Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Just One Dive
Just one dive today—the 9:00 a.m. dive to Palancar Caves. It’s a great dive, and every time we dive the caves it’s different.
We woke up this morning to more rain. It wasn’t a hard, driving rain. It was a soft, steady, drizzle. It didn’t look like it would clear up so we decided to dive anyway—hey, we were going to get wet one way or another. Why not have some fun?
We headed out on the Oystier with Pingo, our favorite Divemaster and five other divers. The rain continued to fall but it wasn’t an annoyance at all. We arrived at the dive site and made our finally preparations for the dive. Pingo explained that the currents were pretty wicked yesterday, and it looked like maybe we’d have the same type of conditions today.
One after another, we did a giant stride into the sea, and headed down to the bottom. Greg brought Sonita (our video camera) along on the dive. Once we hit the sand at about 54 feet, Greg did a quick white balance in the sand, and we were ready to go!
Greg and I always are the last two in the follow-the-leader game we play on each dive. All the divers fall into a single file line following Pingo as he weaves his way into and out of the caves in the Palancar reef. Not too long into the dive, I could feel the current pushing and pulling.
Typically, in strong currents, you head for the reef and duck behind it. The current flows over the reef and over you and allows you some time to catch your breath. This time, this wasn’t an option. The current seemed to flow everywhere except for in the caves. One time, as we passed between two huge coral heads, the current was stronger, and we had to swim pretty hard into it before ducking into a cave on our right. At another point during our dive, I noticed I was being pulled down. No matter how hard I kicked, I watched my depth gauge read 84, 85, 86, 87—then, I overcame the downward pull and was able to level off at about 80 feet.
A true diver does his/her best to maintain optimum buoyancy for many reasons, including protecting the reef. It takes years for the reef to grow a small amount yet one touch kills it instantly. I’m sorry to say that even with my excellent buoyancy, I could not stop myself from hitting the reef at one time during this dive. The current was too strong and I did everything I could but my arm came in contact with the reef.
This was a really challenging dive—one I won’t soon forget. I’m glad we did the dive because every dive teaches you something.
We woke up this morning to more rain. It wasn’t a hard, driving rain. It was a soft, steady, drizzle. It didn’t look like it would clear up so we decided to dive anyway—hey, we were going to get wet one way or another. Why not have some fun?
We headed out on the Oystier with Pingo, our favorite Divemaster and five other divers. The rain continued to fall but it wasn’t an annoyance at all. We arrived at the dive site and made our finally preparations for the dive. Pingo explained that the currents were pretty wicked yesterday, and it looked like maybe we’d have the same type of conditions today.
One after another, we did a giant stride into the sea, and headed down to the bottom. Greg brought Sonita (our video camera) along on the dive. Once we hit the sand at about 54 feet, Greg did a quick white balance in the sand, and we were ready to go!
Greg and I always are the last two in the follow-the-leader game we play on each dive. All the divers fall into a single file line following Pingo as he weaves his way into and out of the caves in the Palancar reef. Not too long into the dive, I could feel the current pushing and pulling.
Typically, in strong currents, you head for the reef and duck behind it. The current flows over the reef and over you and allows you some time to catch your breath. This time, this wasn’t an option. The current seemed to flow everywhere except for in the caves. One time, as we passed between two huge coral heads, the current was stronger, and we had to swim pretty hard into it before ducking into a cave on our right. At another point during our dive, I noticed I was being pulled down. No matter how hard I kicked, I watched my depth gauge read 84, 85, 86, 87—then, I overcame the downward pull and was able to level off at about 80 feet.
A true diver does his/her best to maintain optimum buoyancy for many reasons, including protecting the reef. It takes years for the reef to grow a small amount yet one touch kills it instantly. I’m sorry to say that even with my excellent buoyancy, I could not stop myself from hitting the reef at one time during this dive. The current was too strong and I did everything I could but my arm came in contact with the reef.
This was a really challenging dive—one I won’t soon forget. I’m glad we did the dive because every dive teaches you something.
// posted by Leenie @ 9:04 PM 
