My last few days with Cristina Zenato were packed with more adventure and exploration, as I’d come to expect. She finished her film shoot on Saturday only to move on to another photoshoot on Sunday. This next shoot was for Scubapro, to model new products as well as to be showcased as a new Scubapro ambassador. Julie Andersen, Scubapro’s Advertising Executive, had come down to run the shoot and Neil Andrea, owner of Neptunic Sharksuits, came to act as photographer. They had invited a local freediver, Daniel Hulme (who Neil had met during a trip to Ascension Island), to be one of the underwater models as well. It was definitely an entertaining group to work with, and the next few days were to be quite the adventure.

Sunday we met up at 10 am at UNEXSO and after some brief introductions, we got to work loading the boat with gear and snacks, then were on our way to our first site. Cristina picked the site of a local, shallow wreck called Papadoc to be the first site. After Julie distributed the gear to Cristina, Daniel, and herself, they suited up and got ready for the first shoot. Neil suited up as well and after some surface shots on the back of the boat, they all jumped in for the first dive. I waited on the boat and chatted with the captain while we waited for them to finish the dive on the wreck. After 45 minutes or so, they surfaced and had a surface interval, debating what to do for the next dive before deciding to head back down on the wreck again, hoping for more consistent lighting the second time around. After a little bit longer topside, they suited back up and hopped back in for another go. After only 30 minutes or so, Neil was already headed back up for the ascent/descent line, finished with his dive. He had used up the whole memory card, getting a little shutter-happy, apparently. The other three headed over to the line shortly after, doing their safety stop before coming back onboard. After a bit of chat on what to do next, it was decided that they would do some snorkeling shots before calling it for the day.

Neil changed out his memory cards, we motored over to a shallow reef nearby, moored up, and after snorkeling gear was handed out, we jumped in the water to get some shots. Neil picked groups of us to either freedive down or snorkel on the surface, getting shots of the snorkelers next to colorful coral heads. After 45 minutes or so, Neil thought we had sufficiently shot out the site, so we all climbed back on the boat and started to put away gear. Under Julie’s careful eye, we sorted gear into bags, making sure everything was put back into place and nicely stored for the next day. We got back to UNEXSO, stored everything in lockers at the dive shop and said our goodbyes for the evening. Cristina and I headed back to her apartment, where we had a relatively early night. The Scubapro shoot was proving to be a completely different shoot than the one Cristina just finished – much less staff, much faster shoots, much more casual and relaxed but with the same level of professionalism. I was intrigued to see what the rest of the week would look like compared to the film shoot Cristina just finished with.

After just one day of working with the crew from Scubapro, I had laughed more than I had the week before.  They were such a fun, relaxed group and had a unique sense of humor. One of the jokes for the rest of the week was Neil’s affectionate nickname for Daniel, “Pardon life” – apparently Daniel was incredibly polite, to the point it was almost ridiculous, when Neil worked with him on Ascension Island. Neil, in his infinite genius, created the nickname to tease Daniel for his calm and well-mannered demeanor, and it quickly became the topic of much playful teasing and joking through the rest of the week.

Monday was another relaxed morning. After we headed to UNEXSO at 8, Cristina spent 2 hours catching up on office work while I caught up on my journaling over a cup of coffee. We met up with Neil, Julie, and Daniel once again at 10 am, getting the boat loaded up with all the gear bags and heading out a little while later. Julie and Neil, after having looked over the photos from yesterday, decided that they wanted to get some shots on a reef today. Julie also invited me to come down with them on the dive now that they had gotten things a bit more fleshed out so I could see how these photo shoots run underwater. We motored out to a shallow reef site, only to find the visibility wasn’t very good. After a bit of brainstorming, Cristina suggested another site called Caves, which was a shallow reef with deep and narrow sand channels running through it. Once again, gear was passed out to each diver, letting them know what items they wanted to showcase and once everyone was geared up, we all hopped in the water. Neil would motion to two or three divers, signaling for them to swim along the reefs, finning like a madman to keep ahead and work different angles of the divers as they floated along the reef. Neil would find different areas of countour to keep the background interesting then have the divers move along those areas, acting as natural as possible while he did most of the work. Something that really struck me about the way Julie organized the photoshoot was that she selected people to model who were already well-experienced divers. Instead of picking models who barely knew how to dive, she picked divers to act as models, which in turn gives better posing and much easier shooting underwater. I thought it was a really smart move on her behalf and made the shoots much more realistic. After the first dive was finished, we climbed back on the boat for a surface interval and to switch over tanks.

We hopped back in at the same site to get a few more shots and try to take advantage of the interesting natural topography while the lighting was still good. The second dive went just as smoothly as the first and when we surfaced, the clouds that had gathered in the sky gave us good reason to call it a day – we had lost our good lighting. We had finished early and instead of relaxing at the apartment, Cristina suggested an adventure, much different than any of the ones before. She told me of an abandoned library that was just outside Freeport, near Ben’s Cavern. It was a two-story building housing hundreds of boxed books which  had been donated with the idea of creating a functional library for the community, but that never ended up happening. Due to lack of funding and interest, the library was never created and some locals had trashed the building – throwing all the books on the ground, littering it with trash, making a complete mess of the place. Cristina had already spent hours working on the upper floor, carefully picking up books and putting them on shelves, where they belong. She wanted to take me there to at least look around and maybe find a few good books to take home. Upon getting to the library, I was horrified by the site that met my eyes. To see so many books strewn on the floor with blatant disrespect shocked me.

I grew up an avid reader and a firm believer in the power of books and it was such a shame to see the way they littered the floor, forgotten completely. Cristina took me up to the second story, where she had organized and cleaned up, creating a room that resembled what the library would have looked like if it had been properly cared for. We headed back downstairs, checking out the smaller of the two rooms. While I rummaged around, picking up books, reading their titles, Cristina had started picking up some books and setting them on shelves, as she had done upstairs. I followed her example, forgetting my personal search for a good read and pursuing a greater ambition. Once we both got started it was like dominoes set in motion – nothing was stopping us from getting that room cleaned up. We started with a huge pile of hardback books, setting them on makeshift selves, only to discover an unending pile of National Geographic magazines underneath the books and trash.

After 2 hours of picking up books and magazines, sorting through all sorts of trash, and getting thoroughly covered in dust, sweat, grime and bug bites, we had completely cleaned and organized the room. The transformation was astounding – it went from a sad, dismal, pile of long-forgotten books to a cleaned, organized room that once again, looked almost like a real library. The sense of accomplishment from all that hard work was tangible between the two of us. It gave me such a sense of hope to see the books in stacks on shelves as they would have been in a library. Although we both had a shared sense of sorrow that these books would have been amazing tools for the community and had been discarded in such a reckless manner, we also felt a sense of hope in our work that evening. We had done our best for those books, treating them with the most respect we could and another room had been cleaned up.

To treat ourselves after all that hard work, we drove over to Ben’s Cavern, just a short distance away, and took a quick dip in the cold, fresh water. We briefly cleaned ourselves off in the water, then hopped out and toweled off, feeling much more refreshed and cleaned than moments ago. We began the drive home, happily chatting about all sorts of things. Out of nowhere, Cristina told me she had another surprise for me. She pulled over on the side of the country road, and in the dusky light, we stared down a trail. Suddenly I saw the surprise – fireflies! They were everywhere, lighting up the bushes all around us. I hadn’t seen fireflies in years and was not expecting to see them on the island. I had always associated them with Chicago summers from my early childhood. After spending a few minutes watching the fireflies light up the horizon, we got back in the car and headed back to her apartment. Hands down, it was the best evening I had had so far this year.

 

Tuesday we had arranged for an early start with the Scubapro gang. They had wanted to shoot Cristina in her chainmail with her sharks, highlighting a new BCD and simultaneously showcasing her unique connection to the sharks. Because she would be feeding the sharks while Neil was photographing, Julie decided to keep the shoot simple and minimal, so only Julie, Cristina, and Neil went down, while Daniel and I waited on the boat. After almost an hour or so of shooting, the three of them surfaced and climbed back onboard. They stripped out of the Neptunic sharksuits and everyone relaxed for a surface interval while discussing the plan of action for the next shoot. Julie told Neil what she was looking for and it was decided we’d stay at the site, no more feeding sharks, just swimming around the colorful coral heads. This time everyone was hopping in the water, so we all put our gear on, took a few photographs on the back of the boat, then jumped in. It was the same routine as yesterday – Neil picked people to swim by themselves or in pairs and indicated where he wanted them to swim along the coral heads. Again, he finned like wild around, trying to get a variety of angles as the divers moved through the water, often going over the same path a few times so he could make adjustments, get better lighting, get better positioning. After an hour or so diving, we called it quits and headed back towards the boat. Upon surfacing, we thought about going to do more snorkeling, so we moved the boat over to a shallow reef and began the hunt for a nice site with plenty of colorful coral. Julie gave us an array of colorful snorkel gear, we suited up, then hopped in the water. We swam around, finally getting a spot with some great corals, and Neil paired people up for a series of different shots. After a while snorkeling around and showcasing a variety of snorkeling gear, we called it a day. Neil had gotten a wide variety of shots during the day, so there was no need to keep going, especially as some small storms were rolling in. We got back to the shop, packed up the dive gear and stowed it in the dive lockers. Cristina and I got our personal dive gear out, grabbed two tanks, and loaded up the back of her car – our diving wasn’t quite finished for the day. I had wanted to do one more cavern dive before I left, to reassure the sneaking thoughts I had about doing my cavern and introduction to cave diving courses. Cristina took me to Ben’s Cavern – I was finally getting to dive the site I’d heard so much about and seen so often from above!

We headed out to the National Park, pulled up in the dirt parking lot, and unloaded our gear. During the drive, Cristina gave me another thorough briefing of our dive, going over what I could expect and what she would point out to me. I knew how extensively Cristina had explored this cave system, but after hearing her briefing of our dive, I could tell this was a place she knew like the back of her hand – I had no doubt that she could tour me around the cavern perfectly with her eyes closed because she had spent so much time and energy exploring and mapping this site. I was excited for my last cavern dive of the trip (but hopefully not my last cavern dive with Cristina) and we quickly suited up and trekked to the cavern entrance. She led the way into the water and I was close behind. We quickly submerged into the cool, clear waters. Unlike Mermaid’s Lair, which had a small, inconspicuous opening, the opening to Ben’s Cavern is a massive hole that is partially submerged. Sunlight pours down into the cavern, which is a huge submerged space with intricate geological formations. Our dive followed Cristina’s briefing perfectly – she moved me around massive stalactite columns, fine crystal formations, and the portion of the cavern where a room had collapsed. She dipped us down below the halocline to check out fossilized coral reefs with shells and coral heads still perfectly intact. We popped out of the halocline and continued around the vast space – slowly finning and admiring the beautiful formation held under the glassy surface. After about 40 minutes (which felt like only 20) we did the lights out drill, but in this cavern, it meant almost nothing. There is so much light flooding into the cavern that your eyes quickly adjust and you have no need for the light as you swim back up towards the entrance. It was a gorgeous way to end the dive, with the natural light illuminating the rock pile and stalagmites at the entrance, gazing up at the surface where the still water was like a mirror. After our safety stop, we ascended to the wood platform where we carefully stepped out of the pool and made our way back to the car. I couldn’t have asked for a better cavern experience and as always, Cristina’s passion for cave exploration was contagious and I found myself yearning for more. Guess this girl’s definitely going to get more serious training to open a new world of diving and exploration.

Wednesday was my last full day with Cristina and I couldn’t believe my time was almost at an end. Julie wanted to do a day of shooting at a few cave sites, and today was the day. We initially planned to leave early in the morning to get a good start, but the inclement weather said otherwise. The storms rolling by forced us to wait until around noon before we loaded up the truck and headed out to Ben’s Cavern. They wanted to do just one dive and just as with the shark dive, it would be only Cristina, Neil and Julie in the water. Daniel and I would act as surface support for the day. After everyone had geared up, we helped carry extra lights and equipment to the cavern opening and helped the divers carefully get in the water. They descended and the waiting game began. Daniel and I chatted in the cars, watching over the rest of the gear that wasn’t being used for the shoot. After about 45 minutes, the divers had emerged and I helped carry gear back out to the vehicles, were we loaded up and headed to Owl’s Hole for a surface shoot. After an hour or so of shooting various products, we packed up the truck and headed back to the shop.

I couldn’t believe how quickly that day had flown by – I guess time flies when you’re having fun and going on photoshoot adventures in the bush in the Bahamas. When we arrived back at UNEXSO, we unpacked our gear, stowed it away, and before parting for the afternoon, made plans for a goodbye dinner that night. Cristina and I headed back to her apartment, then I went on a nice run while she checked emails. We both took quick showers and cleaned up, then headed over to the restaurant where we were meeting Neil, Julie, and Daniel. We had an excellent dinner of sushi and drinks, telling ridiculous stories of adventures and diving, and debating thoroughly what a manatee would taste like. It was the perfect end to my trip – good food and even better company, and I was quite sad to be leaving the next day.

 

Thursday came fast and furious, Cristina leaving for her Scubapro photoshoot at 8 am in the morning, while I stayed behind to pack and prepare to leave. Around 9 I got a message from Neil, telling me that they had delayed the shoot due to weather, so I headed over to hang out with the gang for a few hours (as most of my packing was already done). It was nice to relax and chat with everyone, looking over photos from the week, and when 11 am rolled around, I said my long farewells to the crew as they headed out on the dive boat for more shooting.  I walked back to the apartment to clean up and finish packing, then waited for my taxi to the airport. About an hour before it was supposed to come, I got a message from Cristina, saying they finished the shoot earlier cause of the bad weather, and she would be able to take me to the airport. I was stoked– it would be nice to have a final goodbye with the woman who had become such a huge role model for me. Before I knew it, it was time to head to the airport, so we loaded up the car and made our way through the city. We said a fond farewell and I headed to the check-in counter, not really comprehending that my trip was coming to its end. It was a short and sweet flight over to Fort Lauderdale, where my next adventure was starting. I was picked up at the airport by my next host, and had a nice, relaxing evening with Jeff and Missy Trotta, the couple I’d be living and diving with for the next few days. Jeff booked a day of diving Friday, so I called an early night because we had to be up bright and early to head over to Jupiter for our dives.

 

Friday started a bit earlier than I’d like, but I was going diving, so I couldn’t complain. Jeff and I headed over to Jupiter, FL, where we’d be spending the day diving with Jupiter Dive Center, hopefully seeing some sharks and goliath groupers. We got to the shop around 8:30, checked in, and loaded our gear on the boat. Jeff had also invited his friend Amy Lesh, the Marketing Manager for M/V Galapagos Sky, to join us for the day so I could get to know her. We were to do three dives, the first of which would be at a site called “Deep Ledge” which is indeed, a deep ledge at around 150’ with nice strong currents, a perfect combination for lots of sharks. We motored out to the dive site, geared up, and after a dive briefing, jumped in the water. We descended down to around 100’ where we just cruised with the healthy current. Everyone was scanning the blue for sharks, but after about 15 minutes I was beginning to think we were just going to see a whole lot of blue. Just about 5 minutes later, I turned round towards the back of the group and a shape caught my eye – it was a dorsal fin! I concentrated and very quickly the shape of 15 or so scalloped hammerheads appeared from the blue! I reached to bang my tank just as Amy started banging hers. We had seen the school at the same time (while the rest of the boys in the group were staring off in the complete opposite direction). The banging caught the attention of everyone else and no one could really believe their eyes – to see a school of hammerheads off Jupiter was unheard of, but there it was in front of us! Our moment was short lived and the swift current carried us in the opposite direction of the school but we spent a few moments cheering and yelling through our regulators about what we had just witnessed. We kept cruising, seeing not much else but the deep blue. However at one point, when I was at the back of the group, I turned to give a quick check behind me and spotted another 4-5 hammerheads cruising just within eyesight – I turned to get the attention of everyone else but they quickly disappeared back into the blue just as quickly as they had appeared. After 30 minutes or so of bottom time, we began our ascent to 15’ for our safety stop. As we floated for the three minutes, an oceanic blacktip came and circled round us a few times, curiously checking out this odd school of fish. After it took off, a silky came round to give us a look over as well. We finished the dive completely ecstatic about the hammerheads – although the sighting was brief, it was incredible and we couldn’t have asked for anything more exciting. We hopped on the boat and chattered away as the rest of the divers were picked up. As we had our surface interval, one of the divers onboard pulled out his homemade guacamole and lionfish ceviche with some tortilla chips and we had a tasty snack to hold us over for our second dive.

It was a great culinary welcome to south Florida and a tasty introduction to eating lionfish! After about 45 minutes, we began preparing for our second dive, at a site called Tunnels, where we’d hopefully see more sharks, turtles, and even a few goliath groupers, which were aggregated in large concentrations for the spawning season. After the dive site briefing, we all hopped in and followed our guide, cruising along a small ledge at about 70 feet, with sand flats to our left and a sloping incline to our right. We breezed along in the current, stopping every now and again to check out a loggerhead turtle or find a goliath group hiding its massive body underneath the ledge. It was incredible how such a large fish could hide in such a seemingly small space – you would often not even realize they were there until you were inches from their faces, hiding silently in the darkness of the overhang, only becoming apparent when your eyes finally adjusted to the dim light.

It was a fun hour-long dive with about 20 goliath groupers, a few Caribbean Reef Sharks, green and loggerhead turtles, plus various schools of reef fish hanging in the water. Upon surfacing, we were picked up by the boat and then served a delicious lunch to quench our appetites. As we munched our sandwiches and chips, a menacing storm system had been drawing nearer and nearer, with deep thunder and bright flashes of lightning.   Our captain scanned the horizon and told us that he wasn’t very happy with the way the weather was developing. He gave us a choice – nix the third dive and take no chances with the weather or proceed with the third dive but risk the chance of a bad storm developing while we are underwater. It was unanimous – no one wanted to take the chance of diving and coming up in the middle of a thunderstorm, so we called it a day and headed back to the dive shop. It was a bummer we couldn’t do the last dive, but I will always take the safer route, especially when it comes to lightning and having a large metal tank strapped to my back. Back at the dive shop, we loaded our gear back into Jeff’s car and headed back down to Fort Lauderdale. After cleaning up and relaxing with our unexpected free time, we headed out to a delicious barbeque shop for a tasty and filling dinner. I was tired after such a long but incredibly fun day and headed to bed pretty early. Saturday was bringing another early day of diving and I wanted to be bright-eyed for the adventures the next day would bring.

Saturday was another early wake-up call, heading out the door around 6:30 to get to the shop in Jupiter around 8 in the morning. I hadn’t realized how spoiled I was the day before; our 50-foot Newton dive boat had about 12 people total on Friday but today we had a full boat of about 22 guests plus the dive guide. But not to worry, I was simply happy to be going diving and a crowded boat wouldn’t dampen my spirits. After everyone was loaded on the boat with gear set up on their tanks, we headed out to our first dive site of the day. The captain picked the MG-111 wreck as our first dive of the day. This was supposed to be our third dive site the day before, so I was happy to have the chance to do it, especially because it’s one of the areas the goliath groupers aggregate in numbers of 50 and more. We were dropped just before the wreck and as we descended, the shape of the barge appeared through the water. As I gathered my bearings something confused me – huge, dark shapes shifting around the wreck. As I focused, I realized these were grouper, swimming around the wreck and scattering as the group of 20 divers plowed into the middle of their group. The sight took my breath away – the fish were huge and to see that many at once was absolutely astounding. You immediately feel small when in the presence of a goliath grouper and you realize just how out of place you are in the underwater world when you kick furiously to stay in place in the current and these giants just hang motionless in the same current. Jeff and I moved straight to the back of the wreck, where a series of columns were scattered upright on the sand floor. The groupers hung in groups of 15-20 amongst the columns.

Before the dive, Jeff had advised me about the best way to approach the groupers – stay as low to the sand as possible and move slowly. If the grouper opens its mouth, it means it is nervous or is not happy with the situation, so pause if you notice that behavior. We found a group of 15 or so hanging by 2 columns and following Jeff’s advice, I slowly advanced towards the group, scraping tediously over the sand as to not make these behemoths nervous. I had gotten fairly close and settled down to snap a few photos. I had earned their trust and began to work a little closer, snapping pictures as I went.

I resettled, maybe 10 feet away, and was getting comfortable when I looked back and to my dismay, a group of 7 or so divers had been stealthily creeping behind me, edging up on the fish as well. I looked back at the groupers and to my ultimate dismay, a pair of divers had obliviously floated right through the school, scattering the fish I’d worked so carefully to approach. Oh well, what can you do? Luckily there were heaps of groupers at the site, so we worked to the left side of the wreck, finding a few groupers that were alone before more divers came and scattered them away. We worked our way against the current to the front of the wreck to find a few more, but at this point it had been about 45 minutes and we needed to slowly begin our ascent. It was an amazing dive with such incredible creatures and my 900^th dive to date! I was one happy camper. We did our second dive at the site Tunnels, where we had been the day before. It was again, a nice drift dive with loads of creatures to see. After an hour or so of being underwater, we surface and called it a day. Back in Fort Lauderdale, we cleaned up and headed out to a favorite restaurant of Jeff’s and Missy’s, Valetino Cucina Italiana. We had a great evening of delicious food and drinks. I was having a wonderful time in Fort Lauderdale and was excited for what the rest of my trip had in store for me.