I have always enjoyed being in and around the water. In 1979, I decided to " kick it up a notch " and became a PADI ( Professional Association of Diving Instructors ) certified diver.
Then the fun began. At first I dove into every quarry, pond, river and lake I could find in the Maryland, Pennsylvania and WVA area. Below is a picture taken back in 1979 as I was about to dive the quarry in Chambersburg, MD.
After several years of diving in the Potomac river and quarries I got the itch to head for the more exciting diving areas of the Caribbean Sea and Bermuda. The last time I went diving was in Bermuda while on vacation with my wife, Pat, in 1996.
The day was beautiful. Sunshine and lots of Bermuda blue sky. Being an early morning type, I was the first to board the boat and chat with the "skipper" as he readied the SCUBA tanks:
We did two dives that day. One in the morning and then, after lunch on the boat, a second dive at another location. There were plenty of SCUBA tanks to go around. There were only about 7 divers when we had all gathered on the boat. The "skipper" said it would take about an hour to reach our first dive site and as the boat left Bermuda we all chatted and got to know each other:
After about an hour or so we could see nothing but water in all directions. There is something wonderful about being at sea. You mentally leave all your problems and issues behind and become absorbed by the solitude of the ocean. It can really give you perspective.
The boats engines slowed and after about 5 minutes, stopped.
The skipper indicated we had arrived at our first dive site for the day and it was time to "suit up" and "get wet":
Rick, N3RO, is in full gear and ready for the dive. The "skipper"
said that we will dive as a group and 2 of his crew will be down with us while he stays with the boat. Our dive depth will be at around 50 to 65 feet down:
We jump, one by one, from the safety of the boat, to the vast open waters of the sea:
Once in the water, we began to let the air out of our BC
( buoyancy compensator ) vests which causes us to begin to sink. Rick waves "OK" and starts his descent:
Once on the bottom, we begin to explore, and a gar fish comes by to welcome us to his world:
Odd shapes of coral are seen everywhere. Here a blue fish swims by as I take a picture of the coral formation: ( I am NOT a marine biologist and do not pretend to know many of the official names for the fish we saw that day. So you will have to do with blue fishes and yellow fishes . . . . there were a lot of " holy mackerals that day ... holy mackeral look at that one and holy mackeral look at those ! The one below looks almost like a small tuna:
We saw schools of fish everywhere. It was fun to try swimming into the schools - thousands of fish and yet you can't begin to touch one of them: " follow me boys ! "
This was a school of very small " bait " fish: I took this picture above them, looking down at the sandy sea bottom: ( This pictures only shows about 1% of the school. )
Soon some bigger fish began to swim in the school of small fish, probably looking for some "lunch":
Swimming further we encountered a school of beautiful fish with yellow and blue stripes:
At one point a small stingray swam by underneath me. The ray seemed busy searching the bottom for food and was not paying much attention to our dive group:
We had been down almost 45 minutes when our "guides" signaled it was time to head back to the boat. We stopped at about 35 feet for 5 minutes to "decompress" before continuing our ascent to the surface. It gave us all a chance to reflect on all that we had seen and experienced. As I reached the surface, I was amazed to see a gar fish swimming around me. Was this the same gar fish that had greeted me at the bottom? Was this fish just curious or was he saying "good-bye"? Anyway, I wished him well and waved farewell to him as I swam toward the boat. One of the sea's little embassadors: ( about 30 inches long )
Our dive was over and we gathered at the boat to take our turn at hiking up the ladder:
After enjoying a nice lunch on the diveboat we journeyed to a second dive site where we dove down to see a ship that had wrecked on a coral reef back in the 40's. Unfortunately, I had a malfunction with my underwater camera during lunch and was not able to get pictures of the afternoon dive.
Like my hobby of ham radio, it takes training and experience to SCUBA dive, but once engaged, there is nothing like it in the whole wide world! SCUBA diving gives one a sense of being weightless in a silent world of dazzling colors and everchanging landscapes. In rare instances, divers do get hurt or even killed, as do ham radio operators who climb towers or stick their fingers into 1,000 volt circuits, but with training and experience, the sense of wonderment and the thrill of the hobby far outweigh the inherent dangers of both.