550

 After weeks of delays and set backs, we finally got to smooth over details before making the descent for the deepest dive yet on St Croix.

 I followed him down to my deep support depth and watched him drop the rest of the way by himself.

 For about 4 more minutes he swam nearly straight down until he reached 554ft. He says the nearly vertical edge of the island bottomed out at about 500 and he had to swim out and over another ledge to reach his planned depth. I lost visual contact for about 8 minutes before I could see his light shining up from below me. We joined up and started switching through our different gases while doing decompression stops

 until we were joined by the shallower support divers bearing extra tanks of deco gases in case we needed them.

 As soon as all the decompression stops were done (about 2 hours worth), 3 dolphins showed up and swam around as if to congratulate us. I imagine it takes a lot to impress a dolphin,

 and as far as I'm concerned, we did.