I finally was able to get back in the water and go diving during our recent cruise vacation aboard the Disney Fantasy. We booked a dive excursion for Grand Cayman that included two dives. I was diving with my son Chris and daughter Heather. Both had not been in the water for quite some time but I was confident that all of their extensive experience as divemaster and instructor would come right back to them. As for me, it felt like I never left the water. With over 1000 dives under my belt it's all a matter of automatic muscle memory. The hands knew where to go and what to do when.
The weather couldn't have been better. We were tendered in to the port and were immediately met by the excursion representatives. We waited for the whole group to arrive then walked a few blocks to the dive boat. The boat was up on a beach where we climbed aboard on the bow. While boarding I asked about the water temperature. We were told it was 81 degrees, which meant the wet suits we reserved certainly wouldn't be needed.
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| Port tender ship |
The boat backed off of the beach and we were off. As we motored out we were issued our gear. It seemed everyone had to switch their fins for the correct size. I hadn't used slip-on fins in a long, long time. I was hoping I wouldn't regret the fact that I didn't have socks. All the other gear seem fine and it only took a bit of button pushing to get used to the computer.
We did two dives. The first was at a site called Round Top. The second dive was at a site called Oro Verde (green gold). Both dives were marked by balls. Apparently the whole perimeter of the island is covered with dive sites with over 360 balls marking sites.
Dive One - Round Top. This was a 100' dive on the top part of 'the wall'. This was a led dive. There were lots of swim-throughs and great relief. There really weren't a lot of fish but we did see one moray eel. I did not take my camera on the first dive, regretfully, because Chris said the enclosure might not be rated for over 60 feet. Better safe than sorry.
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| A rather friendly Orange Spotted Filefish |
Dive Two - Oro Verde (green gold). This was a 46' dive which started on a wreck and then toured around the surrounding reef. The 'wreck' was a ship that was pretty broken up but had been rumored to have a hidden cargo of marijuana on board before it was scuttled by the crew...or something like that. An interesting feature was the number of bicycles at the bottom. Apparently it was a custom to ride them off the dive boat tied to the ball to celebrate having passed the instructors, or divemaster exam. The reef had many more fish than the first dive. It also had great relief with a swim through which we didn't venture into.
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| Wreck Oro Verde |
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| Bicycles next to the pin |
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| Chris next to the bicycles |
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Heather next to the bicycles
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| Lots of fish on the second dive |
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All in all it was a good day of diving. As Captain Steve always said, no one died and I didn't poop my pants. It wasn't spectacular but it was nice...especially the visibility. I might be a bit jaded because of all of the diving I've done in the Keys.
After we left the boat we walked around shopping at Harley-Davidson, Margaritaville and the Hard Rock Cafe. Everything else was souvenir shops, restaurants, bars and jewelry stores. The trip back to the ship on the tender was nice as we got a great view of the Disney Fantasy. The Disney ships really are the nicest looking ships in the port.
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| Disney Magic |
