Open Water Dives with Andreina on the Swiss Cheese Reef
Martha and I arrived at the beach at 6:55 am Evan and Andreina were 10 minutes behind us. We geared up and headed to the water at about 7:40 am but went from 4 pounds to 8 pounds and then to 10 pounds before Andreina was solid on the bottom. Poor Evan had to run back to the truck to get two 5-pound weights when the two 4-pound weights were not enough.
We walked out into neck-deep water and descended. About the first thing I saw was an 8-foot long Manatee cruising nearby. I pointed and waved my arms, but Martha, who was carrying the camera, was busy untangling the flag-line. Andreina saw the Manatee but froze in place thinking it was a shark. By the time we got everything sorted out, the Manatee was long gone.
We headed out to the buoy following the slope of the sandy bottom. Andriena did fine equalizing due in part to her comfort staying close to the bottom. She breathed naturally and in a relaxed manner. Her ears cleared themselves.
But she also swam at about a 45-degree angle, suggesting that she was over-weighted.
When the sand flattened out and we got to the reef I could see that we were North of the buoy. The current had set us well North and we had to swim South. I got lucky and spotted the blocks, so we just started our dive from there and headed East to the Wrap Around Ledge.
Martha got a picture of a Nurse Shark swimming on the Ledge.
Went along the ledge looking at all the fish, then swam to the large Coral Head to the South. Looked for an octopus who often hangs out there, but did not find him this morning. swam back onto the rubble and onto the sand flat where
Andriena dropped one of her two weight packets. Martha handed me the weight packet and I inserted it into her BCD. I checked the other weight and it was slid into the pocket but not into the plastic holder for the locking device.
We headed North to the tire and East to the
Crescent Moon Rock. Went onto the rubble and turned WNW to find the Barrel Sponges and the staghorn coral. Andreina was often well above me and with an upward component to her trim.
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| Yellow Sand Ray (Urolophus jamaicensis) |
Swam over the coral with all of the smaller Jacks swarming on top. Swam up to the Sectioned Rock then turned North and drifted with the current along the reef. Went on the closest sand flat West of the reef and went through the skills.
Andreina was excellent in removing and replacing her mask. Slowly. Deliberately. Calmly. She was unable to hover, indicating again that she was too heavy. We surfaced to end the dive.
Dive time was 38 minutes, maximum depth was
20.2 ft and the bottom temperature was 80.6 degrees. My SAC was 18.47 and my Residual Minute Volume was 0.48 cubic feet per minute.
Martha's picture of this and our second dive can be found at the following link: 2 June 2019 OW Dive
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