Swimming the cave.

Day 8 of trip to the SVI aboard CYOA's Big Papa Lulu.

On the morning of day 8 after a late breakfast of eggs and bacon, and late start we decided to leave Dewey, anchor off Luis Pina Island for a snorkel and lunch stop, and then continue to Bayo Tamarindo and pick up a mooring for the night.

One of our crew wanted to sail, even though it was only a couple of hours, so on the way out of Ensenada Honda we pulled up the main and unfurled the jib, and once we cleared the narrow exit and reef near Dakity we killed the engines. A close reach run out into open water and a chicken gybe later we were headed for the western shore of Luis Pina Island, a small uninhabited island located south of Culebra.

Our sail was over more quickly that we wanted. We picked up a ball that was waaaaaaay in closer to the reef than I liked. After jumping in the water and scoping it out it became clear that the water was far deeper than it looked, and all was well. We had a light lunch of snacks and then went snorkeling.

Here's a panorama from the mooring ball off Luis Pina Island.


Here we snorkeled outside the reef in 15 feet of water, up coral canyons, and over skinny water less than 2 feet deep. I love this kind of stuff!

Then I saw it.
Hey, come check out this cave!
(To give you an idea about how close the mooring was to the reef, consider that this picture was taken from the boat!)


I spied a cave in about 10 feet of water and I wave one of our snorkelers over for a look. The more I looked into that cave the more I knew it had to be mine. The last time I swam through a cave with just snorkel gear was back in the 1980's when I was young, and strong, and kinda crazy. Those were in my rock-climbing, ice-climbing, bullet-bike riding days. On one occasion I even punched a shark in the nose with the end of my spear who was lurking in a cave off Fajardo Puerto Rico. But those were the days when I thought I was invincible, and 100 pounds lighter.

Anyway... maybe it was the euphoria of getting my scuba certification the previous day. I was feeling like aqua-man! The cave was big enough to wiggle through. I just knew it. The feeling grew and grew until it was impossible to resist. I handed my GoPro to one of the crew, showed her how to run it, hyper-ventilated to get the blood-oxygen up and went for it.

Here's a fuzzy screen-capture of me exiting the cave.



I don't see a way of imbedding a video here, but you can see the cave swim here in this youtube video:

https://youtu.be/seCFqAohW60

Here's one of our crew chasing fish with his go-pro...


Here's a nice coral head. The maze formed by the pattern in the coral just fascinates me.



Three surgeon fish posing near a yellow sea fan...


The snorkeling was spectacular.

We finally had to leave and slowly motored over to Bayo Tamarindo and picked up a ball. We had another beautiful evening and sunset but the rocks blocked the green flash from potential sight.

Here's a snag on the beach in the warm evening light.



Sunset over the rocks.
A perfect ending to a perfect day.
I'll remember swimming through that cave for the rest of my days.

Love the pictures! Especially like the one with the Sea Fan. Did not get a chance to congratulate you on catching the Green Flash on camera last report. Very Nice! I have truly been enjoying your installments even though you like bacon better than prosciutto. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" />

So much fun reading this...thanks for sharing:)

Thank you for the great travelogue! A friend and I chased a small nurse shark from that cave...we had been dropped off by a water taxi for the day. The actual spelling is Cayo Luis Pe�a...

You're welcome guys!
Work is getting in the way of the next installment...

I have really enjoyed your reports. We are heading to svi and Fajardo for 2 weeks in December. Nice pictures of some of the spots we plan to visit.
Terry