Before leaving Roatan, Honduras, I had one last chance do a technical dive on "Monkey Face Rock," a mysterious deep formation just to the north of the Pillar Coral.
Back in 2008, I did a deep nitrox dive off the wall near El Aguila Shipwreck. During this drop, I spotted a very cool and very deep outcropping that resembles the side profile of a chimp. However, due to the maximum operating depth limitations of EANx32 (MOD is 33m/110ft) and the fact that this formation seemed to be far deeper, I was never able to explore it. I nicknamed this formation "Monkey Face Rock" and vowed one day to explore its deep side.
I partnered up with Roatan Tec Team to plan a tec dive to explore this feature. It wouldn't be as deep as my 55m/180ft dives on Hole in the Wall or Josie J Shipwreck, but it would feature a much longer bottom time: we would be spending 25 minutes at 45m/150ft, giving us plenty of time to explore underneath the formation and along the deep sandy slope that extends downward.
After exploring Monkey Face Rock, our mission was to follow the sloping bottom south towards the deep side of Pillar Coral, a mountainous coral outcropping that starts at 24m/80ft and falls to 45m/150ft. While typically this is a recreational dive that descends onto the top of the formation, this time we would have the unique opportunity to approach Pillar Coral from below instead!
Our mission was a smashing success (I'll spill more details about the particulars in upcoming posts), but suffice to say that everything worked according to plan, everyone came back alive, and WE SAW A FREAKING HAMMERHEAD SHARK!!!
A HUUUUGE thanks to Alex Harper-Graham for capturing this stunning photo of Sammy Rowntree and I diving beneath the shadow of Pillar Coral -- I love this photo so much! It perfectly captures the overwhelming scope of diving that deep!!
Also, a big thanks to Monty Graham and Coconut Tree Divers for putting together this super special dive for me before I left!
FINAL STATS
- Dive #: 2241
- Max Depth: 45m/150ft
- Bottom Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 66 minutes
- Schedule:
- 6m 2min (2)
- 45m 25min (27)
- 21m 4min (34) --> Gas Switch EANx50
- 18m 1min (35)
- 15m 2min (37)
- 12m 4min (41)
- 9m 5min (46)
- 6m 2min (48) --> Gas Switch O2
- 5m 13min (61)
- Gases:
- 2 x Air AL80 (3300psi / 3100psi)
- 1 x EANx50 AL40 (220 bar)
- 1 x O2 AL40 (1100psi)
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