Our first dive today was at Fishermen's wall, located on the north side. The dive called for 100 feet for 20 minutes. When I rolled over the side, I was greeted with nothing but blue. It turned out that because of the southerly wind, the boat was drifting off the buoy on the open-sea side of the wall. It was such a creepy sensation: rolling over the side of the boat and seeing nothing but deep blue of open water. After a few somersaults, I was able to spot the reef, and descended forth.
Soon enough, James was there to begin leading the deep dive. We went over the wall, and descended to roughly 100 feet of water. From there, we swam along the side of the wall due west. We saw a lion fish, which James tried to kill unsuccessfully with his implement. Then, as we rounded a point in the coral wall, we happened to spot an eagle ray swim along the top of the wall. From there, we were led through another groove in the coral back up to the top of the wall.
During that ascent, we passed over a huge lobster chillin' in a crevasse. That ended out deep dive, so the group headed to 15 feet to begin a safety stop. During our 3 minute off-gassing period, that same eagle ray swam right underneath us along the wall. A sort of farewell salute to the first dive of the day.
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| Spotted Eagle Ray flying in the water! |
Back on board the boat, we headed 5 minutes south to Channel Reef, for another 50 feet for 30 minute dive. For this dive, I decided to try a new breathing technique: breathing out my nose. It worked great! I ended up diving for 40 minutes, and ended up using only 1,900 psi! During the dive, we found a treasure trove of fish, including 2 green moray eels (one was huge!!!), 2 spotted drum, a type of shrimp, and an anemone. It was a hugely successful dive, and I was sad to see it go - probably why I stayed out past the designated time (oops!).
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| Spotted Drum! |
The rest of the day was spent reading "Raising the Titanic!" by Clive Cussler on my Kindle. Very low key and relaxing.
For dinner, we had our dive master James, and his two kids (J.J. - 8th grade, and Selena - 5th grade) over for our annual cookout. It is something we do every year: cook steaks and fish; as a thank you to James for the weeks of splendid dive service. Sadly, Jolie (pronounced Yo-lee), James' wife, couldn't make it because she was called to work (she works for Cayman Air as a flight attendant). The menu consisted of bruschetta and Nancy's famous guacamole for appetizers, followed by fillet mignon, salmon, and various salads for dinner. Desert consisted of rum cake a la mode, enhanced by a few shots of rum poured on top. Delish!
The best part of the night is just hanging with the kids. They have grown so much, and it is just nice to see them develop over the years. J.J. has grown a foot since last year, and Selena soon will be old enough to dive. Such great kids; it's just a joy to spend one evening with them.
After James and Co. left, Bill and I decided to light up a cigar and relax. My cigar for the night: a Vegas Robaina pyramid. A beautifully constructed cigar, with an extremely oily wrapper. It burned well, drew easy, and produced a nice, white, tight ash. A medium bodied cigar, I tasted notes of cedar, cinnamon, and leather. The finish was a bit stouter, with added notes of coffee and pepper. Overall I would give it a 94/100, and definitely make it a point to buy it again.
And that, my friends, finishes up another day. Tomorrow is my last dive day, as well as last night on the island. My trip is starting to come to a close, as sad as that may be. Time to enjoy it while I can. Ciao!
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