Day Two
Today is a special day. Recently Leigh was diving with a friend Anthony who lost his life at Jack Fish Alley on a deep tec dive. On board the boat is John, Anthony's brother and Dasha, his wife. They are here to lay plaques in memory of him. Doozer and Neil go down with the plaques and lay one inside the shallow cave and one at 30 meters on the reef.
Jimmy Per and I are to gather video footage of the shallow cave today. We drop into the gully where the shallow cave is I know this part well as I sat outside it enough last time! I have the video camera, so Jimmy has to unclip one of my tanks for me and leave it on the outside of the cave. Per ties off a line for us to follow into the cave and we pick up the main line that was laid last year. The shallow room is smaller than I expected but still a large chamber, 4 mtrs high and 6 meters wide. To the left is a chimmney that goes down into the deep chamber of the shallow cave. We have been asked to video the wall every time we drop 10 meters and record depth, first one goes well, second one Per forgets to show the camera his computer so I try to follow his arm, he thinks he is in the way so tries to back off... eventually he realises and shows the camera 78.3 mtrs. Further down again to the bottom wall we hit 86 mtrs. Per decides he is a ferret and finds a hole he wants to go down, behind me Jimmy is saying stop... in front is Per beckoning on... aaarrrgghhh 2 men what to do?!!!
We take the sensible route and start our exit out of the cave. I see the line going up and out, but jimmy shakes his torch at me, I turn to be blinded by a 21 watt light! Now I know how Andy felt in mexico everytime I did that to him. When I turn back I dont see the line and end up under a boulder Jimmy flashes again to show me the line BLINDED AGAIN, but not enough that I don't see the line. Up the chimney we go, what is amazing is the line that was put in last year already has sponges and egg sacs on it, the back of the sign (remember those "dont go there or you will die" signs? One was put into the cave here last year) and already has bright orange sponges on it. Out of the cave and off we go up.
Earlier on in the day, another boat had gone past and radioed our skipper to tell him they were going to call the police and the national park to report us for tying a mooring on to the reef. In fact the mooring we are on was put there by the national park just for our project, but on our way back to the boat during our dive we notice the golden line I had put in yesterday to guide us back to the boat has disappeared, we think the guide has taken it out. This is very annoying. I often take out rubbish and fishing lines, but this line was so obviously put there for a purpose, initially Jimmy, Per and I start swimming the wrong way back to the boat. I spotted the mooring line so we made a turn. This could have been a major problem for us as our deco gas is hanging on the station at the boat! As I sit on the line, I think through our dive in the cave, the cave is awesome but not very long, and because it is so deep there just isnt enough time to look around. I really need another dive in it to see it properly, and with the video camera I really only saw the bits I was filming, you have to remember at those depths we had 14 mins in the cave then its a move to get out. The walls are made up of what looks like fossilised worm castings in the deep cave these worm castings are everywhere and very much alive, we have a sample of them from yesterday for the national park I shall name them Cappy 2 (last year's was named captain cave man Cappy for short)
I really wish I had an idea how to use the VR3 computer properly that I have on my arm, as its got space invaders on it, I have no idea how to find it and I am so bored sitting on this line at 6 mtrs. How Leigh does 4-6 hour dives I dont know, Gana had a newspaper with him yesterday... now I understand why!!!
At the end of the day we have a moment for Anthony. John says a few words which are very touching, in short "Anthony was my brother and best friend, the most generous man, if you are up there mate I will see you soon, but not to soon but I WILL see you again " he and Dasha throw in a bouquet of flowers each. We all have a rose each to throw. What a beautiful moment watching the flowers float away, I didnt know Anthony but it caught the back of my throat and I am sure everyone else on the boat felt the same. Its catching me again just writing about it. With that we sail away and leave the flowers floating in a place of peace.
DAY THREE:
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