Cancun--Wreck Dive

Isn't it amazing that this is over 80 feet deep?  Look how light and blue the water is!
And to think this is with lots of surge.  I love the Caribbean!

So, today we had two dives scheduled for Cancun (most dives are called 2-tank dives) which means we go down for 45-60 minutes, come up for a surface interval (and for our bodies to clear themselves of nitrogen) and then head back down for a shorter dive.  It's crazy that we are under for such a short period of time when there is so much preparation that goes into everything.  However, it's all TOTALLY worth it.

So, we had a wreck dive scheduled for the first dive, and because we had to go down to 80 feet, the second dive had to be significantly shorter, so we had a reef dive scheduled.  I personally chose the wreck dive, because I knew it would be super cool for all of us.

When we showed up at the dive shop this morning at 7 a.m., the guy who owns the shop was glad that we were going out so early, because the winds were really high today and he wasn't sure that boats would be able to go out later.  I didn't think much of it because our dives up to this point have been really nice and beautiful and relaxing and amazing.

After we got the boat all stocked and we were ready to go, we headed out into the harbor.  The air temperature was about 80 degrees and the smooth water was even warmer (about 85 degrees--it's actually warmer than the resort pools).  When we finally made it out to the ocean, things changed.  Not the temperature, but the smoothness.  We were traveling in a little banana boat with us sitting on the sides (there were three others diving as well) so the boat was full.  5-10 feet waves.  Seriously, we would ride up to the crest of one of the waves and then crash straight down.  I worried that we would just lose Glo on one of those downslides over the side of the boat.  The water was splashing up and over both sides of the boat.  As you can imagine, we all started feeling really, really sick.

This continued for probably 20 minutes (but it felt like a lifetime).  I wondered if any of this was going to worth it, and I wondered how in the world the captain would even be able to find the dive site.  The funniest moment of that moment was when we looked back at "El Capitaine" and he had put on a dive mask so that he could see through all the water that was splashing up on us.  If I hadn't been so nauseated, and so worried about falling out of the boat, I would have grabbed my camera to take a picture.  I kept telling everybody that we didn't care if they vomited--just do it outside of the boat.  Well, guess who was the first to vomit?

Yeah, me.

Four times.  In a row.  Corn pops and Mexican milk.  

Seriously, as soon as I upchucked, I felt a million times better, but because of the craziness of the situation, nobody had even noticed.  They were all too busy nursing their own nausea and trying to stay on the boat.

Next thing I know, I look over and Mark is wiping his mouth.  He too has witnessed his breakfast again, but his was brown from the Coco Krispies (Mexican style).  When I asked him (now being able to joke because I felt so much better) how many times he vomited, he said to me, "Four!  I couldn't let you beat me, because I know this is going on the blog!"

I looked over at Glo and she was green.  I kept telling her to stick her finger her mouth (well, I was yelling over the crashing of the waves at this point), but she didn't want to.

Finally, we got close to the site, and it was sheer terror.  We usually jump off the boat, one at a time and sit in the water waiting for everyone.  Today, because the waves were so fast and tall, we needed to go off at one time and sink immediately--otherwise, we could become separated really easily.  (As a side note, it's amazing that about 6 feet under the waves, the water is totally calm.  All we have to do is let our weight belts pull us down and we're good to go.)  So, we were all set, sitting on the edges of the boat, waiting to fall backwards into the water (riding the waves and holding on for dear life) when Glo says, "I don't feel ..... (vomit noises).  As much as I wanted to show her sympathy, I couldn't move with 70 pounds of equipment on my back and perched on the edge of the boat, trying to hold on.  I could just listen to her vomit.  Two times she vomited and then the divemaster counted to three and we fell in the water (I seriously had to just trust his judgement with Glo).  We were all immediately pushed by the waves to the back of the boat where I caught up with Glo.  I asked her if she was okay, and at that point, I hear her vomiting into her regulator (the thing that goes into her mouth).  She pulls it out just in time and vomits into the ocean, bobbing right at surface level.  She then turned to us and said, "I'm good. Let's go."  We sunk immediately.

In the all-too-frequent words of Mark, "WHAT A CHAMP!"

There was a kid who was certifying the other day, and he got motion sickness waiting to get on the boat after his first dive.  There's a point when you surface where if you remove your reg before you can get in the boat, it's really hard on the stomach.  I don't know why this happens, but we have learned to keep our regs in until we are ready to climb the ladder.  The amazing thing is that even if we do get nauseous, as soon as we get under the water for the 2nd dive, all nausea goes away.  It's kind of a trip, how it all works.  Well, this kid wouldn't go down for the 2nd dive.  He thought he was too sick, even though we told him that he would feel better. Instead, he stayed on the boat for the next hour, waiting for us, sick as a dog.  Poor judgement.

Compare that to Glo who is VOMITING before her dive, and is still ready to go down.  Everybody says that she's just a natural, and totally amazing, which she is!

Turns out, another girl on the boat vomited too.  It was crazy intense, especially considering I NEVER vomit.

So, like I said, we sunk immediately.  In fact, we went down 80 feet in about 20 seconds.  That's crazy.  I had only been that deep once (the day before) and that dive was tricky for my ears, but this time, it was a piece of cake.  The amazing thing was that there was a current under the water that carried us all away (but together).  Within about one minute, I calmed down, slowed my breathing (to conserve air) and looked ahead.  There was a wall of a wrecked ship about 15 feet away and about 40 feet high.  It was AMAZING!  It was covered in coral.  We swam around it first, but then our divemaster took us IN it.  WOW!

The cutest thing.  Everybody is always worried about Glo, because just a few years ago, someone her age couldn't even dive.  Now, 10-11 year olds can dive, but they are only supposed to dive to 40 feet.  Well, I don't even know how many times Glo has been way deeper than that.  Because of the current, the divemaster paired himself up with her (everybody always must have a BUDDY--the cardinal rule of diving).  So, the four times he dove with her, he always swam with her, holding her hand.  She loved this divemaster because he purposely found the coolest animals and fish for her to see and hold (totally illegal in other countries for him to disturb them, but in Mexico, there aren't so many rules :-))  

Anyway, Glo and the divemaster went first into the wreck followed by Mark (thanks for leaving me, BUDDY!).  Then, Hannah, me and John.  Well, at one point we were turning a corner, and Hannah just stopped.  She turned around to me and shook her head "no" and I knew she wasn't going in there.  However, John and I both knew (and talked about this later) that if we got separated from the divemaster, we had to head directly to the surface and I wasn't about to end this dive.  So, I went in first, took her hand and pulled her through.  We found out later that a HUGE puffer fish (she says it was as big as a DOG) swam in front of her and she wasn't about to go in.  Of course, I didn't see it, being so worried about her.  Grrrr....

We got to see a gorgeous green moray eel (first one), an eagle ray swimming through the water (it must have had a 6-foot wingspan) and two stingrays.  There were other cool, small things on the second dive, but that first one was crazy amazing!