My second week with Cristina Zenato on Grand Bahama started with a day off for us, which happened to be Cristina’s first day off in weeks. We considered multiple plans, cavern diving, beach trip, groceries, hanging out with Cristina’s dog Mia, the list went on. We started by first sleeping in (which meant waking up at 7 am) then spending a few hours in the morning just hanging out in her apartment, checking emails and Facebook and not feeling rushed to do anything. We deliberated what to do for the rest of the day and finally settled on a plan. We’d run to the grocery store in the morning, picking up food for the week, then after dropping it back off at her apartment, we packed a bag, grabbed Mia, and headed for the beach. We had a nice long walk and talk up a stretch of white, sandy beach without a soul in sight. We talked about all kinds of things, stopping every now and again to dip in the ocean and cool off. After an hour or so of walking, we decided to turn back around and slowly make our way back to the car. As we walked back over the slowly expanding beach (the tide was going out, creating a larger and larger beach), we stopped to pick up several large, washed up containers. We’d use these as receptacles for smaller trash items that had been washed up on the beach. It was a shame to see such a pristine beach littered with plastics that were pushed ashore during the high tide, especially considering much of that debris wasn’t local – it was plastics that had come from an array of sources, many not even in the Bahamas themselves, but had found their way to the Bahamian beaches. It was a lesson in the impact of pollution and just how widespread and pervasive it is. We both knew that the pieces we’d picked up would not make a huge difference, but it was better then sitting back and doing nothing. After picking up bottles, bottle caps, balloons, ping pong balls, plastic containers, shoes, plastic bags, aluminum cans, and much more, we dropped our containers by the car trail on the back side of the beach, where we’d come with the car to pick them up before we headed back to the apartment.
It was a gorgeous afternoon and I couldn’t have thought of a better way to spend our day, enjoying the beach while also making a small positive impact on marine pollution. We couldn’t be three happier ladies as we drove back to the apartment. Because it was her one and only off day for the next few weeks as well, Cristina and I thought it would be nice to spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing at the apartment, reading books and thoroughly enjoying the rest.
Monday morning we were back into the hustle and bustle of life in Grand Bahama – we headed to UNEXSO just before 8 so Cristina could brief her crew for the day, then she got started on her next shark handler course while I hopped on a 2 tank dive boat for the morning. Our boat did a nice wreck dive first then a lovely reef dive second, making it back to the shop by noon or so.
It was really good for me to see the way in which the UNEXSO crew briefed and led dives, as well as how they interacted with customers. Every dive shop has different ways in which they conduct their dive operations, so it’s really helpful for me to see the variety of ways dive shops work. Plus getting to see some more dive sites besides Shark Junction was a good change of pace! After a morning of fun in the sun and water, I had a quick lunch at the apartment and headed back to UNEXSO around 2 to prepare for the shark dive. The guests, crew, Cristina, and I loaded up the dive boat with all our gear and headed out to Shark Junction. Cristina once again gave her dive briefing, going over what to expect and what to do, and we moored up at the site and were shortly in the water. Although I had see it before and done it myself, it was always amazing to see Cristina work with her shark babies. Her relationship with them is personal – she knows most sharks individually and you can tell in the way she treats each shark differently.
After the 20 minutes or so of watching Cristina feed and having 15 Caribbean reef sharks swirling all around the divers, Cristina pulled away from the group, giving us a few moments to search in the sand for shark teeth and then to work our way to the ascent line to do our safety stop. Back on the boat, everyone gushed about how amazing the dive was, for many had not seen sharks so up close and personal before. Seeing the other divers’ reactions really imparted the importance of getting people more engaged in the marine world and allowing them to connect to the creatures and environment they experience when they dive- it gives them more appreciation and awareness of the underwater world and the treasures it contains. After we got back to UNEXSO, helped the guests unload and unpack the boat, Cristina and I put our gear in a corner, not yet finished diving for the day. We had one last treat in store for Monday – a cavern dive at Mermaid’s Lair in the National Park. Many people know Cristina just for her work with sharks, but there is a whole other side to this woman – she is an avid cave diver and explorer, investing countless hours over the past 2 decades exploring and mapping the extensive cave systems on Grand Bahama. She had invited me to see a small portion of this vastly different world, so we were going to do a quick cavern dive that evening. Cristina quickly finished her chores at UNEXSO and we grabbed two tanks and our gear, loaded her car, and hit the road. As we drove, Cristina briefed me on what to expect during the dive and what she’d show me in the cavern. We pulled down a bumpy two-track road and slowly made our way to the site. Cristina pulled over at an inconspicuous spot in the trail, where I vaguely made out a path through the brush. We parked the car, pulled out our gear and got it assembled, then trekked into the bush towards the small pool that is the entrance to the cavern. Cristina showed me how to carefully climb into the cold freshwater, then after she tied off the reel, we descended down the narrow entrance to the massive cavern. As we passed our lights over the huge space, my breath was taken away by the beauty and serenity of it all. Cristina slowly led us around the cavern, pointing out various crystal formations, fossilized coral reefs, geological formations, and the halocline (the area where the freshwater sits on top of the saltwater at around 30 feet in the system) . The halocline was probably one of the coolest things in the system, you poked your head just into the freshwater lense and could see the distinct layer of saltwater sitting beneath it. It’s a simple feature, but something you can’t see anywhere else.
After about 35 minutes of swimming around the massive cavern, we stopped in the center of the cavern and did a short lights – out drill, where we both turned off our lights and let our eyes adjust to the faint amount of light coming from the entrance hole. The darkness made me uncomfortable, as you lose all sense of place in that space. As uncomfortable as I was, it gave me peace knowing I was in such capable hands, and I trusted Cristina so much more than myself, so while I wasn’t at ease, I allowed myself to be uncomfortable, pushing myself out of my comfort zone. A few minutes passed and we turned our lights back on and slowly worked our way back towards the entrance, stopping for our safety stop before making our final ascent out of the cavern. We were both glowing after the dive, for different reasons. Cristina’s passion for cave diving was evident after our short dive and I had been given the chance to see a whole new world, which tremendously excited me. We loaded up the car and headed back to the apartment, tired from such a long day but content with all the adventures of the day.
Tuesday was the second day of the shark handler course, so we headed to UNEXSO just before 8 for the daily staff meeting, then loaded the boat for the day. Susan, Cristina’s student, arrived just after 8:30 and we chatted on the boat as we got ready to go. Susan was doing the course for almost the opposite reason that Cristina’s previous student, Kathy, was taking the course. Kathy took the course because she loved sharks and wanted to get a more intimate experience with them, Susan was taking the course because sharks made her nervous and she wanted to get over that feeling of insecurity. As we slowly motored away from the dock, Cristina went over a thorough dive briefing with Susan, letting her know what to expect, how they’d conduct the dive, and giving reminders about timing and placement for feeding the sharks.
As we moored up at Shark Junction, Cristina and Susan suited up in their Neptunic chainmail and hopped in, while I stayed on the boat with the captain, Olivier. We chatted away the dive, talking about our respective diving experiences, while waiting for the 2 women to surface. After Susan and Cristina climbed back on the boat, Cristina had a complete debriefing with Susan, going over mistakes made as well as encouraging Susan for facing her fears and giving a few more suggestions to make the next dive even more successful. While Susan had a surface interval, Cristina and I hopped in the water for my 2nd time feeding sharks. I was still a little nervous, it had been almost a week from my last time but as I descended down and removed my fins, I took nice long breaths that got me into a relaxed frame of mind. Cristina stood back by the wreck while I paced back and forth, petting sharks and getting into a comfortable groove.
I finally felt ready to feed and reached down into the tube. I grasped a fish by the head and scanned for a shark to feed, locking eyes on a shark about 15 feet away, waiting for it to swim in closer, where I “wham!” pulled out the fish, but just too soon, so it was snatched up by a horse-eye jack. Man, those jacks move fast! I looked at Cristina, who shrugged her shoulders, and I kept moving. I grabbed another fish and picked a shark, waiting for it to come in close before I pulled out the fish, but I put it a little too high over the shark’s head and it slowly drifted to the sand, where it was attacked by the jacks instead of being snatched up by a shark. My timing and placement had been a little off each time, and so I re-focused, this time I was determined to feed a shark, not all the other fish. I grabbed yet another fish head, scanned for a shark, locked my eyes on one and this time waited just a little longer before pulling it out right in front of the shark’s nose. Finally! I had gotten into the groove of it and the shark chomped up the fish. I kept going, feeding sharks and petting their sleek bodies as they swirled around me, finally feeling I was in a rhythm with these gorgeous creatures. I only messed up one more feeding attempt (sacrificing another fish to the horse-eye jacks) and the rest of the dive I had a small glimpse of the connection between diver and shark that Cristina has been experiencing for over 20 years. After all the fish had been handed out, we made our way back to the boat, where we took a nice snack break and hung out in the sun. Susan and Cristina hopped back in the water for Susan’s second dive of the day, and I basked in the sun on the boat.
Wednesday was Cristina’s last day with Susan and the shark handling course. The same routine of meeting at the shop just before 8, getting the boat loaded and ready to go, then chatting with Susan as we finished getting prepped for the dive. We cruised out to the dive site, then Cristina and Susan slowly geared up and got ready to do their first dive. The two ladies jumped in and got to feeding, while I waited on the boat, slowly starting to put on the chainmail after 40 minutes or so. Once Cristina and Susan surfaced from their dive, I handed Cristina my camera, she handed me the feeding tube, and we dropped down to begin the dive. Cristina told me that she was confident enough in my feeding skills for her to take some photos of me during the dive (which was a huge compliment and honor). We got down, took off the fins, and I started to pace, back and forth, back and forth along the little wreck in the sand. I breathed, focused, relaxed, knowing this was my last chance to feed the sharks and wanting to savor every minute of it. Without much further ado, I started to feed – handing out fish left and right to the sharks as they swam around me, getting into a rhythm, dancing the dance. I was really living in the moment, savoring ever second of my dance with these sharks, feeling so empowered by the entire experience.
I had perhaps gotten into too good of a groove, because before I knew it, I was reaching in and pulling out the last fish to feed. I searched, wanting to make sure I gave it to the perfect shark at the perfect time in the perfect place. I locked my gaze on a shark, waited, waited, then pulled out the fish right in front of its nose, where it was casually snapped up, the perfect end to the feeding. Because I had fed so quickly, Cristina and I spent the next 15 minutes or so just enjoying being with the sharks, petting them, appreciate their shadows over the sand, then taking a few last photos together. I felt so connected to the sharks and to Cristina, honored to be allowed a look into her long-standing relationship with her babies.
We surfaced from our dive, I was grinning from ear to ear, and after a break for snacks and chatting, Cristina and Susan got ready to go on Susan’s last dive. They jumped in, descended down, and I basked in the feeling of my last shark-feeding dive. We got back to the shop around 1:15, then had a lunch and Cristina and I headed out for a coffee with Eddy, who had gotten back into town that morning. Eddy was back because Cristina was doing a photo-shoot the next few days for an online commercial and they had hired Eddy as the underwater videographer. After coffee, we headed back to the apartment and then got ready for a late dinner with the film crew, who had also gotten in earlier that day.
Thursday, Cristina was scheduled to dive all day with the film crew and because of limited space on the boat, I decided to go out on a regular dive boat. I spent the morning playing catch up with some work and emails, then headed over to the shop in the early afternoon to hop on the boat with one of the producers from the film crew (who also couldn’t go on the filming boat because of limited space). He and I were going to be dive buddies for the afternoon, so we got set up on the boat and waited for the rest of the guests to load up. Once everyone was ready, we headed out to a dive site called Chamber, which was an old hyperbaric chamber that had been sunk quite a few years ago. We descended down the line, spent a few minutes looking around the chamber, then headed off for a tour of the reef. After an hour or so of diving, we rounded back to the boat and had a nice long safety stop before loading back up and heading in. At the shop I met up with Cristina and Eddy who were hanging around, waiting to do an evening shoot. Eddy and I chatted while Cristina was filmed, then we all headed back to her apartment to clean up before dinner. We met up with the film crew at a local restaurant and enjoyed a nice meal before calling it a night.
Friday was going to be a land adventure for us – Cristina and the film crews were doing some shots at a few caverns as well as beaches around the island. We first headed to the national park system where Ben’s Cavern is located. Cristina took me on a small tour of the cavern and park while we waited for the rest of the film crew to show up.
When they arrived, we headed down to the beach, a site called Gold Rock Beach, where Cristina was filmed out in the exposed sand flats. While I waited, I was inspired by our beach clean up on Sunday and spent sometime scanning the beaches for plastics that had been washed ashore. I picked up rubbish until Cristina had finished filming and we moved to the next location. We headed to another popular cavern dive site called “Owl’s Hole” where Cristina would be doing some free-diving shots in the water. Cristina and Eddy climbed down the ladder to get in the water and the rest of the crew and I stayed topside.
I spent the time chatting with the crew and getting to know them better, cracking jokes and admiring the surroundings. After about 2 hours (we spent a lot of that time just waiting for clouds to pass overhead), we had finished shooting and headed to a local restaurant for a lunch and to dodge a heavy thunderstorm. We headed back to the apartment in the late afternoon and I decided to go for a long run while Cristina had to head over to UNEXSO for yet again more filming. When I got back to the apartment it was just Eddy, so we chatted and eventually headed over to the shop to catch up with Cristina. There were no official dinner plans so when Cristina had finished I headed back with her to try to get some sleep.
Saturday was the crew’s last day of filming and they were just doing shots around Cristina’s apartment, so I hopped on the boat to experience the dolphin dive and completely round out my experiences in Grand Bahama. I was at the shop by 8, loaded on the boat by 8:30, and we were headed to the Dolphin Experience building by 9. We would go to the location where the dolphins were kept in large pens in the canal, meet up with the trainer, release the dolphin into the canal, and head to the dive site with two boats (one for divers, one with the dolphin trainer). The dolphin cruised out between our boats, occasionally doing a trick or two as directed by the trainer. It was a short ride out to our dive site, and we got geared up and hopped in. The guides directed us to sit in a large circle on the sand floor.
Moments later the trainer came swimming over, tailed by the dolphin. Once situated in the middle of a circle, the trainer pointed to the first guest, signaling to hold out her hand, after which he directed the dolphin over to her so she could pet him. Then he asked her to remove the reg from her mouth and directed the dolphin to swim over and give her a “kiss” . the last command was to raise up in the water column, hold your hand straight out to the side, and let the dolphin give you a spin with its rostrum. Each diver went through these three commands, getting one on one time with the dolphin. Once everyone had gone, the dolphin came around to each of us and we were give the chance to give him a hug.
The group raised up off the sand and went for a little swim around the coral heads to finish the dive, with the dolphin swimming around us, giving us curious looks and playing around. We finished our dive, heading to the boat for the safety stop and then climbing back onboard. It was an experience I was not expecting – the dolphin had complete freedom in the open ocean, at one point completely leaving the group for some exploration by himself, while we sat and waited for his return. It was fascinating to see a dolphin that had been raised in captivity but allowed access to the open ocean, who can chose to leave and never come back if one day he so decided that’s what he wanted. I thought it was a great compromise of having a marine mammal in semi-captivity and using it as a tool to educate the public about marine mammals as well as give people an experience they’d appreciate for the rest of their lives. I got back to UNEXSO after the dive, unloaded my gear, then headed to Cristina’s apartment for lunch. They were still busy filming, so I waited in the parking lot with some of the crew, chatting and snacking as we waited for the filming to complete. When it did, I headed in to have a proper lunch and Cristina headed out with the crew to film in a few more locations before they wrapped it up. I relaxed, read a book, and around 4 in the afternoon, I headed back to UNEXSO, as I had been asked earlier by one of the crew to join an impromptu clean up dive that afternoon. Of course I couldn’t say no to another opportunity to clean up marine debris, so I met with a few of the staff members at the shop. We loaded a car with dive gear, tanks, and collection bags, then drove over to a local beach where a large festival had been a few weeks before. We suited up and waded in, swimming out over the sand to where the seagrass bed started. That’s where most of the trash had been concentrated, so we began picking up plastic cups, bags, lines, ropers, etc. After a solid hour of cleaning up and filling mesh bags, we headed back to the shore, feeling quite happy with our results.
After snapping some pictures of all the trash we pulled out of the water, we headed to the pool bar to have some drinks and snacks to celebrate. After a few hours of hanging out, I headed back to the shop to meet up with Cristina, Eddy, and the rest of the film crew to celebrate their last night on the island. We had dinner and drinks, then while the crew continued to celebrate, Eddy, Cristina and I decided to get some sleep as we had work in the morning.
It was another hectic week with Cristina. I was getting the full look into her life as not only the dive operations manager for UNEXSO, but the explorer and educator that she has strived to become through 2 decades of hard work, dedication, and perseverance. I found that I had turned into a sponge whenever I was around Cristina, seeking to absorb as much knowledge, information, and passion that I could from her. Time was flying by and I had just under a week left in Grand Bahama, and I hoped to get the most out of it as I could!
