Big Wall – Not Your Average Engineer

January 10, 2019December 12, 2021

Little Cayman Diving Day 6

Getting ready for our final day of diving at Little Cayman. The dive boats they use at the Little Cayman Beach Resort are really nice and basically brand new.

The Nassau Groupers are really starting to congregate in advance of their annual spawning event.

It felt like an absolute storm of fish.

Swimming through a little canyon between big mountains of coral.

A couple Nassau Groupers came through the storm of fish, getting ready for the mating frenzy that’s on the way.

Heading along a sand channel toward the Big Wall for one last view of the abyss before we head home.

Heading out into the blue from the reef. The transition to the coral heads out to the deep blue of the open ocean is absolutely extraordinary.

Heather up on the top of the reef looking for one or two last tiny things to take a photo of before we have to go on our surface interval for our flights home.

A barracuda came over to to say hello to us before we got out of the water for the last time on this trip to Little Cayman.

January 9, 2019December 12, 2021

Little Cayman Diving Day 5

Another great day of diving in the Cayman Islands awaits!

Diving around Little Cayman is just like being in an aquarium. The number of fish and all of the healthy coral make this a really special place.

A 5 or 6 foot long nurse shark was hanging out in the sand as we swam by to get to the Big Wall where the reef drops off into the depths.

Doing a swim-through up on the reef. There are a ton of great swim-throughs to explore on SCUBA around Little Cayman.

Doing a big swim-through on the way to the deep blue.

Popping out on the side of the Big Wall where the reef falls away for 3,000 feet before reaching the bottom.

Heading into another swim-through. I love exploring all of these little caves and channels between the reef.

Heading through another reef swim-through. When I popped out at the far side and just after I turned my camera off, Heather came up to me holding a small piece of plastic in her hand. She was trying to give it to me. I thought she had found some trash and wanted me to put it in my BC pocket to take to the surface. Upon closer inspection, it was a silicone ring. I figured it must have fallen off of another diver. She was insistent though on pushing it onto my ring finger. I thought she just wanted to make sure I didn’t lose it carrying it to the surface. Once I was up on the surface, she told me it was MY engagement ring! Heather had remembered a conversation we had on our third ever date about how it’s not fair that only women get engagement rings and that guys should get them, too. Well, here I am with an engagement ring now! 🙂

Divers from our boat on their safety stop before heading to the surface. Most of the dive sites around Little Cayman have shallow moorings where you can do your safety stop while checking out the reef. A few require you to hover at 15 feet partway between the bottom and the boat.

Heading down from the dive boat.

Swimming over the top of the reef to the Big Wall. It’s amazing how the reef just suddenly falls away and there is nothing but deep blue water in every direction.

There is nothing but water below me for 3,000 feet.

It’s like a blue chromis fish super highway along the edge of the reef on the Big Wall. Thousands upon thousands of these little blue fish just keep on trucking by.

This Nassau Grouper likes chilling out over top of a big barrel sponge. It must be like a fish Jacuzzi.

Here’s a photo of our matching silicone engagement rings 🙂

I can’t get enough of all of the outstanding swim-throughs that Little Cayman offers!

You never know what you’ll find in the channels that cut through the reef.

January 8, 2019December 12, 2021

Little Cayman Diving Day 4

Heather made a Nassau Grouper friend. He really, really wanted Heather to pet him like divers used to do at Little Cayman. Alas, it’s no longer allowed so Heather had to give him some tough love and tell him that petting is no longer allowed.

He was pretty sure if he swam as close as possible to Heather for long enough, she’d eventually cave in and pet him. But Heather was strong and never touched this grouper.

Looking back toward the Big Wall from out in the blue.

Doing a big swim-through in the reef. Coming up from the deep to the shallow part of the reef.

Heather taking a photo of something tiny.

Heading out into the sand flats in search of stingrays.

We discovered a stingray in the sand!

We didn’t go to Little Cayman only for the diving. On our third dive of the day, I tapped Heather on the shoulder (after she finished taking pictures of some tiny thing) and when she turned around, I presented her with a black ring box that I opened to reveal a blue silicone ring! Heather started smiling so much that her mask filled up with water and she sank a little bit. After she recovered, she donned her new ring and we kissed and hugged. Then she saw I had some back up rings in case the one in the box sprung free! Fortunately it did not and we didn’t add any plastic to the oceans. When we surfaced and the staff asked how our dive was we excitedly shared we’d gotten engaged! They said we were the first people to get engaged on their boat. No one else was in the water at the time so it was a special moment with just us, but we did get a pretty good selfie.

A beautiful sunset greeted us as we left the dock for a night dive on the reef.

I didn’t get any photos on the night dive but Heather did. Maybe she’ll share some online. We used the Kraken dive light that I won at the 2018 Monterey Shootout underwater photography contest. It was absolutely amazing how well the blue and red modes on that light work underwater. Instant fluorescence party!