Seraphya Berrin

As the sun was making its way westward on Wednesday evening, seven divers brought their gear down to the dock. The whole project team went down with them for a group photo shoot. About 15 takes later, after ringing cell phones, closed eyes, sneezes and threes cameras later we finally got a picture that was worthy of such a great team. This was all after we waited for a few minutes, practicing our smiles and how we would look into the sun and not squint, while waiting for Kenny to brush his teeth or whatever it is he does when everyone is already down at the dock.

Next we met our excellent captains and began the process of bringing the gear and tanks onto the boat. Suddenly out of nowhere we have a surprise diver; Stephanie came around and realized it not everyday that you get to do a tropical night dive. When we finally set out the sun was hanging low on the horizon and evening birds were flying around the mangroves. When we hit the sea after exiting the mangroves I got the proof that I was searching for. Anti-emetics, the medicines for sea sickness, not only make you sleep the whole day and walk around in a drug induced stupor but also make you seasick. Maybe it's some secret plot to make you think that: if this is how sick I am with the pills imagine how much worse it would be without them, but far more likely they just don’t have a good effect on me, because this was the first time I didn’t take them and this was the best I felt. When we got to the Winch Hole on Molasses Reef the sun was just on the horizon creating a very picturesque scene for the start of the dive. After a short briefing by John, our captain, we headed down under the water without flashlights so we could acclimatize our eyes to the soft tones of twilight. With glow lights zip tied to our tanks it was easy to find our buddies even with our flashlights off. We started only about 30 feet from the giant winch, but for all our navigational efforts we never found it.

With Damon and Stephanie taking the lead and Adam behind them I was just bumping into everyone while taking pictures of everything that moved. The biological highlight of the dive was definitely the nurse shark that turned tail and fled as soon as it had four dive lights shining all over it. Besides the hundreds of fishes we saw, a conch shell with a hermit crab elicited quite a bit of excitement. The group on the other boat enjoyed large barracuda and also caught a glimpse of the nurse shark. With our torches off we got the best treat of all, after your eyes adjusted to the pitch blackness that was black than black, little colorful green sparks dotting your field of vision, the phenomenon known as bioluminescence.

Both groups zigged and zagged around all over the reef in circles but that didn’t ruin the quality of the dives. The two groups nearly came to a head on collision that would have been painful, because having a dive torch suddenly in your face is about as much fun as looking at the sun at midday. Our captain said it almost seemed like we had a sixth sense, both groups were heading full speed ahead towards each other and just before the beams crossed suddenly both groups did a complete 180 degree about face, which to this day we still can not explain.

After surfacing from the depths the atmosphere was just as surreal in the air, with more stars than these city slickers have ever seen before. The boat was just about as dark as underwater with the exception of an eerie glow from Miami in the north. The trip ended up with a meteor shower. The perfect end to a great dive adventure spanning the depths of the sea to the stars up in the heavens.