The Bahamas Trip - July 26 and 28, 2011 - Drift Diving

In addition to getting to do a shark dive, I also got to do another kind of dive I had never done before, a drift dive.  Well, two of them, actually.

The first drift dive was on July 26 at a site called Wax Cut Drift between Normans Cay and Shroud Cay in the Exumas. 

As I listened to divemaster Ian's briefing about the dive, I felt my stomach getting knotted.   Having never participated in a drift dive before, his description of the dive seemed rather complex and intimidating to me.   We would all have to position ourselves on the dive deck so that all of us could enter the water within a matter of a few seconds.  It would be a negative entry, which meant that there could be no air in our bcd vests.   That means as soon as we dove into the water, we had to submerge instantly and follow Ian, who would be at the head of our column.  Andy would be at the rear of the column.  First Mate John would be in the Magick and meet us all when we gathered at the end of the dive.  One or two of the other crew members would be in a dinghy in case any of us required rescuing.  When we reached the end of the dive, Ian would be holding a rope that we all had to grab on to, which would then be attached to the Magick for towing us all back to the Aquacat.

Soaking all of this in, I started having serious reservations about doing the dive.  Remembering my bad experience with a strong current at Closemon Reef on the first day, I was leery of drifting away from the main group and not being able to get back to them.   Then again, I thought, I had come here for new experiences, and this would definitely be a new and exciting experience.

I was feeling a bit tense as I donned my gear in anticipation of the dive.   We all started to take up our positions so that we would be ready to jump into the water when the word was given.  Some of the divers walked down to the two dive platforms while the rest of us would jump off the dive deck on either side of the boat, which was the only way possible to accommodate the most number of divers at once. 

Then came the announcement for all divers to dive (I must confess, I don't remember the exact words) and in we went.   As I splashed into the water, I exhaled steadily so that my body would begin its descent.  Once I got about 15 or 20 feet down, I looked around me to see where everyone else was heading and started following, continuing my descent.   I didn't really have to worry about which way to go, because the current just pushed me along.  I ended up making my way close to the front of the group so that Ian the divemaster was in my sights.  Otherwise, it was just a matter of letting the current take you along for the ride.

I didn't take my camera for this dive, because I was worried the seal might break during entry.  In a normal dive, you enter the water and then a crewmember would hand your camera to you.  Too bad, because this dive presented some great photo opportunities.

At one point during the dive, I was looking to my right for marine life and just taking in the scenery.  Then I turned to my life, and nearly did a double-take.  Several feet to my left was Nick, the Filipino kid, riding on a plastic horse.  I almost shot my regulator out of my mouth from laughter.  I was like "Where did he get that from?"   I found out after the dive that one of the crew had found the plastic horse and they would bring it on the drift dives to let divers take turns riding it. 

Another interesting sight on the dive that would have made for a great picture was this huge brain coral about the size of an automobile.  It had these gashes and cuts in just the right places to give it the appearance of a giant jack-o-lantern.

The dive proceeded smoothly to plan, and when we got to the end point, we surfaced, holding on to Ian's line for the tow back to the Aquacat.  It was a really cool dive and I realized that my earlier nervousness about it was totally unfounded.

The drift dive for the Washing Machine on the 28th proceeded according to the same plan as Wax Cut Drift, with as many divers as possible making a simultaneous negative entry into the water, with the remainder following immediately afterwards.

I was really looking forward to this dive, which is one of the more famous dives in the Bahamas.   The site is located between Highborne Cay and Long Cay in the Exumas.  For those of you who have never heard of it, the Washing Machine is what they call an area where, to quote from the Aquacat website, "the strong incoming tide of up to 6 mph takes scuba divers thru a narrow cut where water drops off a ledge and then makes a sharp bend to the left. This causes the water to swirl like the water in a washing machine."  Divers who enter the Washing Machine can find themselves tossed and spun around.  I really wanted to experience that!

As the current pulled us along, I kept anticipating that over the next drop would be the Washing Machine and I would feel the tossing and the spinning.  And I waited and waited and waited.  Nothing.  I looked at Tara and Jeff and shrugged.  Where was this Washing Machine.  And then the dive was over.  It wasn't without its excitement though.  I had a collision with Martha that scared the bejesus out of her.  When we were back on the boat, I apologized profusely to her, but she was very understanding.   It turned out that a lot of the divers on the dive didn't get the Washing Machine experience.  In fact, I think Guy and Tony were the only ones who reported getting tossed around.  All in all, it was a disappointing dive, though from what I understand, the experience can be inconsistent.  It's one of those YMMV things.

To give you an idea of what the Washing Machine can be like, here's a video I found on Youtube for your viewing pleasure.

The Bahamas Trip - Day 2 - July 25, 2011: There Be Sharks Here

The next day, I felt much better.  No more headaches and no more queasiness.

We found out the night before that we were doing the shark feeding dive on Monday.  I was surprised that it was scheduled so early in the trip, our second day of diving.  I figured it would have been held on Thursday as a build up to a climax.  Nevertheless, I was excited by the prospect of taking part in something that I had been wanting to do for quite some time.

The Aqua Cat conducts its shark feeding dives at a site called Split Coral Head off of Eleuthera.  Before we did the shark feeding dive, we did a regular dive at the site.  The Reef sharks were already there and I looked forward to trying out my new underwater camera to to snap some shots.  For those who are interested, the camera I used was a Sealife DC1200.

The photograph I took above was my first one.  Several Reef sharks were swimming around me as I began my descent, and I was able to get the shot above with a shark in the foreground and several of the divers in the background.

I was able to get this close up of a Reef shark, though owing to my novice underwater photography skills, I wasn't quite able to get the entire shark in the frame.

It was a good dive and the first one I ever did with sharks in close proximity to me.  I wasn't sure how I would react to find myself in the water with them, but surprisingly I didn't feel the least bit of trepidation.  It was more a sense of fascination and wonder at being able to observe them in their natural environment.   For those who are shark-phobes, these sharks seemed generally indifferent to our presence.

After the dive was over, we returned to the Aqua Cat for a surface interval and then attended Ian's dive briefing.  We would form a semi-circle on the sand, about 60 feet below sea level, while the fish would be lowered down the mooring line to about 15 or 20 feet from the bottom.   A few minutes after the feeding had begun, the crew would in turns take us one at a time to have ourselves photographed and briefly videotaped, and then guided over to the other side.   Ian stressed that we should under no condition try to touch the sharks, even on the tail, as they could bend their bodies so that their heads could reach back and bite you.  No argument with that here!

I replaced the memory card in my underwater camera, as I wanted to keep photographs separate from video.  I ended up shooting several segments of video.  The first one is at the beginning and lasts about two and a half minutes.  It is followed by a longer sequence that is more than 8 minutes.  Then there is another shorter segment of the aftermath.  Close to the feeding site was a small patch of coral and as I approached it, Ian pointed out to me one of the denizens of the coral, a spotted moray.  At one point in the video you will here me make a sound, which was my reaction to seeing the moray, as I wasn't sure at first what Ian was trying to show me.

At some points, the video points downward at the sand for seemingly no particular reason.  If memory serves, at various times I needed to clear the flooding in my mask, and at those points the camera would have been floating while tied to my wrist with a lanyard strap.   The camera was also sensitive to light, and I notice that sometimes when it pointed upwards towards the surface, everything took on a reddish hue.  What can I say, I'm not a professional at this.  But I think I did a decent job overall.  Enjoy.

Of course, I couldn't help but try to get a little bit of myself in the video by briefly pointing the camera towards me and giving a little wave.

At the end of the video when I pointed the camera at Tara, who had ended up to my left, she gave me the underwater signal for "shark."



You may notice at several points in this video some of the divers looking like they are crawling on the sea floor.  During the dive briefing, Ian explained how shark teeth are very loose and that at the end of the feeding, it would be possible to find some teeth on the sea floor underneath where they had been eating.  I was able to find two of them.

Besides Reef sharks, there were also a lot of Yellowtail snapper and Nassau groupers in the area that I also captured on film.  All in all, it was a good day of diving.





The Bahamas Trip - Day 1 - July 24, 2011: I Chum The Waters

Early Sunday morning, the Aqua Cat departed from Paradise Island to make for the Northern Exumas.  My kids had awoken early, as I did, to the sound of the engines, and we watched out of our cabin window as the Aqua Cat made its way out of the harbor.  Once it had gotten clear, the ship kicked it into high gear and after an hour or so, Paradise Island began to dwindle in the horizon.  In the picture I took above, you can just make out the tall buildings of the Atlantis resort.  The small boat trailing behind the Aqua Cat is the Magick, which the ship's First Mate John used to bring the passengers on land based excursions.  It would also prove very valuable to me on two of my dives.

While the previous day had been dominated by my intense migraine, the first casualty of this day turned out to be my daughter, who began to suffer the effects of motion sickness.   After first feeling it, she fell asleep in the cabin and awoke a little later on feeling much better.  But not long after waking up again, she began to feel the effects even worse than before.  One of the crew members ended up taking her to the bridge to have a better view of the horizon, which was supposed to help her relax and not feel nauseous.

I decided to skip the first dive of the day, a site called Barracuda Shoals near Allens Cay, because I had not set up my gear the evening before owing to my headache.  So, after watching my friends enter the water, I set about getting my gear ready so that I could participate in the next dive.  I was looking forward to trying out my new Hot Shot travel fins by Aqua Lung.  Since my last dive trip to Belize two years earlier, I scaled down my gear so that I could fit it all into my carry-on luggage.  Besides the travel fins, I ditched my wet suit and replaced it with a lycra full body skin.  I also brought a rash guard shirt and shorts.  To top it off, I switched to a foldable snorkel which I was able to fit into the pocket of my BCD.  I also had a new mask, as the one I had worn in Belize, while good, had developed cracks and needed to be replaced.

The next dive site was called Closemon Reef.  I was going to join Tara, Jeff and some of the other divers and just follow them wherever I went.  I was happy with the fins.  They were easy to put on and did not require dive boots.  I donned my new mask, lightly inflated my bcd, and made my giant stride into the warm waters.   After giving the ok sign to the crewman on the dive deck, I started to descend and followed the rest of the divers in our group.  The first thing I noticed is that we were swimming against a rather strong current, stronger than any I ever encountered before.  Still, with effort, I kept up with the group as we made our way towards the mooring line at the bow of the boat.  Then, I noticed my vision was getting cloudy, and suddenly it struck me.  In my excitement, I had forgotten to defog my mask!  I swam alongside Tara and motioned to her that I was returning to the boat and she acknowledged the signal.

I made my way back to the dive deck on the port side and told the crewmember Andy what had happened.  I handed him my mask and he kindly put in some defog for me.  I swirled it around and rinse it out and then donned the mask again and began my second descent.  Barely a few seconds had passed when I hit that current again.  I came to the realization that it would be foolhardy of me to try to struggle against the current alone in order to catch up with the rest of the group and decided to abort the dive but remain in the water.  I made my way to the yellow rope that tied the Magick to the Aqua Cat and held on to it, while remaining at roughly a depth of ten or fifteen feet.

And then I made my big mistake.  The site was shallow, only about twenty to thirty feet, so I decided to descend to the bottom because I was getting bored holding on to the rope.  But even with my knees planted on the sand, I was still getting pushed back by the relentless current, so I felt it prudent to surface before I was pushed too far away from the Aqua Cat.  But even as I ascended, I had an incredibly difficult time trying to reach the Magick.  I kicked furiously and groaned with each kick as I reached out for the hull of the Magick for support.  Of course, being constantly submerged in the water, the surface of the hull was incredibly slipper and I could not keep a grip on it.  I surfaced and called out for help, thinking, "Oh great, just like my first dive in Belize, when I had to be rescued!"  However, rather than waiting around to be rescued, I decided to take my fate into my own hands again and resumed swimming with all my might back to the Magick.  Again, my hands made contact with the slipper surface of the hull, but I managed to push myself slowly forward until I was able to grab the yellow rope.  I then pulled myself relentlessly toward the Aqua Cat, hand over hand, until I made it to the ladder a couple of minutes later.

Andy asked me what had happened and I answered him wearily as I handed him my fins and struggled up the ladder to the deck.  I was absolutely wiped out.  When Tara returned, I explained to her what happened.  Like Belize, my first dive was a clusterfuck.  It could only get better from here on.

Because of weather related concerns, Captain Mark decided to leave the Exumas and make for Eleuthera.  The next dive was going to be at a site called Cobia Cage.  On this dive, I was going to accompany one of the passengers, a man from Texas named Craig.  His wife Sherri was with him on the trip but decided to take a pass on this dive after participating in the two previous dives that morning.  Mikey, the crew member who would be the dive master for the dive, described the cage to us, but when we entered the water, what he told us did not begin to prepare me for the enormity of the structure.

A Cobia cage basically looks like some extraterrestrial space craft submerged in the water.  I didn't take my underwater camera on this dive, so I did not get to take a picture of it, but the photo I found above shows you how massive and strange looking the structure is.  Craig and I passed over it and then headed towards some nearby coral formations.  I had a tank banger and would look around us or peer into the nooks and crannies of the corals and let out a bang when I saw something that Craig could photograph with his camera. 

It felt good being on a dive where I didn't have to fight a current.  But as the dive continued, I started to feel queasy, though it was still tolerable.  As we headed back towards the Cobia cage, I motioned to Craig that I was returning to the boat, which was visible from the cage.  Besides, there were a number of other divers circling around, so Craig wouldn't be alone.  I gradually made my way to the hang bar and grabbed on to it and prepared to begin my safety stop.  The nausea got noticeably worse, and then without warning, I puked into my regulator.  I had done it once before when I was doing one of my open water dives in Fort Lauderdale in 2008.  I remained calm, trusting that my regulator could handle it.  And then I heaved again.  And again.  And again.  I think I overloaded my regulator, as I sucked in some vomit when I started to inhale.  I decided I had had enough and shot up to the surface, letting out one last upchuck in view of the crew member manning the dive deck (can't remember which one). 

Undeterred, I participated in the next dive, at Knuckleheads Reef.  While I still felt vaguely queasy, I did not get sick and I had my first good dive of the trip, though to my chagrin my mask was prone to flooding and I had to constantly clear it.  I was also pleased to see that my daugher was no longer suffering from motion sickness and was her old self again.  I dove with Craig again and managed the itinerary, finding him marine life to photograph.  This dive site was tricky, because there were lots of cuts and and turns and it is easy to get lost if one goes too far.  When my air supply got down to about 1700 PSI, I motioned to Craig that we would be making our way back.  After retracing our path, I felt a sense of relief when I could make out the bubbles of a number of other divers up ahead.   We made contact with the other divers and continued to explore the coral formations near the mooring line.  At one point, just as I was ready to begin my ascent, I spotted a Southern Stingray up ahead, but it was headed in a direction away from us and soon passed out of view.

The night dive was being held at the same site.  None of the group I went down with nor Craig and his wife were participating in this dive, so I just stuck with Ian the divemaster and three or four of the other passengers. 

When I did the night dives in Belize, the bottom of the Sun Dancer II was lit up like a stadium, making visibility near the boat very good, as well as providing a sense of comfort because it was easy to spot even if one went some distance away.  But with the Aqua Cat, there would be no such light, owing to the presence of sea wasps, which are attracted to the light and at night rise to about 10 feet below the surface.  I wore my full body skin again, having eschewed it for my previous two dives, as I found that the water was plenty warm enough to dive wearing only a t-shirt and shorts.

The dive itself was largely uneventful and I couldn't wait for it to end.  That urge became even stronger, as I found myself becoming increasingly nauseous again.  I signaled to Ian and when he looked at me, I made the hand sign for "not well" and pointed at my abdomen.  He must not have understood me, or if he did, he may have thought it was not terribly important, as he continued to go about poking about the coral and shining his light on it.  I tried to suck it up and tag along hoping the dive would soon end.  Then I felt myself nearing the point of no return.  I signaled to Ian again and this time, to make it unambiguous, I gave the thumbs up sign, which means "surface."  This time he understood, and as we made our ascent, I vomited several times again. 

I was so glad when I finally made it back to the Aqua Cat.  The dive deck was dark as I ascended the ladder, owing to the aforementioned sea wasps.  It ended up being a good thing, because as I found myself looking skyward, I stopped and looked in utter amazement at the night sky.  Never in my life had I seen so many stars.  There were so many that I barely recognized familiar constellations.  The real treat though was that for the first time in my life that I can recall, I saw the band of the Milky Way.

Later on, after the dive was over, I went up to the sun deck and they turned off the lights so that we could all admire the majesty of the night sky.  I spotted a couple of meteor streaks, and in the distance, the lightning from a far off thunder storm flashed in a fantastic display.