Video montage of the diving in Grand Cayman,
January 2008.
The first segment is at the beginning of the first dive, starting in 45 feet of
water. We were at the top of a wall that dropped to over 2,000 feet. The group
huddles up for a moment, making sure everything is working properly. In the
background you might be able to hear some of the SeaDoos buzzing nearby. They
didn't have any respect (probably no knowledge) of the rules requiring them to
stand off a few hundred feet from the dive flag. Be careful when surfacing! We
didn't stay in the tight group for long, and I wound up at the back of the pack,
taking pictures and videos. My dive buddy had a hard time staying down. He
didn't have enough weight, so most of the dive he was feet up, kicking to stay
at depth. I could tell he wasn't having fun.
I was surprised by how few fish there were on the reef. There was much greater
diversity on the reef in Roatan Island. Although, I did see a nice, large
lobster that would have made an excellent meal for two. And in the video I
captured a huge blue angelfish. Visibility was over 100 feet, but since we were
so deep most of the colors had filtered out, leaving everything a blue color.
Snorkeling closer to the surface in Roatan drove home the point that deeper
isn't always better. Max depth for the two dives was 76 feet.
As we were surfacing I was still shooting video and wasn't paying attention to
where I was. I was watching my depth and ascent rate, but wasn't looking
overhead. I suddenly noticed I was directly under the boat, only a couple of
feet from bonking my head. That would have been embarrassing.
Anyway, it was the first time I'd used my camera in its new underwater housing.
I was really pleased with the outcome and learned a bunch of things such as when
shooting video, pan the camera slowly. So much of the video I couldn't use looked like something
out of the "Blair Witch Project" - chased by some horrible underwater creature.
:)