Twisted Sister, dive 27

Dive: 27
Cayman Dive: 3
Date: 12/2/08
Site: Twisted Sister, South Side, Grand Cayman
Avg/Max Depth: 66/117
Temp: 79
TBT/CBT: 0:28/21:21
Buddies: Nick, Kristen, Curtis, Ted

After waiting 30 minutes for the dive van to pick us up, we headed to the south side of town for our dives of the day. There were already four other divers in the van, and we got off to a bit of a late start because of rush hour traffic. When we got to the boat there were two more divers waiting. Our divemaster of the day was Jon again (swoon), and there was another videographer, who’s name none of us can remember, but I’m sure we’ll see her again.

This time we were in more of a traditional style boat. They called it Pegasus. It didn’t take too long to get to the first dive site, Twisted Sister. I was the last one in the water due to some dumbheadedness on my behalf. First my mask was tightened and the band was misaligned because of my snorkel. I frustratedly fixed that, only to get my snorkel caught under my BCD shoulder strap, so I had to pull it out and fix it again. It felt like it took me forever. I was thankful that the chick was helping me so I wasn’t making a fool of myself in front of Jon. When I took my giant stride into the water, my mask completely leaked on one side. We were told to surface swim with our snorkel to the front of the boat. It was going to be a deep dive and he didn’t want us using our air up top. I swam against the current to where the others were waiting. When I got there I removed my mask to get all my hair out of the way so it would stop letting on water. It’s much easier to do when my hair is wet and not blowing around haphazardly in the wind. By the time I got it in place everyone had descended but I couldn’t find my regulator. I fumbled around, trying to remember all the techniques for locating it from way back in my first open water class. I figured in the current it had got tossed behind me, or maybe it had wrapped around to my left side. They seem to strap the tanks really low on the back here, so I couldn’t reach the top of the tank to follow its hose. Again, it felt like it was taking forever. I was all alone on the surface and when I peeked underwater everyone was tens of feet below me. So much for getting help. Then Jon called over the side of the boat, asking if everything was alright. I told him I couldn’t find my reg, and he told me it was over my shoulder and patted his collar bone. Of course it was practically right in front of my face. So much for not making a fool of myself.

I descended quickly after that, trying to make up for lost time. I was surprised to see that Jon was already down there starting to lead the way. I must be slower than I previously thought. The dive went smoothly after the fiasco in the beginning. We went through some caves, which I got a good video of, and saw basically the same fishes as yesterday.

Toward the end of the dive I stopped to take a picture of Nick. He decided to take out his reg and smile at the same time I pushed the button. The resulting photo turned out quite humorous.

We got back to the boat and took some time being gassy on the surface. The wind was a bit chilly, but the fact that it wasn’t raining made it a little more tolerable than yesterday’s surface interval.