Home | Featured Articles | Around Texas | Calendar of Events | Totally Griswald | Tips | Reviews | Contact Us | Links
|
|
| Home | Featured Articles | Around Texas | Calendar of Events | Totally Griswald | Tips | Reviews | Contact Us | Links |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
Hanging suspended over a 6000-foot cliff I listen to my breathing and feel an overwhelming sense of calm and beauty. A lone eagle ray soars past me in the Traveling, whether it is underwater, on land or around the world, is a privilege and an art form. I have chosen to see the world by working in different countries. As a SCUBA diving instructor and underwater videographer, I have a profession that can be done anywhere in the world where there is water. Located in the Caribbean Sea, east of Jamaica and south of Cuba, the three small islands are underwater mountains amid the watery depths of the Cayman Trench. Originally, the islands were founded by pirates, and later became a tax-free colony of England. Today the island nation is known as an off shore tax haven for banking, and a SCUBA divers dream. I lived on the largest and most populated of the islands, Grand Cayman. Every morning is an early morning as I leave my pink Camanian style house on the sea and hop on my bicycle to make the 6km ride to work. The dogs and chickens are rulers of the sleepy street at that time of morning before the hustle and bustle of the cruise ships turn Georgetown into a tourist mad house. Once at the dive shop, and with a fresh cup of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee in hand, I pick up the guests from their hotels and head to the beach in the rickety old van. The boat is waiting for us at the shore of the white sand 7-Mile Beach, and our boat captain and dive master, Pauly, greets us with a raspy hello. The beauty of Cayman diving is that stunning coral reefs are just off shore, and once everyone is piled on the boat, it is a 10-minute journey across calm waters out to the dive site. A few other dive boats scatter the mooring balls that mark the steep underwater drop off, but other than that the morning stillness and the sunshine and sea, make for a perfect Cayman day. Looking into the crystal turquoise and azure water one can see the reef fish going about their business 60 feet below. The group is excited to get wet and after geari After the first dive we move onto a shallower site, the wreck of the Doc Polson. The ship is still intact on the sandy seabed and its dark shadow moves with the waves as we look down on the old vessel. I jump into the water and immediately my breath is taken away. Swimming over the old sunken shipwreck is a 6 ½ foot hammerhead shark. Its primal body slinking through the water and its eyes at the end of its barbell shaped head scan the sea below looking for a snack. I flick my camera on and descend in a panic that it may swim away before I can film it. I kick with all my strength toward the menacing creature. It is intrigued and its curiosity propels it toward me. It makes a pass about 15 feet from me, and takes a sharp 360-degree turn and swims away. My meager human legs cannot keep up with the sleek animal and it disappears into the blue. I look around me and Pauly is doing the underwater hammerhead dance and the guests eyes, filled with wonder and excitement, are popping out of their masks in disbelief. Surfacing back into the world of air and wind, I let the sunshine warm my tanned face and I fill my lungs with humid air. Back on board I untie the boat from the mooring and we head back to shore, leaving the underwater world behind for another day. The end of a hard day of work means happy hour at Rackams, dive masters from various dive shops around the island share stories of their day underwater and laugh over a few Coronas as the sunsets and turns the blue waters of the Caribbean Sea crimson and gold. **All photos by Heather Holt
If You Go
Divers Down Dive Shop
Silver Sands Condos |
|
©2004 Live Life Travel. All rights reserved. |
|||
distance, its spots slowly disappearing into the misty blue, and a turtle munches a bright yellow sea sponge on the reef wall below. I glance up and see the gentle ripples of the water’s surface dancing in the sunlight 100 feet above. Diving on the vast Cayman wall is an exhilarating and humbling experience.
ng up we all jump into the water and begin the dive. I turn my video camera on and capture the everyday commotion of the fish community. Descending down through a canyon of bright orange elephant ear sponges and corals, we exit into the vast blue expanse of the wall and trench below. Life is everywhere. A pair of angelfish tags along curiously, a lobster’s spiny antennas poke out of the reef, a great barracuda lurks in the distance and blue chromis dance in schools around us, just another day at the office.
This rare sighting makes the rest of the dive even more magical as we float around the sunken ship. We swim through the open sandy bottom of the old boat and are greeted by its fishy residents.