Hey there,

Here are 3 photos that Alison took during our cave diving trip in Mexico. She took a butt-load of photos, but only sent me these three. She's trying to set up a web site with the rest of them, but she's never done that before and it might be some time before she gets it done. Aktun Koh is a photo of her boyfriend, Brent, and myself descending from the surface of the Cenote. He's in front with me behind him and the permanent guide line directly in front of him leading into the cave.

Calimba is a photo of Steve. I've done most of my cave dives with him as my buddy. He's been at it 10 years longer than me, but I've almost caught up with him in the number of cave dives done. I've done some of my most furthest and most advanced cave dives with him.
Vaca Ha is me!!! I don't know which cave diver in our group is behind and below me. I'm in the fresh water section of a cave. The distortion below me is a halocline. It's a mixing zone of fresh and salt water. Below the halocline, the salt water is just as clear, if not clearer, as the fresh water. It's also warmer. And you must adjust your bouyancy as you move between the two zones and the viscocity of the water changes. Above an undisturbed halocline, you feel as if your floating in air above the surface of a lake or river as you see ripples on the surface of the halocline. Below a halocline, you feel as if you're floating in air with clouds swirling above you. Swimming through a halocline, you feel as if you're the most near-sighted person on earth stumbling along, trying to find your glasses. Alison wants to make this photo into a poster.

In all three photos, Brent, Steve and I are Alison's "slaves". You can see us carrying her "slave strobe" in our hands. We point it behind us. It has a sensor on it that sets the strobe off whenever she takes a photo. Everything behind us is lit up from the slave strobe. Everything in front of us as well as ourselves in these photos, is lit up by the strobe attached to her camera.
Pretty neat stuff, huh?!?!?!?!
Ole'!

I would like to come up there and go diving with y'all some more. Still working the weekend shift, but about to start rotating. Work 12 hour nights two weekends in a row followed by a weekend of 12 hour days. Plus one 8 hour weekday every other week for work. Keep eyeballing your dive schedule, trying to find a day when you're going out to the Naeco or Atlas when I don't have to worry about work, dive in the SC Aquarium, or run off " 2 D Caves" every so often. I could stand a 2-3 day roadtrip up there. Oh yeah, Louis, the tall French Canadian from Les Diables Des Mers, was on the Mexican Cenote cave diving trip with me. He took some tremendous video of several of our dives. The one with the haloclines came out very well. Y'all ought to see it!

Greetings to you, Julie and the rest of the gang. Hope everyone is doing well and your Holidays are Merry!!!!
Hasta Later,
Charlie-----------Ole'!