TRAVEL Adventure
I plunge backwards off the side of a boat into the midnight-blue South Atlantic Ocean near Jamestown, the capital city of the British Overseas Territory, St Helena, a remote volcanic tropical island 1 950 km west of the coast of south-western Africa. I'm briefly disoriented as seawater churns around me, and then Dive St Helena's Craig Yon and I resurface to adjust our scubadiving gear. We begin our controlled descent, and the bottom of the boat, bobbing on the surface, becomes more distant.
Once we've reached 13 m, Craig calmly places his hands at chest height, and the whooshing sound of air bubbles resulting from our breathing is deafening yet meditative. He will later tell me he feels most relaxed underwater – the deeper, the better.
It's otherworldly here, a lighter, turquoise hue. Sea temperature varies from 19°C to 25°C, and the visibility is superb. Embedded in the ocean floor are the remains of the stern section of the wreck of the which burnt out and sank in James Bay in 1911 on her way to Australia with immigrants
