NEWS

Cayman 2006 - March 12-15, 2006

In this update: Stingrays, Rum Point, depth, Conch, more depth, food and a departure.

Sunday was to be a busy day as we started the day with our usual training and then went on an afternoon boat trip. Training went well for Doc and me with Doc doing a free immersion dive to 38m and me making an easy feeling dive to 68m. Martin came out and started doing very slow pull downs to try to work out some of the congestion that had been keeping him out of the water. He did really well with a 48m 3min free immersion dive. Well ok it's not great but at least he is back in the water with us.

After training we came back to the condo for a quick bite to eat and then we headed off to meet the boat for an afternoon of stingrays and mudslides. First stop was at Stingray City . The site is only about 10feet deep but that was enough to have a blast with about a half dozen Stingrays that were very interested in the squid we brought down for them. Near the end of the visit Grant was swarmed by two Stingrays and a Moray Eel that really wanted him to film them. We went for a quick bite to eat at Rum Point and of course had a Mudslide then we headed back to visit more Stingrays at a site called Sand Bar. Here we saw Jill suckle a full grown stingray; we tried fresh Conch and witnessed an amazing Cayman sunset. It was a perfect day for all.

Monday we were back to serious training. I made two dives. The first was a constant ballast dive to 70m and the second was a head first variable dive to 76m. I have started doing these head first variables to help me get used to the pressure at depth. Doc is looking better and better with his feet first free immersion dives. Martin made some progress in his fight against phlegm and started to do deeper and deeper pull downs.

On Tuesday Doc told Jill that if he made his dive and touched the bottom plate that she would get the night off of making dinner and he would treat all of us to dinner out. Just to fool her he turned early on his first dive then after breaking the bad news to Jill went back down and nailed a 41m dive. Ya dinner out! Jill was so happy. I have moved to doing 2m jumps each day provided that the previous dive was good. So Tuesday I did a great dive to 72.4m. I am very happy with how the dives are feeling. The last two dives I finally stopped hitting the bottom plate and made good bottom turns. Martin also made a lot of progress today with a pull down dive to 71m and kicked back up. He will be back into the game very soon. On a bit of a sad note, Linden's time with us is up so we all thanked her for her video skills and time spent here with us and said a sad goodbye.

Today, Wednesday March 15, Martin, Doc and Kirk were too head out training while I took the day off but due to issues beyond our control the boat couldn't go out. Instead the guys packed up their gear and headed to Dive Tech for some fun scooter freediving. Jill and I went scuba diving as we are helping to certify a couple friends as open water divers. I must say that although it is nice to stay down for 40min at a time, I think that I prefer freediving. You just feel better in the water. You feel like that is how you are meant to enjoy the oceans. But it was still fun.

Tomorrow we are back out training on the boat and will have more updates for you all very soon! The first video will be up anytime now. Goh is busy doing his magic as we speak.

Only 16 days left before record day number 1. Stay tuned!

Mandy-Rae

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