James Ebanks is the son of Clinton Ebanks, one of a few professional divers who designated the hundreds of dive sites that surround the island back in the 1960s. He founded Ebanks divers, and along with his two sons (the other being CJ), used to run two dive boats. Sadly, hurricane Ivan destroyed their larger boat. CJ, now married, also moved to Trinidad as his wife goes through med school. And finally, Clinton passed away a few years ago. All of this boils down to James taking over the family business, and running the second smaller boat for groups of up to 12 people.
A bit of trivia: Abanks dive lodge, seen in the movie The Firm, is based on this business. CJ can even be seen in the movie dancing during the Cayman outdoor nightclub scene. And the dive site, Trinity Caves, which is mentioned by the actor in the film, is a real dive site!
Enough random stuff; Bill, Nancy and I board the boat, and we head down 7 mile beach to collect two other couples who we would be diving with. I knew both couples from previous trips, so it was kind of fun to catch up. We arrived at the deep dive site - Trinity Caves - 20 minutes or so after we collected the last couple. It is located about 300 yards off the shore, around a half a mile north of the condo. The temperature was sunny, 78 degrees and rising, with a decent breeze creating slight wave action. Most importantly, the water was as warm as the air. Perfect diving conditions!
I donned my equipment, linked my dive computer with the transmitter attached to my first stage, and rolled backwards into the water. Visibility was at over a hundred feet, so I could see with vivid clarity what lied on the bottom as I descended to roughly 60 feet of water. Soon, James was down with us, and we all followed him for the remainder of the dive.
James took us through a series of coral arches along the wall, reaching a max depth of 120 feet. Aside from the various corals and reef fish, we happened to catch a sea turtle swimming about. They are so cool, almost adorable; like you just want to grab them and get a little tow. We also saw a school of giant tarpon - some of the oldest fish in the world - hanging in the coral arches. Definitely a successful first dive!
After 20 minutes of bottom time, we all headed up to the surface, got into the boat, and headed to the second (shallow) dive site - Mary's reef. We cruised for roughly half an hour, and when we arrived, relaxed another thirty minutes. For non-divers, this is to allow the diver to respirate a portion of the nitrogen that has been breathed in during the previous dive.
Soon, we were back in the water for our second dive, this time planned for 40 minutes at a max depth of 50 feet. When we first got down to the bottom, we were greeted with a gorgeous eagle ray gliding through the water right past us. They really do look like they are flying! Other unusual sightings include a large green moray eel curled up under a coral ledge, and a huge crab chillin' under another one as well. I also enjoyed watching two huge French Angelfish feed on some coral. Their colors are truly stunning!
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| French Angelfish; such beautiful colors! |
After 40 minutes, I surfaced and soon we were heading back to the condo. A quick rinse of the gear in fresh water, and our gear was set out to dry. I showered, relaxed, and then headed to the Ritz Carlton for brunch. This brunch buffet really had everything! Stone crab, sushi, caviar, dim sum, lamb chops, jerk pork tenderloin, prime rib, etc. After a few trips, I ended the meal with pineapple rum flambé. Outstanding!
The rest of the day consisted of laying out, listening to classical music, and reading my kindle. I was able to catch VCU defeat Kansas; what a great game! Dinner was light, due to the glutton-fest that was lunch, and the day ended with a few games of Euchre (Bill and I defeated Mom and Nancy two games to nil).
Here's to hoping tomorrow is as good of a day as today - perhaps even better! Ciao!
Good job, Bartski! Keep on sharing!
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