Week End of diving!

Last Friday Tracy and I decided to go back to Turtle Farm since it was a while from our last visit. Winds were WNW therefore was a bit bumpy and vis was not the best. However sea life was plentiful. Tube and Barrel sponges are phenomenal along the mini wall and also along the coral heads on the sand flats around 70 feet of depth. We spent time on a couple of cleaning stations including one with a very busy arrow crab taking care of our fingers. On the Hard pan Tracy found a Pipe Fish (another one!).
On Saturday early morning Tom (from Cayman Kayaks) invited me to check out a fresh water pond in East End. I knew several ponds had been dived through the years but I was excited as the pond was new to me. We were shown the pond by Pastor Mark from East End.The place is on private property (therefore permission is required)and it is adjacent to what Mark described as an "old cattle path that the locals used for a couple of hundred years to reach the pastures". The bush there is full of mosquitoes but the beauty of the jungle and the amount of birds was incredible. Tall trees, Palms, Silver Thatch and mango trees by the dozen all over the place. Talk about protecting the environment, what a Cayman treasure. We checked the pond out first and since the access was not difficult, Tom and I made an experimental/ shallow exploratory dive. There are many small fish close to the surface and many water bugs swimming around. We found those bugs as deep as 40 feet. The water is tea color and visibility will go down to almost zero if the walls were disturbed. We noticed a ledge close to the ten foot mark indicating entrance to a closed space.The lime stone shows the remains of coral skeletons from previous geological periods. We ascended and decided that it will be worth more exploring however doing it with better equipment and more logistics including gear and other experienced cave divers. Tom and I felt comfortable diving with that low visibility. Most of my commercial diving years as a salvage diver were done in zero visibility and within enclosed/ overhead environments however in no way I' m recommending diving any of this sites without the proper training, equipment and authorizations. Cave diving is deadly when done wrong!
After the pond we took off toward Babylon area.The sea was flat calm! We swam to the wall descended to about 70 feet and glided amongst the sea fans, sponges and black coral trees. We dived all the way to shore spending quality time over the shallows and thinking on our next adventure.