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--Matt

Dive Report: 11/15/03 Miami Project dives Deep Freeze and Miami Wall

Photos: http://www.geocities.com/tiswango\0311deepfreeze\index.htm

Conditions:
Sunny Day
Seas: 4-6
Current: Slight North
Visibility: 35ft

Dive 1: Deep Freeze

S: Matt (lead, lift bag) Jody (Deco)
A: 21/35, Deco on 50%
D: 130ft plan, 133 max depth, 110ft on deck and 100ft at bow
D: 25 minutes bottom time
D: Around the wreck, drifting ascent
D: 100/1 90/1 80/1 70/3 60/1 50/1 40/1 30/2 20/6 10/2

It was a bumpy ride out to the wreck. Ralph took a big wave and throttled back to ease the impact as we were there. Jody gave Ralph a couple of pointers on how to line us up and live drop us on the wreck. All the super structure was taken off the wreck by Andrew so we planned less bottom time as our average depth would be deeper then my last dive.

The water was nice and blue, but cloudy. On the way down I was searching to find the silhouette of the wreck as we descended. At 80ft we saw that we were just a little ways off. We swam down to the sand on the starboard side of the wreck. After we exchanged an "Ok" I headed to the bow as there seemed to be a lot of action. There were 15 or so large Horse-eye Jacks schooling. The bow was encrusted with deepwater seafans and there were Gray Snapper darting in and out. Off to the Port side was a school of Scad trying to huddle for the protection. I missed the bow swim through and headed down the port side to the stern. There was a big poof of silt as a Black Group took off.

There were a few French Angelfish, but not much living under the wreck. Just past half way down the wreck there was twisted metal and schools of Grunts hanging out. At the stern was another Black Grouper, which quickly ducked under some wreckage. The stern looked like it was twisted and listing to starboard. There were large schools of fish in the twisted metal.

We worked our way forward to amidships and ducted down into the large cargo hold. Beside the snapper, there weren't that many fish. The hold was two stories at about 10ft each. I ducked do to peak in and my light didn't hit the back wall. Jody swam inside and I noticed something hanging down from the ceiling at regular intervals. We didn't know what it was. We left the hold to move back towards the bow. The sand was 130ft, the deck was at 110ft.

At the bow we ascended to 100ft and there were narrow holds that would be fun to swim through if I had more bottom time. At the deeper depths I was intrigued to find fewer Bluehead Wrasse and many more Sunshine fish. At the bow there were several full size Coney which I find quite rare in this part of Florida. There was a large opening at the bow for penetration. As I swam up, a huge head moved out of the shadows. This Cuda was guarding his territory. I decided to skip the last swim through and moved up and to the left as Jody continued swimming forward. His light was straight down and he was focused on something beneath him as he slowly moved forward. I flashed him and pointed out our new toothy friend.

Jody floated off to the right and we went over the bow. I could feel the slight North current which was less than a half a knot. I just hovered and looked over the bow at the fish below. Diving a wreck with just a team of two shows you how many fish leave the wreck when a pack of divers descend on it.

We hit 25 minutes and Jody tossed a thumb. We ascended to 90ft and let the current drift us back over the wreck. At 80ft we pulled out our deco regs and prepared to switch at 70ft. After watching each other switch I prepped the lift bag to shoot. While fiddling with the line I noticed my depth dropped to 75ft. I moved back up to 70ft and continued. Since I had a closed cell back I shot it manually from my mouth with oral inflation. After two good breaths I checked above and let it fly. The rest of the deco went smoothly and Jody kept us right on schedule. At 20 ft I put my hood up to protect my head against the jelly-kline.

We popped up the find William giving us big "OKs" at the surface. Ralph backed the boat up with the bow facing into the waves as Jody taught him. We stripped out of our gear and started getting Ralph and William ready for their dive on the Miami Wall. This gave Jody and I some good time to review our dive.

Debrief:

1. When descending, its rare you go straight down. Since our prevailing current is heading North, Robert came up with always turn and face South for descent. This will help you stay together as a team and help to reduce any distance traveled by current. If the wreck is East or West of your position this won't matter much as your going parallel. The only exception would be if the current if running strong to the North.

2. There was a large opening at the bow we could have swam into. I didn't see it as I was mesmerized by all the fish. Jody could have pointed it out to me.

3. At the gas switch at 70ft, I deployed my reg on the way up and looped it over my head before Jody had a chance to verify I was on the right bottle. Its better to deploy the reg, but leave the hose out in front of you so your buddy can trace it back to the bottle. Then do the second check, purge, turn on, and loop the hose around the neck.

4. I manually inflated my Halcyon closed cell bag with two good breaths. My buoyancy was off and I dropped to 75ft in the process. On the surface the bag was half full. I will have to get an open cell bag or inflate off my inflator hose.

Dive 2: 12:11 AM SI: 1:34

S: Matt (lead, deco) Jody (drag lift bag)
A: 32%
D: 80ft plan, 88 max, avg 70ft
D: 40 minutes bottom time
D: Start with swim South, then drift North to end of wall
D: 40/1 30/1 20/3 10/2

Jody showed me the wall on the sounder. Wow, there was a huge rapid drop off. Holy Jellyfish Batman! Jody smashed two of them on impact with the water. We headed down over the ledge which started at 50 ft and went past 90ft. A Green Moray was out swimming at the base of the ledge to greet us. As we swam up and down the wall dodging our transparent, pulsating friends we ran into pockets of grunts. I was surprised to find a lack of growth on the wall, mostly deep water seafans. Its a great site to dive, but its no Del Ray Ledge when it comes to life and abundance.

--Matt

Dive Report: 11/9/2003 Sunday Miami Project Dives Moby's Reef and St. Anne D' Auray

Conditions:
Seas 3-5 and snotty with 6ft swells
Visibility: 35 ft and green
Water Temp: 81 degrees

Dive 1: Moby 1 Barge and Moby's Reef

S: Jody (lead, anchor), Matt (fish), Mike W. (deco)
A: Jody 30/30 Matt and Mike 32%
D: Plan 100ft, Max 103ft, Avg 80ft
D: 30 minutes BT
D: Explore 150ft off the anchor with reel, then turn and drift with Anchor to shallower reef
D: 50/1 40/1 30/1 20/3 10/3 = 9 mins
RB: 1000 PSI

With the rougher seas Jody choose the longer and more pleasant run around Cape Florida before heading out into the ocean. Jody and I were diving single 80s so we choose an adventure dive to the Moby 1. A barge that none of us had visited. There is an excitement the builds were visiting somewhere new and not knowing what your going to find. Jody explained that this barge was not put down by the Miami DERM. It was an illegal sinking, and as such, it was probably put down next to or on top of the reef to attract more fish.

I stopped the boat within 1 ft of the GPS numbers and there was nothing to be seen on the bottom. This barge went through Andrew and the GPS numbers were wrong. Jody took over and made several passes up and down the reef line looking for it on the sounder. He got a good reading and we dropped anchor to explore. After confirming that it set, we geared up and jumped in.

The water was thick and murky. We hit some patch reef that was 20 ft wide and 4-8 feet off the bottom in places. Several large fish, but no big schools. Jody had an idea on which way to swim so we tied off the reel and swam out. Nothing but reef. We turned and swam back to the anchor. Jody clipped off the lift bag and we lifted off on using the "poor man's scooter". There is another reef line with the wreck of the Tarpon in 80ft of water. It took us over 10 minutes of drifting to hit the next ledge.

This reef was a sloping reef line that went from 80ft to 50 ft or so. We set the anchor and headed off again in search of the Tarpon. No luck again. We were skunked on two wrecks, but saw some new reef. Jody thumbed the dive and Mike ran the minimal deco up the line. At 10 feet we cut the ascent short as the occasional jellyfish we saw at 20ft became a wall of them at 10 ft. We bolted back to the boat. Since we never hit the barge, we named the reef area after the barge.

Dive 2: St. Anne D' Auray

S: Matt (lead) Mike (deco), and Jody (anchor)
A: Jody 30/30, Matt and Mike 32%
D: Plan 80ft, Max 74ft
D: 50 min bt
D: Around the wreck with possible drift
D: 40/1 30/1 20/3 10/2 = 7 mins
RB: 1000 PSI
Fish count: 33 species

We lifted anchor from the first dive and prepared for the next drop on the wreck. My first attempt had a weak reading on the sounder and anchor didn't set. We hauled it up and ran for another drop. After the anchor was deployed we drifted right over the wreck and the anchor set only 130ft from the numbers. We geared up and jumped in again.

I didn't waste anytime getting to 20 ft, under the "jelly-cline" that was as solid as the last location. We swam over the wreck to the anchor in the sand and made sure it was set. Then we swam over to the wreck with a very impressive bow. On the wreck I realized I was narc'd out of my brains. Way more than usual for a 70 ft dive. I was guessing it was CO2 build up and I choose an easy path to the stern with some deep slow breathing.

The Bridge was in the middle of the boat. Underneath was the engine room packed with Glassy Sweepers. I didn't feel good enough to go in so we continued on. The stern had skylights showing a room underneath, but I couldn't figure out how to get in. I continued up the port side of the boat that was listed into the sand. At midship, about 10 minutes later my head cleared and I felt like swimming through the inside from hatch to hatch. The inside was packed with fish. The engine and what looked like a generator inside. Back on the starboard side we continued up to the bow. Just past the striped out and open bridge was a large winch with Gray and Schoolmaster Snapper swimming underneath. I found a Blackbar Soliderfish tucked inside the gears.

There were two cargo holds with holes big enough to swim through. Jody and I swam down into one and popped right out the other. There was nothing to see inside. The bow section was cut open on both sides for another swim thru. I went in the hatch and choose the port side to exit as the starboard had several entanglement hazards. I looked behind me to see my team exiting. Then I looked left to find the snarled teeth of a Barracuda a foot away from my head. He was not happy with my invasion. He swam around in from of me, past the bow. Once the team exited he swam past us again like a sentry patrolling the side of the ship. I swam around the outside one more time and ended at the starboard side next to the anchor.

30 minutes into the dive and Jody gave the team signal to "drift off" the wreck with the anchor. I Ok'd and Mike tossed a thumb. We replied and headed up the line. Even with my problems at first, it was a very good dive. On the boat we debriefed and explained to Mike the difference between our teams directional signals on site and drifting signals to go to another site.

Even with the rough weather we made a great dive trip.

Dive Report: Saturday 11/8 Miami Project dives Tacoma and Dema Trader

Conditions:
Seas: 3-5ft
Current: none
Vis: 50ft horizontal and 70ft vertical

Dive 1: Tacoma (sunk Feb 2002)

Sequence: Matt H. (lead &deco) and Charlie (liftbag)
Air: 21/35 backgas (3400 start 2000 psi end), 50% deco gas (3100 start, 1700 end)
Rock Bottom 1300 PSI
Depth: 120ft plan, 129 max depth
Duration: 30 minutes bt
Distance: Around the wreck with a drift deco
Deco: 80/1 70/1 60/1 50/1 40/1 30/2 20/8 10/4 = 19 minutes

Charlie and I geared up and ran through our checks. Jody lined the boat up and called out, "Dive!" We splashed in and descended in less than two minutes. I pulled out my light and found the cord under the long hose, ops we forgot the modified S-drill on the boat. The helium made it feel like we were on a beach dive. As the wreck came into view a welcome party of 100 Horse-eye Jacks came to greet the alien visitors. We landed square in the middle of the boat. I swam off to the starboard side and hit the sand. There were several large hogfish grazing next to us. We exchanged Ok's and I headed for the bow. Once there I looked back at Charlie and noticed something else swimming 20 ft away. A large 5ft Lemon shark (I think) with a Cobia on its left and another small shark on its right cruised by us. I thought to myself, "Wow, were swimming with the big boys now."

I stopped to look up at the bow from the sand, it was a good 30ft to the deck. We swam down the port side and noticed all the fish living in a pocket under the ship where the sand was removed away by currents. I found some Cottonwicks and a Black Grouper. There were two more Blacks at the stern along with more Hogfish and Chubs. Back around on starboard side we ascended to 115 ft on the deck. There was a school of Tomtates and Redband Parrotfish grazing on the deck. The original paint was still visible and wasn't completly overgrown yet.

Swimming over the holds filled with concrete debris, Gray snapper circled. I wanted to go in, but decided to take it easy on my first deco dive. Swimming up to the bridge which was at the bow, there were several corridors that would allow for penetration. I stuck my head and HID in and the light didn't touch the back wall. More penetration for a future dive. Swimming around the base of the bridge there were huge Midnight and Rainbow Parrotfish grazing, unconcerned at our presence. We circled up the bridge looking all the small fish, mostly Bluehead Wrasse and Blue Chromis.

We were at 82ft on top of the bridge. We had 3 more minutes of bottom time. I just hovered and watched the fish come back and swim around the wreck. These fish seemed very unconcerned at our appearance. At 29 minutes we thumbed the dive and did our deep stop. We pulled out our regs on the way to 70ft and Charlie watched me switched, then I watched him. Charlie pulled out the bag and prepped it while we ascended to 60ft. Charlie put the reg in the bag and gave it a puff so it would stand upright. Then another puff and let it go. It was visible on the surface, but the bag really needed to be full to be visible in the rough seas. Since there was little current, Jody was right there with the boat.

Deco was uneventful with the exception of some jellyfish sightings at 20 and 10 ft. We ascended and Mike grabbed our deco bottles and fins so we could climb up the ladder. On my way up I noticed something hanging off the props. There was thick black rope on both screws. I went under the boat to hack at it with a big knife, no luck. I was also afraid of breaking my head or tanks on the rolling boat. Jody jumped in and cut one screw free. He said we could travel 1000ft to our next dive site where we would anchor and have better luck getting the rope off the shaft.

Mike and Jody jumped in for their first dive on the Dema Trader. We followed along after a 1.5 hour SI.

Dive 2: Dema Trader (Sunk 10/21/03)

Sequence: Matt H. (lead) and Charlie (deco)
Air: 21/35 backgas (200 start/end),
Matt: 30/30 AL80 Stage (3100 start, 500 end) Charlie: 32% AL 80 stage
Rock Bottom: 1300 back gas, end dive at 800 psi in stage
Depth: 80 ft plan, 78 max depth
Duration: 40 minutes bt
Distance: Around the wreck
Deco: 50/1 40/1 30/2 20/6 10/2 = 12 minutes

The anchor was dung in the sand just past the ship. We dropped down to the sand again and headed for the bow. A Saucereye Porgy greeted us and then took off. There were school of juvenile fish already congregating on the wreck. At the bow there was a large pile of chain with Grunts and Chalk bass. We swam down the barnacle encrusted side to the screw. There was a Smooth Trunkfish on each side of the shaft. I thought I was seeing double.

We ascended to the deck and swam into the hold. It was filled with 12 4ft diameter culverts and 7 large junction squares. There was a large 1.5 inch stainless wrench on the one of the culverts. Besides two small Stripped Parrotfish and some Masked Glass Gobies, the hold was barren. However in 4 years this will be a spectacular dive! In all of the lower holds there was red water, that looked like Kool-Aid. It was dissolved rust that hasn't been "washed" out of the holds by current.

Up at the bow there was a large winch housing small Bluehead Wrasse. The boat had graffiti all over and we had fun reading all the notes on the boat. We swam back to the stern and peaked into the hold to the engine room. The hatchway was a little tight for my rig and I didn't know how much room was in there. The engine still had all kinds of gauges it. I noticed light coming in from the side so we found a huge cut away on the port side. We swam into a crew room. There was still flooring on the boat and a open bathroom with a broken toilet. At the other end I found the passage to the engine and decided not to go in again.

There was another door to an equal sized room on the starboard side. I wedged myself in with the stage and canister light. I backed up and rotated 90 degrees and slide right in. Charlie tried it too and got stuck. He wiggled through with only a 45 degree rotation. This room featured a large floating wood table, stuck to the ceiling. It still moved and I wonder hold long it will take before it slips out of the hole and becomes boater's nightmare? This room had another exit out the stern through what looked like a machine room. There was an air compressor, tools, and metal pieces still in the shelves. We popped up on the stern deck.

Charlie and I floated over the bridge and looked it. The bridge was stripped out clean with nothing of interest to look at. We swam leisurely to the anchor line and thumbed the dive at 39 minutes. Back on the boat, I got out of my gear and Jody told me the GPS was programmed for the numbers and to set them up for their second drift dive.

Jody and Mike were going to explore "Joe's Wreck" named after Joe Talavera who was on the trip when Jody found an interesting profile on the sounder and marked the numbers. He and Mike were to check it out, then shoot a bag and drift off to another wreck. After 10 minutes the sausage came up and we stuck close as there was a lot of fishing traffic. After 20 minutes there was a drift fishing boat named "Reward" that was heading for the float. I kept the bow of facing the boat next to the float like a mother protecting her young. The boat kept about 150 ft away from the float, too close for me, but not close enough to make a stink.

After 35 minutes the fishing boat reeled up and motored off. With in minutes I spotted another 25ft fishing boat on plane heading right for us. I spun around and moved to put our boat between them and the float. At 300 ft they finally came off plane and turned to miss us. Gee, they were flying a dive flag with 4 people in wetsuits standing in the boat. They lined up their spot and through a grapple down on the Rio Miami, the same wreck my divers were on. Charlie and I watched the other divers suit up. Then one by one each diver loaded a speargun and held them straight up in the air. Then they all back rolled in at different points on the boat to so they didn't shoot each other I guess.

Jody and Mike surfaced 15ft from the other boat. They swam off so I could pick them up. I asked Jody if we were in the no spearfishing zone? He said that we were in the Key Biscayne Special Management Zone (SMZ). Hook and line fishing was fine, but there was no spearfishing, fishtraps, or lobster pots. I hailed on the radio ch. 16 for FWC and got no response. Then I saw a chartreuse liftbag surface off the anchor line. There was a stringer with two fish on it. I took down the boat's numbers and we headed in.

When I got home I call looked up FWC on the web and found the violations report line.
http://www.floridaconservation.org/
888-404-3922

I filed a report with the dispatcher, but didn't have all the facts, numbers, and locations. It was also 3 hours later. An officer did call me 20 minutes after I hung up and said that he was 90% sure that there wasn't a no spearfishing zone off Key Biscayne before Pennekamp park with the exception of a small area marked with white buoys. He said, if you can hook and line fish there, you can spear there. He said if he found anything else out, he would give me a call back.

With some help from Jody, we found the law, the no spearing zone, and the numbers for the wreck they were on, which was inside the SMZ. Info below. I must say, I find it hard to blame or be angry at the spearfisherman for poaching in a zone when law enforcement doesn't even know of its existence. Jody has been diving before the law was put in place.

At Oceanfest 2000 I attended a lecture on Marine Protected Area's which explained the life cycle of setting up any type of No Take Zone. First you have to fight to get it established. Then you have to educate the public of its existence because there won't be enough law enforcement to monitor such an area. After users start to see the benefits, they will promote the education, realize the value of it, and work to protect it. Once users catch more and bigger fish from the spill over outside of the zone, everyone will realize how they benefit from what was given up and 85% people will respect the no take zone.

Dive site:
"Rio Miami" 105' steel tug Nov-89 67' 30'

25 42.166 80 05.232

http://caldera.sero.nmfs.gov/fishery/regs/inter622.htm

(xxi) Key Biscayne/Artificial Reef--H is bounded on the north by 2542.82' N. lat.; on the south by 2541.32' N. lat.; on the east by 8004.22' W. long.; and on the west by 8005.53' W. long.

e)(1)(xix) and (e)(1)(xxi)
Use of spearfishing gear is prohibited.



The main web site is: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/

Class report: GUE Tech1, 10/24-10/26 in High Springs 10/31-11/2 in FTL & Ocala

Photos: http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/1026tech1/

Reports on all the dives leading up to the class are archived by month and posted at:

www.tiswango.blogspot.com

After booking this class back in September and thinking about it since May, it was finally time. Thursday night Charlie and I were jacked up on excitement and hauled booty up north making it to the Cadillac Motel. We arrived in High Springs at 11:50 PM in 4.5 hours with one stop for fuel at the Okahumpka service plaza. I assumed that cave diving would mean not having to worry about creatures; instead of being in the water, they are running across the road. Sorry there Mr. Raccoon, Darwin calling.

Friday 10/24

We met Tyler at Extreme Exposure for the first class at 9:30 AM. It made for a very long day. We covered the basics of the DIR Fundamentals class. We reviewed situational awareness, gas management, dive planning, oxygen maladies, equivalent air depth, oxygen handling, mixing, analysis and labeling. The coolest thing I learned was a deeper appreciation of standard gasses and being able to figure out the numbers for partial pressure filling in my head. Fill Express' banked gas is just gravy.

Saturday 10/25

From 10 AM to 2 PM Charlie and I went to Ginnie for some cavern diving. See my other report for those details.

Buck had to drive to Tallahassee for his FWC fitness check out. We met at EE around 4 PM, topped off the tanks, and headed to Ginnie for practice dives. Buck and Charlie teamed up and I teamed up with Stacy; she was a Tech 1 student in progress. We practiced all of our drills swimming down the run at Ginnie in 6 ft of water. Once Tyler hopped in we got to do them again without mask to practice leading a dependent diver around.

While there was still light, Tyler demonstrated how to switch to a deco bottle. The process was easy: depth, id, valve and remove hose. Then depth, id, valve, purge, turn on and breathe. After a couple of switches we settled down in the Devil’s Eye to shoot lift bags. Tyler demonstrated how to shoot the closed circuit bag and the open bag. Then we hung out at the bottom shooting the bags while he deflated them on the surface. I was trying to hit Tyler with my bag, so I got an added problem to solve. After 5 times, Tyler told me to take off my mask and ascend using the lift bag. I had a hard time maintaining my depth because of the technique I was using to wind the spool up. I would pull out 3-4 feet of line and wrap. Tyler taught us to make small loops and keep the line tight. Then we know if the line is loose, dump gas; if we are hanging on the line, we are too heavy. It replaced the information usually taken in by our eyes. At 9 PM in pitch blackness, it was time to get out and call it a night.

Sunday 10/26

We met at EE; topped off the tanks; and got psyched up for the long training dive in the Ginnie Ballroom. First we were to do a cavern dive with the same teams as yesterday. There were two cavern classes going on and two cavern teams inside. It was busy. Every time we went in, there were hordes of divers coming out. We finally made our placements inside the cave and headed in. Stacy went to the grate and then went to the cave area to the left. I found an area to pop up in and saw the hundreds of cyalume sticks up on the ceiling. I had some trouble turning around and Tyler caught some hand fanning on film. I should have pushed off from a rock instead of swatting cave flies. He told Stacy to end the dive, and then her light went out. I put her into the lead position on the way out. It was an easy dive. Before exiting the cavern, I found Tyler to make sure my mask was not going to disappear on me. Tyler was sizing us up.

After a quick debrief, we started our rescue drills. We learned a new technique for bringing an unconscious diver to the surface. We each practiced this 3 times each. I was such a good actor, one of the open water divers swam by with eyes wide open and gave me a weak questioning "ok". I responded with an ok and a smile as I was rescued. We practiced switching to our stage bottles and running through a complete valve drill with Tyler watching. This was the only valve drill we did in the whole class. Several times Tyler repeated that he would not be touching our valves during the class.

Now we were ready for another cavern dive into the Ballroom. There were fewer people inside which made life easier. We took the same route and Stacy lost her primary light in almost the same spot. I stayed looking at her with mine until it went out, too. We were in complete darkness. This got my heart beating. I hesitated between going for the line or the back-up light. I grabbed the line as Stacy got her light on. I deployed my light and we thumbed the dive. I started out and Stacy reeled in, at 4 ft we found our line… it was cut. Now my heart was beating; my mind hit the red in RPMs thinking "We're lost". Granted, all I had to do was turn around to see the exit. I searched and found the end of the line. I held both ends and lit the area for Stacy to tie it together. She couldn't. I tied a quick knot that wouldn't hold, but it got a few loops on the reel and got us headed on our way out.

On the way, I noticed a lack of light; I turned and found a flashing light. I swam right up to Stacy and she was still flashing, but there wasn't anything wrong. I was about to ask her a question when she gave me out of air. We shared and I put her in the 3 o'clock position. She locked the reel and left it; we swam out. After we cleared the entrance and I felt the satisfaction of escaping death, I felt a rush of water in my face. Oh yeah, open water less than 30ft is fair game for masks and mine was gone. I signaled Stacy and she brought me up nice and easy. On the surface I opened my eyes with a big smile; these are the dives we love!

Back on the surface we did a quick debrief. Charlie and Buck didn't lock and leave the reel when they were sharing air. They couldn't figure why Tyler kept cutting the line in front of them. Too funny! Now it was back to opening of the Ballroom to shoot lift bags some more. After three more times I took my mask off and practiced my ascent with small wraps of line on the spool, it worked like a charm.

Tyler was out and dressed when it came time for the final drill: ditch and don doubles at the surface, floating comfortably, without breathing a regulator. William A. told me the secret to this drill: putting your gauges in your pocket so there was nothing to catch on the harness straps. I was in and out with ease. At the end of the day Tyler was supposed to make us swim the run at Ginnie. The water is so cold we convinced him we would be happy to swim in a real pool in FTL.

After we packed up the gear, we had a verbal review of the last dive and Q&A session. We pulled out of Ginnie at 7 PM for the drive home. I was home at 11:50 PM

Friday 10/31

After watching the weather go from bad to worse all week I was concern about the state of the deep ocean dives. I called Jerry at Parrot Island to cancel my reservation and he said the report was 5-7 and the seas were 6-8! NOAA underestimated, whoa, look out for flying pigs! Tyler and Dave Sweetin showed up at 11 AM and we set up a classroom complete with white board in Charlie's dinning room. Tyler's LCD projector and PowerPoint made the classroom training much more focused and easy to digest. He also has a visual example to illustrate all the key points. The guy is sharp!

Now we were getting into the good stuff! We spent hours on the benefits of helium and decompression basics. Then we got the full history of deco theory and reviewed the latest information on bubble mechanics. Tyler made it clear that there isn't much "science" to decompression. First we learned the theory and history, and then we would learn to implement the "Art" and "Strategy" of deco. He gave us a good appreciation of how much isn't really "known" about deco. Dive computers and deco programs give us a feeling of control or power; that's really an illusion because we just don't know. My brain was fried!

We finished at 6 PM in order to make it to the International Swimming Hall of Fame for our swim test. Then Buck reminded us that it was the boat show weekend and parking was $50 around there! Now Tyler was thinking we really were afraid of the swim test. Back up plan was the pool by Coral Reef Scuba off University. We got there at 7 PM to find that the 7-8 PM swim was cancelled and the pool was closed because the life guards wanted to go home early. Foiled again! New plan was to meet here at 9 AM for the swim and then finish the lecture at Charlie's.

Saturday 11/1

We met at 9 AM; the lifeguards let us in at 9:20 AM for free. I knocked out the 300 meter with 6 laps in 6 minutes 27 seconds. Well within time, yet beaten by several seconds by Charlie's power breaststroke. A quick run to Dunkin' Donuts for some coffee and then the big lecture on "Deco on the Fly." After reviewing all the rules for doing it in our heads, we ran some tables in deco planner to see how close we came. Amazing! Then we learned all the tips and tricks needed to edit the profiles from the computer to take out the guess work and make it art. Finally, since DIR divers dive as a team, and though you brain is the number one failure point, we were allowed to take the test as a team and solve the problems. Tyler and Dave took off and headed home to Alachua.

At 4 PM we loaded up Buck's van with 6 sets of doubles filled with 30/30 and 21/35 plus gear. We motored north to Ocala to spend the night and get ready for Sunday's dive at Hal's Hole. The drive was enjoyable as Buck had every DIR, WKPP, and Halcyon video ever published in the van with a 10" TV and VCR. After watching to videos featuring clips from Sally Ward, Cave 2 just went up on the priority list for the next training. We shacked up at a Ho-Jo off the interstate and started copying 30/30 air tables into our wet notes for the day ahead.

Sunday 11/2

We arrived at 9 AM sharp after getting lost on the country roads and streets listed on my Yahoo Map. I called Hal and he got us right there. Forty Fathoms Grotto has the same look and feel as the Dive Outpost. It's several small buildings with the exception of the large hole off to the right. Hal Watts came out and greeted us with big smile and hearty "Hello!" We filled out the waivers and learned that we were customers of Tyler and that Tyler and Hal would settled up the bill at the end of the day. Tyler also had to be "checked out" to lead our training dives. A quick review of paperwork took care of that. Josh from EE also came to video our class and he was also a guide for the Grotto.

We humped all our gear down about 4 flights of steps to Pontoon 1 where we would gear up. The bubblers that clear off the duck weed were turned off as Hal was replacing a dock and the other class wanted the "darker effect" of the duck weed reducing the ambient light.

On the dock were 4-6 students also taking a Trimix class. They said they were diving to 160 ft. After doing the site check, the mess of gear all around was scary. Every type of clip, stage rigging, hose, wing, marking, and color known to divers was present. One O2 bottle had a green jacket on it. Tyler did a good job of explaining how when the system works its fine, you know it’s O2. But when the system fails, regulator not in the jacket, you don't know your O2 from your 50% bottle. Breathing the wrong gas at deco is how tech divers are killing themselves. The GUE MOD sticker identifying the bottle can't fail, unless the sticker fell off, and then you wouldn't breathe it.

During the first class Tyler clearly demonstrated how easy it would be to grab the wrong regulator during a gas switch. But that won't happen since we are only carrying one bottle, I argued in vain. Then at the dock Tyler pointed out that he and Josh both had yellow AL 40s, with identical stage regulators and pressure gauges rigged exactly the same. How easy would it have been to pull and clip off Josh's O2 bottle and not Tyler's 50% bottle? A cave diver died while dropping deco gas because he put the 50% at 20ft and the 100% at 70ft on the way in. He didn't ID the bottle before breathing it at 70ft, toxed, and died. He only had one bottle on him. That drove the point home: Even one bottle can kill you!

As for the other class, I thought to myself, “At least they are breathing the long hose.“ Then one of the students was complaining about having too many cords and hoses around his neck and he wasn't going to put the long hose there. He worked out some way to stuff it and breathe his back up for the class. All hope lost again.

This class was heading in the water as we went up to work out our dive plan. Tyler ran us through all the numbers. Did we have enough back gas for our dive plan? Did we have enough deco gas? What was our CNS, OTUs, Rock Bottom, and deco schedule? At least we didn't have to know who the 36th President was! (LBJ) Since the gun was loaded, we would switch to 50% at 50ft so there was a 20ft margin of error. He also explained that if someone was out of mask, the team should switch his gas for him AFTER they have switched themselves. Just like the drill on the airplane: Secure your mask before helping others.

Dive 1: Forty Fathoms Grotto

Time: 11:35 AM
Team order: Matt (lead), Charlie (deco), Buck (lift bag and run reel)
Depth: 99ft
Max BT: 20 minutes
Bottom Time: 15 minutes
Mix: 30/30
Ascent: 18 minutes
Deco gas: 50%, switch at 50ft
Rock Bottom: 1300 PSI
Temp: 71 degrees
Visibility: 20 ft
Deco: 70/1 60/1 50/1 40/1 30/1 20/1 10/1 Total: 7 minutes

We ran through the equipment check on the surface and headed for the water. Tyler and Josh were already in the water and Tyler asked us to bring him his mask which was still sitting on the bench *grin*. I teased him a little bit to make sure this would be a "good" dive. The bubbles from the other divers cleared all the duck weed off the surface for us. We did an S-drill, surfaced and Josh pointed out which rope to use on descent. We choose "wing on wing" formation instead of single file so that we could keep track of each other better. Everyone was descending slowly, so I slowed down to keep the team tight. It took us 7 minutes to hit 99ft. At the bottom the visibility went to 20 ft and it was dark. The rope we followed was tied to an old style satellite dish, which was tied to the wing of the Piper aircraft to our right. There were ropes all over the place; it looked like a cross between a junk yard and the monkey cage at the zoo. I understand the need to put something there for people to see, but I guess I'm too much a cave diver and enjoy the natural look of things.

I followed another rope over to the 25ft boat which is resting on a tree at 115 ft. When I hit the boat with my light I couldn't see it, moving the light away it would reappear. Very spooky. I made another right and headed over to the two person sub. There were dummies in the sub which made the scene surreal for some reason. I started to wish I had less helium in the mix and a little more "Nitrogen Bravery." We continued a little further to an old car that is upside down on the bottom.

At this point I was bored and gestured to Buck to practice running the reel. Buck was confused as I should have been running the reel for the team, but I thought Tyler wanted us to practice in the class. As Buck got the reel out and made a placement, Tyler's light appeared out of the darkness and signaled me OOA. I shared with Charlie, Buck secured the reel and I shot the exit back to the radar dish and ascent line about 10 ft away. On the line we started up and I was attacked by the jaws of the mask stealing serpent and became the dependent diver at about 75ft. So now I'm sharing gas without a mask. I had the line in my right hand and Charlie controlling my buoyancy by my right hand thumb.

At 70ft I started counting seconds in my head, calm and relaxed. Then we headed to 60ft, then to 50 ft. At the stop I could feel Buck on my left pulling out my deco reg. Wow, had he and Charlie switched already? With regulator in hand, I switched and was no longer sharing gas. I counted off one minute, then two minutes and put my thumb up signaling "Hey guys, time to go up to the next stop?" Charlie set me back to neutral. After another minute I put my thumb up again and Charlie set it to neutral. After what "seemed" to be a long time, we finally went up to the next stop. I thought, "Crap, we are going to get nailed for solving problems at depth and not moving up!" I resisted getting angry and just went with the flow. What was I going to do about it?

As we moved up, at the 40ft stop, Buck gave Charlie the lift bag signal and proceeded to shoot his closed circuit bag. It was a perfect shot that hit the 15ft safety bar right in the middle; it’s a 1 in a million chance of doing this! As we continued to move up, and now in the presence of daylight, Charlie turned off his primary light and tucked it in. He was able to reach over my light cord loop, recover the reel, and clip it off to his butt D-ring. As I felt that light tug, I realized that I had something dangling out, and now I correctly tucked in my light cord under my waist belt. Buck followed and turned off his back-up light and clipped it off his chest D-ring

Once we finished our 20ft stop, we moved up and saw that the lift bag was caught at the 15ft safety bar, forming a lovely heart. Buck gave it a tug and freed it up, and as soon as he finished doing this, the underwater serpent appeared again, and this time cutting the lift bag’s line... oops, no reference! As soon as Buck and Charlie looked at each other with a “What now?” expression on their face, Charlie saw how Buck surrendered his mask to the serpent. I felt some movement around me. Then my hand went to Charlie's face and felt no mask. The evil serpent had made its final strike: All three of us were with no mask and no lift bag reference!

Charlie signaled me up and my dubs banged the bottom of the pontoon. Good thing for good trim; That could have been my head! I was pulled right and then felt my back break the surface and I went upright. We lived!

Debrief:

1. Single file should be used in narrow areas or new environments. Wing on Wing only works well when everyone is familiar with the site. Everyone was waiting for everyone else on descent and that is why it was super slow.

2. I should be running the reel as team leader. Having Buck do it brought confusion; I thought it was practice. Buck thought I should be doing it and nothing happened. Buck should have forced the reel at me instead of just holding it out to correct my brain failure. Obviously we should have tied off near the ascent line and run the reel as we dove.

3. Buck and Charlie got props for switching me to deco bottle first so Charlie could switch without sharing gas. Nice work guys!

4. Charlie was slow on the switch as Tyler moved Charlie's pressure gauge from the left D-ring to the lift bag clip. On his next pressure check, Charlie got his pressure gauge through the loop of the stage regulator and created a mess that took time to sort out. We had a 1 minute stop at 70ft; Charlie did 2 minutes so he was clear on back gas to move up. So we were only 1 minute "late" on the deco as Charlie started the timer after switching. No big deal.

5. We made a mess in the silt with good trim. Huh? The sloping bank caught all our fin wash as we kicked. We should have been more careful and head down when close to the sides. The horizontal position isn't perfect for EVERY location, just 98% of them :)

We watched the video Josh shot, ate some lunch and switched over to the 21/35 for the deeper experience dive. Tyler had us run through the plan checking our planned times against available gas supplies. Buck would have just enough deco gas according to the on the fly calculations.

Dive 2: Forty Fathoms Grotto

Team order: Charlie (lead), Buck (deco), Matt (lift bag)
Time: 3:34 PM
Depth: 95 ft
Max BT: 20
Bottom time: 17 minutes
Mix: 21/35, Buck 30/30
Deco: 27 minutes
Deco gas: 50%, switch at 70ft
Temp: 71 degrees
Visibility: 20 ft
SI: 3:13
Deco: 70/1 60/1 50/1 40/1 30/1 20/6 10/2 Total: 13 minutes

We started to get ready for the second dive when Buck opened his tanks to find there was 500 PSI in the 21/35 doubles. I watched him verify the pressure in the tanks Friday before we left. No wonder our voices were so high pitched in the van on the ride up.

At the first dive of the class Tyler said, "If you loose your mask, don't bother with the backup; you'll loose it too." For this dive he stated very nicely, "Feel free to deploy your back up mask on this dive if you should loose your primary mask."

After sharing gas from the last dive, I still had 2900 PSI in my 30/30 doubles. I found a small leak in the tank neck o-ring on the surface after the dive. I told Buck he was welcome to the gas before I had to dump it or use it on a beach dive. He switched over and we scaled our depth back to 100ft and planed some mock deco based on a deeper dive and not having a 2 hour surface interval (SI). Now Hal had turned on the bubblers which cleared the duck weed right out and made for some interesting surface currents.

Charlie led us down the same line in single file for the second dive. We hit the bottom in 4 minutes this time, except halfway down we switched lines and hit the Piper instead of the dish. Charlie was disoriented and we pointed him over to the dish. He tied off the reel to the edge of the dish and went passed the sub to the car.

At 11 minutes, boredom set in and we turned around. I headed to the placement to pull it off and we met at the ascent line. Charlie thumbed the dive and we all replied in kind. And then we hovered there. We hovered some more. I pulled the thumb again and we started up at a snail’s pace. Finally we hit 70ft. Charlie gestured out every word in proper Queens Old English, "You, Watch, Me, Switch, Ok?" Ok, just go. Buck and I had all of our attention on him; we were not going to mess up now. Charlie switched; then Buck; then me. We reset our stopwatch and hovered for a minute with everyone on the gas; then headed up. All the stops went smoothly. At 40ft I remembered I was to shoot the bag so I got it out and strung up. Then I shot it manually at 30 ft. It wasn't pretty, but I got the job done. I'm just not used to shooting the bag by mouth instead of the inflator hose.

Two minutes into the required 6 at 20 ft I saw Buck gesture to Charlie. I didn't catch the signal, but saw the needle of his deco bottle at 200 PSI, buried in the red zone on the gauge. "Could this be a drill?" How did Tyler drain his bottle? Buck switched to his back gas and stowed the bottle. Charlie and I recomputed deco as if he was on 21/35 and, like rock-paper-scissors, we both threw out the right number. What we couldn't discuss was what that number means. I thought it was total deco for the stop and Charlie thought it was deco time remaining. As my shorter time came up we argued about ascending and I accepted my brain failure in that it is not bad to do more deco than less as I thought.

After the 20 ft stop I ascend to 10 ft to finish the deco. I dumped a little too much gas and was slightly negative hanging on the spool. I felt the line move and saw Tyler cutting the line with his knife, "Now what, I thought?" Oops, we were supposed to ascend from 20ft to the surface in 2 minutes, not do a 2-minute stop. Without the line I dropped to 14 ft, regained my neutrality and finished the ascent. We lived again!

Then we debriefed:

1. Descent time was good at 4 minutes.

2. Charlie jumped lines and Tyler noticed that we noticed.

3. On the turn, Buck went to the outside and could have been left behind. He was in Charlie's "blind spot" and if he wasn't paying attention, could have gone right by him. Always stay to the inside near the line on turns.

4. At the switch, just make sure the team is looking at you. It should take about 30 seconds each when you’re smooth, right down the team order.

5. Re-computing deco, always show numbers for time remaining. I forgot to add the two minutes of deco already completed to the total time at the stop.

We packed up and hauled all the gear up. We had to play beat the clock to clear out by 5 PM as Hal was closing. Tyler settled up with Hal. Tyler negotiated a good rate for the day as the retail price for a guided tour is $55 per tech dive and he didn't inflate the price at all.

We headed to Denny's to watch the video of the last dive, review the test, and finish up the paperwork. Tyler was more than fair in his expenses that he asked for reimbursement. We wrote out the checks and asked a few last minute questions. I left it to Charlie to ask, "So Tyler, are we going to pass?" He said as long as our checks don't bounce our cards will be mailed to us in a couple of weeks.

Woo-hoo....!! We Passed!

At 7:10 PM we stared the 4 hour drive home. I let out several primitive battle cries of excitement. It was a job well done by everyone on the team. After over 3 hours I asked for p-valve break at the Fort Drum Service plaza. Coming back to the car I noticed a semi carrying a trailer full of compressed gas containers. It just so happens that baby was packed full of helium. I considered this to be a good sign from the Gods of Excellent Diving to Come. We guessed that there was over 1 million cubic feet of gas headed to the United States Air Force.

I arrived home at 12:50 AM, mission accomplished!

--Matt

Dive Report: 10/25/03 Devils Eye and Ear at Ginnie Springs

Photos:
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/1026tech1/

Charlie and I slept in on Saturday, had a nice breakfast at Floyd's Dinner and headed over to Ginnie. Charlie's eyes lit up starring into the clear water. We would do a cavern dive into the Eye for a warm up and then I would have Charlie run a reel into the Ear.

Dive 1: Devils Eye
Max Depth: 37ft
Runtime: 22 minutes
Gas 32%
Water Temp: 71
Turn: 2600 PSI

We got into the water at the end of the run and practiced sharing air on the swim down to the eye. The water was undisturbed and Little Devils was clear to the bottom. I should have stopped and shot the photos, but decided to do it on the way out. I wanted to get overhead!

We dropped down and Charlie hovered at the entrance feeling the flow. He tied off to the log and headed in. He was kicking hard to move in and then discovered the pull and glide technique. Every time I dove the Eye, I was in a hurry to see how fast I could tie into the mainline and how far I could get on 500psi of gas. This time I knew we wouldn't go past the daylight zone, so I relaxed and took in the scenery. We went in 75ft or so and Charlie paused over the section and didn't drop down. Natural light was still easy to see.

Charlie turned the dive and I got out the camera. I started practicing my cave photography. On the way out I tried for some cavern shots and nailed two good ones of Charlie. On the way out I counted 6 deco bottles placed in the eye with no line connecting them. "Just Ginnie" complacency is evident. I wanted to shoot some photos of the clear water in the eye. On our way out were attacked by squad of snorkelers going into the cavern on a breath of air. One was a father showing off to his two young kids in the water with him. Yipes! After I surfaced I kept watching for him to come back out.

Dive 2: Devils Ear

Max Depth: 59ft
Runtime: 38 minutes
Gas 32%
Water Temp: 71
Turn: 2100 PSI
SI: 20 minutes

I still clearly remember my first time running a line into the ear. I blew through 500 psi in a set of double 95s just to get tied into the mainline. Charlie said he was up for it, so we descended down into the brown brackish water which turned crystal clear at 10 feet as we could feel the fresh water pouring out. Primary tie was solid on the log, the secondary tie was harder to find. Charlie made one, but it slipped off. The second was tight, but I held on to it as he went into the eye. He got his head dead into the flow, then back out and gave me the turn around sign. The flow caught him and pushed him up and behind me.

He was calm and gave me a big ok. After a minute or two I gave him the "switch" signal and took the reel. I made an new placement on a rock facing up as I went down into the Ear. Inside it is calm and peaceful. I went up to the ceiling where the flow is milder and noticed the mainline. I tied the reel into the mainline and went into the first room up to the hole which connects to the Eye.

The cloudy water and small opening didn't leave much "cavern" area so we only went a little ways in. The slow pace and no pressure to penetrate gave me time to look around without the narrowed perception that comes from a hard working dive at depth. I took some time to look at the ceiling. The walls in Devils are some much more interesting than Peacock. All that water flow must have added to the texture.

My peaceful calm ended when I saw two Openwater divers with one flashlight come into the ear without a reel and start to look around. I untied my reel and moved back to the entrance. They looked around for 5 minutes and then left. Charlie and I went up to a section to the right I had never noticed before. I reached my turn pressure and thumbed Charlie. He headed out first and stopped just outside and was looking at me. I waved him on to go a little further as I had the reel in one hand and only one hand to assist my graceful exit and avoid being "spit out" of the cave.

Like a waterslide I felt myself pick up speed as I made the hard right turn on exit. I stayed low on the floor of the opening and spun around to face the current. I pulled off the placements and reeled in. I'd give myself a 5.4 out of 10 for the dismount. I looked up and was entranced by the mixing of tannin river water and freshwater coming out of the cave. Charlie was wedged in at the tree at 20 feet and I started shooting like crazy to capture the silhouette and the water color. I moved out of the way as a group of four divers headed in. I wedged into the tree and tried to shoot down. I all got was the storm of bubbles created by four divers just inside.

We ascended and Charlie had a big grin on his face. "I have to cave certified, I want to go further in, that was too cool!"

--Matt

Dive Report: 10/19/03 Southseas

Photos:
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/031019mp/

Conditions:
Seas: 1 ft and confused.
Air Temp: 85 degrees
Sunny

Dive 1: Star Trek
Team: Jody S. and Joe T.
Depth: 220ft
Bottom Mix: 15/55
Deco Mix: 50% and 100%
Current: Slight North
Visibility: 80 ft
Temp: 81 degrees top to bottom
Run Time: 90 minutes
Deco: A lot

I drove right over the wreck the first time with the numbers Jody had for the Star Trek. He lined it up again a stopped the boat dead on the numbers to check for current, none. This was going to be a good dive. Charlie ran through the dive plan and times to confirm when we needed to be on the look out for bottles and liftbags. Charlie was a big help getting on the stage and deco bottles donned and ready to go. I got the boat ready for the run, about 500ft away from the mark and they moved to the back platform. These two guys had $150 or so worth of gas on there backs, I didn't want to drop them for a sand dive. Oh the weight of the gear. I stopped the boat dead four feet from the numbers and called out "Dive, Dive, Dive!"

Occasionally, I would make runs back to the numbers and let the boat drift away. At ten minutes a saw a thick diagonal line in the sounder as I ran over the bubble trail of the divers, cool. 26 minutes into the dive about 50 ft off the bow I saw a small surface marker and two spent Aluminum 80s floating in the water. Charlie retrieved them, then he decided to lay down and take a nap. At 45 minutes we started looking for the marker. At 50 minutes into the dive I saw a flick orange in the distance, due East of the boat. I headed over that way, .3 miles from where we were I found 1 foot of a 6 foot sausage sticking out of the water. Looks like it didn't get much gas in it on the 70ft stop.

After an hour and 15 minutes I jumped in on the marker and took some photos while free diving. I got "Ok's" from the team so I new it was all good. 10 minutes later they surfaced and we picked them up. A perfect dive!

Joe never heard of the new Halcyon semi-closed circuit lift bag being called a "BBQ Apron". He tried it on and I think it works quite well.

Dive 2: Southseas and Airplane wreck
Team: Charlie G. and Matt H.
Gas: 33% and 50%
Visibility: 40ft
Current: None
Depth: 82ft
Runtime: 58 minutes
Deco: 50/5 40/1 30/1 20/3 10/3

Charlie and I have dove a lot of sites off Miami now. One we've not hit yet in our wreck treks was the Southseas which is an old 135ft steel freighter. From there we have the choice of swimming off the bow to the Princess Brittany or heading off the stern to the Airplane wreck. Jody told us to dive and we splashed it. The visibility was 30-40ft, but milky white. I could see the shadow of the wreck and swam to it.

The wreck was nothing by super structure, the top was gone. There was lots of growth and juvenile fish swimming in the steel beams. In the midsection there was some equipment left. To the right I noticed a large green moray having straight up and down. I slowly approached with my camera, snapped a couple of photos and hovered. I moved my camera and light away from it and starred. The moray swam up to within 2 ft of me and starred back. We shared a moment, I went to shoot another photo and it disappeared in the floor.

We worked back and saw some juvenile stripped parrotfish, trumpetfish, numerous grunts and some hogfish. Swimming back on starboard side of the wreck I found a Starlet coral with a Peppermint Goby. This fish is only 1.5 inches long, but you can see the yellow body and blue of the eyes if you look for it in photo. (see photo mp032.jpg) I zigged back over to the port to see the eel again. Then we swam back to the bow. After killing only 25 minutes out of 50 we decided to swim for the Airplane wreck off the stern.

Jody said to swim Southwest and we should hit a big triangle half way between the two. Charlie and I took a "swim of faith" of the stern and headed over the sand. I saw what looked to be rebar in the sand. They pointed to the triangle, cool. We kept going, and right as I was loosing faith, I saw a depression in the sand, we swam over and saw all that was left, the wing. Several Blackfin snapper greeted us as we arrived. I saw some of the largest Grasby Grouper I've ever seen. At the other end I also found a Coney.

Joe gave me a quick lesson on how to shoot the semi closed bag. I got it out and looped up the spool. It was hanging down so I put a couple bubbles in it to get it upright. While trying to get my reg further up into the bag, it purged and started filling the bag. I wrestled with it, kept the gas going in until I couldn't hold it any more and let it fly. It was full on the surface, but I think I could be a little more graceful next time. Charlie and I ran a mock deco schedule with a gas switch at 50ft to 50%. Joe kept reminding us that diving with 50% is a "loaded gun" and we should be careful about oxtox and holding our depth. The deco bottle is getting loaded up with 32% for the first weekend of Tech 1.

--Matt

Dive Report: Datura Ave, North Side of 2nd Reef Line

Photos:
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/1018daturan/

Team: Andrea, Charlie, Matt

Conditions
Seas; Flat, building to 1 ft
Air Temp: 82
Water Temp: 82
Sunny
Visibility: 30ft
Current: none
Surge: Minimal
Depth: 17ft
Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes

We scored a rock star parking spot at 8 AM and headed over to Mulligan's for breakfast.After we fueled up we went back to gear up. Andrea would lead, Charlie would be number 2 and I would be the third guy to practice following. Something I'm not very good at. While we were getting up I watched an instructor prepare a discover scuba student for a beach dive. He explained that if she did well they could got catch some lobster. I bit my tongue. As we performed our equipment checks I watch another two divers head in, one with a Mares pneumatic speargun and the other dragging lobster gear.

The calm seas made for a quick swim out to the snorkel trail. Visibility was great so we found it with ease. The hunting team was hovering around the ballast pile. I assumed the gun was loaded so we hovered slightly away and watched them. He was poking the gun into the holes and I began to wonder, "He's not going to try to shoot anything there, is he?" After all my fish counts, I know there are no game fish except...... "POP!"... I hear the gun go off. Out from a hole swims a 10 inch Red Grouper with a hole in is back. This grouper had lived in the ballast pile for the past 6 months. I turned on the PA system in my regulator, "WTF" I shouted. "Its not NEAR legal size! What are you thinking?" I was enraged!

The lobster buddy was kneeling in the sand in the PADI training position. The spearfisherman reloaded his gun and looked around for the grouper. The buddy just raised his hands at me gesturing "I don't know?" I weighed my options. I wanted to shut his gas off, but if he drown, that would be hard to explain to the judge. There was the James Bond, pull the mask off move, but I didn't want to wrestle with this guy. I hovered, motionless 2ft away and starred this guy down. Charlie was right on my wing doing the same thing. The fish's fate was sealed, if he bagged it, I would swim out and call FWC with his license plate number. They would have been there and waited for him.

The shooter lost the fish and felt my presence. He turned towards me and kept trying to ask me a question. I was motionless. Finally he game me the thumb, which I returned and we surfaced. I asked, "What is the legal length to spear a grouper in the state of Florida?" He responded, "I don't know?" But tried to cover himself by asking, "How did I know it was a Grouper?" I told him it was a 10-12 inch juvenile Red Grouper also known as a Strawberry Grouper for a reddish skin and white dots. There must be 24 inches are greater to shoot, and this one wasn't close. He replied, "I didn't know how big it was, it was hiding in the rocks." New topic, I asked, "How far to you have to be from the beach or pier to spear in the state of FL?" He replied, "I don't know?" I replied, "300 ft, so you need to be out on the second reef line and head South." Last question from me, "Does Ignorance of the law excuse you from following it?" This was the most classic response, "I've been spearfishing for over three years!" Charlie finished up with, "I think you need to put that spear gun in your car until you learn the laws regarding hunting." They humbly thanked us for the information, submerged and swam off with the gun. I floated on the calm surface for 5 minutes to relax and try to get back into the mindset for a happy dive.

We submerged on the trail and I found the grouper panting in a new hole in the rocks. We swam off East to begin our dive. I found a Sharptail Eel out feeding during the day. He swam right next to a crab with his arms up out in the open. They looked cool together, but I couldn't get the photo to capture the moment. We headed North on the second reef line to see the vast amounts of coral up there. We found four patches of Staghorn coral. I've never seen any there before so that was exciting. I found another upside down coral head, but this one had a lot of damage. I flipped it back over, but there isn't much tissue left to recover.

Andrea lead the way with the camera snapping photos of fireworms, juvenile Yellowtail Damselfish also know as Jewelfish and a rough head blenny (look close at photo datura093.jpg). Charlie and I ran some drills, we switched to deco bottles, passed the bottles back and forth, and Charlie ran a valve drill as I purged my reg over head by his ear.

We came right back to the snorkel trail and I saw the Red Grouper out swimming around. He has a serious wound and some skin flapping about. He was shot on the top of his back. At least it wasn't low and in his guts. I'll check back on him in a couple of weeks and see if he is still there.

While watching Andrea shoot a few more photos, I had this urge to take off all my gear and put it back on. Getting it off it easy. Getting back into it, with hoses and cords everywhere is a big pain! I could not have done with out Charlie's assistance. I have not done that since my Dive Master class over two years ago.

--Matt

Dive Report: 10/16/2003 7PM Datura Street Night Dive and T1 Practice

Team: Matt H. (32%), Charlie G. (32%) and Buck B. (36%)

Conditions (sucky)
Show 6:30 PM
Seas: 3ft building to 4-5ft at the end
Low Tide: 6:55 PM
Winds NE 15 knots and gusty
Visibility: 8ft 1st reef and 15 ft 2nd reef.
Depth: 17ft
Run time: 1 hour 31 minutes

We met up at Datura and did the surface check. It was diveable, but it wasn't going to be pretty. We needed the practice, so we decided to go for it. Bad conditions just makes the drills tougher, which is good. The goal on the dive was to work as a three man team, keep our communication tight and run drills to test our team awareness. We were going to rotate through the positions starting with Charlie leading on the way out, I would lead down the second reef line and Buck would bring us home. Run time would be 90 minutes and I would decide if we were to head North or South based on current. We were all carrying an AL40 stage to get some swimming practice in.

We geared up and marched into the water and through the surf. At the snorkel trail we descended and started off. Buck had has 18watt light set to wide so it was hard to see when he was focused on the team or just looking. Charlie couldn't see his beam in the lead. I kept my light beam on Charlie's so he would know I was right there. I stopped to gesture to Buck to focused his beam. Buck would look around then wave his light across my field of view once in a while to let me know he was there. I didn't let him get more than 30 seconds without seeing the light. Finally Buck kept it out in front of me steady. Then I got the flash and turned for an OOA. After getting Buck gas we flagged Charlie down.

At the second reef line I signaled to switch to stage bottles. I deployed my hose and watched Charlie switch. Then I switched, I started coughing and ran an OOA with Charlie, he was right there. In the corner of my eye, during this time, Buck had switched and stowed it back without anyone really looking at him. He switched and stowed again and we headed South down the reef. Once I started off I noticed the lack of lights, turned, and saw Charlie maskless. Buck was right there on the assist for the switch. From there, Charlie kept his light on Buck, but their lights were just in my field of view. I swam in a zig zag fashion to mess up the order. At one point I headed Southwest and turned on the after burners so Buck would have to stop me and tell me to slow down. After I got moving I stopped and in a John Wayne voice I heard, "Is this a Hogfish I see before me?" It was so big, just laying there sleeping. Grrrrr...., "I will eat you one of these days!"

We worked our way South and after 40 minutes I headed west to find the ledge. I tried to swim away from the group and turned North to see if they would notice. All the sudden I saw the gray swipe of tail near my face. I flashed my team, Shark! It was only a nurse about 3-4 ft, but it Seemed 15ft long at night and their teeth get bigger. I watched him swim away. I turned to hand Buck the flag line to return home and he was deploying his backup light. Cool, another failure. Well simulated I assumed, Buck didn't give me the hand signal for malfunctioning equipment, and he kept he light in his hand so drills would be more realistic. I should have asked him it the failure was for real, but who has problems with Halcyon lights?

On the way home I alternated being a good team member, staying next to Charlie and keeping my light on his. Then I would be bad and get behind him, swim next to Buck and become lost (hid my light). The first lost buddy was a quick pick up. Later I hid my light and got no response, Charlie got a head of Buck at one point, so I hovered directly above Charlie as Buck flashed him and asked where was Matt? Charlie did a couple 360s with no luck. I swam over to the side, took my mask off, and started flashing my light. Both of them were right no me and I switched to my back up.

Time was getting on and we had to beat the parking lady back to the cars at 9 PM. I pointed to my compass and signaled "315" for a heading back to Datura. Buck was supposed to be leading, but Charlie and I passed him at one point and he ran another mask loss drill. We each took a side and assisted him in the change. A mask and two spools is quite cramped in the Halcyon zip pocket. I helped Buck get everything back in there. Once his mask was on, his fins were between Charlie and I. Charlie still had a hold of Buck and I flashed him OOA. As the reg came to my mouth, I took off my mask. The reg never made contact. I was flailing around trying to get some attention and some gas. 10 seconds........ 20 seconds........... "Hey I really need to breath?" I'm thinking. Ok, time to go back to my reg. "Ops, where is my reg?" Its usually hanging off the long hose right in front of me. I couldn't find it. The realization that it was gone and the CO2 building the need to breath kicked the panic in and I felt the Adrenalin injection. I stopped my mind, paused, and though, "Where is there always a reg, just for me? Oh yeah, under my chin!" I purged it and put it in, got a nice deep breath, and just relaxed as my heart calmed down. I put my mask on and we swam the rest of the way in, nice and easy with no problems.

Now, before I get a bunch of emails saying that I'm an idiot for training like this, let me just say, we were trying to crank it up on these dives so that the class seems easier. From all the research I've done, masks fly off and people run out of air as they get left behind by their teammates. The tighter we stay together, the less that's going to happen.

The wind picked up and the waves were tackling our knees as we waddled out of the surf zone. After packing up we headed over to Burger King for a quick bite and time to debrief through what had happened. Buck's HID light really did fail :( I hope he can figure out what was wrong before the class?

1 week to the class, excitement builds!

--Matt

Dive Report: 10/12/03 Miami Project dives the Orion and Army Tanks

Photos:
www.geocities.com/tiswango\1012mp\index.htm

Conditions:
Seas: 1 ft
Air Temp: 90 degrees
Sunny
Current: Slight South

Team: Buck Buchanan (21/35), Charlie Gamba (32%), Matt Hoelscher (32%)

Dive 1: Orion
10:12 AM
Depth 96ft
Run Time: 51 minutes
SI: 12 hours 26 minutes
Water: 81 degrees
Visibility: 50ft
Deco: 70/5 (50% switch) 60/1 50/1 40/1 30/1 20/3 10/3

With a perfect drop of the anchor on the Orion, the beautiful conditions make for some top notch diving. We dropped on the first team who was beginning their exit. Charlie was leading, I was second and Buck was the 3rd guy and in charge of deco. We planned 100ft for 30 minutes, with 5 minutes at 70ft for a gas switch to practice for Tech 1 in 2 weeks.

At the bottom we spread out, as Charlie took off and Buck was slower getting his gear settled in. Buck also was sporting his new 18watt Helios 9, but had the light beam pointed behind him. I pointed mine back in his eyes and then gestured to put his beam out in front of me, which he did.

Now that I had my 2nd guy job of keeping the team together done, Charlie went for a nice slow lap around the outside of the wreck. It was covered in deep water seafans and coated thick with grunts, mostly Tomtates. We also found a free swimming Spotted Eel and at the prop and a favorite fish of mine, the Red Spotted Hawkfish near one of the bollards on deck. We swam from bow to stern. The forward hold was filled with Glassy Sweepers and miscellaneous other fish. We passed the anchor and headed for the stern. I was looking for the Green Moray. In the stern hatch a Squirrelfish posed for a photo in the fan. Charlie picked an exit and as I followed all the grunts came rushing by me to head into the hold. I found the moray under ledge above deck.

Back on deck I found two grunts "Jawing Off" to each other (MP00113). Which ever fish has a bigger jaw wins the show of dominance (just like tech divers on the internet) and the competing fish flakes off. At 26 minutes Charlie shot the exit and we went over to the anchor. The goal is to drop the anchor, upside down in the sand down current for easy, snag free removal. Charlie dug it out of the seafans and placed it up current on the deck of the boat. Then the three of us lifted the chain and anchor to get it off the wreck. It took a while to get everyone coordinated and lifting at once. This was a good lesson on why you use liftbags. We left the deck of the wreck at 80 ft at 33 minutes into the dive. Buck kept the deco the same and we ascended.

At 20ft, since we hadn't run any drills I whipped my mask off and started waving my arms. Charlie touched my elbow, but every time he did, I went for my back up and then he let go. Then I would start waving again. I was holding my stop, but I let go on the line and was drifting off. After three tries I just went for the back up and get it on at 16ft up, then swam back to the line.

Back on the boat we debriefed on the proper procedure and will try it again on the next dive. Charlie was wondering why I was waving my arms so much and telling him to buzz off. We found our co-divers napping on the comfy couch.

Ralph drove us over to the Army Tanks, we dropped anchor again on the nearby freighter as the dive boat Nautilus drove up next to us and deployed their DM to tie off and "claim" the spot. They later apologized on the radio for driving us off. The deck of the boat with all the gear looked like a Halcyon garage sale. Ralph and Mica jumped off for a fun dive. Joe and Jody loaded up with doubles, Al 80 stage, and two AL 40 stages for a tech 2 gear check dive. Holy deco bottles Batman! Since it was calm we handed tanks to them in the water. After 20 minutes we started getting ready for our dive.

Dive 2: Army Tanks
1:15 PM
Depth 49ft
Run Time: 48 min
SI: 2 hours 11 minutes
Water: 83 degrees
Visibility: 60 ft

As bubbles approached the stern we started gearing up for round two. The sequence was the same, We would drop down to the freighter and follow the rebar of the bow to the barge, then on to the Army Tanks and limestone rubble reef. I was down to 800 psi in my dubs so Jody kindly loaned me his AL80 stage of the "good stuff" 30/30, what a pal! Charlie staged up a AL80 from last night with 900 psi to start with and then would finish the 1100 PSI in the dubs. Buck has 1500 left of 21/35 and would ascend on his 70ft bottle. Nice gas plan huh?

The freighter was cool and there were a ton more Glassy Sweepers inside the bridge. At the bow Charlie took off and I didn't see any rebar. I looked at Buck who had the same look on his face, "Where is Charlie going?" Back up brains engaged and we stopped Charlie and pointed at some rebar. This lead us to the boring barge and we continued to the Army tanks. Charlie had the BMW Jetfins on and I couldn't stop him. I turned to Buck and ran an OOA. Charlie looked back out of visual range and saw our flashing lights, which brought him back to us. We stuck together much better the rest of the dive.

The back of the army tank emerged and they looked very cool underwater. This is defiantly is a "been there dove that dive site." They were surrounded with fish and the limestone made for a nice reef. We swam over to the other tank. They both were open on the inside. We turned the dive and Charlie switched to back gas. Charlie lead us back, but we ran out of reef again, Buck corrected the heading as we hit the first Army tank again.

As we were looking around I went to the sand and popped the mask off again and waved my light. This time Buck made contact, put my hand on his face with a mask, then held my hand as I deployed my backup. This went very smoothly. From the tank the rebar lead us back to the freighter, I really like these bread crumb rebar trails.

At the stern, by the anchor, we hit our bottom time of 40 minutes and Charlie gave me the thumb"? I replied with the thumb and we headed up. On the way up I noticed Buck got his longhose tucked back between his two tanks. I couldn't get it free. In the middle of his switch off the 70ft bottle I ran another OOA. Buck took the back up reg out of his mouth, dropped the stage reg, unclipped the long hose and passed it to me, then put the back up reg in his mouth. We spent 2 minutes at 10ft sorting his hoses and then I gave him his reg back.

We packed all the gear up and secured all the tanks on the deck for the ride home. Joe and Mica soaked up a little more of the free FL sun. Ralph got to drive through rush hour boat traffic in Government cut. Another A+ day out of the ocean!

--Matt

Dive Report: 10/11/2003 SFL-DIR Night Datura Ave. Beach Dive

Photos:
www.geocities.com/tiswango\1011datura\index.htm

Team A: Matt H., Andrea V., Mark D.
Following Team: Joe T., and Mica (SP)
Team B: Ralph F., Alex B., Charlie G.

Surface Support and valet parking: Mike W. (sporting his new OMS baseball cap direct from Dema)

Seas: 1ft
Clear Skys
Air Temp: 85 degrees
Current: Slight South
Time: 8:01 PM
Depth: 18ft
Run Time: 1 hour 44 minutes
Water: 82 degrees
SI: 9 hours 10 minutes

As Saturday went on, more and more people came out for the night dive, including the Mark from Fill Express. We filled the wall at Datura with gear. After 4 days at Dema, Joe T. was ready to hit the water. Mike showed up with his OMS hat on (he wouldn't pose for a photo) and decided he would rather go see a movie then dive with us.

I asked Mark, "how much Helium (HE) are you diving today? Mark explained his "used gas" he would be diving. He boosts leftover tanks into his LP 120 all week, tops it off and analyses the mystery mix.

We swam out to the second reef and found lots of creatures to play with including an octopus, green sea turtle, sea urchin, lobsters, and two hogfish big enough to feed the hole dive gang. Eric S., where are you when I need you and I'm hungry? Joe and Mica also get attacked by a school of small Lookdowns. The fish were asleep and swam right into them, too funny.

At 53 minutes we turned the dive at the probe marking Hibiscus Ave. We covered a lot of ground and no one was at turn pressure yet. On the way back Mica and Joe took turns turning off their light and giving me a heart attack as I lead the dive and counted lights to keep track of everyone. When I got too far ahead I shot photos of boxfish for grins.

Swimming across the sand from the first and second reef line, I was down to three lights. I stopped and found Joe and Mica, I tapped my back up light and gestured "turn on Joe". He waved me off as he was enjoying the full moon. I whipped out the wetnotes, "Please, have one light per diver so I don't loose anyone." After the dive, Joe said he was impressed with my politeness in writing. We also found a young Yellow stingray that had a bite taken out of its right side. I also found a flounder while waiting for the team to come back together.

The ocean looked like black oil reflecting the white ripples of moonlight. On the surface swim out, the moon rose out of the water on the horizon as an orange ball. After our rinse and pack we headed to Mulligans for dinner. I was ready to pace out at 11:15 PM since I was up at 5 AM today. Joe and Mica still had desert and we left before Midnight.

--Matt

Dive Report: 10/11/03 PBCRRT Dives Royal Park and Larsens Valley

Photos:
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango\1011pbcrrt\index.htm

Friday 10/10/03 AUE Social
Team: Christos, Mike, and Matt

Friday night at 6 PM Christos was nice enough to take Mike and I for a spin to Monty's South Beach in his BMW. What a machine! Christos said we would live as long as he didn't push, "the button" in front of the stick labeled "sport".

Association of Underwater Explorers (AUE) and Michael Barnett was nice enough to reserve some tables with TVs to view his underwater video while talking with fellow divers. There was the Brownies weeknight dive table, the AUE table, the Decostop table and us. It was fun meeting so many friends from the internet live and in person, though everyone seems taller in person. Why is that?

Mike wowed us and other patrons with his video playing on the TV's all around the bar. Too bad he didn't have a sign advertising his new book to everyone there. I stepped up for a copy with autograph, Thanks Mike! Christos picked up a book and some T-shits as well.

After a couple of hours we left. The valet pulled up and I noticed Christos has pushed the button. We took off like a rocket and I said, "Hey you need to u-turn...." I think I blacked out from the G-forces, but there was a blur, then everything shifted. Stopped in the street we dug out the CD's to get a taste of Christos' Greek music collection. That was a ride I'll never forget. Has anyone done 115 mph in a 45? I wonder what the ticket would be like?

Saturday 10/11/03 Palm Beach County Reef Research Team Dive

Team: Matt (32%) and Anita (air)

Dive 1: Royal Park Bridge
8:24 AM
Time: 7 AM
Seas: less 1ft
Winds: 10 knots NE
Visibility: 40ft
Depth: 75
Runtime: 39 minutes
Water: 83 degrees
Deco: 50/1 40/1 30/1 20/3 10/3

Running on 5 hours sleep I was up at 5 AM to get ready and drive to WPB. We loaded up early and waited for Captain Bob to arrive, give the 1 minute safety briefing, and say the line, "I'm so excited, cast off lines and make way for sea!"

We got our dive plan together. Andrea got some great photos of my bald spot and fellow E-divers Wade P. was sporting the new urban diver look. With a full staff of divers and fish counters we could safely spread out over the side. With all the easy to locate fish stations given away, Anita and I would swim 300 ft to a nearby barge/tugboat combo. The barge landed on the tug boat propping it up and making it home to some large fish.

The lack of current made for a rare dive day in WPB. We swam right over to the barge and I was surprised to not see the resident Goliath Grouper. But there were Blacks, Yellowmouths, Gag, and Scamp all over. After my 10 minutes fish count we explored the tug boat and found the biggest Gray snapper I've ever seen duck into the stern deck. The hole was too small for me to pursue him.

Anita was an air sipper so we cruised back over to the rest of the bridge debris and swam around. Large jacks and grunts all over. I couldn't find any of our other marks. I learned latter on the boat, no one could. The mappers will have to replace them.

Dive 2: Larsen's Valley
10:12 AM
Depth 78ft
Run Time: 38 min
SI: 1:09
Water: 83
Deco: 50/3 40/1 30/1 20/6 10/3

After an hour, Anita had 30 minutes at 70ft for the second dive. Larsen's Valley is a 4ft ledge near Royal Park that we use to compare to the artificial reef to see how were doing. Mike the DM placed a ball on the first marker and we all jumped in. I found a group of Yellowheaded Jawfish and some Blue gobies in the sand near the ledge. There were Sunshine fish and Purple Reef fish all over the ledge. One undercut had a group of active Black Margate. Out of the corner of my eye I say a HUGE hogfish bolt by and dive for the ledge. I guess you don't get that big by being stupid, he must have been about 3 ft long. Other divers saw him so I know I wasn't hallucinating.

Our average depth was about 75 ft and Anita's bottom time slipped by. At 25 minutes we started up. She was not Nitrox trained by got the lecture by me and others on the boat. Since there was no current I shot my lift bag and made for a slow ascent. At 20 ft I offered my long hose with 32% for her to breath for 6 minutes.

On the boat she mentioned how the gas tasted different than air. On the way in I had a nice discussion about dive computers with Anita and Joe. Joe just left his Dataplus for a Cobra and was concerned about the lack of bottom time it gave him. I showed him the deco graph on the Dataplus and how the "green" zone was equivalent to the Cobra's time and how the dataplus lets you go into the yellow "caution zone". That was the difference. But hey, its not how long you stay down, its how fast you come up!

Almost everyone went over to the Brass Ring for burger after the dive. Later, one of Andrea's co-works from Templeton came over to show off their new baby. On the way home we hit Fill Express for gas to get ready for the night dive at Datura, see the next report.

--Matt

Dive Report:10/7/2003 Night Beach Dive at Hibiscus

Sorry, no photos...

Team: Matt and Alex B.

Start 7:50 PM
Seas: 3-4
High Tide: 7 PM
Air Temp: 80
Water Temp: 81
Winds: 15 knots NE
Visibility: 10ft 1st reef and 15-20ft 2nd reef
Gas: Matt 32% Alex (21%)
Depth: 17ft
Runtime: 1 hour 39 minutes

The seas were rough, we could have called the dive, but we were there with our gear, lets go! While setting up one of the locals said we were going to be disappointed if we went for a dive. I followed up and asked him if he had been out there diving today, but he walked away.

We checked gear and headed out. The high tide ment the surf zone was closed to shore and it made for a easy entry. Kicking out on our backs was a challenge in the waves. Every third waves was breaking over my head. Gee, it didn't look this bad from shore. Before reaching the buoys I decided I would rather take my chances underwater. We submerged and the water was brown and murky, then at 5 ft in cleared up to a nice 10 ft of vis, not bad.

As we swam over the first reef my mask kept fogging up. I worked out a trade from my Cressi Big Eye for JC's Oceanic Shadow frameless mask. I though JC would have broken it in, but it was getting foggy. I flooded and cleared it, but I could not get all the water out of the nose pocket. I like a dry mask when I dive. With the little bit of water in the mask it made it easy to flip my head and clear the fog. After clearing the first reef line I stopped Alex and switched to my Zeagle Ebon mask. It was a night and day difference. I cleared it completly and was much more comfortable. I'll try the shadow in the pool a couple of times before passing judgment on it.

We swam to the second reef line and the vis was great. I could see to the end of my light which means 15ft plus vis. I hovered over a soft coral to check for current. I was swaying back and forth, but not going anywhere. I choose to head South and explore some more over this new area. I tried to head down the ledge, Alex was all over the place and I was going as slow as possible not to get a head of him. He definitely had his macro dive mode on. I scored a fish BINGO. We found every type of boxfish in the Reef Fish book. I specifically left my camera at home as I didn't like the rough conditions and this way we would see some cool fish. One large Trunkfish swam right up to us and we played with him. Fish get in a weird stoned coma as they float around and sleep. One spot tail pinfish kept swimming into the ledges and corals as it got away. I guess his auto pilot was broken.

We went about 10 minutes South of the probe to my pet coral and checked on it. I picked some small red algae tuff starting to grow on it. We turned at 47 minutes into the dive and headed back North. Along the way I spotted a large slipper lobster. He was walking over everything, including the coral. His legs would press in-between the coral polyps so as not to hurt anything. He would have been tasty, but I didn't want to hold on to him for the swim back. Cardinal fish were all over the place. After about 20 minutes swimming back I saw a large oval in the distance. I kept my light off of it and signaled Alex. We swam up slowly on a beautiful Green Turtle. He hung out for a while, did some circles and then swam away.

Instead of following the reef line, we zigged and zagged back and forth. My internal computer lost track of how far we had gone due to stops and changes in our pace. I saw a tire on the reef that looked familiar. After 30 minutes of going North I signaled Alex asked him where we were? I had not seen the probe on the return. All I got back were shrugged shoulders. We had to be close, and with a southerly surface current it was probably ok if we overshot the mark. We swam West and headed in after 73 minutes.

Now the sand was stirred up and visibility was less than 7 ft on the first reef line. At our max planned dive time of 90 minutes, I used the "gun" hand signal to shoot the exit to mean, its time to go. We don't have to surface, but its time to stop looking around and swim out. I picked up the pace a little and left Alex behind. I signaled him and shot the exit again. By looking at his light He was still looking around and enjoying the dive. I had a plenty of gas left (1100psi) so I relaxed and we slowly worked our way out. I remembered Alex doesn't have any GUE training and this signal isn't in the recreational dive manuals.

After crossing the 1st reef line I saw a bolt and blue line protector, we were next to a swim buoy. I singled and turned us around so I could reel in the flag and avoid entanglement. The vis was terrible over the sand so I thumbed the dive. We were 1/2 a block North of the site and the seas had picked up to 3-5 as predicted.

Alex got away from me, but I could easily see him with his light on. The moonlight glistened atop of the waves as we bounced our way it. The ext was easy and we could see everything even with the street light out. The wind was racing and it was cold getting out. Time to bring back the 2 mil hooded vest for night dives. We broke down quickly and we off by 9:40 PM. I had forgotten a towel so made a quick moon over LBTS as I changed to dry clothes. I put my swim suit on top of the car and forgot about it. I was two miles down I95 when I heard something flapping, then I saw in flapping on the back glass. I pulled over for an emergency stop, I liked that suit! It had fallen off, but I found it 15 feet back from where I stopped. I've already lost one suit by leaving it on the roof, must not be DIR. I'll have to find somewhere else to put a wet swim suit while changing.

--Matt

Dive Report: 10/5/2003 SFRRT Dives Borrow Pit, Deep, and Shallow research sites

Photos:


Boat: WildKat (26ft center console ProKat Catamaran)
Captain: Dave O'Neal (E-diver)
Team Doubles: Matt Hoelscher and Mike Wright (32%)
Team Singles: David Kaplan (Exec Director) Ralph Figuroa and Andrea Valerioti (32%)

Weather:
Seas: 2-3 building to 3-5
Current: None
Partly Cloudy

I was really looking forward to this trip. The last monitoring 5 weeks ago, David Kaplan couldn't get in the water because of a cold. I tried to do all the tasks without him and turned into Captain Ahab. I forgot about my team in the hopes of collecting all the data (my whale) and broke all the rules I hold so dear to do it. This trip would include an all-star team of experienced divers and I wasn't about to repeat the mistakes of my past! Time to get back on the horse.

On the ride out I was feeling pockets of cool air mixed with the normal thick humid air. There were some interesting clouds off shore and Mike noticed the beginning formation of a water spout. It never really took shape, but I got picture of its small beginnings.

Borrow Pit @ 9:33 AM
Team Dubs
Depth: 93 Ft
Run Time: 22 minutes
Visibility: 90ft
Bottom Time: 10 minutes
Water Temp: 80 Degrees

David O. replaced the rear seats with a set of igloo coolers which where perfect for donning a set of doubles and research gear for the dive. We were comfortable so there was not rush to do our checks and get ready. Dave set us up and we dropped in to the Borrow pit to change out a set of sediment bottles and take a visibility reading. I orientated on the half moon ledge that faces west, swam over a HUGE rough tail stingray and found our bottles 150 ft away in the sand. The excellent visibility made the task a breeze. Mike caught up with his full lobster bag of gear and we went to work.

The narcosis crept in as we had to "think" underwater. All the bottles float so close team work is needed to not loose any of the pieces. Last time it took 17 minutes to change out the bottles, this time we were done in 9 minutes. I snapped a couple quick photos and we lifted off to 60 feet to take the visibility reading, while saving gas swimming at less depth. It was cloudy and we only got about 80ft of vis.

Then we shot a bag and hit the surface with a nice slow ascent. A slow ascent is key to feeling good after a dive, especially with a quick turn around as we would be back in the water at the deep site in 30 minutes.

Deep Site @ 10:34 AM
Team dubs and singles
Depth: 57ft
Run Time: 30 minutes
SI: 37 minutes
Water: 83 degrees
Visibility 100ft plus (I ran out of tape on the Secchi Disk)

Mike and I rested on the coolers while everyone else geared up. They dropped in first and tied the flag off on the site. Mike and I didn't have enough gas for a mis-drop, which happened on the last trip with current. This time it was perfect conditions and excellent drop by Dave.

As Mike and I got ready to splash, Ralph surfaced and was looking for a sediment bottle top that had floated off on him. It was only 20 ft away from Ralph. After missing a scoop on the boat, we directed Ralph to it with a slight surface swim. Then Mike and I dropped in with the framer to help out.

The bottles were under control so Dave K. handed Mike and I the secchi disk for another vis check. I swam West and swam and swam some more. Then I was jerked to a stop. I looked under and still saw the disk. I check the tape and saw I was at 100 feet. I reeled half of it up and swam the opposite direction. This time the sun went under a cloud and I got a reading of 80ft like the Borrow Pit. I looked down to find a Nurse shark under the ledge napping.

As everyone else focused on the 20 shot photo mosaic on the bottom I took a fish count. There were grunts galore, Blackbar Soldierfish, Cottonwick Grunts, and I had a hard time separating the Smallmouth from the French grunts in the large schools. This area off of the second reef off Commercial has to be the best ledge in Broward County.

With all our jobs down we slowly drifted off the site. Mike and I surfaced first and the rest of the team took their time. Like a good boxer, Mike went to his corner and stayed suited up for the SI. I doffed my gear and helped the others aboard. Another perfect dive.

Shallow Site @ 11:56 AM
Team dubs and singles
Depth: 44ft
Run time: 37 minutes
SI: 51 minutes
Visibility: 70 ft

I gobbled down a sandwich and a half and chugged some water. Time for the last dive. This time, Andrea and Dave would drop first to find the site. The shallow site lays within the fingers and has a float ball standing 10ft off the bottom. It is still quite hard to find without a good drop. Dave O. placed the team right on the bottles and Andrea tugged the flag to let us know we were good to go.

I helped Ralph and Mike change out the sediment bottles and then Mike and I ran the visibility check again. When we got back they were ready to shoot the photo mosaic on the bottom. The red algae was all over the place. This dive really drove home the importance of David Kaplan's vision to collect long term data on the reefs off Broward County. We now have over 8 years of data to compare the photos of the EXACT same spot in the ocean over many years. Now its easy to show a "before" and "after" photos of the damage this red algae is causing.

Dave K. also found a 8lb out rigger weight ball on the bottom with steel line. Ralph was going to leave it, but Dave added it to the sediment bottle lobster bag. Ralph was smart and pulled out his liftbag to carry the whole bag with the weight.

We slowly drifted off the site in the current surveying the damage. I can only pray for cold water to slow down and hopefully kill off this algae that is infesting our reefs.

Thanks again to David O'Neal for donating his boat and time to take us out and collect this very valuable data. We cruised home and dodged boats coming in port Everglades. The port seems more dangerous now with half the average boats complying with the slow speed rules and the other half still running full speed in and out of the channel. We unloaded our gear at John U Lloyd and headed home for the SFL-DIR 1yr BBQ.

--Matt