The Setup - September 1999

I arrived at Sunset House late in the evening, checked in and got my Cathy Church class logistic instructions for the next morning. I threw my bags in my room (AC) and strolled over to the bar for a adult beverage and a sandwich. Btw, Sunset House is right on the beach and the view of sunsets from the open bar are spectacular! 

Sunset house is on Grand Cayman, near downtown Georgetown, and not too far from the airport. Good dive shop and you can dive directly off beach at the hotel anytime you like.

The next morning I grabbed breakfast at Sunset House's restaurant (forgettable) and then walked to the main building where Cathy has her shop/classroom in the lower level. They always had coffee in the classroom and sometimes doughnuts, muffins and such. (last day I had breakfast in the restaurant) 

I introduced myself and got my assignment for the morning; label ANYTHING that I owned myself with a number. (I was #11) This included camera gear, film AND BC. 

After all the class arrived and finished labeling, we did come gear calibration. Specifically, they checked our camera meters against a known light source. I had been shooting my Nikonos at 1/3 stop under as I'd found my Nikonos meter was off. It was nice to actually have the camera meter adjusted properly. I'll bet that many poor shots ARE due to improperly set meters. 

Cathy explained the dive boat logistics. You do 3 dives per day from a Sunset House dive boat. The cost of everything IS included EXCEPT the boat crew tip. Cathy strongly recommended $150 as she has conditioned the boat crews to give exceptional service for her classes. I had no objection. The service turned out to be as advertised. You ask; you get. Can't remember, but I think I paid extra for Nitrox fills, but not certain.  I dove 32% Nitrox for the entire trip; with the exception of one tank of air. Nitrox continues to be great for me and I didn't feel nitrogen-tired even though we did three dives per day.

Last updated: 5/8/04

The Routine

Basically, you get to the classroom between 8:00 and 9:00a.m. to review your slides from the day before with Cathy. She critiques what you've done after asking what you're trying to accomplish and offers good feedback. Very personalized. 

You then get ready to load up on the boat and do 3 dives. The diving was all on the west side, except for a couple of dives on the north side to do the stingray city type stuff towards the end of the class. 

You actually don't get out of the water between dives, unless you want to, or they want to go to a second site. You surface at the swim-step, hand your camera up for a change of film and un-strap your BC for the crew to strap in a new tank. (here's where the numbered BC's come in handy) They will even bring you some juice, water, soda or cookie at the swim-step if you want. It's VALET diving at it's best. 

After the dives you hand in your film for processing, rinse off and have lunch. Later you meet meet in photo shop for classroom lecture. After that, you're free for the afternoon/evening. That means beer and dinner!!! 

On two nights during the course Cathy takes the class out for dinner in Georgetown. (included in the price) We did a nice Italian place once and a Fajita place on the other. Fun to relax with the group.  

The day before graduation you hand in a few slides that you're pleased with and they assemble a student slide show for graduation night. You have a graduation dinner and slide show where you get your diploma. Lots of fun. 

Photo Gallery with class photos included in the 'GC' section - click here

The Course

Kathy does all the lecture segments helped by her class assistants. She starts the first lecture with her famous, "this is the front of the camera and this is the back of the camera". For safety she recommends not using a lanyard on your camera - dangerous! The story she told made me remove my immediately!  

You start out learning not to use the automatic mode (A) on the camera; we didn't. She emphasized the use of your arms to do distance measurements for focus. 

I won't mention any more specifics so as to not get in trouble with Cathy by giving the class here. She's gotta support herself out there on Grand Cayman somehow! <G> 

The basic outline, day by day, is:

• Natural Light; Wide Angle Day

• Stobe Fill, Wide Angle Day

• Close-Up Day

• Grotto and Night Dive

• Wall and Reef

• Reef and Fish Day

• Wall and Stingray City

The Dives - Click here for some Class Photos

One nice dive side was one that Kathy called 'The Mesa'.  I think it's listed in other Cayman dive books as 'Royal Palms'.  The site is more like a BIG mushroom cap with the stem sawed off, sitting on the reef. Part of it is undercut by the topology and totally open underneath on one side.  She asked during this dive not to go underneath the mushroom cap because bubbles will filter through to the top quickly and spoil photography conditions for other divers.

It turned out to be a great site for Parrot fish. Kathy used a plastic mirror to make one Parrot fish attach his "rival" in the mirror. He ignored us photographers while fighting with himself in the mirror. Easy to get a parrot portrait shot. 

We also used an old soft sea fan prop we found on the sand with the Nikonos close-up kit for Angel fish face portraits. We had the sea fan we found on the sand and tore a hole in it so the framer could just 'see' through it as an 'organic' frame. We used canned cheese to get the angel fish to come into the sea fan frame.

I actually got attacked on one dive by a Caribbean Chubb. I had seen that happen to another diver earlier in the day and kind of laughed to myself. I stopped laughing after I got attacked. He kept pecking at my head. Someone said they like trying to get at the air bubbles in your hair. Felt like someone poking my head with the point of a pencil; HARD. 

We also did a day at ' Devils Grotto', where Kathy coached each one of us to take me cathedral shot that is her signature. This dive side also has schooling and solitary tarpon, which Kathy coached us on how to approach. I was not totally successful in getting a good shot of the tarpon but it was fun trying. Kathy also helped me get some good shots of a Coney using the canned cheese as bait. Devils Grotto is also where we did some Tarpon shots. 

Sandbar

The day we were supposed to do 'Stingray City' on the north side, we saw that it was very stirred up as we approached so we continued on for awhile to a local dive spot called 'Sand Bar'. This apparently is another site where fishermen cleaned their catch and has attracted stingray to feed here too. Some divers that had done 'Stingray City' didn't seem to think there was any difference between the two dive spots. 'Sand Bar' was actually the second and third dives of the day. The first dive was at Orange Canyon again, but I sat that out.

I get some good shots here (shooting the 15 mm Sea and Sea) and had my picture taken by John while a big female stingray tried to eat fish out of my hair. This is how they get the stingray to come close to take your portrait, by putting food in your hair. When the stingray was coming over the back of my head she apparently tried to get the food out of my hair by directing a stream of water from her mouth onto my head. It was so powerful that it filled up half of my mask as it passed directly through my mask seal. 

Btw, you don't have to ride the entire way back on the boat from the North side. They land you at a marina on the North Side and bus you back to Georgetown.  

West Side

We dove 'The Balboa' twice; once the first day for available light exercises and the second time for the night dive. 

Kathy told us we were the last class to dive the 'The Balboa' where is was. They are going to move the wreck to another site to open up more space for cruise ships. 

When we dove the Balboa on available light day I discovered two very big/long green morays hiding in some very long angle iron in the sand. Got a shot or two by setting a dive light in the sand (didn't have a strobe this day) and resting my camera on the sand to steady it. Kathy's help on aperture and focus.

The Balboa was the first time that I'd ever shot a 15 mm lens on my Nikonos; I LOVE that lens. --- Oops, does this mean slipping the plastic out of my wallet again? <G>

General

The macro I shoot was all 1:2 on my 28mm. I also tried the close-up kit with the 28 mm lens for the Angel fish portraits. 

Tried my new earplugs and lost one on the first dive. Work nice until then. I'm gonna buy another pair when I get back to California. 

Our night dive was on the wreck of the Balboa. Nice because it's almost in Georgetown harbor and shallow (35ft or so)  

Orange Canyon was the deepest diving we did; on the wall at 80 ft. 

I actually sat out one dive when we went to dive Orange Canyon for the second time. Even though there appeared to be less current than the first time, there was some and I did not want to embarrass myself the second time in the same trip. (see below) <G> 

Two other dive sites I liked were 'Aquarium' and ' Angel fish'. One or both of these we did more than one day.

The Stupid Diver Story (go to be one on every trip, right?) 

Cayman "Water-Taxi"

During the first dive at Orange Canyon, I misjudged the direction and distance back to the boat after the dive, and ended up 'down current' by a substantial distance.  After attempting to swim against the current back to the boat for a while I finally gave up. Inflated my BC and and waited to be picked up after the boat retrieved all of the other divers.  We arranged this during the dive briefing. IN CASE someone ended up 'down current'.  Needless to say, this turned out to be me. 

A local Cayman fishermen chanced upon me floating on the surface, and inquired if I was okay.  I replied that I was fine, that the dive boat would pick me up after they retrieved the other divers.  He continued fishing nearby.  After a few minutes he asked if I would rather have a ride back to the dive boat.  After considering this I agreed since it would be less hassle for the boat crew if they wouldn't have to motor over to pick me up after retrieving everyone else. At this point he asked if anyone on board smoked. Needless to say, the ride back cost me a pack of cigarettes. I had to bum them as I don't smoke. <G>

We first tried towing me back after I handed him my UW camera rig. This proved to be unsuccessful as the drag of me in the water with tank and BC on made it impossible for me to hold on to the bow rope, and I was a bit afraid of slipping back or under the boat and getting dinged by the prop. 

We eventually worked it out so that I did the fining thing at the side of his boat to get enough momentum to get on the transom and then over into the boat itself. His boat was a little 14 footer, I'd guess. Didn't want to swamp him, so I was careful.

Approaching the dive boat I of course took some comments from the divers already on board about my "Cayman water-taxi". I took the ribbing in good humor and considered the experience a good lesson. You know about experience don't you? It's what you get after you need it! <G>

I dropped off some distance up current and away from dive boat, so we wouldn't run the risk of crashing into a surfacing diver, and swam back to the swim step. More ribbing, and a photo to memorialize the 'incident'.

This was at Orange Canyon. It looks like I got a reverse squeeze because I had a slight nose bleed after I surfaced -- DOWN CURRENT. <G>

Tell me what you think. Questions or comments are always welcome!

Email me at timboyd1 at yahoo.com
  
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