Chat n Chill occupies the beach on Stocking Island directly across from George Town. The restaurant/bar is on the northern end with picnic tables and benches under the trees off to the side, three or four regulation volley ball courts, a conch salad stand and plenty of room to park your dinghy.
Throughout the week many events are held here. Things like church, yoga, volleyball, dominoes and card games, and seminars on all kinds of topics. We put it on our busy calendar to attend the Freediving seminar given by Ashley and Ren Chapman from Evolve Freediving. The kids sat in the trees while we listened. Ashley has broken several world records in the extreme sport in competitive freediving/apnea. Apnea is the suspension of external breathing. This ancient sport was originally used by sponge divers, pearl divers and salvage divers. There are several apnea disciplines from static breath holding in a pool to riding sleds down to extreme depths. Ashley said she started by joining her husband for a class to help them with spear fishing and found out she had potential. We are also just interested in how we can spend more time at 15 – 20 feet looking in lobster holes, but who knows, maybe one of us could be a super star. So we decided to sign up to take a class.
Knowing we would be in class at the beach all day, we had to prepare. A little bread is in order for easy lunches and dinners. With the 150 lbs of flour we brought on board and the price/availability issues for provisions, baking is a good choice. We also packed Topaz up with extra water and an anchor to keep her at the beach. We wouldn’t want her swimming away or going to the restaurant and begging for lunch.
While taking a break from class, the kids went to pet the sting rays that hang around for conch scraps near the conch salad shack.
Ashley taught us about the effects of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and pressure on a body while breath holding. We practiced techniques to slow the heart rate, maintain blood pressure, and relax for maximum breath holding time. Safety procedures are also stressed.
After the morning under the tree, we all went to shallow water to hold our breaths. First there is a time of relaxation breathing.
Then a totally relaxed float to see how long we can hold our breaths. Most of the kids made it to a minute and a half, Eric and I made two minutes, and Wendy and Nat were up to 3 and 4 minutes. Amazing!
Next we went to the Angelfish Blue Hole. Blue Holes are underwater vertical caves. Stocking Island hosts a blue hole inside an enclosed bay which will make it easy to find protected deep water. While the hole goes down to 92 feet in an area where it’s hard to find water deeper than 20 feet, we won’t actually be going into the hole, just down to the rim at which is 30 feet below the surface.
The dive rigs were set up and we broke into two groups to practice diving form, ear clearing, breath holding and of course safety.
Ren and Ashley are great coaches helping us one at a time to hold our breath longer and dive down deeper.
Upon returning to the surface there is a brief recovery time to prevent dizziness and clear out the CO2. We also learned about the gear they use. Roy already has a pair of these extra long fins on order for his 13th birthday gift.
By the end of the day everyone made it down to retrieve a blade of grass as proof of their achievement.
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Watch out lobsters, Roy is armed with new information on how to get down and stay down, so scoot back in your hole.
The day was great fun and the one thing I came away with is: try everything, you can never tell what will be your specialty. Roy declared this yet another ‘best day ever’. Thanks Ashley and Ren.
After all that time on the beach, Topaz was exhausted. It can be hard to get her up in the morning. You can tell if someone has gone out to visit her because of the tail thumping sounds. Her tail is the only indication she’s conscious, because the rest of her fuzzy, bony body doesn’t move.
The week wasn’t all work, we still had time to fly kites.
We joined our friends on Whistling Cay in taking a bunch of kids to the windward side of the island.
It is amazing how many beaches are deserted even though George Town’s resorts and the hundreds of boaters living in the bay are only a short distance away.
The kids found a fun sand hill to climb.
and
run down.
