Alone in Shark Waters

OK. Technically the title is true. I was alone, there are sharks in the water and it was a bit spooky, but I was  however, never in danger. The training in my certification course, and the experiences of seven dive in the previous week prepared  me for what was to come. But first the background.

This was day three in Placentia. I had woke relatively early and headed out for the usual coffee, before deciding to see what was going on at the docks. Got there around 9 am and noticed they were loading a boat with tanks. Yes there was a spot for me, and they were leaving at 9:30. So some scrambling was in order. A quick run back to the hotel room, a quick stop at corner store for water and biscuts, quick selection of tank, regulator, fins and mask, and off we went right on time.

Dive partners this time were brothers from Calgary, Justin and Jordan. Justin was a forest fire fighter for the Alberta government so he works seasonally, then travels in warmer climates for the winter months. He will be hopping around Central America until April when he returns home. Younger brother Jordan works in instrumentation in the oil patch, and was set to return in a few days. Both were very polite pleasant young men and we had a great time telling stories on the way out. The fourth diver Pete was traveling on the other boat with his wife and kids, who would be snorkeling while he was diving.

Our destination was the Silk Cayes, which are three tiny islands about an hour boat ride out from the coast.  When I say tiny, I mean tiny, with the one we were based out of maybe a hundred feet long by forty feet wide. It had nothing but a few palm trees, a couple of barbeques and two washrooms. And it was a spectacular setting. Snorkeling was in and around the island under the watchful eye of the boat captain. The four divers were to be  taken by boat about a mile and a half further out to sea, for our first dive at the Silk Cayes Wall.


The top of the wall is about fifty feet down, relatively shallow, but then takes a sheer drop to 2,400 feet. Because of the depth, the boat does not anchor, but follows the bubbles so it will be close when the divers surface. This is really important in choppy water where the swells make it more difficult to see the divers on the surface. After the usual briefing and safety check, we descended to the bottom and gathered with the dive master before heading out on our planned 45 minute dive. By this time I am feeling really confident after seven previous dives, and everything was going as planned. The visibility was not as good as Ambergris Caye, but was still great for seeing wildlife. In Scuba, there are two points that you let the dive master know about air supply, 1000 pounds as a notice that supply was getting low, and 500 pounds when it is time to start to surface. While all of my dives are non decompression dives, it is good practice to do a safety stop for five minutes at 15 m on ascent. OK. So that is the setup.

Now being a big guy, I breath more air than most, and that was the case here. I was down to 500 pounds and the others were still over a thousand. I gave the signal that I was going up, with the intention of following them from above at 15 m as I did my safety stop, again standard practice. This would have worked fine on my previous dives, but I lost sight of them quickly due to poor visibility. So, there I was on my own in open water, not having a clue where I would surface in relation to the boat, and not being able to see anyone or anything, it was shall I say, a bit spooky. Did a bit of quick reasoning and decided that the boat would continue to follow their bubbles pulling it further away from me and diverting his attention away from me. Since it was a no decompression dive I made the decision to make a controlled ascent and hit the surface with 200 pounds to go. The boat was about 200 feet away, no big deal, and he spotted me within a minute, and quickly came to pick me up. These guys are all professionals, have seen it all, and to them it was business as usual. I will say, I was happy that I didn't panic, and was able to think things through very quickly.

As this was a two tank dive, and we needed some down time between dives, we headed back to the Caye for an excellent lunch of Belizian chicken, salad and pineapple. They actually had bread and peanut butter, and since it was three weeks since having that, it made a great desert. The group bummed around for an hour, some sunning (some better than others), some swimming and others resting against one of the palm trees.

Dive two was at Silk Caye Canyon to a depth of 60 feet, and lasted around forty minutes. Things were nice but not as good as previous dives. We did see piccolo fish, groupers, some rays and a sea turtle, and I challenge a lion fish to duke it out, but it wouldn't bite. This fish is universally hated by Belizians as it is non native to the area ( result of an aquarium dump), is poisonous and prolific, and is taking over the reef. The are hunted by spear fish without the need for a fishing license, and the locals are trying to teach the groupers and sharks that they can eat them. This time I had worked hard to conserve my air, and managed to surface with the restof them, again with 200 pounds of air left.

At the end of the dive we jumped in with the snorkelers to play with the rays and the sharks. I managed to get a hold of the tail of one of the nurse sharks and came face to face with the largest ray I have ever seen. It had to have a wing span of ten feet, and a length of fifteen. It looked like a space craft, but moved effortlessly.

All in all, it was a great day that brought us back to port around 3:30. Two good dives, some intrigue on the seas, and lots of spectacular scenery.