Under The Sea . . .

Central America Caribbean » Cayman Islands » Grand Cayman
May 7th 2008

Published: May 10th 2008

I haven’t been diving since I finished my scuba certification in St. Thomas back in February. Seeing as I’ll be going home soon, I decided I needed to get out diving while I have the opportunity to.

Getting myself out of bed this morning to go diving took a LOT of effort. I'm having such disrupted and anxious sleeps lately, plus I was up late, having a much-needed phone call with Laura. Plus I had to get up so early for the tour. I was really really dragging this morning. So tired. And really really nervous. Just because I hadn’t been out in months and it would be my first time without my regular instructor and in a new environment and surrounded by experienced divers. . . I kept finding myself having thoughts of the tour being cancelled, or things that could go wrong so I wouldn't have to go on the dive, that I'd have an excuse to not do it. But everything went completely smoothly and I was diving today.

And it was AWESOME! The tour operators were fantastic and so were the other divers on the tour. Put me more at ease. At least enough to push through my nerves. And I'm really happy with myself for doing it. Diving calms my brain, puts it in a similar state of peace that I achieve through yoga. I think it's the combination of your senses being so taken over looking around this intense new environment with having to focus on the logistics and safety things of diving.

We did two dives. The first we went down to 80 feet (twice as deep as i ever went before!) for 30 minutes. I'm going to try to describe what this site was like . . . from way inshore, the sand slopes downward and plateaus for awhile at about 50-60 feet. We entered at a spot about 50 feet deep where the coral reef begins. Then the bottom drops off and according to the dive masters, it drops to a depth of 250 feet where it plateaus for awhile longer before dropping to 6000(!!!) feet. We went to the wall where it drops down to 250 feet and went down as far as 80 feet, swimming alongside this "wall". It was completely covered with coral, all sorts of different aquatic plant life. a barracuda swam by. later, an eel did too. Apparently there were lots of lobster but i didn't spot any of them. I was rather just in awe of the coral itself and the drop of the bottom and the mass expanse of the sea I was in.

The second dive site is harder to explain, but it was spectacular. Picture a mushroom: the cap, how it creates a shelf over the stem. We went down to about 30 feet to a coral covered area that was shaped like a giant mushroom. We swam along the top of it, then around the side, and along the "stem" of the "mushroom". So it was like a shelf was above our head and a wall along our side. And as we continued around the edge, on the other side of us then rose up another wall. So it was like we were swimming through a tunnel - it was open above our heads, but on either side were walls of coral. I don't know if that description begins to make sense, but it was astounding. Again, so much to look at! And everywhere were schools of fish. Mostly really small ones, all in different bright colours. But then other individual ones of all sizes. and plants and coral and things I don't even have names for in all shapes and sizes. Awesome.
Tthe second site was definitely the more impressive one, but i didn't enjoy it quite as much as the first. I was getting cold (in 80 degree water with a wet suit! I could never do polar diving), I was feeling more tired and was having issues with my mask. But i'm still just so glad I did it. And I was pleased with myself that I remembered things and felt comfortable down there and didn't feel panicked at all - except at one point when I had to cough - that felt scary and uncertain, trying to cough with the respirator and fearing not being able to cough it out and breathe and all this happening at 50 feet below the surface. . . But after that passed, even that was a good lesson.

So there's my big adventure of the day. Last night, while talking to Laura she said "you have to say "yes" if you're going to have big adventures". I struggled to get out doing it - but I said "yes". I'm going to continue to remind myself of that.

Sorry for no photos - but even my brilliant waterproof camera has it’s limits - and anything below 30 feet is included!

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