Harbour Island - Diving

Wednesday June 20, 2007

Awoke at sunrise (0600) and immediately started getting ready to go over to the Harbour Island Marina. We were picking up a golf cart there at 0830 so that we could drive us and all of our gear to Valentine’s Dive Center.

Amazingly everything came together. We got the boat docked. Power connected. The Golf Cart and all of our gear loaded onto the golf cart delivery guys cart and made it to Valentine’s by 0855. We checked in and then waited 30 minutes while they put fuel on the boat. Oh, well. We didn’t need to rush so much…

When we finally got out the conditions were pretty good with the sea just a couple of feet at the most as the wind was out of the south. Dave, the dive master from South Africa, and Luther the local boat skipper were our guides.

Eric, Jane and Elizabeth did a two tank dive with the first dive the deepest at 115’ on The Arch, a really cool formation that is, get this, an arch. The shallower reef in that area was very nice as well. The dive lasted about 38 minutes. We all finished with just around 1000 psi, which is pretty good for a dive that deep.

Christy had to wait on the boat as this dive was too deep for her to dive on her Open Water Referral check-out. On the second dive, which was just 40’, she was able to dive and did great. The second dive was just outside the inlet entrance and called Sea Gardens.

After the dives we were all exhausted from diving and also spending the entire day the day before on the beach at Man Island. Dave, however, was very convincing that Christy should dive her second dive that day so that she would be able to dive with us tomorrow on the deep dive. She sucked it up and did her second check out dive, which was mostly skills, taking your mask off, turning, emergency ascent, etc…Jane, Elizabeth and I headed back to the boat and slept for the rest of the afternoon (it seemed like 10 minutes) and then picked up Christy at 1600.

Did we eat? I can’t remember. No, we watched Casino Royal by putting the saloon table down into a bed. I guess we ate popcorn for dinner. I don’t remember going to bed but I must have!

Thursday June 21, 2007

Today we dove with Valentines again. The first deep dive was on The Plateau. An area near the Glass Wall on Eluethera that has a very tall iron shore, stone like wall with no beach. The Glass Wall is a small inlet in the wall that connects the ocean to the inner bay. There is not other inlet for many miles but this one is dry sometimes and not navigable.

The Plateau has very deeply grooved coral formations that we swam down to about 70’ The one groove that was directly under the boat was very cool as it had a swim through at the bottom. Elizabeth took a picture looking through the swim trough. This was a very nice dive with lots of tiny colorful fish.

For our second dive Luther drove the dive boat right up to the edge of the iron shore. We were only about 200 yards from the tall stone cliffs. We motored slowly past the Glass Window and could see inside caves and see blow-holes, places where the ocean waves are forced back out at high pressure.

Eventually we stopped at our dive site, geared up and jumped it. It was only about 35’ deep and we headed directly for the iron shore. Conditions were perfect. No surge or big waves that could bang you into the stone and rocks. On the bottom very large rounded stones held tiny coral populations and fish. We could swim almost completely under them.

As we got closer to the cave the light dimmed but visibility was still very good. I turned my dive light on. Dave pointed out a small turtle right in the middle of the cavern, which was around 60 wide. We were completely under the cavern canopy. To the right of the turtle was a tumble of stones pilled up on each other with on massive stone leaning against the iron shore.

I wondered what it would be like if one of those stones moved and trapped me under water. At the very end of the cavern I peered around and down the massive stone. There was a small cave. Turning upside down in the water I slide down inside the entrance to the cave and shined my light in. I could have easily fit inside the cave with my gear on.

However, I am not a cave diver and I didn’t have a buddy close by. I went back to get Elizabeth and show her the cave. We both got upside down and went into the cave entrance. Jane said that all she could see of us was the very tips of our fins.

We could see light at the other end of the cave but it was obvious that there was only one entrance and exit. I still did not go in but it was not because I was afraid. The dive group we consisted of had a brand new diver so I did not want to cause any trouble.

Later we all got to go through a small stone swim through but it was not as enchanting as the cave….

After we got back on the dive boat we all exclaimed that that was one of the best dives we had ever done…