After a two-hour boat ride going over 8-foot swells THE ENTIRE TIME, we finally made it to the calmer, reef-protected area of the ocean near the Blue Hole.
This is one of my favorite photos - we're down about 45m (~150" feet) and the two divers are floating above the dropoff of the continental shelf and staring down into what looks like an endless blue abyss. Every time I swim over an edge and look down into the deep, I get vertigo for a couple of seconds. One of the craziest feelings in the world. Scuba diving moments like this are the closest you can come to feeling like you're in space without leaving the planet.
After our max depth, we slowly started making our ascent back up around the mountain. I was feeling peaceful and relaxed, slowly swimming next to the reef admiring all the colors and fishes and then when I looked down, I saw my first "real" shark. And by "real" I mean a shark that looks just like a shark that you see on a National Geographic special that's big enough to harm you in the unlikely event it decided to bite you. Trying to calm my shaking hands, I descended to get a little closer and busted out my camera to try to get a movie!
No matter how many times you tell your rational brain that a shark doesn't really pose all that much of a risk, there's no stopping your limbic system from reacting. I'm surprised you can't hear the sound of my heart pounding against my ribcage in this video. The shark is a gray reef shark. And he was probably about 5' or 6' feet long.
We just floated in there in awe letting them swim around us. I managed to snap this pic that I think does a good job showing off just how silvery and reflective they were. It was breathtaking.
I was soooooooo excited to go diving in the Caymans. It's pretty much consistently listed as one of the best diving spots in the world. Not only does it have amazing coral and marine life, it's renowned for regularly having 150+ foot visibility! (Which is totally unheard of!) Check out how clear the water is! These pics don't even do justice to how much amazing it was in person! The deeper you go, the less visibility you have (because there's less light). But even at 50 feet you can still totally see the diver in the upper right-hand corner, who's at least thirty feet away!
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