In the Path of a Hurricane

Hurricane Dean was coming to the Grand Cayman. Even the smallest and most isolated island is globally connected, properly informed and ready to respond so it was no surprise and no need to worry. Everyone on the dive boat understood the time table of Dean's arrival and how much time remained to get out its way. However, the late August morning offered us the promise of the best diving day yet, and as is so often the case, the weather is most perfect before a storm. A cloudless sky lit a mosaic of azure hue of teal and deep blue, colors hinting at bands of coral reaching out to something deeper. Deeper and darker is what we were seeking on this brilliant day before the coming storm; the thrill of a wall dive, a peak at the oblivion beyond and the tale to tell after coming back.

On the first dive of a crowded boat of strangers acquaintances are not yet formed but sometimes the bolder characters stand out, the ones with bravado. It was easy to take note of the father and two grown sons. The father, tall and stocky, was obviously the kind of guy who, by his stature alone was granted by others an assumed competence. His older son seemed to be of the same mold. Their sauntering stances and affable natures amused us as our boat powered out to reef ahead of us. The younger son was smaller in stature and quieter. He kept himself a bit apart from the other two preferring to sit up on the upper deck while his father and brother held court below. That should have been the first sign something was amiss. By all accounts the first dive went well. The three had dropped in first, but I didn't see them follow us out with the Divemaster guide along the wall. After the dive, they being one of the last out, I heard the father exclaim they prefer to hover near a chute between the two wall faces and wait for the big fish to come by them, as is often the case in his experience. The older son and he recounted on the quality of the dive and took note of me and my son writing in our logbooks. "We used to do that, but we have done so many dives, we don't bother anymore", exclaimed the father. "Yah", grinned the older son, giving his father a friendly shove to the shoulder. The younger son was once again keeping himself to the upper deck while we all waited out our surface interval.

The second dive of the day is always shallower than the first, so we were motoring on the inside of reef to the next site. The father and son, taking note of the shallow

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