Cayman
2006 - March 24-27, 2006
In this update: Is that a shark???
 Friday March 24, 2006: Kirk started our morning by declaring that the morning's gorgeous weather was the 'calm before the storm'. Undoubtedly, today was the most beautiful of beautiful days. As the Stingray gracefully glided over the waters, nothing but clear skies and calm waters greeted us. It was perfect. As we began our daily routine of setting up the rig (it is getting bigger and bigger every day as we add a scuba safety line, camera lines etc.) Bill Coltart and Leslie caught a glimpse of a 'huge fin' thrashing around in the water. Soon after a strange looking white ball floated to the surface and to our amazement we recognized it as a puffer fish, fully inflated, floating upside down with its needles discouraging anything from getting too close. But of course..we needed to see it up close for ourselves and Leslie got down and gently pulled it out of the water. It looked just like the little puffer from 'Finding Nemo', so cute but Mandy was concerned that it couldn't breathe and Leslie was wincing from the sharp holes it was penetrating into his palm. So back in the water it went and we watched it float away. Later, Leslie told me that he came across the same puffer fish, still floating upside down and being actively pursued by an 8 foot long barracuda. Poor little guy.
 The diving line up for the day was Martin then Mandy-Rae then finally Doc. Martin did an easy looking 100m constant ballast dive. We are all happy that his cold has passed and all is working for him again. The good thing about his cold was that he got in a bunch of Free Immersion training and has achieved his prerequisite for the discipline a few days ago. I was next up and did a great 81m dive. I have been having problems with my ears and sinuses and this dive was more of the same in that respect. It is hard because I have never had these problems. After the dive I went over to another line and did a No-Fins dive to bring that one a little closer to the record. Doc was the last one up and decided to back up a bit and work on technique. He is getting better and better with Herbert's "foot first" Free Immersion techniques.
Saturday March 25, 2006
Well yesterday was the calm before the storm. The blue sky is now covered with thick clouds and the winds and grown angry. Seems that there is a bad weather front moving slowly past the island. I think that it is always great to have rough conditions once and a while so that you know you can dive in any condition when it counts.
Today is also a higher stress day because we need to make sure that we have hit our prerequisite depths. By AIDA rules you need to be within 3m of the record one week before your attempts. Martin was first up with a great 103m dive. I was next to go with an 84m dive and finally Doc. Now Doc has already made his depth so he continued to work on specific parts of the dive rather then push deeper. So as of today here are the records that we will be attempting:
Martin: Constant Weight 106+m
Martin: Free Immersion 103+m
Mandy-Rae: Constant Weight 87+m
Mandy-Rae: Constant No-Fins 56+m
Doc: Free Immersion ( USA Record) 51+m
So Martin will not be attempting Constant No-Fins and I will not be going for Free Immersion. Martin and my primary concern is the Constant Weight with Fins records. The others will be an extra bonus if time permits.
Another new addition to our group is Ralph Potkins. He is here to do some testing on the freedivers. Before and after every dive he is giving us a spirometer and Doppler tests. Martin and I were found to have some minor bubbles after our dive. Kirk didn't get any this time around but today was an easier day for him as the safety divers are now lifting the line for him. Personally I think that Kirk will take that job back as we were all having so much fun attaching the lift bags to the line and then riding the lift bags up.
Sunday March 26 Today we finally got together and took a day off. This is the first time that all three of us have taken the day off together. We thought that Kirk would be relieved to stay out of the water but he just wanted more. He ended up going out scooter Freediving diving with Jill, Brent and Peter. Actually everyone one else but the three of us went out diving. The deep guys went out for a deep wall dive. For some strange reason they get board of the blue water we always hang them in. We ended our day with the most amazing creation Cayman has to offer..Sticky Toffee Pudding at Calypso Grill. Wow, it is the most delicious of deserts we have ever experienced.
Monday March 27- The weather is still acting up but is a bit better then Sat was. Our roomy boat is no longer feeling roomy as we now have 15 people aboard. That consists of: 2 x boat captain and owner, 2 x rebreather safety divers, 2 x researchers, 3 x athletes, 1 x coach/freedive safety, 1 x Freediver just hanging out training, 1 x count down chick and noodle wrangler, 1 x freedive safety, 2 x HD Odyssey video guys. And there are more arriving daily! Martin's dive took him to 103m and back, Mandy-Rae's to 80m and Doc got in to do more tweaking on his technique.
Now we are back at the condo and Kirk is off picking up Paul Kotik (Deeper Blue writer) and Tom Lightfoot (Freedive Safety and camera). Wow tomorrow's boat will be up to 17 people! Time to get cozy!
Five days till record attempt #1! Stay tuned.
Mandy-Rae
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