Week 14: Deep Dive!

‘Still staying on (talking about) the Cayman Islands this week and somewhat cheating.  Since we were on the topic of diving last week, I thought this week we would take you on a deeper dive. Our shirt this week is unfortunately not a T-shirt. I bought a lot of T-shirts this trip, so we opted for a polo shirt for variety (hence the cheating).

My husband wanted to go on a deep submarine dive along the famous Cayman Wall.  The Cayman Islands is probably the only place in the world where one can take an excursion of this kind. The Deep Explorer is not the usual submarine that carries 35 people through 100 feet of water. This was a three-person research submarine (One guide/pilot and two passengers) and could go to a depth of 1,000+ feet below sea level.

The submarine itself was very small and rather confining. With my history of claustrophobia, I felt that my joining in might ruin everyone else’s experience once the panic and sweaty palms began. So I decided to go on a much larger submarine (30 people) and a shallower dive (100 feet).

Since my husband would be diving alone, Atlantis had to look for another person who would ride along as a “ballast” – so the small submarine would be more stable. They have a list of locals who normally do this sort of thing. In fact, they even considered me, and I could ride for free. I still thought that it was not a very good idea.

The three of them descended along the Cayman Wall to a depth of 1,024 feet, and then slowly ascended back up again. My husband attempted to take pictures, but the lack of light, artificial or natural, just could not do any justice to what he saw, since they only had the pair of floodlights of the submarine to illuminate the darkness of the deep. He saw beautiful corals, huge sea fans and sponges (some as large as a refrigerator!), graceful manta rays, and even ‘Mr. and Mrs. Squirrelfish,’ who found a way to make their home in the depths of the Cayman Wall.

My husband greatly enjoyed his submarine excursion. He said he felt like one of those deep ocean miners or researchers in the movie The Abyss. If you are interested in trying this deep dive or the shallower one, check out this article for some good info or contact Atlantis Submarines. If we go to the Caymans again, I may actually do this dive. #YOLO