We swam into the world’s deepest blue hole a couple of days ago. Dean’s Blue Hole, near Clarence Town, is 202 metres (663 feet) deep, and when you snorkel across the surface and look down, you first see a vast sandy funnel, then an astonishing dark hole disappearing beneath you. There are lots of tropical fish. It is rather like looking down a factory chimney, and there is a uneasy feeling of vertigo.
There were some free-divers there, too, sitting on a raft in the centre. In April 2010, William Trubridge broke a free-diving world record in this hole, reaching a depth of 92 metres (302 ft) without the use of fins. Later that year, he swam to a depth of 101 metres on a single breath using only his hands and feet for propulsion.
Today I hope to fit a new Garmin GHP 12 autopilot, to replace the old Simrad one that self-destructed here three weeks ago. We would then be ready to move on to the Turks and Caicos islands, then the Dominican Republic, but the eternal east winds never seem to stop blowing. Every time I see a shooting star in these incredible tropical star-bright skies I wish for one thing: a west wind.