Headed out to the wreck of the Doc Poulson off Seven Mile Beach in Grand Cayman. Simon and I were up for some scooter free diving to checkout this artificial reef sunk in 1991 in honor of Doc Poulson, the physician that worked to get the first recompression chamber set up on Cayman. The wreck was a former anchor tender and lay in about 55 ft. of water over white sand. The fairly shallow depth makes it a fairly straight forward free dive even more so ala scooter. Still, there are hazards associated with scooter free diving which can't be ignored. More on that subject at
http://fksa.org/showthread.php?t=4615 Reefs are nearby supplying a ready stream of fish orbiting over the wreck.
Simon heads down. BTW, he has a great site with images from his undersea travels around the world at:
http://www.glorifiedfisherman.com/ He prefers to hold the DPV in the conventional way. I vastly prefer to use the saddle, hands free operation and easy steering by flicking a fin tip. Makes shooting images and equalizing a lot easier for me.
Click photo for full sized image
A bird's eye, (fish's eye?) composite view of the wreck
The wreck is just deep enough to pickup some garden eels in the sand. They would zip down out of sight as you motor over them. I shot a lot of video on the wreck, stay tuned for that. Caught some interesting images including Simon crafting air rings and then ascending through them, a cuda that quickly followed Simon as he scootered into the below deck spaces, schools of jack, darting garden eels, rampaging groupers and more.
Running up on some of those jacks
A neat bottom side elevational view of the wreck. Wish I had remembered to shoot a composite in portrait mode. Longer breathhold but well worth the result, next time. (Click photo for full sized image. I was happy with how this one turned out all be it cropped at the top)
Motoring by the deck house. Question, what is it with SCUBA divers and displaced toilets? I almost Photoshopped this one out. I did a photo shoot on one our our few wrecks Ft. Lauderdale, FL in the 1970's one cold night for a college assignment. Viz. was great and the photos came out well. Even caught a shot of a guy going through the motions on the throne fitted out with a sea squirt and everything. Next dive the pot was out sitting on the deck. Guys, if the wreck has a head, leave it in the head. Looks more natural.
Anyway, it was a fun dive, thanks Simon for the tour! Hope to be back soon to see more on this great island.
Photos by Rick Iossi
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