Diving in The Caymans

I included the video at the bottom if you are interested.

This dive was our first ocean dive. We have had several fresh water dives and have eagerly anticipated our inaugural venture into the deep blue sea. We went to Sunset House for our diving needs. They came highly recommended and now I know why. Their service was impeccable.

We decided to hire a dive master since this was our first ocean dive and we were a bit frightened. The dive master was a wonderful British guy named Andy. He was very patient with us and a great guide.

Our dive was a shore dive. All that really means is that you don't go out in a boat.

There is a sea pool you initially jump into before you swim out to deeper waters. What was cool about this particular spot was that the current actually sucked us out into the ocean. It wasn't difficult work for us and it was a cool sensation.

The water temperature was 79º ON JANUARY 12th!!!!! It was fantastic. On our first dive we went to a depth of 37'. The visibility was at least 50'-60'. The water was a little choppy so it wasn't limitless, but I'm certainly not complaining. We saw a lizard fish, a sea turtle, a peacock flounder, and several angel fish. The reef was incredible. We stayed down for about 31 minutes.

On the second dive, after a 57 minute surface interval, we went to a depth of 47'. It was the deepest I have been which was pretty exciting. An artist had placed a statue of a mermaid on the ocean floor, so we visited it. We also had two barracudas swim right in front of us. Surprisingly, none of us were afraid. There is something about being in that environment which removes some of the fear of being around the animals that are supposed to be there.

The entire experience was incredible. I am so grateful to have shared it with Shelby and Wendy. I hope you enjoy the footage and I will post about our dive in Cozumel soon!

A New Diving Adventure!

This post is from our latest diving adventure on the way home from Disneyworld. We stayed in Gainesville, FL. because it put us close to some great spring dive spots. Devil's Den is close by as are Ginnie Springs and the place we wound up, Troy Springs.

If you check out the link for Devil's Den, you'll be able to see why we decided to move on. It is a great place but as inexperienced divers it was a little dark for us. Maybe we'll go back some other time. We didn't have time to visit Ginnie Springs and found out Shelby was too young to dive there anyway. Oh well, on to Troy Springs!

Our day started off at the Extreme Exposure dive shop in High Springs, FL. This is where we rented our tanks and weights. The folks there were great. They were extremely helpful and patient. They were also able to give us some useful information about different versions of buoyancy control devices. One of the things I love about diving is that there are a lot of helpful people. It's a fun little sub-culture!

When we arrived at Troy Springs, we were pretty excited. It was a week day, so we unschoolers pretty much had the place to ourselves. As is the case with the other springs we have visited, the water was very chilly. It was about 68 degrees. It was a hot Florida day, so the cool water was refreshing at first.

On both the dives we went on, we didn't go very deep. There was a giant hole that probably went to a depth of 70'. The rest of the pool was between 4' and 10'. There was a slope leading into the hole but none of us had the intestinal fortitude to investigate. We saw a bunch of turtles and several fish. The real treat at Troy Springs is a sunken Confederate ship. The Confederate army sank the boat in order for it to not be captured by the northern army. The boat is close to the river so we were able to drift in the current to see the boat. It was a definite highlight.

It was great to be able to stay under water for an extended period of time and gain more experience with our equipment. We all get more comfortable each time we have the opportunity to dive. Troy Springs was a lot of fun and worth the trip. I love being able to share these experiences and look forward to sharing many more. Until next time!

Diving Adventures!

As always, there is a video below if you prefer!

The Back Story

Shelby,Wendy, and I have been going through the process of scuba certification. We finally got certified almost two weeks ago. It was a challenge at times, but very gratifying when we completed the training. We took our PADI course through a local dive shop, Underwater Adventure. They were very helpful, I'm grateful Wendy and Shelby found them.

One of the reasons we pushed to complete our certification course before last week was because of the family vacation we had planned. We were taking our annual trip to Okaloosa Island, Florida and wanted to dive in the Gulf of Mexico. This whole idea of scuba diving is very new to us, we had never talked about it before a few months ago! So we rented our gear and off we went!

The first day in Florida, Wendy called to set up our first dive. We found a place in Panama City that could take us out to some jetties. Apparently this is great for beginning divers, they refer to it as "the kiddie pool." As luck would have it, Wendy became ill and we had to postpone our dive.

Wendy's illness lasted a couple of days and toward the end of it, the weather went south. By the time she was feeling better, the shop where we had planned our dive cancelled their trips due to low visibility. We were bummed. Little did we know the proverbial silver lining to the cloud which was coming our way!

After a little research we decided to look at Vortex Spring. Our local shop takes trips there,

so we had at least heard of it. We called and found out it probably suited what we were looking for a little bit better anyway. We made our plans and off we went!

Dive Summary

We originally planned three dives. Shelby's certification only allows her to go 40', so we planned our dives for 35'. In our dive plan (refer to the PADI site if you need an explanation) we set up for three 30 minute dives with 30 minute surface intervals in between. Again, refer to PADI for a real explanation but basically the surface interval is to make sure there isn't too much nitrogen in your blood. Feel free to comment if I am wrong!

One of the points of planning a dive is to make sure you are safe and know where your parameters are. This way you can have a lot more fun without having to burden yourself with unnecessary worry. "Plan well Kimosabe," a wise man once said! Things may not always go exactly to plan, but you will be a lot more secure.

Our first dive was fun. It took me a minute to get comfortable with my buoyancy control, I didn't have an instructor there cajoling me. We settled in at about 6' where we all adjusted. From there we swam off and explored. Vortex is beautiful. The water is 68 degrees year round and crystal clear. There are caves and other places to swim through, along with a wide variety of fish. We looked at fish, swam around, and had a good time. Our maximum depth on dive # 1 was 20' and we stayed down for 30 minutes.

Our second dive was also an adventure. We swam to the opening of the spring, which apparently goes to a depth of around 150'. It was a little freaky looking into the abyss! We were all a lot more comfortable, we swam around much more freely. On this dive, Shelby had a little trouble equalizing (ask our friend PADI) so we mainly stayed at around 12' to 15'. Our maximum depth on this dive was 25' and we saw a lot more. We stayed down about 33 minutes on this dive, we had to surface once for Shelby's ears to feel better.

In Closing

All three of us loved the entire experience. Everything worked out exactly as it needed to. Even Wendy's unfortunate illness enabled us to wind up at Vortex.

We are already looking forward to our next dive. Maybe we'll try the gulf again, maybe some more spring or quarry diving. Either way, we have found another activity we all love which opens the door of adventure even wider!