Shallow Plane

March 1, 2010

Today I had a chance to go diving with Teresa (divemaster certified) in Jamaica.  A rare opportunity for me to go diving with a friend as most of the people I know haven't gone diving or they have gone diving and now actively hate it due to a bad experience :P

Anyway...the boat was practically empty this morning except for one other female diver and her friend.  Yet another rarity to be outnumbered by the ladies on a dive.  Here's a shot of us on the way to Shallow Plane.

Everett and Teresa

The divemaster, Kevin, gave us our briefing and we got ready for the dive.  The ocean was quite calm this morning so I couldn't resist taking this chance to ask someone I know to get a video of me jumping into the water.  It's vain...but what the hell.

Here's a shot of Teresa during our descent.

Teresa on descent

The start of the dive was pretty familiar.  The usual fish, a moray eel, a small stingray, etc.  The divemaster stopped us to look at a sea cucumber, which couldn't have been more boring, when we heard the sounds of dolphins.  Sure enough we looked up and there was a small pod of 3 dolphins swimming past us.  This is the first time I've ever seen dolphins during a dive.  I just about took a crap in my wetsuit.

I brought my camera up thinking I might be able to get a quick video of them but they were moving too quickly and fluidly through the water for me to capture them.  All I could do was snap one shot just before they swam out of visibility.  They aren't easy to make out but if you squint and tilt your head to the right you can see all 3 of them.

Dolphins

I briefly considered swimming after them as fast as I could but I knew it was futile.  Nothing left to do but continue the dive.  Shortly after sighting the dolphins we came to the plane wreckage that gives the dive site its name.  It's an old Cessna 152 airplane that crashed into the ocean sometime ago and has long since deteriorated.

Shallow Plane

We moved on from the wreck and eventually came across a flatfish.  It's a strange looking fish with both of its eyes on one side of its head.  I managed to snap a picture and follow it for a while before diving into swim through.

Flatfish

And finally at the end of the dive there's the obligatory dive buddy picture.

Everett and Teresa

We got back on the boat and headed back to resort.  As we made our way back we had to listen to the vocal stylings of our boat captain Papa Luva (seriously, that's the name he went by).  In addition to driving the boat Papa Luva decided to seranade the ladies the entire way back.  It made for a really bizarre boat ride back to shore.

Shallow Plane


Location: Negril, Westmoreland, Jamaica

Statistics


Dive Number:   71
Bottom Time: 31m
Time In: 11:44 a.m.
Tank In:
Max Depth: 59.00 ft
Table Used:
Mix:   Air
Safety Stop: 3m
Time Out: 12:15 p.m.
Tank Out:
Average Depth: 42.00 ft
Start Pressure Group:
 
 
 
 
Surface Interval:  
End Pressure Group:

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Everett Toews
TBT: 216h 37m