DEEP TROUBLE

With six-foot-high waves tossing us about on the surface, the dive master had told Karen and I to head to the bottom at 80 feet and wait while our friends, Mike and Julia, swam from the sides of the small boat to the anchor line. Neither had ever SCUBA dived from a boat before and this was their first time to the Caribbean.

As I saw the anchor come into view, it took me a few moments to figure out what was going on. Shouldn't it be buried in the sand? It just hung there drifting above the reef. I realized that it had pulled free from the bottom due to the rough seas. No biggie. … just wait till everyone makes it down and then we'll reset it in the sand.

As Karen positioned herself next to me at the anchor, I checked my depth gauge - 113 feet. Damn!!! (Actually the word the came to mind was a tad more colorful.) We were way too deep. I pointed to my gauge and Karen confirmed the depth. We simultaneously gave each other the thumbs up sign and started our ascent. Halfway up, the divemaster, Brian, met us as he was coming down. He repeated the thumbs up signal to us.

On dives over 60 feet deep the protocol is to stop at 15 feet for three minutes to help 'off gas' - release the nitrogen built up in body tissues from breathing compressed air at depth. If the guidelines for staying at certain depths are exceeded, the added nitrogen can cause decompression sickness: the bends.

At 15 feet, I tried to stop, but Brian signaled for us to continue upwards. The seas had gotten worse in the few short minutes we were under the waves. Mike and Julia had never even gotten below the surface. The 12-foot vessel now heaved to and fro like a bucking bronco. And we had to climb back into this boat.

Neither Mike nor Julia had dived in years and most of their diving experience had been in cold, dark waters-quarries for Mike and chilly California kelp forests for Julia. Karen and I had regaled them with hundreds of stories of the great diving in the Caribbean: beautiful reefs, abundant sea life, clear warm waters and calm seas. Things weren't going as planned.

As we made our way back to shore, Brian said we could check out another area to see if the visibility was any better or attempt a dive from the pier back at base. The water, however, remained cloudy and choppy the entire trip and Karen and I were basically barred from diving for another 12 hours. Though we were in no danger of 'the bends', since we had only spent a minute at 113 feet (the maximum allowable time is 13 minutes for this depth), further use of the dive tables would be inaccurate because we neglected the 'safety stop' at 15 feet..

Once ashore, we discussed other diving possibilities with the other Brian, Brian Langford, owner of Captain's Watersports. Our original plan was to dive in Ocho Rios late the next morning. Ocho Rios, however, also lay on the north coast and faced the same rough seas by mid-morning due to the current weather pattern.

Negril, where Karen and I had dived in the past, seemed the best choice due to its position on the lee side of the island, sheltered from the wind. But both locales required a long drive. Our best chance to enjoy some fine Caribbean diving would be leave from Captain's Watersports at 8 a.m. sharp the following morning. We left all of our gear there and the two Brians and Sun promised to have everything ready and assembled on the boat upon our arrival.

At precisely eight o'clock the next morning we arrived to find everything ready as promised. A few minutes later Sun tied off to a permanent mooring ball at a different location than the previous day, in a cove downwind from the approaching front.

On the trip out, waves crested at three feet. But here seas remained relatively flat. Mike and Julia had no problems performing the back roll off the side of the boat as they had on the previous day. Having handled such rough conditions successfully, today's conditions proved to be cakewalk.

We all met at the mooring line and began our descent, following divemaster Brian. Mike abruptly stopped 20 feet down signaling that he was having trouble with his ears. Divers must regularly equalize the pressure in their sinus cavities as they descend, usually by squeezing your nose and blowing until your ears pop. If you can't equalize, the pain becomes unbearable and you're forced to surface. I worried that this dive would also end in failure. But after a minute, Mike finally popped his ears and we continued down to 80 feet.

Visibility still fell short of our expectations, maybe 30 feet. However, the reef blossomed with colorful corals forming deep canyons. We swam within the canyons and then through a small tunnel. Cruising along the sides of the sheer coral walls felt like flying. Surprisingly, very few animals populated the reef-a few parrotfish and trumpet fish. With better visibility and a few schools of fish, this would be a perfect dive site. For some unknown reason, the site was called Spanish Anchor. We saw neither the Spanish nor an Anchor. After 15 minutes at 80 feet, we ascended and spent another 20 minutes at 30 feet before heading back up the line. This time we made our safety stop.

Getting back into the boat was far easier today. Once aboard, Sun untied and motored over to another mooring ball a half mile away to a site known as Shelacar Reef. We spent another 30 minutes here just hanging out as our bodies 'off-gassed' so we could do the next dive. As we waited, the seas continued to build.

The dive had a maximum depth of 45 feet (you always do the deeper dive first). Having gotten into the groove, we were underwater in seconds. We skimmed across the tops of coral canyons and then out onto the sandy bottom. Several large lobster traps rested in the sand, but no lobsters. Both the amount of sea life and visibility were better. After 40 minutes of leisurely touring the underwater scenery, we reached the maximum time on our dive tables and sadly headed back up…. just in time for the waves to pick up. In a repeat of yesterday, climbing that ladder was quite an ordeal. The ride home became another bouncing, frolicking adventure, but Mike and Julia were okay this time. Woo Hoo!!!

We had not planned to do anymore diving. But the next morning, as we sat on our villa balcony at Fairwinds and looked out at calm waters, we knew we had to go again. A quick phone call to the dive shop and a plan was hatched. Instead of driving over to Captain's Watersports at the Round Hill Resort a few miles away, the dive boat would come and pick us up at the dock of Tryall Club, our resort. We threw our gear together and hiked down to the beach. Again, rough seas were predicted in the afternoon. Brian and Sun pulled up to the pier a few minutes after our arrival but the seas had already crested at three feet! It was coming in faster than predicted again and we'd only have time for one dive.

We zoomed straight out and dropped anchor within sight of the Tryall Club. I feared a repeat of our first dive. With the boat already rocking', we decided on a simultaneous entry into the water. With our tanks on and regulators in our mouths, Mike and Karen sat over the edge of one side of the boat while Julia and I sat on the other. Brian counted to three and we all took the plunge together. Brian jumped in a couple seconds later and we made haste down the anchor rope.

Visibility was much better due to calm winds all night, at least 50 feet. Not the ideal 100-foot vis everyone dreams of, but not bad. We dropped down along the side of a sheer coral wall to 75 feet. This reef abounded with life. We saw starfish, sea cucumbers, a large stingray and a school of yellow fish. Several lobster traps also dotted the seascape, one enclosing a very angry lobster trying to escape. The area contained an amazing diversity of corals and was one of the healthiest reefs I'd seen in over 10 years of diving.

After 15 minutes, we swam up to 30 feet and returned along the top of the reef -- large schools of blue and brown chromis almost engulfed us. I lost track of how many different fish we saw. This was what diving was all about and I was elated that Mike and Julia finally had the opportunity to experience the magic of Caribbean diving. After another 20 minutes, however, the world of the air-breathers called us home. Suffice to say, it was another difficult climb back aboard the tiny boat in turbulent seas. But we were now old hands at the procedure... it was 'no problem mon' as the locals say.