Cayman
2006 - March 16-22, 2006
In this update: It's all about fun in the water and pee
 There is something about life lived on the water that inherently lends itself to serene beauty. Watching Mandy, Martin and Doc surrender to the depths of the clear, turquoise water brings such a wondrous calm over me as I float on the surface. Unfortunately, with all the floating I've been doing I've acquired quite a sexy 'mask tan line' on my face.although it's still not as bad as Kirk's who looks as though he has a permanent mask mark.
The athletes have been practicing hard; stretching, loading up on carbs everynight, breathing exercises, resting etc. The dedication they commit to this sport is incredible!
Thursday March 16 th : Martin is nicely recovering from his cold and did a 80m free immersion, but due to a bad current did not attempt a constant weight target. Mandy did a 80m variable to acclimatize to the pressure and fast equalizations. Doc did a 41m free immersion, feet first.
Friday March 17 th : Today Mandy did a 74m constant weight, Martin a 86m constant weight and Doc setting a new personal best did a 43m free immersion. In the afternoon we all clambered back onto our boat to spend the afternoon at sting ray city with David Blaine and his group. I assisted Mandy in her open water class as she was certifying David's brothers, girlfriend and producer. It was very amusing watching them be very apprehensive around the frisky sting rays and moray eels, but slowly they relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful underwater scenery.
 Sat march 18: Today was a quiet day on the boat. Doc had decided he needed a bit of a rest, and Martin was exhausted after too many dives yesterday at sting ray city. So it was just Kirk, Mandy, Grant and I on the boat. Mandy completed a 76m dive, no problem at all. Because it was a quiet morning, I did a 30m constant weight dive, a mere pittance compared to these guys but exciting for me nonetheless. But more exciting I did another personal best..peeing in my wetsuit!!!! The key to freediving is to be completely hydrated all time. Mandy tells me she even pees during her warm-up dives and all the divers go numerous times while we are in the water. But for me..I just have a mental block and can't pee in my wetsuit. I have no explanation except perhaps that the whole thing is completely unnatural and I still don't quite understand why they all boast and show such pride with the amount of urine they release. But today after my dive, I surfaced and felt an immense relief with my first breath of air...the gratifying feeling of just letting everything flow!
Sun march 19: Well I'm officially trying to become a morning person. I was up at 5:30am to go diving with Kirk and Martin.everybody else taking the day off for rest. Martin had an ear block today so limited his dive to a constant weight of 80m. Being on the boat with 'just the guys' I tried desperately to help with my part by linking the massive amount of line in the water after our dives. As Kirk hauled up the system, he officially declared that I had failed Macramé 101 as he shook his head at the knots I had made and the mess I had created by linking from the wrong side. I'll have to continue working on those skills by working on Mandy's long beautiful hair.
 In the afternoon I finally got to spend some quality 'girly'
time with Mandy. On her previous record attempts
Mandy has constantly been surrounded by a male only
crew, and unfortunately, has inherited some of the
male habits. I'm determined on this trip to convert
her back to her normal DNA female pattern. I've even
gotten her to try on a summer dress and we ended
our time walking out with new bikinis.
Mon march 20: Another early morning start.up at 5:30am for our usual breakfast of cream of wheat with bananas and walnuts to meet our boat for 6:30am. Training dives went well this morning even though Mandy had an ear block and did a constant of 73m.we later learned that she had used too much energy trying to hold in her bowels on her dive. These early mornings are messing with her usual bowel routine! Doc did another PB today and did a free immersion down to 46m and Martin completed a constant weight to 92m.
This afternoon was very long indeed. We all spent the time on the boat with David Blaine and his group for his last day here in Cayman. Another personal best for me though. There was no toilet on the boat we were on this afternoon, and after drinking gallons of water I decided to slip into the water at the back of the boat in a discreet location to try and pee..still not an easy task for me especially because the waves were large and I was moving up and down with the boat. But to make matters worse, Bob Talbot (the famous photographer and filmographer who shot Ocean Men and Free Willy) called out to me to hurry and finish my pee because he needed that corner of the boat.well of course, many eyes turned towards me making the task at hand impossible. After our day today, we all entered the condo, glassy eyed and exhausted from too much sun. Ahhh, home sweet air conditioned home! Herbert Nitsch arrived today to join our crew for the next week and also stole my closest space from me!
 Tues March 21: Despite heavy currents, the athletes performed beautifully today! Mandy did 79m constant in 2:31min. Doc did a 47m free immersion and Martin 97m constant weight. I love watching them descend..watching them gracefully follow the line down until I can no longer see them. Then Kirk descends to meet them as their safety diver and I can just make out his shadow until finally I see both divers immerge from the blue depth. This afternoon everyone in the condo succumbed to a long nap, probably from the extremely busy week everyone has had. Bill Coltart, our main scuba safety arrived today but unfortunately, his rebreather ended up in Barbados . Hopefully it will reappear tomorrow!
Wed March 22: Ahhhh back to a normal routine today! Up at our regular time of 6:45 felt glorious, a real sleep in and somehow we all felt so much more rested! Today's training consisted of Doc doing a 49m free immersion, a mere 1m from the record! Mandy did 80m but had her ear stick on her a meter from the plate. She could see the plate...right there at her fingertips...but her ear locked. Martin did a 105m variable. All three athletes did nice, clean performances today! Bringing up the lines has become a bit of a competition in itself. Everyone is excited to get their turn at swimming down the line with the tank and lift bag; hooking it to the line; riding the bag up to the surface. Now the competition side of it is how people ride it up. Martin and Kirk have been mastering standing on it while Mandy does some strange acrobatic thing on it. She says it's on purpose but we have our doubts. Tomorrow is a day off for everyone. We will kick back, relax and get ready for another three days of training.
Jill (EMT and Condo Chef)
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