Trip Report. The good and the not so good!!

Just got back from a cruise to the carribean. 4 ports, Labadee, Jamaica,Grand Cayman and Cozumel. Booked dives with neptune divers in grand cayman, and through the cruise line in cozumel. This would be our first boat dive so we were a little scared, not knowing anything about how things were done on a boat. First day was in Grand Cayman. Met our dive master Casey on the beach, and may i say she was great . From the first phone call, and all our questions through email she was so helpful and nice. The same can be said for her in person. We noticed that we were the only ones there, so we asked if we were earlly, and she said nope it's just the three of us for the day. My wife and i were so relieved. Our first boat dive and we had it all to ourselves. She went through our dive plan and talked about signals that we would use, the usual stuff. We entered the water and made our descent. Oh my gosh, what a beautiful sight. Words can not describe the scenery in front of us. The coral and marine life were both so colorfull. The dive was going great, warm water, 100'vis and more fish than i could shake a stick at. We reached our return air limit so i signalled Casey and we started back to the boat . We started to make our slow ascent, and thats when it started, pain in my left ear. All the way to the top, as my ears equalized there was a sharp pain. Thought maybe it was the salt water. Second dive was the same. Everything was fine until i started up. Back came the pain. Went back to the ship after the dives were done and decided to see the doctor on board, as we were supposed to dive the next day in cozumel and i wanted to make sure i didn't do any damage. Turns out i had a nasty ear infection and i didn't even know it. :bonk: S$#t, we had to cancel our Cozumel dives and any other water activities for the rest of the cruise. ;-0 I guesse i got what is called a swimmers ear infection the week prior at the local pool when i went to brush up on my skill before my trip. Oh well, Grand Cayman was wonderful and i wasn't going to let this ruin the rest of my trip. Had a great time. Would highly recomend Neptune Divers for anyone looking for someone in Grand Cayman to dive with.

C'est la vie! Glad you had the opportunity to dive Grand Cayman. Now you can start planning how you are going to get back there so you can see what all the fuss is about in Cozumel!

ghosty once bubbled...
... We started to make our slow ascent, and thats when it started, pain in my left ear. All the way to the top, as my ears equalized there was a sharp pain. Thought maybe it was the salt water. Second dive was the same. Everything was fine until i started up. Back came the pain. Went back to the ship after the dives were done and decided to see the doctor on board, as we were supposed to dive the next day in cozumel and i wanted to make sure i didn't do any damage. Turns out i had a nasty ear infection and i didn't even know it. :bonk: S$#t, we had to cancel our Cozumel dives and any other water activities for the rest of the cruise. ;-0 I guesse i got what is called a swimmers ear infection ...

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Sounds more like a reverse squeeze. I've never experienced any pain while ascending (or descending) with swimmer's ear, which is an inflammation of the external ear canal.

donacheson once bubbled...


Sounds more like a reverse squeeze. I've never experienced any pain while ascending (or descending) with swimmer's ear, which is an inflammation of the external ear canal.

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I am very new to scuba diving, and the whole ear thing is something that i am continuing to learn about. But if im not mistaken, which i very well could be, isn't a reverse squeese when the air (while ascending) expanding in the ear has no way of releasing because the eustation tubes become blocked. Now, i could hear the air releasing all the way up. But i felt the pain the whole time as the air was releasing. Maybe i need to do some more reading on reverse squeezes.????