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From John Gross . . .
Grand Cayman Dive Report
Dates: May 29 - June 5, 2004
Travelers: Shirley Alters, Pete Bohling, George & Marta Crisp, Jonathan Crisp, Lorilee Darrow, Nancy Eberly, Betty Glatfelter, Cherri Glatfelter, John & Pat Gross, Pam & Susan Heisey, Mike & Tina Leas, Marybeth & Dave Linde, Dave McLain, Mary Nicholson, Danny & Vicki Robinson, John & Sandy Ruble, Bernie & Sharon Smolick, Ralph & Sandy Spayd.
Well what can I say when you have a perfect trip with prefect people. I guess you can call that the best dive trip to date! We left Lancaster on a bus and arrived at Philly Airport in time to check in and get our boarding passes. Our airplane left on time and arrived on time in Grand Cayman. Boy direct flights are the best! Our transportation to Seaview was waiting on us and so was the Seaview. The front desk was decorated with "Welcome Smokey's" signs. For a moment I thought Cindy might have made them and mailed them down to the Seaview. But then I realized they weren't written in Cindianese. If you don't understand what Cindianese is ask Cindy. We had enough time to get a shore dive in before dark. Grand Cayman doesn't use daylight savings time so our sunsets were an hour before the ones in Lancaster County.
Each day breakfast was served at 7AM and the bus took us to the boat at around 7:30. The bus driver was quit a character and fit in perfectly with our dive group. He explained many of the land sites on our way to the boat. He offered to bus the group around the island anytime we wanted. We also used him to take us to the Hyatt on Friday for Lorilee and Will Crisp's wedding. After the wedding he took us to the reception at the Grand Old House. But more on that later.
The nice thing about doing this report is that I get to sit and look at my video to refresh my memory on each dive. So here goes:
May 30
First Dive - Deep Dive - Sand Shoot
The divemaster from the boat announced that our first dive was going to be a deep one. So I rounded up my Advanced students, Shirley, Dave, and Danny and told them to get ready for their deep dive. I had everyone do a timed math problem on the boat with the exception of Danny. Pete told me he works better with words then numbers so I wrote a name on his slate and timed how long it took him write it backwards. We settled in on the sandy bottom around 80 feet. Everyone did their timed math or word problem and compared depth gauges. Then off to see the coral and fish. Most of the dive was conducted at 80-100 feet. Everyone enjoyed this dive.
Second Dive - The Balboa Shipwreck
The boat had sunk near the town pier and was interfering with ships coming and leaving the port. So this ship was blown up by the British Demolition Team. It is scattered over the ocean floor put many parts remain intact. There are entire rooms and engines available for exploration. One room about 15 X 20 feet was easy to penetrate and exam the fish life inside.
May 31
First Dive - Valley of the Lost Turtles
Second Dive - Oro Verde Shipwreck
June 1
First Dive - Aquarium
Second Dive - Devils Groto
June 2
First Dive - Hepp Pipeline
Second Dive - Rhapsody
June 3
First Dive - Little Tunnel and Black Tunnel
Our group split with half doing the Black Tunnel and the other half doing the Little Tunnel.
Second Dive - Killer Pufferfish
June 4
First Dive - Northwall - Dreamweaver
Second Dive - StingRay City
Our divemaster on the boat were a lot of fun and you never knew when they were telling a tale tale. One day the told us that NOAA had visited Grand Cayman several years ago to see if divers had a bad effect on the reef system. They said NOAA installed a plexy glass system around a reef to keep the divers from contacting the reef. After several months they started to remove the plexy glass system and realized they were damaging the reef system so they left some of the plexy glass standing. The divemaster instructed everyone to swim with their hand out to keep from running into the plexy glass. Of course this was just a story. They wanted to see how many divers would hold the hand out while they were diving. Of course I got even with them the next day. I told them we ran into one of their friends and a bar the night before. That was true as we had talked with Andy, a friend of both our divemaster. I told our DM's that we gave their tip to Andy and told him to tape it onto the plexy glass and since they knew where the plexy glass is they can retrieve their tip. They looked a little concerned until I said, Got ya!
Two of our fellow travels, Will Crisp and Lorilee Darrow, got married in Grand Cayman at the Hyatt on Friday, June 4th. Several of the dive group attended the wedding and reception. In fact I had the honor of doing the video for the wedding.
Some of you may remember on last years trip that Bernie Smolick and Bill Hockley almost got into trouble for checking out the underside of a cruise ship while it was in port. Well on our bus ride back from our boat dive we all noticed that a cruise ship was anchored near the Seaview Hotel. Everyone overheard Bernie make this statement, "It looks do able". I thought here we go again!
So if your interested in going along next year stop by Smokey's and sign up for our trip. The dates are: May 28, 2005 to June 4, 2005. Destination to be announced soon!
I want to thank everyone on our trip. You are what made it so successful! Thanks again.
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