The Caribbean Explorer crossed from St. Kitts back to Saba on our circle back to the ship’s home port of Philipsburg, Saint Maarten. This morning we’re making a dive to explore the wonders on the deep reefs. Until now, most of our diving has been in water 30-60 feet deep. We will now be diving to over 100 feet underwater! We don’t need any special equipment for such a deep dive, but the air in our tanks will not last long at these depths. So we must closely watch our dive computers that will show us when we’re getting low on air. We jump off the boat and slowly swim down underwater with divemaster Steve leading the way. The water today is very clear. We can see over 100 feet underwater. We notice that we’re at the edge of an underwater cliff. The top of this cliff is about 90 feet underwater and the bottom is almost 200 feet underwater. The bottom slopes and drops off even deeper, down to over 1,000 feet! As we swim along the top of the cliff at 90 feet, we feel like we’re birds, flying along the edge of the Grand Canyon! We swim along the underwater cliff. Karen sees something and makes a rapid swimming motion with her arm. A shark! Sleeping under a coral ledge is a nurse shark. This shark is about 4-feet long and bigger than the one we saw before (see December 18, 2000 journal). Karen reaches out her hand and gently pets the fish. The nurse shark remains sleeping under its coral ledge as we swim away. Divemaster Steve points away from the cliff. Rising up from the deep, about 50 feet from the cliff, is a needle of rock about 20 in diameter. This spectacular underwater pinnacle is covered with deep-water corals, sea fans, and sea sponges. It is the most beautiful sight we’ve see in all of our diving during our expedition! The pinnacle is teaming with life on it and around it. Schools of fish swim around the top of the pinnacle. We swim out to the pinnacle and descend slowly, circling this shaft of coral and sponge-covered rock. Our dive computers show us that we’re at 122 feet underwater and we will be getting low on air soon. So we swim back to the underwater cliff, up and away from the pinnacle. Divemaster Steve puts his hand on top of his head like a fin. This is his sign for shark! Swimming towards us from out in the blue are two blacktip reef sharks, each about 5-feet long. We stop by the underwater cliff and watch them swim towards us. At about 30 feet from us they turn and swim away along the cliff. I swim after them trying to get the sharks to turn around so I can take their picture, but they swim faster than I do. I soon give up and watch them continue their patrol along the cliff and off into the blue. Now it’s time for us to return to the surface after our deep dive and exciting encounter with sharks! |
Wayne and Karen get ready to make a deep dive! Manager and divemaster Jennifer helps double-checks their diving equipment before the dive.
At 90 feet underwater, Karen swims along the edge of an underwater cliff.
Karen pets a 4-foot long nurse shark sleeping in the coral.
At the top of the underwater pinnacle Karen finds a gigantic barrel sponge that is about as big is she is! (Sea sponges are a group of tiny underwater animals.)
On the vertical sides of the underwater pinnacle Karen investigates some purple tube sponges. |
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December 22, 2000
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