Saturday, January 10, 2009

Silhouetted Against a Deep Blue Sea

One of the memories that I will keep with me happened last week while diving on Grand Turk. Martin, Lucas, and I did a father son dive together at about 4:00pm. We were on Tunnels, which is characterized by a few really great swim throughs, large tunnels through the coral heads where you swim down and through until you are off the wall and the 1,000 foot drop that characterizes the Turks and Caicos bank.

Martin went through the first tunnel ahead of me. As I came through the tunnel Martin was just floating silhouetted against the deepest blue color I ever seen. At the last light of the afternoon. Looking into the abyss. He was suspended. Motionless. Martin and Lucas have left Grand Turk now. This was perhaps Martin's last dive there.

This past Wednesday Martin, Lucas, and I dove in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands out next to Buck Island. Just a standard cruise ship excursion, but we dove on the Cartansor Senior, a WWII era cargo ship sunk there in 1979 to attract divers and snorkelers. Evidently it worked. I counted over 110 snorkelers in the water right before we dove in.

Diving on wrecked vessels is cool. There is something surreal about the twisted metal. The Cartansor Senior was nice. The first shipwreck dive for Martin and Lucas. I have been on several in the past year. Though most sites don't really look like intact ships. This ship looked much like the Harold, which lays about 200 yards of the northwest beach of Grand Turk. I snorkeled the site in August with Justin. After this last dive in St. Thomas, I would like to get some video images of the Harold. Maybe a new project?

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