Submitted by Carter O’Brien on the 2024 Winter MAST program in Florida…
A really cool experience we got to share was our first “deep” dive to 65ft. It was the first dive of the day and everyone was apprehensive on making the dive. Blue Grotto boasts a large overhead environment where daylight is still visible so it is technically not cave diving so long as the daylight is visible. That being said there is rock over our heads as we make the dive so there is no easy option for an emergency ascent. It was a bit of a nerve wracking experience grabbing the line and swimming into the dark. The “ballroom” isn’t really visible from the daylight section due to low visibility. Once we made our way into the overhead section it became clear that there wasn’t anything to be scared of. Once our eyes had adjusted it was clear that the overhead section was even larger than the daylight pool. We could see the daylight outside the overhead although we were still in the dark. We spent our time at depth, came up for the decompression stop and finished our ascent. It was a really cool way to break in our advanced open water certifications and it was super fun. (Submitted on January 27, 2024)