dive instructor: a briefing, shallow water, an instructor at your side, no card required. If you want to dive properly all week, we recommend completing an Open Water course before the trip; the classroom part can be done online at home. And snorkeling needs no license at all, which in the Exumas covers a surprising share of the highlights.
Two practical notes from our bookings. Certified divers should bring their certification cards; the crew will ask before anyone gets a tank. And diving is usually billed as an extra rather than folded into the charter fee, even on yachts that offer it, so tell us up front if diving matters and we will price it into the quote instead of leaving it as a surprise.
The diving itself earns the effort: shallow reefs, wrecks, walls dropping off the banks, and Thunderball Grotto for the snorkelers in the group.