Hanging Above The Blue Poem by Janet Armstrong

As the sickness feeling kicks in I remember the words of other divers" it's OK to be scared it would be stupid not to be, we've spent millenniums getting out of this stuff crazy to want to get back in again. I smile to myself, start to calm.
Arms above our heads, the Paddi way, we sink down. I am relieved we are descending gently, miraculously we all hit the bottom more or less together, OK signals all around and we are on our way. Shallow rocks beneath us, fish playing around us, this would have been enough. But we go deeper my breath get shallower, a calming arm and I am happy again, the boys grinning at me. Delighted at how they are enjoying the experience I relax and start the share the fun, an octopus waves tentacles in greeting, it seems happy, keeping its ink to itself.
Following the reef round we come to the drop off, again anxiety rises but they have already left the safety of the reef and are hanging above the blue, the same feeling you get when lying on your stomach looking over a deep drop. My instinct is to cling to the reef but arms beckon me over and I am there and we start to play enjoying the Jacuzzi provided by the bubbles from deeper divers. Letting the fish come to us inspecting us nibbling curiously at our rubber suits. By now we have forgotten the heavy cylinders and for a little while we can feel at one with the sea
No idea of time we check gauges still over 100 bar left so we play some more before heading back around the reef, no rush, time is like magic what felt like 15 minutes turned into a 50 minute dive.