Remembering A Fallen Friend

Remembering A Fallen Friend

Elizabeth Hollis Whitmer

by Dale Gumm

Publication Date: February 1999

The magnificent Cayman Islands are located in the British West Indies. Grand Cayman Island is the largest island and a popular tourist stop for cruise ships. Her sister islands, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac lie about 89 miles northeast of Grand Cayman. The average temperature is 81 degrees year round.

Nine of us flew to Cayman Brac last Thanksgiving for eight adventure-filled days of scuba diving. We were also on a personal mission. The group was organized by Jim Bedway. Last July his wife, Elizabeth Whitmer, was killed in a tragic parachuting accident in Wisconsin while performing with the Aerial Allstars Skydiving Team. Cayman Brac was one of their favorite dive locations. He made a vow to return to the island with some of her ashes and set them free during a dive.

Cayman Brac is a tropical island paradise that is world-renown for its scuba diving. The island is only about ten miles long and a mile wide. The highest point on the island is a rocky bluff that rises 140 feet above the sea. The white sand sun-kissed beaches bear few footprints as they are never crowded. Only 1,000 folks inhabit the island. Cayman Brac is a timeless beauty, and beneath her turquoise waters is a world teeming with exotic sea life.

We stayed at the Dive Tiara Beach Resort that was rich in island ambiance and charm. The rooms were nicely furnished and very clean. The ocean was only forty steps from our front door. The Grapetree Bar sat on the beach under a giant tree and was the perfect place in the evening to hear grand tales about the day's dives.

The Poseidon Restaurant served plenty of native cuisine and fresh seafood. The hot and tasty food was served buffet style which was perfect after a hard day of diving and catching some rays (sun rays not stingrays). You could dine inside or al fresco while enjoying the ocean view.

When it was time to dive, you walked from your room to a boardwalk that went straight to the dive boat. There was a full-service dive shop right on the boat dock. They assembled and checked your scuba gear, put it on your body, and handed you the regulator. After your dives were over, staff took your gear and rinsed it off. When you arrived at the boat the next day, your gear was waiting for you. Other than mask, fins, and snorkel, I never touched my gear the entire trip. I also took my shoes off the first day of arrival at the hotel and didn't put them back on until the day before we left the island.

I signed up for twenty scuba dives including two night dives. We went to different dive sites every day since there were more than fifty to choose from on Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. My favorite site was the Russian destroyer wreck dive. The massive ship is 330 feet long and its bow rests peacefully in 80 feet of water. The vessel was sunk about 200 yards offshore in 1996 after being prepared for recreational scuba diving. Three upper decks are available for swim throughs with divers able to view areas like the missile launcher, fore and aft deck cannons, the bridge, etc. Divemasters told us to watch for a 200 pound Jewfish in the engine room, but he was awol during our visit.

It was a little eerie swimming through dark narrow corridors and stairwells in a sunken ship that had once been manned by a crew of 110. I kept thinking I was in an episode of X-Files, and Spooky Mulder was going to chase some horrible alien creature in my path and I wouldn't be able to turn around. I was jolted back to reality when my tank bumped the top of the door frame as I swam towards the stern. Exploring this gray lady down under was very exciting and interesting.

At Angel Reef I saw my first six foot Nurse Shark as he lay on the bottom. There were three of us watching from above when suddenly the shark started moving quickly towards Laura Smith. It appeared the predator was actually going for her. You have never seen anyone back paddle as fast as Smith. Except for the terror in her eyes, she looked like an Olympic champion doing the backstroke at a world record pace. However, when the shark got within a few feet of Smith and actually saw her, it veered away. It was definitely a Kodak moment.

Mike Hayden pointed out a black barracuda patrolling his territory. They are rarely aggressive, but I still don't trust them. They are sneaky and will stalk you at times. A large Nassau grouper, a white fish with vertical brown stripes, swam by along with some beautiful French angelfish. The numerous tropical fish flecked with vibrant hues of pink and gold or iridescent blues and yellows were breathtaking in this unspoiled place of beauty.

Our first sighting of a big green moray eel was at Pillar Coral Reef. Jamey Gumm, my wife and dive buddy, spotted the ominous looking critter under a rock overhang. He was nearly seven feet long and reminded me of the ferocious moray eel in the movie "The Deep." Mr. Eel just watched us and showed off his gaping mouth full of teeth. We also saw a sea turtle, a very majestic creature, and some blue parrotfish. You could hear the parrotfish munching on the coral with their beak-like mouths. We also followed two mysterious trails in the sand and wondered which mighty predators might be waiting for us. We cautiously swam above the deep impressions until we discovered two huge conchs creeping along the ocean floor.

Tarpon Reef offered more thrills. We had stopped to admire a friendly Southern stingray. After a couple of moments, a sea snake slithered out from a coral formation and moved towards the stingray. Wow! This was unbelievable. Tyson vs. Hollyfield, and we had front row seats. The strong venomous barbed tail of the ray versus the poison filled fangs of the sea snake. We were drooling with anticipation as the snake moved up against the ray andabsolutely nothing happened. Moments later the ray sailed off and the snake returned to its hiding place.

When we surfaced, the divemasters informed us there were no sea snakes in this part of the world. He said we saw a spotted snake eel - so much for the, "if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, then it's a duck," theory.

The best wall dives were on Little Cayman Island. We descended to 80 feet and swam to the entrance of a long tunnel that lead to Bloody Bay Wall. I was a little hesitant at first, but I could see light at the end of the tunnel. We exited the tunnel on the outside of the great wall and were 115 feet deep. It was like being suspended in blue ink. Neutral buoyancy was critical here. If you started sinking, you could plummet a few thousand feet after you passed out. Not to worry though, your body would implode before it ever reached the bottom.

Our entire group gathered in a circle of love and remembrance as Emily Porter and Jim Bedway dropped two small weighted vials filled with Liz's ashes. We watched in silence as Liz navigated her final seafaring voyage to the bottom of the sea - mission accomplished.

Jamele Bedway, Jim's daughter, showed me a stonefish at Lighthouse Reef. It is the most venomous fish in the world. They get their name because they look like a rock. It took me a few seconds to actually see the stonefish even though I was only a few feet away. He was a master of disguise lying very still and half buried in the sand next to some rocks, waiting for his next meal. The pain from a stonefish sting is immediate and severe. It is also nonresponsive to morphine. Punctures can result in loss of limb or life. A swimmer stepped on one in South Africa and only lived two hours after the sting.

Night dives were exhilarating. The water was so clear you could look up and see the moon from 40 feet below the surface. It was one of those mental postcard shots I will always remember. Crab, spiny lobster, and shrimp are more nocturnal and come out to feed at night. It was fun to watch them scurry around the rocks when the light beams found them. Exploring the rock formations was like visiting a busy metropolis. When you shined your light in the crevices, hundreds of tiny red eyes peered back at you.

Our divemasters warned us about the Polycheates. They won't harm you but they are a nuisance. They are little red worms about an inch long that are attracted to light. There were hundreds of the pesky little critters swarming around my dive light. If you turned off your flashlight they would disappear. However, it was more fun to hold your light beam down by the coral where the worms quickly became dinner. The coral seemed to just inhale the worms somehow. In the deepest parts of the ocean polycheates can grow up to four feet in length!

The days flew by quickly as vacations tend to do. On our last day we rented some motor scooters from B&S Motor Ventures and explored the rest of the island. I hummed a few bars of Steppenwolf's eternal road song, "Born To Be Wild," as I zoomed down the road checking out the flora and fauna of Cayman Brac. I was already thinking of our next great adventure...

Liz had also wanted to climb Mount Rainier, which is the fifth highest peak in the lower 48 states. This summer our group will take more of her ashes to the mountain top and scatter them to the wind. She is swimming with the dolphins now, but I also want her to fly with the eagles. Even though her physical being is gone, Liz's spirit will remain in our hearts and minds forever. There is a good chance her ashes will be buried in all four corners of the earth as her husband and friends journey around the world.

The Cayman Brac trip and this article are dedicated to the loving memory of Elizabeth Hollis Whitmer.