THE BEST DIVE EVER
At Walkers Key I had the most breathtaking experience in all my years of diving . Garry the divemaster and a select few of us were making a deep dive. We were swimming together as a group and came around a coral head at somewhere about 80 feet. As a man, we stopped breathing as we silently were privileged to view a tornado of silversides spanning from the entrance of a coral cave many feet below us to the surface. Not millions, but at least a billion in a thick tornado shaped cloud. I tried to take a picture but it did not do the scene justice.
We hung there, four men, in reverent silence, not breathing, not moving, savoring the sight, afraid to spoil the moment, until at last our lungs demanded our attention.
Then, as if by a signal, lungs gasping, we all started breathing again. I don't know what was going through the other guys minds, but I can guess. As we slowly returned to the surface along the anchor line, all I could do was think of that scene and how to remember the magic of the moment. The rest of the dive is lost in deep memories but that one moment is burned into my brain. That is one of my most fantastic memories of diving....ever...and I will carry it to my grave. The only downside was that my camera was loaded with low speed film and I had to push the processing to get anything. The pitiful picture above is the best I have of this scene. It just doesn't do the scene justice.
