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Cayman 2004 - Freediving World Record Event

Day 26 - We all live in a yellow ...

Yesterday's events shrugged off, we're awake at an hour we're not used to and in the parking lot of Atlantis Submarines. Today Dianna and Irene are taking the deep sub to 244m / 800' for an adventure along the vertical walls of Grand Cayman. These are at a depth in the ocean that few have the privilege of experiencing first hand.

I've been on this trip before and I'm envious. It's amazing to see the life at those depths. The wall is splattered with it, as if an artist had thrown paint onto a rocky canvas. One of the remarkable features is the Stalked Crinoids. These creatures capture plankton with featherlike, parachute-shaped arms, and they date back millions and millions of years. Another amazing feature is the sponge belt which sits in two zones of depth. During the Pleistocene some 16,000 years ago, the earth's oceans were trapped in ice making them 137m / 450' shallower than today. In ages after, during the melt, the oceans rose and eroded the side of the Cayman Wall. In rising the water carved out notches, and it's in these notches that the sponges enjoy a relatively protected habitat. There they are safe from the many storms and occasional hurricane that roar by over the years.

An orange Elephant Ear sponge that grows to a meter in diameter at 30m can get to 5-6m across at these depths. I've had the opportunity to enjoy these depths while diving on trimix and I've always been amazed at the colours and complexity of this environment. As well as the life there's the structure of the Wall to see, with its many swim-throughs and tunnels. It looks like Swiss cheese. Today Dianna and Irene will see all this through a concave, dome port while the pilot narrates the whole experience. The Perry-class submersible takes two passengers and a pilot to depths of 305m / 1000'. Today they'll go to 244m / 800' so as to give us time to shoot pictures with Courtney.

After the long swim, we wait for the sub to surface. When it finally gets shallow enough for us, Doc goes to get his 'family' picture taken. Soon we're all starting down to pose in front of the dome port with Dianna and Irene. Twenty minutes later we're being towed back to shore by the sub's boat tender. Afterwards there's time for a leisurely breakfast at the Seaview Hotel. Our next objective is some sleep and then a static training session for Mandy at the Hyatt.

Mandy is still quite tired from the previous days events. Although we are prepared for a world record attempt today, this soon becomes a training session. Mandy is exhausted from her attempt yesterday and the early morning swim with the sub didn't help. The wind and waves created quite a lot of current, and the swim wasn't as leisurely as we would've liked. In addition, there was a reporter from the local cable channel. So we're all really quite tired. Mandy manages a short practice and decides that she'll give the record one shot tomorrow. It will be the last attempt day for everyone.

We end the day with some sushi, followed by some well deserved rest. Tomorrow will be an exciting day and it's one we're all looking forward to. Yet we're resentfully resisting its arrival, as it means the end of our record setting adventures in Cayman.

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