I have endeavored in this fishy little story, to raise the ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humor with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it aside. This is a story of plans happily made; things gone awry; disappointments accepted and finally, a very happy Christmas.
It all began in the fall of 2002. My then girlfriend Louise and I had decided to spend my birthday and Christmas diving in the Cayman Islands. We began dreaming about the trip in September. We both had been fairly busy with work and found ourselves using the internet for most of our research and planning. We read articles; wrote emails and made phone calls to various dive operators, hotels, rental car agencies and the like.
By Thanksgiving, we had most of the reservations confirmed. We would spend four days diving the quieter East End of Grand Cayman. From there, we had booked three nights in a Bed and Breakfast on Cayman Brac and a dive trip with a local operator. The culmination to our adventure was to be the famed Stingray City dive back on Grand Cayman. We were excited!
We knew from various articles and other divers that Stingray City was the jewel-in-the-crown of Cayman diving on one hand and on the other, it could turn into a potentially dismal group grope. Stingray City can be done as a scuba dive or as a snorkel adventure. The divers go to an alternate location. The dive site is a shallow fifteen feet. The snorkel area is wadeable.
The west side of Grand Cayman is where Georgetown, the capital, Seven Mile Beach and Stingray City are found. It is also a major cruise ship destination. There were no less than four cruise ships anchored at any given time during Christmas week. Christmas being the peak tourist season in these islands. All of this adds up to literally thousands of visitors on Grand Cayman and Stingray City. Many operators run cattle boats carrying up to one hundred and fifty passengers! That’s the down side.
What makes Stingray City so special is that the Southern Stingrays that congregate there behave like big friendly dogs. Skin Diver magazine did an article in 1987 and National Geographic did one about the place in 1989 that started the big tourism ball rolling.
We knew there would be crowds but we really didn’t understand the magnitude of the situation. Although, I’m not quite ready to tell you about that yet.
We arrived on Grand Cayman on December 18th and spent the next four days at Cayman Diving Lodge diving the largely undiscovered and cruise-ship-free East End.
Most of the rooms at Cayman Diving Lodge have ocean views. The food is excellent. The dive boats take an average of six divers out for any given excursion. The Lodge operators, who rapidly became our bosom friends, take care of everything. No finger lifting is allowed. Your gear is carried to the boat and prepared for you. The diving is superb. The reefs are in pristine condition. There is abundant sea life, clear waters and fascinating undersea terrain. This place is hard to beat!
After four days diving the East End, we moved on to Cayman Brac, second largest of the three islands. There we had even more amazing dive adventures. It’s hard to imagine things being better than Grand Cayman’s East End but it was. On our first Brac dive, the sea was too rough to tie up to a mooring. The captain decided to head for Little Cayman where he knew the seas were calmer. Little Cayman is the smallest of the three isles. It is one mile wide and thirteen miles long. It has no hotels but it does have dive resorts and world class diving.
We went to the renowned Bloody Bay Wall and started at Eagle Ray Roundup. Louise and I had a “best ever” dive. We saw a large ray, a green sea turtle, lobster, crab, hogfish and a fairly large shark, all in about 40 feet of water! I’m a fairly inexperienced diver. Shallower dives translate directly into more bottom time for me and that is a definite plus. We kept having great dives during this trip. We had some great meals and we drank a number of bottles of the Cayman’s home grown Stingray Beer as well as the Cuban brew, Cristal.
We arrived back in Grand Cayman on December 26th; picked up a rental car; checked in at the hotel and headed next door to Captain Don Foster’s shop.
Allow me to warn any children or sensitive adults reading this that this is where the sad part begins.
The helpful and friendly Polly greeted us at Captain Don’s. When we told her why we were there, she said that she was sorry but our dive had been cancelled. “Oh no!” we pleaded.
Polly offered to try to find someone else to take us. We thanked her, explaining that we had chosen Captain Don’s because we wanted more personal service and weren’t interested in the MEGA-OPERATOR on the island. Polly understood and got busy calling everyone else.
No one was running dive boats today including the MEGA-OPERATOR. The combination of the cruise ships being in port, tying up most available boats and the change in sea conditions had cancelled Stingray City activity for the afternoon.
Polly had left messages at a number of operations and was handling some walk-in trade when the phone rang. It was the other Captain Don’s office saying that they could get us on a boat but it wouldn’t be until 3:30. We accepted gratefully and headed back to our hotel for a nap. When we got there, we found a message from Polly canceling the 3:30 dive. This wasn’t meant to be. Our dream was dashed on the shoals of despair. I called Polly back. She said that since she had left the message, things had changed yet again and the dive was on... Maybe?
We rested for a half hour and headed for the dock. There was a boat there but it wasn’t ours. It was one of the big cattle boats that were typically run by the MEGA-OPERATOR. A crewman was replenishing supplies for the next day. He said that our boat, the “Skindiver” had to take some cruise ship people to Safe Haven so that they could meet their tender and return to the ship.
Skindiver, another giant cattle boat arrived about twenty minutes later. The captain was Nick and the dive master, Dan. They told us that their cruise ship passengers were never able to get in the water because of the heavy crowds at Stingray City. They welcomed us aboard and began our briefing on the boat and its facilities. At this point, I asked if we shouldn’t wait for the rest of the people. Dan said there weren’t any other people. !!!!!Holy Smokes!!!!!!!Holy Stuff!!!!!!!Holy Cow!!!!!!!!! We were stunned. After all the rigmarole Louise and I were going to have a private dive. Astonishing luck this.
As we attempted to maintain our composure over our amazing good fortune, he proceeded with the introduction to the boat. I let Dan know that we weren’t cruise ship people and that he could dispense with the “number one and number two” euphemisms when referring to the marine head. The fellows laughed and the atmosphere became more relaxed immediately. Part of the briefing included sea conditions. In a word, rough. We motored out of the shelter of the marina. We were finally underway. Louise and I were flying high and barely noticed the swells. Next stop, Stingray City.
After the short boat ride to where the white caps break over the reef edge, Dan gave a site briefing that included what we would be feeding the rays (squid) and stingray physiology using an anatomically correct plush toy. Skindiver was the only boat at the site! Louise, Dan and I were the only divers that would enter the water with the rays! This was a dream come true . We were to have a private adventure at Stingray City!
Using the plush toy, Dan explained some obvious and not-so-obvious guidelines for touching the rays. “Don’t touch their eyes; Don’t put food in their gills or spiracles; Stroke them from front to back; Don’t worry about the stinger – you’re not a predator; Their mouths are like a 40 horsepower shop vac; If you have squid residue on your hand and touch yourself somewhere else, the rays will give you a hickey by sucking the squid smell off of you; The two doohickeys adjacent to the tail of the males are actually their um, doohickeys.” At this point Dan gave a graphic description of the coupling process. The Discovery Channel would have been proud, but the description is intentionally omitted from this text for the sake of sensitive souls. He continued; “Their backs are rough and have little spiky things that protrude along the vertebra; It’s O.K. to stroke the spikes front to back but not back to front; Their bellies are white and slimy (not true , actually the bellies are very smooth and slick, sort of like a gel toy); I’ll have the bait bucket and will hold a squid in my hand; you take the handoff and keep the squid enclosed in your fist until you’re ready to feed some to the ray; Don’t wear a snorkel; Rays view snorkels as slot machine handles; They pull down on the handle, your mask floods and your hand opens yielding a squid jackpot; Dive knives are not allowed” and so on.
Lore has it that an inexperienced diver was frightened by an overly exuberant ray and used his knife to ward the ray off. This last bit is unverified but we left our dive knives on the boat anyway feeling sad for the notorious fool and of course the ray.
We geared up and got into the water. Dan had a bucket of squid. It was covered with pieces of wetsuit scraps stretched over the top with a slit to allow his hand in but prevent the squid from just floating out. This prevented the rays from simply vacuuming up the contents of the bucket. We knew we were shallow. Our computers registered a maximum depth of merely 15 feet.
Please allow me a diversion. This experience is the kind that should be shared with someone else. It is joyous, profound, and spiritual. Only another person who was there and experienced it as well can fully comprehend the feelings described in the retelling. Know that Louise and I did share the experience and will continue to share it on a deeper level from now on.
Given those circumstances, let me do my best to try to tell you what it was like. We dropped to the sandy bottom and almost immediately a small male and a larger female came to us.
We had a fresh roll of film in the camera (PD, pre digital). We had agreed that I would shoot the first eighteen exposures while Louise fed the fish; then we’d switch. I was so excited that I exposed four frames before I realized that the lens cap was on.
The rays were all over Louise like puppies. I was trying to get a shot of her with the large female. The ray kept pulling her attention in the direction opposite the camera and I couldn’t get a shot of her looking at me.
More rays began showing up. They were crawling into my lap as well and I hadn’t fed any yet! I signaled Louise that I wanted her to look into the camera. By this time, seven rays had gathered. There were four males and three females. One of the most gregarious (if one can be more gregarious than another), a large female with a fishhook in her lip would swim straight at my mask and veer up and over my head at the last minute. I’ll call her Captain Hook. When I reached the eighteenth exposure, I handed the camera to Louise.
Dan handed me first one squid, then another, and another and another. I was in ray-puppy heaven, petting and feeding the rays. Dan handed off another squid. Captain Hook followed it from his hand to mine and began nuzzling my hand for a taste. I kept teasing her with it but not giving it up. When she had had enough, she turned on the shop vac and gave me a serious hickey on the back of my hand. My hand reflexively popped open and she got the squid jackpot. I still proudly show the resulting scar to anyone willing to listen to my story. It usually involves adult beverages.
Louise finished the roll of film and we sat the camera on the bottom and continued playing with the rays. We swam to a nearby coral head looking for a resident moray eel. Not seeing the eel was a small disappointment in the scope of things. We did find a very large ray covered in sand except for its eyes and spiracles. It was dangerous looking and seemed menacing. Of course that isn’t the case. It’s funny how our preconceived notions play with our minds. We continued interacting with the rays until my computer read seven hundred pounds.
Louise and I were rapturous. The interaction between humans and animals has well documented benefits. Dogs and cats taken to nursing homes bring joy and a sense of well being to the residents. Persons living alone with a pet, tend to be healthier and have a greater life expectancy than someone without a pet.
The interactions between humans and wild animals are on yet another plane. Those who have had intimate contact with wild creatures often speak of the spiritual sense that the interaction left them with. I was overwhelmed with good feelings towards the rays, towards all of humanity actually and of course to Louise. I signaled her by pointing to myself, my heart and her. She understood immediately and returned the signs.
At Stingray City, one strokes, feeds, swims with and experiences a close spiritual connection with wild denizens of the sea. Words can’t get to the feeling in an adequate way. When you visit the Cayman Islands, be sure to experience this. Be sure to bring a friend. If you see Captain Hook, tell her hello for us please.
I can think of no finer way to spend Christmas with the woman I love and have now married. And so, as Tiny Tim observed, Merry Christmas to all and God bless us, every one!
