April 22nd-Oil Rig Sinks, Night Dive in Curacao

Dive #478–Dive #17 of the week in Curacao, N.A. located 12 degrees 10′ 0″ N and 68 degrees 93′ 0″ W or about 50 miles north of Venezuela. Descent time-6.57pm. Water temperature-82 degrees. Location-House Reef at Habitat Curacao. Maximum depth-42 feet. Dive time-40 minutes.

After a week of really wonderful diving with a great group of friends, I was looking forward to the night dive because I get to see things not normally seen during daylight dives. I was also dreading it because it was the last dive of the trip. I was tired because I had over 14 hours underwater during the last five days. Even with my fatigue I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to submerge just one more time.

The night fish were out hunting. The reef was alive. I was treated to seeing an octopus curled under a nice coral head. Everything was going along just fine. Then I began to taste petroleum residue in my mouth. I thought it odd as I had no experience of weird tasting air thus far in the week (not a good thing when diving, especially due to partial pressures creating an exaggerated and therefore negative and toxic effect at depth). It was so pronounced that I turned the dive and came up to a very shallow depth in case there was a problem with the air.

I started to feel awful and it wasn’t only my body that felt bad. I experienced a general feeling of unrest and despair and had absolutely no frame of reference for any of the emotions. There was no current. Navigation was easy. It was a lovely night for diving. As I surfaced I immediately felt very sick. Two weeks later I was diagnosed with pneumonia and a sinus infection from which it took me weeks to recover.

My dive buddies’ air was fine and at the surface mine was perfectly okay with no foul taste or odor. So what was the problem? My experience on the dive bugged me but I dismissed it until I returned home and learned about the Deepwater Horizon oil rig sinking on the same date I had my weird experience underwater. I began to wonder…..

I’m not suggesting I was actually tasting oil from the explosion and spill but on some level I think I must have known the ocean was in trouble. They say energy travels instantaneously, that we are all connected to each other, especially those we love the most. My experience on the night of April 22nd helped me know the truth of that.

I adore the ocean and its amazing and wonderful creatures. I feel more at home underwater than I do on dry land. I have written about my love of the saltwater environment. So when it was grievously injured, why wouldn’t I feel it? We’ve all heard experiences of people dreaming about a loved one that comes to say goodbye in the dreamtime and upon waking we discover they did, in fact, die. The night of April 22nd I knew, on some level, that the ocean was being desperately hurt. Of this truth, I have no doubt.