Dive Report: Tuesday Night 8/26 on the Sheri Lynn with the Miami Project
Charlie Gamba and I are signing up for a GUE Tech 1 course and wanted to get some practice in for this tough class. I know several people who didn't pass the first time and the consistent reason is that the task loading of the new equipment destroyed the buddy awareness ensuring escalated Charlie Foxtrots by the instructors.
Charlie, not wanting to change his last name, and I decided to go for a practice dive. We would practice running a reel either from the anchor to the wreck or between the two sections of the wreck. The Sheri Lynn is laying on her port side and is covered in sand. The bow and stern are in two pieces. We planned a 30 minutes bottom time on 32%. We would stay on the wreck with no penetration. Our ascent would be a practice deco run as if we had 45 minutes of bottom time, including a gas switch to 50% at 70ft. Charlie would lead and I would follow, run any reels on the wreck, and run simulated deco. Being a type A personality, having another leader lead is hard, so I was going to also practice relaxation. Charlie, who is more of a math whiz than I also figured out our rock bottom back gas PSI to get us to our 70ft deco bottle with out any spreadsheets or calculators. Being able to do this stuff in your head is very empowering over making a guestimate or relying on technology (which doesn't mix well with salt-water). I also noticed several people keeping their SPG under their 1st stage next to the valve knob on the deco bottle. I asked if it got in the way and was told "no, its fine." So I would give that a try as well on this dive.
Seas were 4ft which got the boat rocking, it was about 8:00 PM. We checked our gear and splashed in. There was a slight surface current, we dropped down 4 ft and swam to the anchor line. At 20 ft we paused and checked each other out for bubbles, then continued down. At 40ft the water was green and spooky. I couldn't make out the button, just shades of dark and darker. We hit the chain, then the anchor, at the bottom the vis was 15ft and cloudy at 103 ft. I lit up the anchor while Charlie tied in. The narcosis set in and my brain, firing on 3 out of 4 cylinders, realized the plow style anchor dung through the sandy bottom for a good 30 ft before setting, that was causing the messy visibility. As my eyes adjusted I could see the dark shadow of the starboard side and hull. We swam for the stern to tie in to the wreck about 50ft away. Visibility was about 35ft on the bottom. In good cave diver fashion Charlie ran his line under the existing line on the wreck. The line tee'd ours and again, thinking slowly, I started to cut away the fishing line entanglement hazard while Charlie tied into the wreck on the stern railing.
Once we were squared away we started down the port side exploring the deck of the ship. Its been down for so long that every part of it is overgrown and decorated. I stared inside a pole to find a baby brownspotted eel mouthing off at me. I slowly worked my way down the ship, I looked to my left and found Charlie slightly me behind me and following. I stopped and waited for him to take the lead. I could not find the entrance and exit used by Steve the penetrate the ship last time I dove it. At the break in the middle, Charlie asked "which way to go?" "I didn't know?" I didn't feel like tieing off my reel, so we went out into the sand to look at debris. There were hogfish all over the place and several Butterflyfish. We couldn't see which way to go, so we turned back and headed up the hull of the boat looking at the Grunts in the sand. We were 20 minutes into the dive and back at the reel. Charlie asked about penetrating the stern section opening by the reel. I waved him off thinking that the beginning of the dive is the time for going in, not when you have about 5 minutes left. We floated there, looking at each other, and there goes reg out of Charlie's mouth and the hand in front of the throat. I shared air with him smiling. I was diving my new Apex regs and I've found the long hose gets stuck in the tank and the wing. It happened with the 95s while cave diving and the Al80s I had in the ocean. I tilted to my side and put the gas in the side of the wing without the hose and get it poled out right as Charlie was giving me the reg back. We were back at the reel at 25 minutes BT.
The first time I dove with the anchor or upline NOT attached to the wreck, I missed the turn pressure calling the dive at the reel and not reserving enough gas for taking up the reel and untying from the anchor. I was curious if Charlie was going to allow for this as well. It took us about 3-4 minutes to put the reel in. Charlie pointed to head back down the hull of the wreck and I agreed. Our plan was for 30 minutes based on air tables and 20% credit for 32% nitrox. We also looked at the "Swedish Tables" which gave 35 minutes with mandatory minimum deco of 3 @ 20 and 3 @ 10. We were back at the reel at 30 minutes and Charlie thumbed the dive.
I lit the reel up as Charlie began to untie. Wraps of fishing line cloaked by growth also came unwound and snared the reel and knotted our line. Charlie had his hands full and was about to go for his knife, when he saw I had mine out already. I cut off the fishing line as he unwrapped the reel. I followed the line keeping tension on it as we headed back to the anchor. Charlie untied and stored the reel. I pointed to my bottom timer, it read 34 minutes and I gave Charlie the sign for "deco."
We worked out way up to 70ft and switched gas. I had a hard time opening the valve, the spg on top of the valve didn't help any! I had to hold the SPG up with one hand and keep opening the valve. I also good not read the spg from where the bottle rode on my rig. I had to lift it up and rotate it to read it. I was not happy with this config! After a minute, Charlie started heading up to 60ft. I flashed him and signaled "deco 3" as we planned. He came write back. At this point I felt stress. I still had my buzz, I felt mental pressure from staying on the bottom longer then planned, and my gear was not like how I had used it before. A voice in the back of my head said "Just get out of the water. 10ft per min, 3 @ 20 and your done!" I breathed, relaxed and got focused on my watch and my buddy. At 3 minutes I made the "C" to ascend. From that point we were back in sync.
As we hit 40ft the anchor line started to really move. I didn't hold on, but my hand was getting sore from the rope moving through it, up and down, with bucking boat. Charlie had a hold on the line with his gloves and I stayed focus on him and line. The task loading of staying buoyant, keeping in position, watching the gas, watching your buddy, and keeping ascent pace at night made for a good practice task load. I can see where HE, during the day, drifting deco, without equipment variations would make this seem like a walk in the park.
On the surface I laughed out load. On the drive down Charlie was telling me that he didn't think Tech 1 was going to be that hard. He had no problems with the drills in the DIR F class and he was getting more comfortable with the gear. I said that we should take the stress we felt on this dive and crank it up 5 times. That's the level were going to have to withstand to pass Tech 1. Every time we make a mistake, more stress will be added. We will have to put little fires out right away so they do not escalate into bigger ones. And adding a 3rd team member is going to just increase the possible problem configurations. We can pass the class, but we are going to have to remain sharp.
Terrance, from NJ is coming down this weekend as he is practicing for Tech1 class in Oct. Practicing with an unknown diver will show how well our team understand the DIR standard. Not being able to take anything for granted should be a good review.
Thursday, August 28, 2003
Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Dive Report: Saturday 8/23 PBCRRT dive on Diamondhead Radnor and Breakers Cable Crossing
Photos:
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0308contender/
One of the most interesting projects the Palm Beach County Reef Research Team (PBCRRT) is under taking in this 2-year grant is 4 monitoring events to compare a similar natural and artificial reef in Palm Beach County. The sites selected by the country are Diamondhead Radnor (DR) and a section of Breakers Shallow known as Cable Crossing (CC). 6 months ago we did this combo off the Rampage in WPB. DR is just south of Jupiter Inlet and was a 1 hour ride North. CC was 1 hour and 45 minute ride South of Palm Beach inlet. It made for a long trip. Because the sites are less than 20 feet our specialty team members can do double duty and reduce the number of divers needed. Environmental Resource Management was nice enough to give us a lift on the County's 30ft Contender, as well as provide Captain and Crew.
Our specialty team of 6, Ben Harkenson (video, fish, invert, mapping), Bob Hersey (fish, mapping), , Gail Tomei (fish), Lin Creel (photo, fish, invert, mapping), Cheri Craft (photo, fish), and Matt Hoelscher (fish, mapping) made up the dive team. We met at the boat around 7:45 AM as it was pulled out of dry storage and set in the water. Captain Bud and his crew member Carlie helped us load tanks. We motored out of the Boynton Inlet and headed North. We had plenty of deck space to spread out and get comfortable for the hour and half ride. We were blessed by Neptune with calm seas and a few clouds to offer shade from the rising sun on our long trek up the coast.
Dive 1: Diamondhead Radnor, 20ft, 55 minutes, 32%, seas calm, slight North current, 82 degree water
We broke up into three teams. Lin and Cheri would start on the North Doughnut, fish count, and swim South for Lin to shoot invert photos. Ben and Gail started at the south end on a barge with old concrete light poles dropped on top of it. Bob and Matt would start in the middle and survey limestone boulders on two different types of support material. The first type is called "armormat" and looked like the plastic orange construction fence. The second type is a fabric mat that is under the boulders to help keep them from "sinking" into the sand as the sand moves from storms and surge.
Bob and I carried two fence post stakes with numbers on them so we could mark the fish count location. For comparison purposes we need to return in 6 months to the exact same spot. The juvenile Tomtates attacked the stirred sand from the post. Bob and I counted fish in the area. There were a lot of Grunts, many Beaugregory Damselfish, and a few large Schoolmaster Snapper and Black Margate hiding in the rocks. I also found a school of Glassy Sweepers.
After 15 minutes we headed to the second rock pile to count fish over the fabric mats. Bob hammered in another post and I started to count fish. There were huge Saucereye Porgy, Flying Gunnard, and a few French and Gray Angelfish. At both locations there were enormous Hairy Blennies. I don't know what they feed on, but WOW, there must be a lot of it!
At 55 minutes we headed up and the boat came over to pick us up. We were the last team out of the water and Lin missed our new marks to shoot some photographs of the inverts living on the rocks. I stayed geared up and took him on a quick 10 minutes tour of the two stations Bob and I created. We got back on the boat, secured our gear and began running South to Cable Crossing.
Dive 2 Cable Crossing, 23ft, 1 hour 1 minutes bottom time, North surface current, mild current at depth, seas calm
Once we got on site, Ben jumped in to tie off a flag on the cable crossing so we would have a point to work from. From there, Gail, Lin, and Cheri joined him with tapes to lay out the 30 meter lines we use for monitoring. Bob and I stayed on the boat to help deploy 6 concrete blocks with numbers on them. We used color coded zip ties on the previous mission and they didn't hold up, we only found 1 of our 6 marks from last time. We worked one line at a time. Ben ordered a block number and then the boat would drop it on a line 10 ft from the divers. I snorkeled to make sure the "drop zone" was clear. Then Ben would swim the block over to the proper spot. This was time consuming and its very hard to move a block underwater.
For Lin's line, I dove with him, surfaced for a block and then with a full bc, carried the block down from the boat and swam it into position along the way. This was much faster and easier. Once all the blocks were down, Bob and I fish counted one each. There were loan Atlantic Spadefish. A huge, 4ft Barracuda that was inspecting our operation and a lots of Slippery Dick Wrasse in the sand. I surfaced after finishing my count and hit the surface. Lin was getting ready to jump in with his camera so I teamed up with him and wrote down the number of photos he shot at each numbered block.
We all climbed back on the Contender for a 45 minute ride back to the Marina. We stripped the boat clean and headed home around 4 PM from a long, productive day on the water.
--Matt Hoelscher
Team Coordinator
Photos:
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0308contender/
One of the most interesting projects the Palm Beach County Reef Research Team (PBCRRT) is under taking in this 2-year grant is 4 monitoring events to compare a similar natural and artificial reef in Palm Beach County. The sites selected by the country are Diamondhead Radnor (DR) and a section of Breakers Shallow known as Cable Crossing (CC). 6 months ago we did this combo off the Rampage in WPB. DR is just south of Jupiter Inlet and was a 1 hour ride North. CC was 1 hour and 45 minute ride South of Palm Beach inlet. It made for a long trip. Because the sites are less than 20 feet our specialty team members can do double duty and reduce the number of divers needed. Environmental Resource Management was nice enough to give us a lift on the County's 30ft Contender, as well as provide Captain and Crew.
Our specialty team of 6, Ben Harkenson (video, fish, invert, mapping), Bob Hersey (fish, mapping), , Gail Tomei (fish), Lin Creel (photo, fish, invert, mapping), Cheri Craft (photo, fish), and Matt Hoelscher (fish, mapping) made up the dive team. We met at the boat around 7:45 AM as it was pulled out of dry storage and set in the water. Captain Bud and his crew member Carlie helped us load tanks. We motored out of the Boynton Inlet and headed North. We had plenty of deck space to spread out and get comfortable for the hour and half ride. We were blessed by Neptune with calm seas and a few clouds to offer shade from the rising sun on our long trek up the coast.
Dive 1: Diamondhead Radnor, 20ft, 55 minutes, 32%, seas calm, slight North current, 82 degree water
We broke up into three teams. Lin and Cheri would start on the North Doughnut, fish count, and swim South for Lin to shoot invert photos. Ben and Gail started at the south end on a barge with old concrete light poles dropped on top of it. Bob and Matt would start in the middle and survey limestone boulders on two different types of support material. The first type is called "armormat" and looked like the plastic orange construction fence. The second type is a fabric mat that is under the boulders to help keep them from "sinking" into the sand as the sand moves from storms and surge.
Bob and I carried two fence post stakes with numbers on them so we could mark the fish count location. For comparison purposes we need to return in 6 months to the exact same spot. The juvenile Tomtates attacked the stirred sand from the post. Bob and I counted fish in the area. There were a lot of Grunts, many Beaugregory Damselfish, and a few large Schoolmaster Snapper and Black Margate hiding in the rocks. I also found a school of Glassy Sweepers.
After 15 minutes we headed to the second rock pile to count fish over the fabric mats. Bob hammered in another post and I started to count fish. There were huge Saucereye Porgy, Flying Gunnard, and a few French and Gray Angelfish. At both locations there were enormous Hairy Blennies. I don't know what they feed on, but WOW, there must be a lot of it!
At 55 minutes we headed up and the boat came over to pick us up. We were the last team out of the water and Lin missed our new marks to shoot some photographs of the inverts living on the rocks. I stayed geared up and took him on a quick 10 minutes tour of the two stations Bob and I created. We got back on the boat, secured our gear and began running South to Cable Crossing.
Dive 2 Cable Crossing, 23ft, 1 hour 1 minutes bottom time, North surface current, mild current at depth, seas calm
Once we got on site, Ben jumped in to tie off a flag on the cable crossing so we would have a point to work from. From there, Gail, Lin, and Cheri joined him with tapes to lay out the 30 meter lines we use for monitoring. Bob and I stayed on the boat to help deploy 6 concrete blocks with numbers on them. We used color coded zip ties on the previous mission and they didn't hold up, we only found 1 of our 6 marks from last time. We worked one line at a time. Ben ordered a block number and then the boat would drop it on a line 10 ft from the divers. I snorkeled to make sure the "drop zone" was clear. Then Ben would swim the block over to the proper spot. This was time consuming and its very hard to move a block underwater.
For Lin's line, I dove with him, surfaced for a block and then with a full bc, carried the block down from the boat and swam it into position along the way. This was much faster and easier. Once all the blocks were down, Bob and I fish counted one each. There were loan Atlantic Spadefish. A huge, 4ft Barracuda that was inspecting our operation and a lots of Slippery Dick Wrasse in the sand. I surfaced after finishing my count and hit the surface. Lin was getting ready to jump in with his camera so I teamed up with him and wrote down the number of photos he shot at each numbered block.
We all climbed back on the Contender for a 45 minute ride back to the Marina. We stripped the boat clean and headed home around 4 PM from a long, productive day on the water.
--Matt Hoelscher
Team Coordinator
I posted this to www.thedecostop.com
You know you're DIR when:
1. You have team buddies that you would prefer to dive with over anyone else. You thumb dives when they can't go dive with you?
2. You don't get offended when you're asked if your buddy is "teaching a class", because you are running out some lines and practicing before a cave dive.
3. Your heart rate doesn't jump up anymore when you get flashed and given an OOA signal, you hear bubbles, or your buddy is trying to run a lost diver drill.
4. You happily dive at the lowest skill level of a team member and not try to get them to go on "trust me dives" above their skill level and training.
5. You mentor teammates to be better and tell them when they are ready for the next level.
6. You walk away from divers who don't get it and quit trying to "convert" people
7. You realize anyone can copy or buy gear, it has about 5% to do with the total picture.
8. You buy a new wing inflator for your buddy because he doesn't want to change his out because of a "few bubbles." You take good care of your gear and replace stuff before problems happen.
9. You never ignore, brush off, or extend a thumb'd dive because of a goal or objective.
10. Instead of trying to justify why you are DIR, you already know what you're missing and you work towards weeding these things out for you and your team, one item at a time.
11. You've discovered soy milk.
I've wrote the list, and I'm still working on at least three items listed here.
You know you're DIR when:
1. You have team buddies that you would prefer to dive with over anyone else. You thumb dives when they can't go dive with you?
2. You don't get offended when you're asked if your buddy is "teaching a class", because you are running out some lines and practicing before a cave dive.
3. Your heart rate doesn't jump up anymore when you get flashed and given an OOA signal, you hear bubbles, or your buddy is trying to run a lost diver drill.
4. You happily dive at the lowest skill level of a team member and not try to get them to go on "trust me dives" above their skill level and training.
5. You mentor teammates to be better and tell them when they are ready for the next level.
6. You walk away from divers who don't get it and quit trying to "convert" people
7. You realize anyone can copy or buy gear, it has about 5% to do with the total picture.
8. You buy a new wing inflator for your buddy because he doesn't want to change his out because of a "few bubbles." You take good care of your gear and replace stuff before problems happen.
9. You never ignore, brush off, or extend a thumb'd dive because of a goal or objective.
10. Instead of trying to justify why you are DIR, you already know what you're missing and you work towards weeding these things out for you and your team, one item at a time.
11. You've discovered soy milk.
I've wrote the list, and I'm still working on at least three items listed here.
My comments from the Cave Trip:
I get it!
I started down the DIR path with a 100 dives in the gear before Cave 1 in Nov. 01. I thought I got it, I didn't. I dove the slick gear in the water and thought I totally got it, I didn't. I get bent in Aug 02, that woke me up to the fact I still didn't get it and was a long ways from it. In Sept. 02 I met William Anzueto face to face for the first time. William had an excellent reputation as a DIR cave diver. Everyone who ever dove with him would do so again. He had nothing but a positive reputation which is extremely important in the small world of tech and cave diving. I couldn't wait for him to help me find it. We talked about going cave diving from that point forward. Little did I know how much of an effect building and moving into a new house would effect his life. We must have planned and cancelled at least 4 trips. One of which I picked up a buddy on the next, Stacey, and went anyway.
This cave trip with end to a year of shore diving, swimming and drilling to become good team divers. I think we impressed each other and how fun and rewarding good team diving can be. While lying on the stairs at Orange Grove, William shot a picture of the smiles on our faces. Another DIR dive buddy of mine said it looked like we had some much fun we needed a cigarette! How's that for Max Pen?
After that last dive on Saturday at Orangegrove William asked me if I knew my inflator hose was bubbling and for how long? I was faced with a split second decision. Do I lie, and say, "Wow, it was bubbling, we should get that fixed right away!" Which is how I felt, but not how I reacted. I answered, that it had been bubbling off and on for a couple weeks. I should have it looked at or replaced.
William was pissed, not as you would expect someone to be. He said very little, just, "This is cave diving and this is life support gear. We are not fish counting or shore diving. This is the real deal. I was going to replace it right away. When we got back to the Dive Outpost, William kept talking about needing a back up inflator and he would buy one and let me borrow it for the rest of the diving. I agreed. Later on, he mentioned not really needing a back-up since he has a complete extra 55lb wing.
Now I caught on to his subtle manipulation. I made it clear with him, that I was going to replace it and he didn't need to play games with me to keep my equipment in good working order. If there was a problem, let me know and I'll fix it. William taught me how when he didn't have good team members to dive with, he would have to play games including, "I'm learning, do you mind if I practice?" He told me about diving with full cave divers who didn't see a need to run a reel into a cave to tie into the main line. William said, I'm learning, mind if I practice putting a reel in and they agreed and smiled. After the dive they asked William how many dives he had, he said 150. His full cave buddy only had 50 dives and said that he should be learning from William, Checkmate.
This trip proved to me the value of the SFL-DIR dive team. Having regular trained, motivated buddies makes diving so incredible, not other buddy can match up. I have committed to Tech 1 this year. But next year will be the real choice between Cave 2 or Tech 2? Stay tuned.
I get it!
I started down the DIR path with a 100 dives in the gear before Cave 1 in Nov. 01. I thought I got it, I didn't. I dove the slick gear in the water and thought I totally got it, I didn't. I get bent in Aug 02, that woke me up to the fact I still didn't get it and was a long ways from it. In Sept. 02 I met William Anzueto face to face for the first time. William had an excellent reputation as a DIR cave diver. Everyone who ever dove with him would do so again. He had nothing but a positive reputation which is extremely important in the small world of tech and cave diving. I couldn't wait for him to help me find it. We talked about going cave diving from that point forward. Little did I know how much of an effect building and moving into a new house would effect his life. We must have planned and cancelled at least 4 trips. One of which I picked up a buddy on the next, Stacey, and went anyway.
This cave trip with end to a year of shore diving, swimming and drilling to become good team divers. I think we impressed each other and how fun and rewarding good team diving can be. While lying on the stairs at Orange Grove, William shot a picture of the smiles on our faces. Another DIR dive buddy of mine said it looked like we had some much fun we needed a cigarette! How's that for Max Pen?
After that last dive on Saturday at Orangegrove William asked me if I knew my inflator hose was bubbling and for how long? I was faced with a split second decision. Do I lie, and say, "Wow, it was bubbling, we should get that fixed right away!" Which is how I felt, but not how I reacted. I answered, that it had been bubbling off and on for a couple weeks. I should have it looked at or replaced.
William was pissed, not as you would expect someone to be. He said very little, just, "This is cave diving and this is life support gear. We are not fish counting or shore diving. This is the real deal. I was going to replace it right away. When we got back to the Dive Outpost, William kept talking about needing a back up inflator and he would buy one and let me borrow it for the rest of the diving. I agreed. Later on, he mentioned not really needing a back-up since he has a complete extra 55lb wing.
Now I caught on to his subtle manipulation. I made it clear with him, that I was going to replace it and he didn't need to play games with me to keep my equipment in good working order. If there was a problem, let me know and I'll fix it. William taught me how when he didn't have good team members to dive with, he would have to play games including, "I'm learning, do you mind if I practice?" He told me about diving with full cave divers who didn't see a need to run a reel into a cave to tie into the main line. William said, I'm learning, mind if I practice putting a reel in and they agreed and smiled. After the dive they asked William how many dives he had, he said 150. His full cave buddy only had 50 dives and said that he should be learning from William, Checkmate.
This trip proved to me the value of the SFL-DIR dive team. Having regular trained, motivated buddies makes diving so incredible, not other buddy can match up. I have committed to Tech 1 this year. But next year will be the real choice between Cave 2 or Tech 2? Stay tuned.
Written by William Anzueto for SFL-DIR.com
Friday 8/15/2003
The adventure started on Friday afternoon as I left work and head to the "Salon" (Supercuts). I needed a buzz cut to fit in my DUI hood comfortably. Matt was heading north to my place and made it just in time to help me move a TV. (Thanks Matt). I pulled out all of my gear and started setting it up and walking it outside when it was ready. I had to redo all of my cave line "Cut aways" since my dive with Mike where we wanted to test them (It was more fun to cut them then to put them back on). Joan called us in for dinner and we had some Bubba Burgers while planning our weekend.
The team for this weekend went from 4 to 2 but Matt and I were to motivated to cancel plans. We read a report that Peacock I basin was clear and flowing. That changed our plans from Ginnie to Peacock Springs with a quick stop at EE. We agreed to get up at 4 AM and start driving north. I went back to finishing my gear and we loaded it in Matt's cave mobile. I was still running around trying to decide what to wear...Matt and Joan headed for the hot tub where I joined them later.
Saturday 8/16/2003
Relaxing there for a while was much better than trying to drive up after a long week of work : ) We went to bed and I woke up a couple of times before the alarm but figured we needed the rest. Matt knocked on my door and I had my alarm in my hand from hitting snooze. Matt scared the hell out of Rocks (puppy)...who knows what she saw him doing with those bagels at 4 AM.
We got on the road and headed north yapping about cave diving for the next 4 hours planning our Maximum Penetrations of Cave Country. Stopping at EE for a couple of mins to exchange a knife sheath and get some toys. We arrived at Peacock Springs at 9:30 AM to get ready for our first dives but I was not ready for what happened next.
Peacock 1 was clear from top to bottom and the water level was up about 4 steps....WOW! I had seen it flooded and brown or low and clear but this was amazing. Everything was covered in clear water. All the rocks that would stick out of the water my last visit...you could stand on. The water level went up about 4-5'. These were excellent conditions for our dives. We dropped the Deco bottles in the water and headed back to prep our gear. We also ran some lines in the parking lot to refresh what we were about to do with the primary and gap lines.
Once in the water, we headed down towards Peacock II while doing our S-drills, valve drills and getting used to the gear. This area had some nice fishies and I had never seen it before due to the water level being so low. Once we were comfortable, we finished our pre dive checks and I was going to lead the dive towards Pot hole.
Dive 1: Peacock 1 - Pot Hole Tunnel.
I started down and notice the log that has been there for all of the dives I've ever done is gone. This log was used as a primary tie off just inside the cavern. I find a rock and get ready to head in when I get a signal from Matt. We hold while Matt adjusts his light handle. I was impressed to see him work those phillips screws (star) with a flat head knife. (I wonder why EE uses philips screws while my old Dive Rite light has flat head...much easier to adjust...I may change mine). We continued in, did a secondary and dropped our deco bottles on the line. There were 2 other lines going down we stayed left of them and tied off to the main line. We were now CAVE DIVING!!!!
Down the Pothole tunnel viz was about 50-60' but the water had a tint. Not perfect but nice. We passed the back to back arrows (halfway point) marking our exit, stopped at Pothole Sink and looked up to see daylight before putting in the gap. The cave gets really nice and big after this and we continued another 200' to the Nicholson Tunnel Jump (passage on right) before turning the dive. Matt led on the way back as we picked up our spool, marker and passed other dive teams as we made our way out. Matt pointed out a line arrow above us in an air pocket. He was in charge of ascent rate and deco stops. We picked up our bottles and did our gas switch. An excellent tune up dive. We surfaced with big silly smiles.
Max Depth: 69', Total Time 49 min
Avg Depth 60', Bottom time 35 min
Max Pen: 700' Nicholson Tunnel Jump, Turn Time 20 mins
We got out, dropped our gear near the entrance and went for a snack and water. We talked about the dive and now we would change roles and do the same site.
Dive 2: Peacock - Pothole Tunnel
Matt took the lead and he had to go left to avoid other lines. I set him up with a couple of placements til we got to the mainline. We headed in marking the halfway point and had to get a bit creative with the gap because there was 2 other lines in place. Matt used a nice rock on the floor to keep our line away from the others. He continued in and so far we were 1 min more efficient than the previous dive. We made it to the Nicholson tunnel and another team had put in a jump line. I motioned to continue past it. Around the next corner there was another jump on the right, we continued and turned the dive just inches before the Dark water tunnel Jump. I motioned for Matt to take a look before we left. That's one of my favorite rooms...it is big. I led on the way back pointing out some formations that I liked and assisting with the spool and marker. We stopped by the line arrow and Matt went up to clean the cave. (JHP were the initials of the litterbug cave diver.) We continued out through our stops and switches. That was a much more efficient dive...we were getting our groove on.
Max Depth: 69', Total Time 57 min
Avg Depth 60', Bottom time 43 min
Max Pen: 900', Dark Water Tunnel Jump,Turn Time 25 mins
We had enough gas for a short dive and just hung out at the surface watching the other teams go in and out.
Dive 3: Peacock I - Peanut Tunnel
I took the lead. We made a hard left at the entrance and ran our line close to the left wall all the way down to the mainline making our tie offs and dropping deco bottles. We headed back to the entrance of the peanut tunnel checked it out and turned the dive. Our plan was to get oriented to the site and location of the lines for our next dives. On the way back at our stops, I notice some bubbles coming out of Matt's inflator. (New style Halcyon, I had the same problem with mine when I first got it. I had it serviced and then just changed it to a standard inflator old style). We surfaced, got out of the water, packed our gear and headed to Diveoutpost for fills.
Max Depth: 40', Total Time 23 min
Avg Depth 30', Bottom time 15 min
Max Pen: 200', Entrance to Peanut Tunnel, Turn Time 9 mins
At Diveoutpost, we got some tasty 32% and Oxygen while being entertained by Cliff "Tank Boy" S. (Matt's future scooter buddy). We got some food, a new inflator for Matt's wing and got invited to dinner at 7:30 PM. We set up our gear at the shop and made a run back to Peacock Springs for a dive at Orange Grove Sink. It was 4: 30 and the park closed at 7:30 PM. We used the hand truck to set up our gear near the water taking advantage of the new steps and wheelchair access. The water level was up above the steps but the bloom didn't have the same clear water as Peacock I. We suited up did our pre dive checks.
Dive 4: Orange Grove Sink
I took the lead and went down 15' to some nice clear water. The algae bloom was only at the very top. We headed to the entrance and I looked for a place to tie off. I picked the furthest branch away making sure it was clear above and tied in continuing down for a secondary and tied off our bottles. We passed a plaque at the cavern "In Memory of..." as we went into the cave. A not so nice reminder of the real dangers of overhead diving. We tied off to the main line and started into the tunnel. This area is smaller than our previous dives and requires a bit more technique. Lots of up-downs, left-rights as we navigated the mainline. I was just about to reach turn pressure when we reached an area I remembered being too small to turn around without silting. I played it conservative and stopped before it to turn. Matt led on the way back and found an albino crayfish.
We made it all the way out to the primary tie off and Matt showed me a potential problem with it. When you reached the tie off and tried to go up, there was a branch above it. While I set up facing the other way, I didn't notice the problem because my body was on the outside facing in rather than on the inside facing out. It's nice to know my back up brain was on to remind me of this problem. That's one I will not forget.
We did our stops back in the algae bloom and surfaced.
Max Depth: 69', Total Time 41 min
Avg Depth 60', Bottom time 32 min
Max Pen: 500', Low section before swimming into the wall, Turn Time 20 mins
At this point it started to get a little wacky...I think the nitrogen was finally taking a toll on us. We decided to sit in the water by the steps for our SI to plan our next dive. Matt lays on his back and I follow. We now look like a couple of dead cockroaches. We enjoyed the quiet and the view of the trees around the sink. We got ready to go back in but my primary light wouldn't spark. I could have sworn I put it to charge last time I used it. I was hoping it was a dead battery and not something worse.
We thumbed the dive packed up our gear and headed to Diveoutpost. We checked into our room, I set my light to charge and crossed my fingers. We then had an excellent Dinner party with a group of cave divers. My eyes started getting sleepy around 9 PM. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
Sunday Aug 17th, 2003
I heard a little voice from up above (Matt in the top bunk) telling me to get up. It didn't take much to get me moving. I was ready for Cave Diving. We packed up the car and headed in to the kitchen for breakfast. I got an Oatmeal, mixed nuts, salt and sugar lesson from Matt, pretty good stuff and easy to make.
We had an update on GOOD conditions at Peacock III. This was a must do on my list of caves. I really enjoy it because it offers something different than the rest of the Peacock Springs park...it is dark, silty and more challenging. We arrived at the park at 8:30 AM and did a site check. The water level was so high that it flowed from Peacock 1 to Peacock 2 to Peacock 3. We took another cave diver's advice about jumping in at Peacock 2 and swimming over instead of walking with the gear further.
Dive 1: Peacock 3
After our pre dive checks and S-drills, we drifted down at the surface while reviewing our plan. I was going to lead this dive. We set our Primary, Secondary, Dropped deco bottles and headed further into the cavern area. I glanced back at the stop sign and couldn't see day light. The viz was about 30-40' and had a tint. After going to the mainline, we cruised in checking out the jumps on our right. There are plenty of passages and lines to explore that are parallel to the mainline. We'll save those for another dive. The rooms were large and silty, the walls and ceiling looked darker and the line had lots of silt and debris on it.
We reached the Sandslide and had gas to continue. We went another 100'-200' past it and turned the dive just before the jump to the spring tunnel. (I kept looking for that tunnel as it is my favorite one in this system). There wasn't very much flow compared to other dives I have done here. Usually when you turn...you feel it. Back at the primary reel, I stopped the ascent a couple of times to avoid getting too buoyant and messing with the reel. Matt got away from me a bit and the lit up cavern area makes light signals harder to see. We stopped at the secondary tie off and then headed out.
I noticed Matt going past our 30' stop. I got his attention and we stopped. He then started past our 20' stop and bottle switch. I got his attention...at this point, I wasn't sure what was up with Matt. Missing 2 stops in a row isn't his style. We completed our stops and I motioned to swim down the run...I got a thumb back. Matt had a bit of a headache. That's why he was coming up slowly instead of doing the stops. Luckily for these dives all that was required was a slow ascent. We were practicing for longer dives that require stops and gas switches.
Max Depth: 66' Total Time 50 min
AVG Depth: 60' Bottom Time 40 min
Max Pen: 700'-800' (100-200' past Sandslide) Turn time 21 min
I gave Matt a tired dive tow (The doubles hump) back a bit joking around with him. He got out and we took a nice extended break with food before our next dive. Matt was relaxing while I thumbed through a copy of The Blueprint for Survival. Reading the first chapter about guideline use really hit home. This is something so basic and essential to this style of diving. It doesn't matter how many times I have been in the same caves over and over...I am not smarter than the line. The line will always know the way out in good and bad viz, with lights or no lights...I may not.
The next dive was going to be Matt's choice. We had already been in every place I wanted to visit (Pothole tunnel, Peanut tunnel, Orange Grove, Peacock 3). Matt picked to dive at Peacock - Peanut Tunnel. We moved our gear from P3 to P1 using hand trucks instead of loading everything in the car. We went through our predive checks and Matt was going to lead.
Dive 2: Peacock 1 - Peanut Tunnel
After the Primary tie off, Matt asked me about his secondary. We made a small adjustment and continued on the dive to the mainline and beyond. Going through the Peanut Tunnel, Breakdown room and down past a couple of jumps we stopped at the Crossover tunnel to check it out and turned the dive. On the way back I pointed out the jump to Waterhole 3 and the jump in the breakdown room that leads to Pothole. I gave Matt a signal that could be interpreted as "Eel" and "Lift Bag". I hoped he understood winding passage and opening : )
We exited the Peanut tunnel and I turned to Matt to ask if he wanted to share air. Since we hadn't done any drills on our previous dives and I wanted to make sure his head was ok...I asked. Once the reg was in hand Matt went to pull out the remainder of his hose from under the canister light and turned to put it right in front of me. I understood that as a signal to shut off his light. I reached over and flicked the switch. I saw Matt going for his back up light and all of a sudden my Primary light went out : ) I reached for the line and it was within an arms reach...where it should be. I pulled out my back up light and Matt already had his out. We exchanged oks and swam 100' to our primary reel where we went back to our own gas supply. We exited the cavern area and had a traffic jam of cave divers going in and out.
We did our stops and surfaced with big smiles. We talked about the drills and were happy with our response and that after doing 5 successful cave dives, we had a chance to practice near the cavern.
Max Depth 58' Total Time 60 min
AVG Depth 50' Bottom Time 50 min
Max Pen 1100' Cross Over Tunnel Turn time: 24 min
It was almost 2 PM and I mentioned to Matt that I was tired and we thumbed the 2 more dives we had planned at Little River. We settled at Dive Outpost and took a tour of the springs before starting home. We stopped at Cow Springs, Royal Springs, Little River Springs and Cafe Risqué Springs.
That last one was easy to get in...hard to get out : )
I got home at 10 PM after an excellent Bachelor Party/Cave Diving weekend.
Friday 8/15/2003
The adventure started on Friday afternoon as I left work and head to the "Salon" (Supercuts). I needed a buzz cut to fit in my DUI hood comfortably. Matt was heading north to my place and made it just in time to help me move a TV. (Thanks Matt). I pulled out all of my gear and started setting it up and walking it outside when it was ready. I had to redo all of my cave line "Cut aways" since my dive with Mike where we wanted to test them (It was more fun to cut them then to put them back on). Joan called us in for dinner and we had some Bubba Burgers while planning our weekend.
The team for this weekend went from 4 to 2 but Matt and I were to motivated to cancel plans. We read a report that Peacock I basin was clear and flowing. That changed our plans from Ginnie to Peacock Springs with a quick stop at EE. We agreed to get up at 4 AM and start driving north. I went back to finishing my gear and we loaded it in Matt's cave mobile. I was still running around trying to decide what to wear...Matt and Joan headed for the hot tub where I joined them later.
Saturday 8/16/2003
Relaxing there for a while was much better than trying to drive up after a long week of work : ) We went to bed and I woke up a couple of times before the alarm but figured we needed the rest. Matt knocked on my door and I had my alarm in my hand from hitting snooze. Matt scared the hell out of Rocks (puppy)...who knows what she saw him doing with those bagels at 4 AM.
We got on the road and headed north yapping about cave diving for the next 4 hours planning our Maximum Penetrations of Cave Country. Stopping at EE for a couple of mins to exchange a knife sheath and get some toys. We arrived at Peacock Springs at 9:30 AM to get ready for our first dives but I was not ready for what happened next.
Peacock 1 was clear from top to bottom and the water level was up about 4 steps....WOW! I had seen it flooded and brown or low and clear but this was amazing. Everything was covered in clear water. All the rocks that would stick out of the water my last visit...you could stand on. The water level went up about 4-5'. These were excellent conditions for our dives. We dropped the Deco bottles in the water and headed back to prep our gear. We also ran some lines in the parking lot to refresh what we were about to do with the primary and gap lines.
Once in the water, we headed down towards Peacock II while doing our S-drills, valve drills and getting used to the gear. This area had some nice fishies and I had never seen it before due to the water level being so low. Once we were comfortable, we finished our pre dive checks and I was going to lead the dive towards Pot hole.
Dive 1: Peacock 1 - Pot Hole Tunnel.
I started down and notice the log that has been there for all of the dives I've ever done is gone. This log was used as a primary tie off just inside the cavern. I find a rock and get ready to head in when I get a signal from Matt. We hold while Matt adjusts his light handle. I was impressed to see him work those phillips screws (star) with a flat head knife. (I wonder why EE uses philips screws while my old Dive Rite light has flat head...much easier to adjust...I may change mine). We continued in, did a secondary and dropped our deco bottles on the line. There were 2 other lines going down we stayed left of them and tied off to the main line. We were now CAVE DIVING!!!!
Down the Pothole tunnel viz was about 50-60' but the water had a tint. Not perfect but nice. We passed the back to back arrows (halfway point) marking our exit, stopped at Pothole Sink and looked up to see daylight before putting in the gap. The cave gets really nice and big after this and we continued another 200' to the Nicholson Tunnel Jump (passage on right) before turning the dive. Matt led on the way back as we picked up our spool, marker and passed other dive teams as we made our way out. Matt pointed out a line arrow above us in an air pocket. He was in charge of ascent rate and deco stops. We picked up our bottles and did our gas switch. An excellent tune up dive. We surfaced with big silly smiles.
Max Depth: 69', Total Time 49 min
Avg Depth 60', Bottom time 35 min
Max Pen: 700' Nicholson Tunnel Jump, Turn Time 20 mins
We got out, dropped our gear near the entrance and went for a snack and water. We talked about the dive and now we would change roles and do the same site.
Dive 2: Peacock - Pothole Tunnel
Matt took the lead and he had to go left to avoid other lines. I set him up with a couple of placements til we got to the mainline. We headed in marking the halfway point and had to get a bit creative with the gap because there was 2 other lines in place. Matt used a nice rock on the floor to keep our line away from the others. He continued in and so far we were 1 min more efficient than the previous dive. We made it to the Nicholson tunnel and another team had put in a jump line. I motioned to continue past it. Around the next corner there was another jump on the right, we continued and turned the dive just inches before the Dark water tunnel Jump. I motioned for Matt to take a look before we left. That's one of my favorite rooms...it is big. I led on the way back pointing out some formations that I liked and assisting with the spool and marker. We stopped by the line arrow and Matt went up to clean the cave. (JHP were the initials of the litterbug cave diver.) We continued out through our stops and switches. That was a much more efficient dive...we were getting our groove on.
Max Depth: 69', Total Time 57 min
Avg Depth 60', Bottom time 43 min
Max Pen: 900', Dark Water Tunnel Jump,Turn Time 25 mins
We had enough gas for a short dive and just hung out at the surface watching the other teams go in and out.
Dive 3: Peacock I - Peanut Tunnel
I took the lead. We made a hard left at the entrance and ran our line close to the left wall all the way down to the mainline making our tie offs and dropping deco bottles. We headed back to the entrance of the peanut tunnel checked it out and turned the dive. Our plan was to get oriented to the site and location of the lines for our next dives. On the way back at our stops, I notice some bubbles coming out of Matt's inflator. (New style Halcyon, I had the same problem with mine when I first got it. I had it serviced and then just changed it to a standard inflator old style). We surfaced, got out of the water, packed our gear and headed to Diveoutpost for fills.
Max Depth: 40', Total Time 23 min
Avg Depth 30', Bottom time 15 min
Max Pen: 200', Entrance to Peanut Tunnel, Turn Time 9 mins
At Diveoutpost, we got some tasty 32% and Oxygen while being entertained by Cliff "Tank Boy" S. (Matt's future scooter buddy). We got some food, a new inflator for Matt's wing and got invited to dinner at 7:30 PM. We set up our gear at the shop and made a run back to Peacock Springs for a dive at Orange Grove Sink. It was 4: 30 and the park closed at 7:30 PM. We used the hand truck to set up our gear near the water taking advantage of the new steps and wheelchair access. The water level was up above the steps but the bloom didn't have the same clear water as Peacock I. We suited up did our pre dive checks.
Dive 4: Orange Grove Sink
I took the lead and went down 15' to some nice clear water. The algae bloom was only at the very top. We headed to the entrance and I looked for a place to tie off. I picked the furthest branch away making sure it was clear above and tied in continuing down for a secondary and tied off our bottles. We passed a plaque at the cavern "In Memory of..." as we went into the cave. A not so nice reminder of the real dangers of overhead diving. We tied off to the main line and started into the tunnel. This area is smaller than our previous dives and requires a bit more technique. Lots of up-downs, left-rights as we navigated the mainline. I was just about to reach turn pressure when we reached an area I remembered being too small to turn around without silting. I played it conservative and stopped before it to turn. Matt led on the way back and found an albino crayfish.
We made it all the way out to the primary tie off and Matt showed me a potential problem with it. When you reached the tie off and tried to go up, there was a branch above it. While I set up facing the other way, I didn't notice the problem because my body was on the outside facing in rather than on the inside facing out. It's nice to know my back up brain was on to remind me of this problem. That's one I will not forget.
We did our stops back in the algae bloom and surfaced.
Max Depth: 69', Total Time 41 min
Avg Depth 60', Bottom time 32 min
Max Pen: 500', Low section before swimming into the wall, Turn Time 20 mins
At this point it started to get a little wacky...I think the nitrogen was finally taking a toll on us. We decided to sit in the water by the steps for our SI to plan our next dive. Matt lays on his back and I follow. We now look like a couple of dead cockroaches. We enjoyed the quiet and the view of the trees around the sink. We got ready to go back in but my primary light wouldn't spark. I could have sworn I put it to charge last time I used it. I was hoping it was a dead battery and not something worse.
We thumbed the dive packed up our gear and headed to Diveoutpost. We checked into our room, I set my light to charge and crossed my fingers. We then had an excellent Dinner party with a group of cave divers. My eyes started getting sleepy around 9 PM. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
Sunday Aug 17th, 2003
I heard a little voice from up above (Matt in the top bunk) telling me to get up. It didn't take much to get me moving. I was ready for Cave Diving. We packed up the car and headed in to the kitchen for breakfast. I got an Oatmeal, mixed nuts, salt and sugar lesson from Matt, pretty good stuff and easy to make.
We had an update on GOOD conditions at Peacock III. This was a must do on my list of caves. I really enjoy it because it offers something different than the rest of the Peacock Springs park...it is dark, silty and more challenging. We arrived at the park at 8:30 AM and did a site check. The water level was so high that it flowed from Peacock 1 to Peacock 2 to Peacock 3. We took another cave diver's advice about jumping in at Peacock 2 and swimming over instead of walking with the gear further.
Dive 1: Peacock 3
After our pre dive checks and S-drills, we drifted down at the surface while reviewing our plan. I was going to lead this dive. We set our Primary, Secondary, Dropped deco bottles and headed further into the cavern area. I glanced back at the stop sign and couldn't see day light. The viz was about 30-40' and had a tint. After going to the mainline, we cruised in checking out the jumps on our right. There are plenty of passages and lines to explore that are parallel to the mainline. We'll save those for another dive. The rooms were large and silty, the walls and ceiling looked darker and the line had lots of silt and debris on it.
We reached the Sandslide and had gas to continue. We went another 100'-200' past it and turned the dive just before the jump to the spring tunnel. (I kept looking for that tunnel as it is my favorite one in this system). There wasn't very much flow compared to other dives I have done here. Usually when you turn...you feel it. Back at the primary reel, I stopped the ascent a couple of times to avoid getting too buoyant and messing with the reel. Matt got away from me a bit and the lit up cavern area makes light signals harder to see. We stopped at the secondary tie off and then headed out.
I noticed Matt going past our 30' stop. I got his attention and we stopped. He then started past our 20' stop and bottle switch. I got his attention...at this point, I wasn't sure what was up with Matt. Missing 2 stops in a row isn't his style. We completed our stops and I motioned to swim down the run...I got a thumb back. Matt had a bit of a headache. That's why he was coming up slowly instead of doing the stops. Luckily for these dives all that was required was a slow ascent. We were practicing for longer dives that require stops and gas switches.
Max Depth: 66' Total Time 50 min
AVG Depth: 60' Bottom Time 40 min
Max Pen: 700'-800' (100-200' past Sandslide) Turn time 21 min
I gave Matt a tired dive tow (The doubles hump) back a bit joking around with him. He got out and we took a nice extended break with food before our next dive. Matt was relaxing while I thumbed through a copy of The Blueprint for Survival. Reading the first chapter about guideline use really hit home. This is something so basic and essential to this style of diving. It doesn't matter how many times I have been in the same caves over and over...I am not smarter than the line. The line will always know the way out in good and bad viz, with lights or no lights...I may not.
The next dive was going to be Matt's choice. We had already been in every place I wanted to visit (Pothole tunnel, Peanut tunnel, Orange Grove, Peacock 3). Matt picked to dive at Peacock - Peanut Tunnel. We moved our gear from P3 to P1 using hand trucks instead of loading everything in the car. We went through our predive checks and Matt was going to lead.
Dive 2: Peacock 1 - Peanut Tunnel
After the Primary tie off, Matt asked me about his secondary. We made a small adjustment and continued on the dive to the mainline and beyond. Going through the Peanut Tunnel, Breakdown room and down past a couple of jumps we stopped at the Crossover tunnel to check it out and turned the dive. On the way back I pointed out the jump to Waterhole 3 and the jump in the breakdown room that leads to Pothole. I gave Matt a signal that could be interpreted as "Eel" and "Lift Bag". I hoped he understood winding passage and opening : )
We exited the Peanut tunnel and I turned to Matt to ask if he wanted to share air. Since we hadn't done any drills on our previous dives and I wanted to make sure his head was ok...I asked. Once the reg was in hand Matt went to pull out the remainder of his hose from under the canister light and turned to put it right in front of me. I understood that as a signal to shut off his light. I reached over and flicked the switch. I saw Matt going for his back up light and all of a sudden my Primary light went out : ) I reached for the line and it was within an arms reach...where it should be. I pulled out my back up light and Matt already had his out. We exchanged oks and swam 100' to our primary reel where we went back to our own gas supply. We exited the cavern area and had a traffic jam of cave divers going in and out.
We did our stops and surfaced with big smiles. We talked about the drills and were happy with our response and that after doing 5 successful cave dives, we had a chance to practice near the cavern.
Max Depth 58' Total Time 60 min
AVG Depth 50' Bottom Time 50 min
Max Pen 1100' Cross Over Tunnel Turn time: 24 min
It was almost 2 PM and I mentioned to Matt that I was tired and we thumbed the 2 more dives we had planned at Little River. We settled at Dive Outpost and took a tour of the springs before starting home. We stopped at Cow Springs, Royal Springs, Little River Springs and Cafe Risqué Springs.
That last one was easy to get in...hard to get out : )
I got home at 10 PM after an excellent Bachelor Party/Cave Diving weekend.
Friday, August 15, 2003
Date: 8/10/2003
Hey Gang,
Sunday I got a call at 9:30 AM right before the shore dive to go out on a boat dive off Miami. How could I say no? I worked out the timeline for the shore dive, nitrox fill, lunch and back to diving. Dropping my doubles on my right post didn't slow me down.
Dive 1 Arida 180ft steel freighter, sunk '82, 90ft, 30 minutes bt, 11 min ascent, 32%, top to bottom vis, 70ft horizontal, current .75-1 knot
We got a perfect drop on the wreck and we landed on the NE side that was upside down and uninteresting. This wreck was twisted up by Andrew and was supposed to have fish all over it. I didn't see much on the way down till I reached 30 ft from the bottom. The Tomtates, lane snappers, and spotted goatfish were pale with the sand and covered the bottom. It wasn't till they started to separate that I realized just how many fish were down there! were several mutton snapper around the outside of the wreck. Why did Eric ever sell his sale boat? I didn't see any hogfish, which was rare compared to the rest of my Miami dives. With debris all over the white sand bottom the scene looked like something out of Mad Max. I grabbed alge pieces to stay in place, letting go to write down fish. Several pieces were large enough that when we approach, the eddy sucked me closer. Its a trippy feeling!
The main section of the wreck has fallen in on itself so there if very little profile, but now it looks like a big steel box loaded with fish. I worked my way across the current side of the wreck. Then I hid out on the down current side to relax and look for little fish, but there weren't many. Snappers and grunts everywhere. After the break I went up on the top of the hull to see what was left of the prop shafts. In one open area a giant green moray swam from one side to the other. I love seeing them out and swimming.
After 30 minutes we drifted off the site for a perfect, slow ascent. I ran a valve drill and notice the left post was sticky and my hand about cramped getting it closed. I still finished the drill in the 90 seconds. The boat was right there waiting for us when we surfaced.
Dive 2 Proteus, 80ft, 35 minutes bt, 12 minute ascent, .75 knot current, top to bottom vis, 70ft horizontal 32% 1 hr SI
This is a 220 steel freighter sunk in the late 80s. With another perfect drop we landed right in the middle of the hull. The sides of the freighter had collapsed on each other. I guessed and headed SW to find the bow pointed up and at an angle in the sand. I swam around the hull to the deck and hid from the current. There was a nice winch and debris at the bow. I saw a swim through inside, but had to find the way in. I swam down in the cargo hold and saw it wasn't worth trying to squeeze in there. The debris was twisted so the port side was shaded like a mini cavern. I swam down as it got smaller and smaller. I figured out a way out, exhaled, twisted, and made the 90 degree turn up and out. I looked back for my team and he was next to the hole outside, spoil sport!
We swam back across the mid section to the stern. It was like a two story building with the side cut off. I started in the top deck to find a mass of Glassy Sweepers. From the top section we swam down into the engine room. There was one large engine and a generator on each site. Each piston on the motor has a small little purple reef fish living on it. We cruised around a few more corridors and headed for the top of the deck. There was still of shelter from the current and the usual suspects on top. Redband Parrotfish, Bluehead Wrasses, and a few Bicolor Damselfish.
I got the thumb and we started our ascent. On the twenty foot stop I saw something large come out of the distance. At first I was hoping for a shark, but the pointed end gave it away as a sailfish! He blew right on by, but it was a special moment. Then two Little Tuny followed him up. The Tuny have a funky pattern on their back that belongs on a low riding Honda civic cruising Ocean Drive.
This made for a spectacular Sunday afternoon of diving. Now that I've been dry all week its time for some caves!
--Matt
Hey Gang,
Sunday I got a call at 9:30 AM right before the shore dive to go out on a boat dive off Miami. How could I say no? I worked out the timeline for the shore dive, nitrox fill, lunch and back to diving. Dropping my doubles on my right post didn't slow me down.
Dive 1 Arida 180ft steel freighter, sunk '82, 90ft, 30 minutes bt, 11 min ascent, 32%, top to bottom vis, 70ft horizontal, current .75-1 knot
We got a perfect drop on the wreck and we landed on the NE side that was upside down and uninteresting. This wreck was twisted up by Andrew and was supposed to have fish all over it. I didn't see much on the way down till I reached 30 ft from the bottom. The Tomtates, lane snappers, and spotted goatfish were pale with the sand and covered the bottom. It wasn't till they started to separate that I realized just how many fish were down there! were several mutton snapper around the outside of the wreck. Why did Eric ever sell his sale boat? I didn't see any hogfish, which was rare compared to the rest of my Miami dives. With debris all over the white sand bottom the scene looked like something out of Mad Max. I grabbed alge pieces to stay in place, letting go to write down fish. Several pieces were large enough that when we approach, the eddy sucked me closer. Its a trippy feeling!
The main section of the wreck has fallen in on itself so there if very little profile, but now it looks like a big steel box loaded with fish. I worked my way across the current side of the wreck. Then I hid out on the down current side to relax and look for little fish, but there weren't many. Snappers and grunts everywhere. After the break I went up on the top of the hull to see what was left of the prop shafts. In one open area a giant green moray swam from one side to the other. I love seeing them out and swimming.
After 30 minutes we drifted off the site for a perfect, slow ascent. I ran a valve drill and notice the left post was sticky and my hand about cramped getting it closed. I still finished the drill in the 90 seconds. The boat was right there waiting for us when we surfaced.
Dive 2 Proteus, 80ft, 35 minutes bt, 12 minute ascent, .75 knot current, top to bottom vis, 70ft horizontal 32% 1 hr SI
This is a 220 steel freighter sunk in the late 80s. With another perfect drop we landed right in the middle of the hull. The sides of the freighter had collapsed on each other. I guessed and headed SW to find the bow pointed up and at an angle in the sand. I swam around the hull to the deck and hid from the current. There was a nice winch and debris at the bow. I saw a swim through inside, but had to find the way in. I swam down in the cargo hold and saw it wasn't worth trying to squeeze in there. The debris was twisted so the port side was shaded like a mini cavern. I swam down as it got smaller and smaller. I figured out a way out, exhaled, twisted, and made the 90 degree turn up and out. I looked back for my team and he was next to the hole outside, spoil sport!
We swam back across the mid section to the stern. It was like a two story building with the side cut off. I started in the top deck to find a mass of Glassy Sweepers. From the top section we swam down into the engine room. There was one large engine and a generator on each site. Each piston on the motor has a small little purple reef fish living on it. We cruised around a few more corridors and headed for the top of the deck. There was still of shelter from the current and the usual suspects on top. Redband Parrotfish, Bluehead Wrasses, and a few Bicolor Damselfish.
I got the thumb and we started our ascent. On the twenty foot stop I saw something large come out of the distance. At first I was hoping for a shark, but the pointed end gave it away as a sailfish! He blew right on by, but it was a special moment. Then two Little Tuny followed him up. The Tuny have a funky pattern on their back that belongs on a low riding Honda civic cruising Ocean Drive.
This made for a spectacular Sunday afternoon of diving. Now that I've been dry all week its time for some caves!
--Matt
The first step in understanding my passion for diving is to read about the adventures I've already taken. I have been writing trip reports for E-Divers@yahoogroups.com since Dec 01. I've always wanted all my reports in one place and a Blog seemed like the perfect place. From now on, I'll post the dive report to the blog as I post it to the group.
Why is DIR diving a Quest? Because you don't learn it all in a 3 day class and you do not get a plastic card at the end saying your are certified. First you find someone who is a couple of steps ahead of your and learn what you can from them. Then you keep finding new mentors until you realize that you are on the edge and mentoring others. If you are serious about DIR and prove it with you actions, not words, you will find mentors to move you ahead.
80 dives: Thomas Tucker spoke to the PBCRRT about the DIR equipment configuration. Everyone thought he was nuts, I was facinated. It all clear and logical! He offered a test dive in the gear and I pestered him until I got it booked.
100 dives: Thomas blew me off at the last moment and Rocky went diving with me. I purchased a rig right afterwards and Rocky spent an hour getting my hoses, boltsnaps, and plate measured and fitted.
250 dives: Signed up for GUE Cave 1 with Tamara Kendal 2 days and Ted Cole 3 days with Don Perralla, friend from College in Nov 01. It was like learning to dive all over again. After the class I started reading Quest, Tech Diver, and E-divers.
350 dives: Aug 11th at the E-Divers Lobster fest I had a light Type 1 bend in my right arm. Chamber ride and no diving for 6 weeks. ---Sept 11th I met William Anzueto at the GUE weekend for International Coastal Clean up on Hutchenson Island. This is the time that I was re-born and changed my diving to see that there is some much more than just gear. I finaly realized I was at the tip of a very large iceberg, there was so much more below the surface. William had the idea with Roy White to start a DIR club. William and I spoke to JJ and George about it during the weekend and they thought it was a great idea.
500 dives: Right now I'm at another cross roads. I ready for more. I'm ready for GUE Tech 1.
Why is DIR diving a Quest? Because you don't learn it all in a 3 day class and you do not get a plastic card at the end saying your are certified. First you find someone who is a couple of steps ahead of your and learn what you can from them. Then you keep finding new mentors until you realize that you are on the edge and mentoring others. If you are serious about DIR and prove it with you actions, not words, you will find mentors to move you ahead.
80 dives: Thomas Tucker spoke to the PBCRRT about the DIR equipment configuration. Everyone thought he was nuts, I was facinated. It all clear and logical! He offered a test dive in the gear and I pestered him until I got it booked.
100 dives: Thomas blew me off at the last moment and Rocky went diving with me. I purchased a rig right afterwards and Rocky spent an hour getting my hoses, boltsnaps, and plate measured and fitted.
250 dives: Signed up for GUE Cave 1 with Tamara Kendal 2 days and Ted Cole 3 days with Don Perralla, friend from College in Nov 01. It was like learning to dive all over again. After the class I started reading Quest, Tech Diver, and E-divers.
350 dives: Aug 11th at the E-Divers Lobster fest I had a light Type 1 bend in my right arm. Chamber ride and no diving for 6 weeks. ---Sept 11th I met William Anzueto at the GUE weekend for International Coastal Clean up on Hutchenson Island. This is the time that I was re-born and changed my diving to see that there is some much more than just gear. I finaly realized I was at the tip of a very large iceberg, there was so much more below the surface. William had the idea with Roy White to start a DIR club. William and I spoke to JJ and George about it during the weekend and they thought it was a great idea.
500 dives: Right now I'm at another cross roads. I ready for more. I'm ready for GUE Tech 1.
Date: Mon Dec 10, 2001 1:40 pm
Subject: Dive Report: Sunday Dec. 9th OceanWatch Reef Fish ID Dive
Dive Report: Sunday Dec. 9th OceanWatch Reef Fish ID Dive
OceanWatch teaches a fish ID class in the morning using the REEF
method for counting fish. Then we go diving in the afternoon to
survey fish and report the information to the REEF database. There
was no class this month due to the holidays. The class will be
starting back to the beginning starting in January. See below for
list of classes and boats.
This Month we dove on the Ibis with Southeast Oceanic Services.
Waves: 2 ft
Visibility: 30 Ft.
Bottom Temp: 77 degrees.
The first dive was a new survey area near the wreck of the Mercedes
of Fort Lauderdale just North of Sunrise Blvd. It was a scattered
patch reef in about 80 feet of water. Besides counting fish we also
try to do a negative bug count, but nobody spotted one that deep. We
saw a school of 5 squid, Bar Jacks, Yellowheaded Jawfish, and nice 3
foot Black Grouper.
Second dive was Ball Buoy #3 in an area referred to as the Caves.
Here the boat picked up 3 bugs, only one for me. The visibility was
pretty good for the area, but the current was half a knot, which is
annoying on a get-back-to-the-boat dive. This shallow hard bottom has
lots of juvenile fish. I also saw a rare Tan Hamlet (my favorite
family of fish) and the beautiful spotted drums.
If you have no idea what type of fish I'm talking about, Check out
this site for upcoming fish ID classes. OceanWatch is currently
working out the calendar for next year.
http://www.oceanwatch.org/fish_id.htm#ThisMonth
Other info: www.REEF.org
Subject: Dive Report: Sunday Dec. 9th OceanWatch Reef Fish ID Dive
Dive Report: Sunday Dec. 9th OceanWatch Reef Fish ID Dive
OceanWatch teaches a fish ID class in the morning using the REEF
method for counting fish. Then we go diving in the afternoon to
survey fish and report the information to the REEF database. There
was no class this month due to the holidays. The class will be
starting back to the beginning starting in January. See below for
list of classes and boats.
This Month we dove on the Ibis with Southeast Oceanic Services.
Waves: 2 ft
Visibility: 30 Ft.
Bottom Temp: 77 degrees.
The first dive was a new survey area near the wreck of the Mercedes
of Fort Lauderdale just North of Sunrise Blvd. It was a scattered
patch reef in about 80 feet of water. Besides counting fish we also
try to do a negative bug count, but nobody spotted one that deep. We
saw a school of 5 squid, Bar Jacks, Yellowheaded Jawfish, and nice 3
foot Black Grouper.
Second dive was Ball Buoy #3 in an area referred to as the Caves.
Here the boat picked up 3 bugs, only one for me. The visibility was
pretty good for the area, but the current was half a knot, which is
annoying on a get-back-to-the-boat dive. This shallow hard bottom has
lots of juvenile fish. I also saw a rare Tan Hamlet (my favorite
family of fish) and the beautiful spotted drums.
If you have no idea what type of fish I'm talking about, Check out
this site for upcoming fish ID classes. OceanWatch is currently
working out the calendar for next year.
http://www.oceanwatch.org/fish_id.htm#ThisMonth
Other info: www.REEF.org
Date: Tue Mar 12, 2002 3:31 pm
Subject: Saturday Dive Report: USS Memphis Grounding site and Mitigation
Howdy everyone,
Saturday the Oceanwatch fish id class dove a very unique site. Forgive my
weak history, but in 95 or 96 the submarine USS Memphis grounded itself on
the second reef line just south of Port Everglades. They were able to pull
the sub off without any damage to it, however the boat dug a nice trench.
They Navy did some mitigation (artificial reef to make up for what was
destroyed) by placing some limestone boulders down in order to create new
habitat with a lot of relief (fancy term for sticks up off the bottom).
See the photos from the dive at:
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0203owfishid/
List of FREE fish id classes: http://www.oceanwatch.org/fish_id.htm
Conditions:
Sunny day, 80 Degrees
Seas: calm (only wavers were from the other boats)
Visibility: 20 feet
Depth 20-30 feet
Bottom Temp 73
Dive 1: Mitigation site
Yep, it was a pile of boulders stacked up for fish to live on. There were
lots of juveniles hanging around, including a couple of lobsters. Calling
them shorts would have been an exaggeration. Swam right up to some Neon
Gobies, Scrawled filefish, and a school of baby chub.
Dive 2: Memphis Trench.
The area has grown over pretty well. I took me 10 minutes before I saw
exactly where the vessel ran aground and finally stopped. Every time I
turned around I found a 3 spot damselfish getting in my face. I followed a
cable off the beaten path a ways and found a Southern Stingray completely
buried up to eyes in the sand. I hung out with him for a couple of minutes
and then in a puff of sand he took off. My wet suit must have smelled or
something. Following the cable back I saw where landed on top of a hard
coral and caused a bit a damage. The worst part was that I found the broken
end of the cable a few feet away.
This was probably a Navy acoustic cable. They have hundreds of them off John
U Lloyd State park that head out deep into the ocean to record sounds,
mostly of ships so Uncle Sam can keep track of good boats and bad boats. The
problem is that 80% of the cables are no longer used, but they put the news
ones over the old ones so you can't tell which is which if anyone ever
wanted to pick pick them up. Opps, off the subject at hand there.....
Also saw a spiny sea urchin, a rarity for our waters. One summer they all
got wiped out and they are finally starting to show up again. They eat an
incredible amount of algae to make room for corals other other things to
grow. They are like vacuum sweepers for the reef.
The turtle people were nice enough to take us out of their 50 foot Sport
fisher. It was GREAT for the 1 hour cruise up and down the intracostal from
Port Everglades. While waiting for the bridge to open at Oakland Park,
Shooters had boats piled 3-7 deep for the Hot bod contest. While waiting we
decided to experiment with some marketing for the turtle people. What do you
think of the lady holding the sign? Would that make you want to donate? The
ladies also flashed our boat to show their motherly oneness with the
turtles. I love Florida!
--Matt
Subject: Saturday Dive Report: USS Memphis Grounding site and Mitigation
Howdy everyone,
Saturday the Oceanwatch fish id class dove a very unique site. Forgive my
weak history, but in 95 or 96 the submarine USS Memphis grounded itself on
the second reef line just south of Port Everglades. They were able to pull
the sub off without any damage to it, however the boat dug a nice trench.
They Navy did some mitigation (artificial reef to make up for what was
destroyed) by placing some limestone boulders down in order to create new
habitat with a lot of relief (fancy term for sticks up off the bottom).
See the photos from the dive at:
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0203owfishid/
List of FREE fish id classes: http://www.oceanwatch.org/fish_id.htm
Conditions:
Sunny day, 80 Degrees
Seas: calm (only wavers were from the other boats)
Visibility: 20 feet
Depth 20-30 feet
Bottom Temp 73
Dive 1: Mitigation site
Yep, it was a pile of boulders stacked up for fish to live on. There were
lots of juveniles hanging around, including a couple of lobsters. Calling
them shorts would have been an exaggeration. Swam right up to some Neon
Gobies, Scrawled filefish, and a school of baby chub.
Dive 2: Memphis Trench.
The area has grown over pretty well. I took me 10 minutes before I saw
exactly where the vessel ran aground and finally stopped. Every time I
turned around I found a 3 spot damselfish getting in my face. I followed a
cable off the beaten path a ways and found a Southern Stingray completely
buried up to eyes in the sand. I hung out with him for a couple of minutes
and then in a puff of sand he took off. My wet suit must have smelled or
something. Following the cable back I saw where landed on top of a hard
coral and caused a bit a damage. The worst part was that I found the broken
end of the cable a few feet away.
This was probably a Navy acoustic cable. They have hundreds of them off John
U Lloyd State park that head out deep into the ocean to record sounds,
mostly of ships so Uncle Sam can keep track of good boats and bad boats. The
problem is that 80% of the cables are no longer used, but they put the news
ones over the old ones so you can't tell which is which if anyone ever
wanted to pick pick them up. Opps, off the subject at hand there.....
Also saw a spiny sea urchin, a rarity for our waters. One summer they all
got wiped out and they are finally starting to show up again. They eat an
incredible amount of algae to make room for corals other other things to
grow. They are like vacuum sweepers for the reef.
The turtle people were nice enough to take us out of their 50 foot Sport
fisher. It was GREAT for the 1 hour cruise up and down the intracostal from
Port Everglades. While waiting for the bridge to open at Oakland Park,
Shooters had boats piled 3-7 deep for the Hot bod contest. While waiting we
decided to experiment with some marketing for the turtle people. What do you
think of the lady holding the sign? Would that make you want to donate? The
ladies also flashed our boat to show their motherly oneness with the
turtles. I love Florida!
--Matt
Date: Fri Mar 15, 2002 10:37 am
Subject: Thursday Dive Report: 1st Weekday Unemployment dive!
Hello Friends,
Rafael Figueroa and I just completed the first E-divers "Unemployed dive".
Since my services were no longer needed at my company, lets go diving! Ralf
completed an IT contract yesterday so since he had a gig, he had to buy air
and drive to the dive site.
If anyone likes to shore dive in the WPB, FTL, or Miami area during the
week, send me an e! It looks like another perfect FL day today and I would
love to get out of the house!
Conditions:
Bright Sunny day in the 80s
Water temp: 75 degrees (Its warming back up!)
Seas: less than a foot (slight surge)
Vis:25-30 feet
Max depth 14 feet
Gas: air
Bottom time 50 minutes including swim in and out
Dive 1: We decided to his the south side of Commercial Pier off Datura
Street which is one block south. As we were gearing up in the back of Ralf's
truck and minivan pulled up and a fellow diver gave us a quick report. He
said everything was great, but there was a 2-3 mph current heading North. As
we hit the beach we walked south halfway between the two swim buoy's. Since
I had to be somewhere in the evening we decided to limit the dive to 45
minutes. Knowing we had plenty of gas we swam out till we hit the reef. We
were past the nice section but thought the current would bring us back.
There wasn't any current, the guy in the minivan must have been the son of a
son of a sailor/diver? We headed North and the flat hard bottom became more
porous and several coral heads started appearing. This is the best section
straight off of Datura Street. There were Doctorfish and Ocean Surgeonfish
all over the place. Also a lot of Coco Damselfish and I saw a Yellowtail
which is rare this far North. Ralf spotted some juvenile Spotted Drums and
the school of Ballyhoo that were above us feeding.
After 30 minutes I wanted to make sure we saw the new Shipwreck Snorkel
Trail that is being put down by the Marine Archeology Council, South Florida
Reef Research Team, and Vone Research. It is VERY easy to find the site. As
you stand at Datura street you will see a swim buoy. 60 feet East of the
that buoy is the trail. It is super easy to find b/c the Ballast pile sticks
up 4 feet from the bottom. Next too the ballast pile there are three
cannons. They are cool looking replicas made out of concrete. After 6 months
when some stuff starts to grow on it they will be beautiful. We still have
an authentic anchor to put down and two more cannons. The anchor will be
placed next month. We are saving the cannons for Oceanfest to use as either
a display or an activity during the festival. The ballast pile is already
home to a Spotted drum, some juvenile French grunts and some very little
adults. There were also 6 full size Sand Perch. They will stare you down
just like a damselfish. As I looked away to record my survey they would
swoop in and take bites at my pencil.
As we headed in Ralf found a 4 foot nurse shark sitting in the sand. After
looking at him for minutes he took off. We swam out and I told some kids on
the beach there was a big shark out there. They jumped out of the surf and I
explained he was a ways out and didn't want anything to do with them. As we
starting doffing our gear at the drunk a jeep full of spring breakers yelled
out " Hey Look....It's Scuba Steve!!!!!" That was the nicest compliment I've
had in a long time!
Subject: Thursday Dive Report: 1st Weekday Unemployment dive!
Hello Friends,
Rafael Figueroa and I just completed the first E-divers "Unemployed dive".
Since my services were no longer needed at my company, lets go diving! Ralf
completed an IT contract yesterday so since he had a gig, he had to buy air
and drive to the dive site.
If anyone likes to shore dive in the WPB, FTL, or Miami area during the
week, send me an e! It looks like another perfect FL day today and I would
love to get out of the house!
Conditions:
Bright Sunny day in the 80s
Water temp: 75 degrees (Its warming back up!)
Seas: less than a foot (slight surge)
Vis:25-30 feet
Max depth 14 feet
Gas: air
Bottom time 50 minutes including swim in and out
Dive 1: We decided to his the south side of Commercial Pier off Datura
Street which is one block south. As we were gearing up in the back of Ralf's
truck and minivan pulled up and a fellow diver gave us a quick report. He
said everything was great, but there was a 2-3 mph current heading North. As
we hit the beach we walked south halfway between the two swim buoy's. Since
I had to be somewhere in the evening we decided to limit the dive to 45
minutes. Knowing we had plenty of gas we swam out till we hit the reef. We
were past the nice section but thought the current would bring us back.
There wasn't any current, the guy in the minivan must have been the son of a
son of a sailor/diver? We headed North and the flat hard bottom became more
porous and several coral heads started appearing. This is the best section
straight off of Datura Street. There were Doctorfish and Ocean Surgeonfish
all over the place. Also a lot of Coco Damselfish and I saw a Yellowtail
which is rare this far North. Ralf spotted some juvenile Spotted Drums and
the school of Ballyhoo that were above us feeding.
After 30 minutes I wanted to make sure we saw the new Shipwreck Snorkel
Trail that is being put down by the Marine Archeology Council, South Florida
Reef Research Team, and Vone Research. It is VERY easy to find the site. As
you stand at Datura street you will see a swim buoy. 60 feet East of the
that buoy is the trail. It is super easy to find b/c the Ballast pile sticks
up 4 feet from the bottom. Next too the ballast pile there are three
cannons. They are cool looking replicas made out of concrete. After 6 months
when some stuff starts to grow on it they will be beautiful. We still have
an authentic anchor to put down and two more cannons. The anchor will be
placed next month. We are saving the cannons for Oceanfest to use as either
a display or an activity during the festival. The ballast pile is already
home to a Spotted drum, some juvenile French grunts and some very little
adults. There were also 6 full size Sand Perch. They will stare you down
just like a damselfish. As I looked away to record my survey they would
swoop in and take bites at my pencil.
As we headed in Ralf found a 4 foot nurse shark sitting in the sand. After
looking at him for minutes he took off. We swam out and I told some kids on
the beach there was a big shark out there. They jumped out of the surf and I
explained he was a ways out and didn't want anything to do with them. As we
starting doffing our gear at the drunk a jeep full of spring breakers yelled
out " Hey Look....It's Scuba Steve!!!!!" That was the nicest compliment I've
had in a long time!
Date: Mon Mar 25, 2002 1:56 pm
Subject: Dive Report: Datura Street beach dive on Friday
Sorry I'm a little late with this one! Check out all the photos of the diver
here: http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0203datura/
Datura Street is one block South of Commercial Blvd. It is widely reputed as
the best beach dive in the Southeast. After only diving the first reef I
didn't agree. After diving the second reef line I know understand why.
Conditions:
Seas 1 foot
Winds NE 10-15 knots
Time 10:30 AM
Visibility 40 foot, best I've seen yet!
Bottom Time: 1 hour 42 minutes
Max Depth :16 FSW
Water Temp: 77 degrees
Surface: 78 degrees
Team: Ralf, Nancy, and Matt
We kicked out on our backs to the first reef line. I love the way the sands
turns to rock, then the rock to Swiss cheese with holes all over the place
for fish to hide in. The the hard bottom turns back into sand. You have
about a 50-75 feet to the second reef line. It was an easy 5 minute swim
underwater. I was AMAZED at all the coral formations. I need to start
learning the corals b/c there were some many different ones down there.
The highlight of the trip for me was watching a Sand Diver get cleaned up by
a group on Neon Gobies. He had his month wide up and the gobies didn't miss
a spot. All three of us hung out watched for a while. We left and came back
later and the Sand Diver was still there. Nancy and I fought for the
attention of a Yellowtail Damselfish. Nancy also spotted a Ballonfish hiding
out. I love its heart shaped eye.
On they way back I stopped off at the Shipwreck Snorkel Trail and show a few
photos. In 6 months once the canons grow some algae I think they are going
to look really cool. I don't know when the anchor will be put down? We have
two more cannons to place during Ocean Fest.
Matthew Hoelscher
Subject: Dive Report: Datura Street beach dive on Friday
Sorry I'm a little late with this one! Check out all the photos of the diver
here: http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0203datura/
Datura Street is one block South of Commercial Blvd. It is widely reputed as
the best beach dive in the Southeast. After only diving the first reef I
didn't agree. After diving the second reef line I know understand why.
Conditions:
Seas 1 foot
Winds NE 10-15 knots
Time 10:30 AM
Visibility 40 foot, best I've seen yet!
Bottom Time: 1 hour 42 minutes
Max Depth :16 FSW
Water Temp: 77 degrees
Surface: 78 degrees
Team: Ralf, Nancy, and Matt
We kicked out on our backs to the first reef line. I love the way the sands
turns to rock, then the rock to Swiss cheese with holes all over the place
for fish to hide in. The the hard bottom turns back into sand. You have
about a 50-75 feet to the second reef line. It was an easy 5 minute swim
underwater. I was AMAZED at all the coral formations. I need to start
learning the corals b/c there were some many different ones down there.
The highlight of the trip for me was watching a Sand Diver get cleaned up by
a group on Neon Gobies. He had his month wide up and the gobies didn't miss
a spot. All three of us hung out watched for a while. We left and came back
later and the Sand Diver was still there. Nancy and I fought for the
attention of a Yellowtail Damselfish. Nancy also spotted a Ballonfish hiding
out. I love its heart shaped eye.
On they way back I stopped off at the Shipwreck Snorkel Trail and show a few
photos. In 6 months once the canons grow some algae I think they are going
to look really cool. I don't know when the anchor will be put down? We have
two more cannons to place during Ocean Fest.
Matthew Hoelscher
Date: Sat Apr 13, 2002 10:07 pm
Subject: Dive Report: PBCRRT dives Royal Park Bridge and Cross Currents Sat 4/13
Today I got to hand out with my two favorite organizations, the Palm Beach
County Reef Research Team (PBCRRT) and Reef Environmental Education
Foundation (REEF).
www.pbcrrt.org
www.REEF.org
Thanks to Leda from Reef for diving up 2.5 hours from Key Largo to dive with
the team today!
Click here for my photos from the trip:
http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/tiswango/lst?&.dir=/04+14+PBCRRT+RP+CC&.src=ph&.v
iew=t&start=1&.rand=414205120
Conciliations:
Sunny Day, 75 degrees
Seas 4-6 swells (it wasn't choppy or rough, just rolling)
Vis: 45-55 ft
Dive Boat: The Rampage www.therampage.com
Dive 1: 69 Max depth, 40 minutes bottom time on Royal Park Bridge
PBC has been dumping the remnants of the old bridge in about 70 foot a water
creating a huge debris field that will occupy your time on a full dive. You
start of the upside down bridge tenders house and head North. If you are
feeling more adventurous you can head West 280 feet, course 300 degrees and
you will find a barge that landed onto of a sunken tug boat. There are
usually 1-4 400 lbs Goliath Groupers hanging around waiting to start booming
at you. My fish station was at the second bridge tender's house at the far
North end of the site. On the way there I love seeing the debris that sticks
up 12 ft from the sandy bottom. You have to swim through schools of Tomtates
to get anywhere. In front of the tenders house there were some very tasty
sized Gray Snapper and Scamp. This site has some rare fish favorites like
Belted Sandfish, Cubbyu, and Spotfin Hogfish. I got a great photo of
juvenile which is all yellow.
Dive 2: 59 ft max depth for 35 minutes on Cross Currents
For the cave divers in the crowd this site is full of "wet rocks." Limestone
boulders to be exact; because that is the best material for building reefs.
Invertebrates like to grow on it and it last a long time, unlike ships the
rust and fall apart. My fish station was at the South end where there is are
piles of boulders attracting all sorts of fish. Hundreds of Tomtates,
Yellowtail Goatfish, Sergeant Majors, and Redband Parrotfish. A HUGE
Loggerhead turtle swam by with his escort of 3 Bar Jacks.
I caught 6 bugs all season (its my first so don't laugh hard) and there was
a beeeyutiful bug in the boulders. She gets to stick around for a couple of
months. I love the Red Spotted Scorpionfish and found two of them on the
site. After the fish count we let the current take us North to the Barge. It
is so cool to see the mass appear from the distance and then start moving
like looking at the road on a hot day. For 9 months now there has been a
school of hundreds of Chub hanging in front of the barge. Inside barge in
the rocks there are some Schoolmaster Snapper and a green moray who eluded
me.
Another dive, the Brass Ring Pub
After a team dive we for the best burgers in Palm Beach County. They will
cook them however you like! Usually the Killians is flowing, but I had to
keep myself pure for the fish test.
Leda drove up here to give us the REEF Level 4/5 test. If you have been on
the REEF site the data in split between novice (Level 1-3) and expert (Level
4-5). The test is 100 fish at random and you have to write the species
(French) and family name (Angelfish), each is worth half a point. Several
of our team including me passed at over 90% Level 4 and two passed at
95%Level 5.
Bored reading this yet?
If you made it this far and knew or would like to know more about the fish
I'm talking about shoot me an e on or off list and I will be happy to talk
more. I just got tired of being the guy on the boat that said this after a
60 minutes dive, " I saw a pretty fish, a bunch of fish, and a Porkfish."
Subject: Dive Report: PBCRRT dives Royal Park Bridge and Cross Currents Sat 4/13
Today I got to hand out with my two favorite organizations, the Palm Beach
County Reef Research Team (PBCRRT) and Reef Environmental Education
Foundation (REEF).
www.pbcrrt.org
www.REEF.org
Thanks to Leda from Reef for diving up 2.5 hours from Key Largo to dive with
the team today!
Click here for my photos from the trip:
http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/tiswango/lst?&.dir=/04+14+PBCRRT+RP+CC&.src=ph&.v
iew=t&start=1&.rand=414205120
Conciliations:
Sunny Day, 75 degrees
Seas 4-6 swells (it wasn't choppy or rough, just rolling)
Vis: 45-55 ft
Dive Boat: The Rampage www.therampage.com
Dive 1: 69 Max depth, 40 minutes bottom time on Royal Park Bridge
PBC has been dumping the remnants of the old bridge in about 70 foot a water
creating a huge debris field that will occupy your time on a full dive. You
start of the upside down bridge tenders house and head North. If you are
feeling more adventurous you can head West 280 feet, course 300 degrees and
you will find a barge that landed onto of a sunken tug boat. There are
usually 1-4 400 lbs Goliath Groupers hanging around waiting to start booming
at you. My fish station was at the second bridge tender's house at the far
North end of the site. On the way there I love seeing the debris that sticks
up 12 ft from the sandy bottom. You have to swim through schools of Tomtates
to get anywhere. In front of the tenders house there were some very tasty
sized Gray Snapper and Scamp. This site has some rare fish favorites like
Belted Sandfish, Cubbyu, and Spotfin Hogfish. I got a great photo of
juvenile which is all yellow.
Dive 2: 59 ft max depth for 35 minutes on Cross Currents
For the cave divers in the crowd this site is full of "wet rocks." Limestone
boulders to be exact; because that is the best material for building reefs.
Invertebrates like to grow on it and it last a long time, unlike ships the
rust and fall apart. My fish station was at the South end where there is are
piles of boulders attracting all sorts of fish. Hundreds of Tomtates,
Yellowtail Goatfish, Sergeant Majors, and Redband Parrotfish. A HUGE
Loggerhead turtle swam by with his escort of 3 Bar Jacks.
I caught 6 bugs all season (its my first so don't laugh hard) and there was
a beeeyutiful bug in the boulders. She gets to stick around for a couple of
months. I love the Red Spotted Scorpionfish and found two of them on the
site. After the fish count we let the current take us North to the Barge. It
is so cool to see the mass appear from the distance and then start moving
like looking at the road on a hot day. For 9 months now there has been a
school of hundreds of Chub hanging in front of the barge. Inside barge in
the rocks there are some Schoolmaster Snapper and a green moray who eluded
me.
Another dive, the Brass Ring Pub
After a team dive we for the best burgers in Palm Beach County. They will
cook them however you like! Usually the Killians is flowing, but I had to
keep myself pure for the fish test.
Leda drove up here to give us the REEF Level 4/5 test. If you have been on
the REEF site the data in split between novice (Level 1-3) and expert (Level
4-5). The test is 100 fish at random and you have to write the species
(French) and family name (Angelfish), each is worth half a point. Several
of our team including me passed at over 90% Level 4 and two passed at
95%Level 5.
Bored reading this yet?
If you made it this far and knew or would like to know more about the fish
I'm talking about shoot me an e on or off list and I will be happy to talk
more. I just got tired of being the guy on the boat that said this after a
60 minutes dive, " I saw a pretty fish, a bunch of fish, and a Porkfish."
Date: Mon Jul 22, 2002 2:08 pm
Subject: Sunday Beach Dive Report
Beach dive off Datura Street. Divers: Matt, Andrea, Nancy, Ralph, Dave O'Neal
(not an ediver yet) We also had 4 friends come out to snorkel. Apologies to
greekgoddess for not getting your email. Its a good weekend for me if I do not
shave or check email all weekend! The phone number I post is my cell phone and
feel free to give me a call anytime about diving!
Stats:
Sea 1 foot
Sunny day
Low tide (Best right before High tide)
Vis 35 ft
No current and light surge
Depth 16ft
Bottom time 2 hours 15 minutes
Breakfast: Eggs over-easy, bacon crisp with light toast (I can call my order at
Waffle House too!)
Quarters: 16 for 4 hours
Photos:
http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/tiswango/lst?.dir=/Beach+Dive+at+Datura&.src=ph&.order=&.view=t&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/
Breakfast at Mulligans was tasty. This also gave come time for the sleepy
divers to show up. Parking was a little further than usual b/c the City of
Lauderdale Police department was running rescue drills on the beach. Once we
were in the water and putting our fins on I saw another buddy team coming out
of the water. I asked, "how's the current" and one diver said it "was crazy out
there. One minute the current was going south and the next he was getting
slammed against the pier." I translated this to mean, " I have no idea, but
need to sound cool to other divers." There was only light surge and no current
to speak of.
We hit the water at about 9:30 AM. I like to swim out on my back to the first
reef and then dive down and swim the rest of the way underwater. You just never
know what is going to swim by. We took about 15 minutes to swim at a very easy
pace out to the second reef. We were divided into two groups with two flags,
but ended up doing most of the dive all together. When you hit the second reef
line there is a pronounced edge with large coral heads. That is where all the
action is and if you keep going you get more of the same flat reef area with
sparse fish. So after hitting the ledge we headed south along it.
The highlight of the trip was finding a Gulf Flounder! He was so well
camouflaged that it took me a while to see the whole fish. I took a number of
photos and you can check it out for yourself. His eyes were moving all over the
place check out the five divers that surrounded him. But he didn't move! I also
saw a beautiful juvenile yellow tail damselfish. They are dark blue with light
blue jewels sparkling all over. A nice (but not legal size) Black Grouper also
talked along with us for a while staying right at the edge of visual range.
After an hour and fifteen minutes we turned around and started swimming back
North. Then turned west to head back in. Back on the first reef we found a
juvenile Yellow Stingray hiding under a small ledge. He was very cute and only
about 6 inches in diameter. One the way back in every seem to get lost except
Dave and I who were carrying the flags! We went to the edge of the first reef
line and headed North until I was back at the Ship Wreck Snorkel Trail. Dave
headed in and I stuck around to do a separate fish count there. Right now there
are about 25 different species of fish living in the pile of ballast stones.
After coming there three times over 6 weeks I have started to see the same fish
hanging out. The coolest has to be the Manytooth Conger Eel living deep in the
rocks. I have yet to see his head, but the gray body with black and white lined
dorsal is easy to id. There are lots of arrow crabs and banded coral shrimp. I
love the spotted scorpionfish and there are two now hanging in the rocks. After
30 minutes at the snorkel trail I headed in with 450 PSI left in lp 95 that was
pumped to 3000. I good on air, but not that good!
I hope more of you can join us the next time we decided to go!
--Matt Hoelscher
Subject: Sunday Beach Dive Report
Beach dive off Datura Street. Divers: Matt, Andrea, Nancy, Ralph, Dave O'Neal
(not an ediver yet) We also had 4 friends come out to snorkel. Apologies to
greekgoddess for not getting your email. Its a good weekend for me if I do not
shave or check email all weekend! The phone number I post is my cell phone and
feel free to give me a call anytime about diving!
Stats:
Sea 1 foot
Sunny day
Low tide (Best right before High tide)
Vis 35 ft
No current and light surge
Depth 16ft
Bottom time 2 hours 15 minutes
Breakfast: Eggs over-easy, bacon crisp with light toast (I can call my order at
Waffle House too!)
Quarters: 16 for 4 hours
Photos:
http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/tiswango/lst?.dir=/Beach+Dive+at+Datura&.src=ph&.order=&.view=t&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/
Breakfast at Mulligans was tasty. This also gave come time for the sleepy
divers to show up. Parking was a little further than usual b/c the City of
Lauderdale Police department was running rescue drills on the beach. Once we
were in the water and putting our fins on I saw another buddy team coming out
of the water. I asked, "how's the current" and one diver said it "was crazy out
there. One minute the current was going south and the next he was getting
slammed against the pier." I translated this to mean, " I have no idea, but
need to sound cool to other divers." There was only light surge and no current
to speak of.
We hit the water at about 9:30 AM. I like to swim out on my back to the first
reef and then dive down and swim the rest of the way underwater. You just never
know what is going to swim by. We took about 15 minutes to swim at a very easy
pace out to the second reef. We were divided into two groups with two flags,
but ended up doing most of the dive all together. When you hit the second reef
line there is a pronounced edge with large coral heads. That is where all the
action is and if you keep going you get more of the same flat reef area with
sparse fish. So after hitting the ledge we headed south along it.
The highlight of the trip was finding a Gulf Flounder! He was so well
camouflaged that it took me a while to see the whole fish. I took a number of
photos and you can check it out for yourself. His eyes were moving all over the
place check out the five divers that surrounded him. But he didn't move! I also
saw a beautiful juvenile yellow tail damselfish. They are dark blue with light
blue jewels sparkling all over. A nice (but not legal size) Black Grouper also
talked along with us for a while staying right at the edge of visual range.
After an hour and fifteen minutes we turned around and started swimming back
North. Then turned west to head back in. Back on the first reef we found a
juvenile Yellow Stingray hiding under a small ledge. He was very cute and only
about 6 inches in diameter. One the way back in every seem to get lost except
Dave and I who were carrying the flags! We went to the edge of the first reef
line and headed North until I was back at the Ship Wreck Snorkel Trail. Dave
headed in and I stuck around to do a separate fish count there. Right now there
are about 25 different species of fish living in the pile of ballast stones.
After coming there three times over 6 weeks I have started to see the same fish
hanging out. The coolest has to be the Manytooth Conger Eel living deep in the
rocks. I have yet to see his head, but the gray body with black and white lined
dorsal is easy to id. There are lots of arrow crabs and banded coral shrimp. I
love the spotted scorpionfish and there are two now hanging in the rocks. After
30 minutes at the snorkel trail I headed in with 450 PSI left in lp 95 that was
pumped to 3000. I good on air, but not that good!
I hope more of you can join us the next time we decided to go!
--Matt Hoelscher
Date: Tue Jul 30, 2002 6:33 pm
Subject: 7.27 Saturday Morning Dive Report
Another wonderful weekend for diving!
Woke up at 5:30 AM and headed up to West Palm Beach to dive with the Palm Beach
County Reef Research Team.
Dive 1
North Corridors
Depth 70 ft
Dive Time 25 minutes
Ascent 8 minutes
Capt. Bob gave us a perfect drop on the Amaryllis. We flew in on the 1 knot
current into the limestone rock pile called the North Rock pile. We have three
markers on this site. The middle marker numbered 1/2000 is actually a memorial
marker to a team member who was killed by a drunk driver on 1/1/2000. I always
stop there and clean the marker. After over 2 years the encrustation is taking
over. I headed on past to the North side of the rock pile to my fish counting
station. I hovered in the current for 10 minutes while I recorded the species,
size, and number of the fish in a 15 diameter cylinder around me. I found some
juvenile Creole wrasses about 3 inches long, a Glasseye snapper, and a couple
of bridled gobies hanging in the sand. After 25 minutes the whole team leaves
the corridors and head up.
Dive 2
Cross Currents
Depth 50 feet
Dive time 35 minutes
Ascent 10 minutes
After a 45 minutes surface interval Capt Bob lined us up on the Cross Currents
Barge. This was the first time I had been on this site with little to no
current at the bottom. Usually I hind out in the open barge to get some relief
from swimming. There is a pile of limestone on the south end of the barge. Then
two fingers of rock head off the barge on the East and West side. Several big
cudas were hanging off the west side of the barge. I completed another fish
count on the West rock finger. I found two baby spotted eels about 3 feet
long. There were Box fish all over the place and the really cute spotted
goatfish about 6 inches long. As we were leaving I found a 4 foot Moray Eel on
the north side of the west rock pile.
After 25 minutes we completed our work and headed Northeast to the Play Pin,
which will be a new site for us to monitor in the upcoming grant. Just before
the site in the sand was the biggest eye I have ever seen! Another diver tapped
the tail of a Southern Stingray with a 5-6 foot wing span. It was the biggest I
have every seen in these waters!
I was running low on bottom time so I started hovering at 40 feet for five
minutes and then moved up to 30 feet and could still see the site. While
cruising I heard a motor humming very close. Directly above me was a skiff with
an outboard motor circling around. Then a free diver came down with a speargun
as long as he was. There were nothing tasty so he came up and then the boat
disappeared. I was only 100 feet from the orange float ball. I think we drifted
into their hunting territory, but I still feel nervous when I see a prop
spinning above me.
We beach-whaled back up onto the Rampage and headed in. We got back at 10:30
AM, filled takes at Force E, and then slammed down a tasty burger at the Brass
Ring.
From there I headed to the Starfish Enterprise for the some more diving in the
afternoon, but that is another story!
Subject: 7.27 Saturday Morning Dive Report
Another wonderful weekend for diving!
Woke up at 5:30 AM and headed up to West Palm Beach to dive with the Palm Beach
County Reef Research Team.
Dive 1
North Corridors
Depth 70 ft
Dive Time 25 minutes
Ascent 8 minutes
Capt. Bob gave us a perfect drop on the Amaryllis. We flew in on the 1 knot
current into the limestone rock pile called the North Rock pile. We have three
markers on this site. The middle marker numbered 1/2000 is actually a memorial
marker to a team member who was killed by a drunk driver on 1/1/2000. I always
stop there and clean the marker. After over 2 years the encrustation is taking
over. I headed on past to the North side of the rock pile to my fish counting
station. I hovered in the current for 10 minutes while I recorded the species,
size, and number of the fish in a 15 diameter cylinder around me. I found some
juvenile Creole wrasses about 3 inches long, a Glasseye snapper, and a couple
of bridled gobies hanging in the sand. After 25 minutes the whole team leaves
the corridors and head up.
Dive 2
Cross Currents
Depth 50 feet
Dive time 35 minutes
Ascent 10 minutes
After a 45 minutes surface interval Capt Bob lined us up on the Cross Currents
Barge. This was the first time I had been on this site with little to no
current at the bottom. Usually I hind out in the open barge to get some relief
from swimming. There is a pile of limestone on the south end of the barge. Then
two fingers of rock head off the barge on the East and West side. Several big
cudas were hanging off the west side of the barge. I completed another fish
count on the West rock finger. I found two baby spotted eels about 3 feet
long. There were Box fish all over the place and the really cute spotted
goatfish about 6 inches long. As we were leaving I found a 4 foot Moray Eel on
the north side of the west rock pile.
After 25 minutes we completed our work and headed Northeast to the Play Pin,
which will be a new site for us to monitor in the upcoming grant. Just before
the site in the sand was the biggest eye I have ever seen! Another diver tapped
the tail of a Southern Stingray with a 5-6 foot wing span. It was the biggest I
have every seen in these waters!
I was running low on bottom time so I started hovering at 40 feet for five
minutes and then moved up to 30 feet and could still see the site. While
cruising I heard a motor humming very close. Directly above me was a skiff with
an outboard motor circling around. Then a free diver came down with a speargun
as long as he was. There were nothing tasty so he came up and then the boat
disappeared. I was only 100 feet from the orange float ball. I think we drifted
into their hunting territory, but I still feel nervous when I see a prop
spinning above me.
We beach-whaled back up onto the Rampage and headed in. We got back at 10:30
AM, filled takes at Force E, and then slammed down a tasty burger at the Brass
Ring.
From there I headed to the Starfish Enterprise for the some more diving in the
afternoon, but that is another story!
Date: Wed Jul 31, 2002 1:00 pm
Subject: 7/27 Afternoon dive report from Latana
2 dives were not enough on Saturday so I also booked some new divers to join me
for the afternoon on the Starfish Enterprise.
Dive 1 Del Ray Ledges
Depth 60 feet
vis "Snotty" 35 ft
Temp 83 Degrees
Seas 1-3 ft.
The boat ride was about 50 minutes to the site from the dock. My two friends
from Tampa were happy to "finally get a boat ride". They feel cheated that the
dive boats can dump divers ride outside the inlet and have a great dive. This
also gives you time to get to know the other divers on the boat. There was a
couple from Ireland that was a hoot. Kate was certified to dive and her husband
Finton was just bubble watching with jealous envy. On the way out Kate asked
Andrea how to inflate her BC? Andrea then told me to have a "get to know you"
chat with her. We decided that Andrea and I would dive with our two novice
friends and Kate. I was being over optimistic taking my fish slate because
there would be no time to look at fish.
Linda the dive master was EXCELLENT! She helped all the divers into there gear
and got them to the back of the boat. Kate was using rental gear and had huge
cressi free diver foot pocket fins on. When she "giant-flopped" into the water
she lost one. I was last to jump in and played prince charming helping her back
into the fin. I located the rest of our group and Kate started thrashing in the
water. Her rental BC was so loose her face kept underwater though she had it
inflated. I grabber her tank and pulled on her back to get her head out of the
water. She shot seawater out of her mouth and said she was having trouble
breathing. Cptn Craig back the Starfish right up to us for a pick up. After a
minute or two she said she was ready to dive and appeared calm. I thought this
woman has guts and so we descended.
She dropped like a rock and had trouble with her ears. I brought her down easy
to 50 feet, put some air in the BC and we were ready to dive. Once we were
settled and 4 foot nurse shark came cruising up the ledge and cut us off. It
was beautiful. Kate stuck right to my side and after 15 minutes I saw her mask
was full to eye level. I demonstrated how to clear the mask gently blowing
bubbles and she chose a different method. She would pull the mask off her face
and make a sneezing sound. Now there was more water in the mask past her eyes.
I thought she was going to freak, but she didn't. She opened her eyes in the
water and signaled to go up. I dumped her air and put one hand on her tank and
my other hand on hers to comfort her.
We headed up and it three minutes we were back on the surface. Craig picked us
up and dropped my back on Andrea's flag with our other two friends. All right,
now I can dive. After 5 minute the two new divers were out of air. Darn, I
still got 1800 lbs. So I signaled for everyone to go up. One of the new divers
started up without dump air. He was smart to flair out, but didn't solve the
problem before rocketing to the surface non-stop. Andrea took the other diver
up and I stayed down and help the flag so they would have a line to reference.
I don't advocate solo diving, but I was at 50 ft doing a 10 minute
decom-stressing. Checked out a couple of fish. From her safety stop Andrea
jerked the flag line and pointed out a 300 lb loggerhead cruising up on the
reef.
I did a slow accent and 5 minutes safety stop and headed back to the boat. I
got back on the boat and everyone was mellow. I asked Kate if she wanted to
dive again and she said "YES!" I feel so blessed to dive every weekend I feel
like so I didn't mind helping my new friends from Ireland have a good
experience.
Dive 2 Briny Breeze
Depth 40 ft
Conditions were the same
This time we all jumped in together and I took Kate down the same way. On the
bottom everyone had a great time swimming around. We found some lobster and
pretty fish. I also pointed out a Green Moray eel. I love seeing a divers first
reaction to an eel. They always freak and swim away. Then come back for a
second look because they are so beautiful!
We got 40 minutes in before running out of air. This time EVERYONE emptied
their BCs and swam up slowly. Everyone did a 5 minute stop and we headed up.
Offgassing and on drinking at the Old Key Lime Pie house
Everyone stopped for a cold one after the dive. Finton bought me a beer for
bringing his wife back to him. I had a BLAST exchanging culture with my new
friends. I learned some new slang:
What's Cracked? => What's up?
I have to the Jax => bathroom
Any 4x4 is called a "jeep"
And the best quote of the night from Finton, "I'm going to have 5 boys and then
Kate can have whatever she wants." and if the boys ever have a disagreement
"I'll put boxing gloves on them and let them beat each other bloody in the back
yard because that is what happens in the real world."
Come and meet my new friend Kate and Finton at the shore dive on Saturday! **
See my other post for details **
Subject: 7/27 Afternoon dive report from Latana
2 dives were not enough on Saturday so I also booked some new divers to join me
for the afternoon on the Starfish Enterprise.
Dive 1 Del Ray Ledges
Depth 60 feet
vis "Snotty" 35 ft
Temp 83 Degrees
Seas 1-3 ft.
The boat ride was about 50 minutes to the site from the dock. My two friends
from Tampa were happy to "finally get a boat ride". They feel cheated that the
dive boats can dump divers ride outside the inlet and have a great dive. This
also gives you time to get to know the other divers on the boat. There was a
couple from Ireland that was a hoot. Kate was certified to dive and her husband
Finton was just bubble watching with jealous envy. On the way out Kate asked
Andrea how to inflate her BC? Andrea then told me to have a "get to know you"
chat with her. We decided that Andrea and I would dive with our two novice
friends and Kate. I was being over optimistic taking my fish slate because
there would be no time to look at fish.
Linda the dive master was EXCELLENT! She helped all the divers into there gear
and got them to the back of the boat. Kate was using rental gear and had huge
cressi free diver foot pocket fins on. When she "giant-flopped" into the water
she lost one. I was last to jump in and played prince charming helping her back
into the fin. I located the rest of our group and Kate started thrashing in the
water. Her rental BC was so loose her face kept underwater though she had it
inflated. I grabber her tank and pulled on her back to get her head out of the
water. She shot seawater out of her mouth and said she was having trouble
breathing. Cptn Craig back the Starfish right up to us for a pick up. After a
minute or two she said she was ready to dive and appeared calm. I thought this
woman has guts and so we descended.
She dropped like a rock and had trouble with her ears. I brought her down easy
to 50 feet, put some air in the BC and we were ready to dive. Once we were
settled and 4 foot nurse shark came cruising up the ledge and cut us off. It
was beautiful. Kate stuck right to my side and after 15 minutes I saw her mask
was full to eye level. I demonstrated how to clear the mask gently blowing
bubbles and she chose a different method. She would pull the mask off her face
and make a sneezing sound. Now there was more water in the mask past her eyes.
I thought she was going to freak, but she didn't. She opened her eyes in the
water and signaled to go up. I dumped her air and put one hand on her tank and
my other hand on hers to comfort her.
We headed up and it three minutes we were back on the surface. Craig picked us
up and dropped my back on Andrea's flag with our other two friends. All right,
now I can dive. After 5 minute the two new divers were out of air. Darn, I
still got 1800 lbs. So I signaled for everyone to go up. One of the new divers
started up without dump air. He was smart to flair out, but didn't solve the
problem before rocketing to the surface non-stop. Andrea took the other diver
up and I stayed down and help the flag so they would have a line to reference.
I don't advocate solo diving, but I was at 50 ft doing a 10 minute
decom-stressing. Checked out a couple of fish. From her safety stop Andrea
jerked the flag line and pointed out a 300 lb loggerhead cruising up on the
reef.
I did a slow accent and 5 minutes safety stop and headed back to the boat. I
got back on the boat and everyone was mellow. I asked Kate if she wanted to
dive again and she said "YES!" I feel so blessed to dive every weekend I feel
like so I didn't mind helping my new friends from Ireland have a good
experience.
Dive 2 Briny Breeze
Depth 40 ft
Conditions were the same
This time we all jumped in together and I took Kate down the same way. On the
bottom everyone had a great time swimming around. We found some lobster and
pretty fish. I also pointed out a Green Moray eel. I love seeing a divers first
reaction to an eel. They always freak and swim away. Then come back for a
second look because they are so beautiful!
We got 40 minutes in before running out of air. This time EVERYONE emptied
their BCs and swam up slowly. Everyone did a 5 minute stop and we headed up.
Offgassing and on drinking at the Old Key Lime Pie house
Everyone stopped for a cold one after the dive. Finton bought me a beer for
bringing his wife back to him. I had a BLAST exchanging culture with my new
friends. I learned some new slang:
What's Cracked? => What's up?
I have to the Jax => bathroom
Any 4x4 is called a "jeep"
And the best quote of the night from Finton, "I'm going to have 5 boys and then
Kate can have whatever she wants." and if the boys ever have a disagreement
"I'll put boxing gloves on them and let them beat each other bloody in the back
yard because that is what happens in the real world."
Come and meet my new friend Kate and Finton at the shore dive on Saturday! **
See my other post for details **
Date: Wed Jul 31, 2002 1:35 pm
Subject: 7.28 SFRRT afternoon dive report
The South Florida Reef Research Team has 3 sites lined up off Commercial
Street. The deep reef is in 60 feet of water on the 3rd reef line. Then there
is a burrow pit in the middle at 90 feet where Broward County removed sand for
Beach Renourishment. The third site is on the second reef line in 40 feet of
water.
What I learned on this trip?
Where was the disappearing Barrel Sponge?
How long do you search for diver before calling in the Coast Guard?
How do you search for a 2 foot square sediment bottle trap on a reef?
Dive 1 Borrow Pit
I didn't dive this one because there are no fish to count. We changed out
sediment bottles and took a visibility reading with the seechi disk. Perhaps
Ralph F will post on this one.
Dive 2 Deep Reef site
Depth 60 foot
vis 50 foot
Temp 83
Waves 1-2
Dr. Robin Sherman for Nova and I dropped in to find the site. Captain Dave on
the Safari Diver gave us a PERFECT DROP right on top of the sediment bottles. I
tied off the flag and then were started counting fish in the research area.
There were Creole wrasse buzzing all over the place and huge school of Atlantic
Spadefish stopped by to say hi. Nothing out of the ordinary on the reef. After
the dive Dr. Sherman and I went over the fish we saw and we were amazed at the
similar list and numbers of fish we came up with. 10 minutes later the rest of
the team dropped in to change the sediment bottles, shoot a photo mosaic, and
take a visibility reading.
On our last trip out we noticed a HUGE barrel sponge was missing in the photo
mosaic! It was there 6 months ago, but it was gone in the next set. After the
fish count we went to the frame and found that there was nothing by bare rock.
Dr. Sherman believes it was scrapped off and collected by someone. There would
be pieces left it was diseased or hit by an anchor. What are the odds someone
would steel a sponge from our 10 meter section of reef?
Dive 2 Shallow Reef
This site is hard to find because it is not on a ledge, it is between two coral
fingers. We only had a handheld GPS and some old land marks so we had to find
it with a little luck. Dr. Sherman, myself, and another diver dropped in to
find the site. I was dragging the flag and had to swim South into a North
current. I could not keep up with the lead diver. Dr. Sherman was ahead of me
and when she lost track of the lead diver we decided to surface after a 5
minutes search. We climbed back on the boat and told the captain the 3rd diver
had swam off to find the site and we lost visual contact and told him which way
she was heading. We expected her to pop up after a couple of minutes since she
was alone without a flag. I stayed geared up ready to drop if she found it.
After 10 minutes things became more tense and everyone stood look out for the
missing diver. At 10 minutes we decided that the Coast Guard should be notified
of a missing diver after 30 minutes search. At 26 minutes she surfaced a long
ways from any mark we had for the site. After a verbal scolding from her
husband and the cold shoulder from the rest of the divers on the boat we
decided to take one more shot and finding the site.
Two more divers jumped in as a team and they said they would look for the site.
After another 15 minutes they had no luck. It was now 6:30 PM and the sun was
setting. We decided to bag the dive and head in. Its never fun being on a
research dive that didn't accomplish the full mission. But we will take another
shot at it next week.
I think instead of taking 15-20 minute shots in the dark it would have been
better to drop in and do quick 5 minute searches. After 5 minutes neither dive
team was even close to the original drop site. We also could have towed a
diver, but didn't have a kidney board.
I can't wait to own a big boat with differential GPS so I don't have to look
for anything! Just dive!
--Matt Hoelscher
Team Leader SFRRT
Subject: 7.28 SFRRT afternoon dive report
The South Florida Reef Research Team has 3 sites lined up off Commercial
Street. The deep reef is in 60 feet of water on the 3rd reef line. Then there
is a burrow pit in the middle at 90 feet where Broward County removed sand for
Beach Renourishment. The third site is on the second reef line in 40 feet of
water.
What I learned on this trip?
Where was the disappearing Barrel Sponge?
How long do you search for diver before calling in the Coast Guard?
How do you search for a 2 foot square sediment bottle trap on a reef?
Dive 1 Borrow Pit
I didn't dive this one because there are no fish to count. We changed out
sediment bottles and took a visibility reading with the seechi disk. Perhaps
Ralph F will post on this one.
Dive 2 Deep Reef site
Depth 60 foot
vis 50 foot
Temp 83
Waves 1-2
Dr. Robin Sherman for Nova and I dropped in to find the site. Captain Dave on
the Safari Diver gave us a PERFECT DROP right on top of the sediment bottles. I
tied off the flag and then were started counting fish in the research area.
There were Creole wrasse buzzing all over the place and huge school of Atlantic
Spadefish stopped by to say hi. Nothing out of the ordinary on the reef. After
the dive Dr. Sherman and I went over the fish we saw and we were amazed at the
similar list and numbers of fish we came up with. 10 minutes later the rest of
the team dropped in to change the sediment bottles, shoot a photo mosaic, and
take a visibility reading.
On our last trip out we noticed a HUGE barrel sponge was missing in the photo
mosaic! It was there 6 months ago, but it was gone in the next set. After the
fish count we went to the frame and found that there was nothing by bare rock.
Dr. Sherman believes it was scrapped off and collected by someone. There would
be pieces left it was diseased or hit by an anchor. What are the odds someone
would steel a sponge from our 10 meter section of reef?
Dive 2 Shallow Reef
This site is hard to find because it is not on a ledge, it is between two coral
fingers. We only had a handheld GPS and some old land marks so we had to find
it with a little luck. Dr. Sherman, myself, and another diver dropped in to
find the site. I was dragging the flag and had to swim South into a North
current. I could not keep up with the lead diver. Dr. Sherman was ahead of me
and when she lost track of the lead diver we decided to surface after a 5
minutes search. We climbed back on the boat and told the captain the 3rd diver
had swam off to find the site and we lost visual contact and told him which way
she was heading. We expected her to pop up after a couple of minutes since she
was alone without a flag. I stayed geared up ready to drop if she found it.
After 10 minutes things became more tense and everyone stood look out for the
missing diver. At 10 minutes we decided that the Coast Guard should be notified
of a missing diver after 30 minutes search. At 26 minutes she surfaced a long
ways from any mark we had for the site. After a verbal scolding from her
husband and the cold shoulder from the rest of the divers on the boat we
decided to take one more shot and finding the site.
Two more divers jumped in as a team and they said they would look for the site.
After another 15 minutes they had no luck. It was now 6:30 PM and the sun was
setting. We decided to bag the dive and head in. Its never fun being on a
research dive that didn't accomplish the full mission. But we will take another
shot at it next week.
I think instead of taking 15-20 minute shots in the dark it would have been
better to drop in and do quick 5 minute searches. After 5 minutes neither dive
team was even close to the original drop site. We also could have towed a
diver, but didn't have a kidney board.
I can't wait to own a big boat with differential GPS so I don't have to look
for anything! Just dive!
--Matt Hoelscher
Team Leader SFRRT
Date: Sun Aug 4, 2002 8:31 pm
Subject: Sunday Dive Report: Nova Coral Nursery Project
Hey Gang,
As a member of Ocean Watch I got to participate in a Masters project for a
student at Nova. Jamie has an 18 month project to pick up damaged and loose
corals and transplant them to a research site off Dania Pier, south of Port
Everglades. This information will be used for mitigation purposes. The
research site was put down by AT&T. Their phone cables are laid across the
reefs and move in strong surge. This acts like a windshield wiper scraping
every thing off the bottom.
Photos: http://photos.yahoo.com/tiswango
Folder: Nova Coral Nursery Project
Conditions
Seas 1 ft
Vis 50 foot
Temp 90
Sunny day
9 AM Check in
Jamie and her team gave us an overview of the project and our tasks for
the day. We sat down in the Nova Houseboat and went through the whole day
with everyone's attention. It was nice to have everyone on the same page and
not messing with dive gear on a boat while missing half the briefing! We
also went around and introduced ourselves. A journalist for the Sun Sentinel
came to photo our trip for a story later this week!
9:30 We loaded up the Researcher (Nova's boat) and the Monitor (Broward
County's boat) and headed out the inlet.
10 AM Dive 1 Coral recovery
Depth 30 ft
Bottom Time 1:10
We jumped in with two clothes baskets for collecting coral. Remembering
basic navigation, Andrea and I would choose and heading a swim off looking
for corals. We would just tap them to see if they were secure or just
resting in the sand. After finding a couple small ones or a big one, we
would return to the basket. From there we would slide the coral into a zip
lock back with a number. On a slate we would record the number, coral
condition, how we found it and at what depth. Ken Banks also had a chisel
and hammer for knocking off excess rock around the coral. After 45 minutes
were stopped looking and finished the logging. I found a piece of Great Star
Coral that had a rock lying on top of it. The center of the coral was
damaged, but there was plenty left so we shall see if it survives. With my
extra time I did a quick fish count (I'm a fish-id-aholic) I blue spotted
cornetfish swam by and I wanted to get him marked down. We also had some
coral thievery, a gray trigger fish picked up a zip lock bag with a small
coral out of the basked and started swimming off. I had to chase him down!
If I wasn't so reactive, I would have stopped to take a picture first!
11:20 Surface Interval and Lunch
It takes Jamie a while to bring all the corals up, tag them on the surface
and pack them on ice for the trip to their new home. We packed lunch and
worked on our tans.
12 Headed to the Nursery site.
The monitor is a good boat, but a slow one. It was a good 35 minute run. Now
its time for the fun! We use cement to secure the corals to there new homes.
Ken Banks, head cook, started to mix it up. Once it was solid enough, Ken,
Lisa, and myself started make cement balls. Using the same process as making
hamburgers our of ground beef, we took up a pile of cement and slapped it
together into a round ball and placed it in the bucket. When a bucket was
ready we would swim it down to the site.
1 PM Dive 2
Dept 45 ft
Bottom Time 55 minutes
Ascent 7 minutes
Ken beat me to the bucket so I didn't have a job in the water for this dive.
Jamie brought the corals down with tags inside. Helpers would clean the
algae off the site for the coral, slapped down some cement, place the tag
and finally the coral. We I arrived there was a huge brown cloud around the
working divers. I didn't even try for a photo. So I took a swim around and
completed another fish count. I found a juvenile Jackknife drum and there
was a school of Almaco Jack following us acting like foreman on a job site.
My coral I found under a rock was tagged number 160. You'll see lots of
photos of it on my yahoo site. I can't wait to come back and see what
happens. Jamie has about an 80% survival rate so far with the transplants.
2 PM headed home!
I had a great trip and look forward to the next one. Another plus was that
Jamie has a great for the project and Broward county has matched the grant
with time, materials and resources. The county gave us tanks to use and
there was no charge for the divers. I love diving for free!
How to find out more?
Tentatively Sept 24th Jamie will give a free presentation on the status of
the project. I'll post it as soon as I know!
Subject: Sunday Dive Report: Nova Coral Nursery Project
Hey Gang,
As a member of Ocean Watch I got to participate in a Masters project for a
student at Nova. Jamie has an 18 month project to pick up damaged and loose
corals and transplant them to a research site off Dania Pier, south of Port
Everglades. This information will be used for mitigation purposes. The
research site was put down by AT&T. Their phone cables are laid across the
reefs and move in strong surge. This acts like a windshield wiper scraping
every thing off the bottom.
Photos: http://photos.yahoo.com/tiswango
Folder: Nova Coral Nursery Project
Conditions
Seas 1 ft
Vis 50 foot
Temp 90
Sunny day
9 AM Check in
Jamie and her team gave us an overview of the project and our tasks for
the day. We sat down in the Nova Houseboat and went through the whole day
with everyone's attention. It was nice to have everyone on the same page and
not messing with dive gear on a boat while missing half the briefing! We
also went around and introduced ourselves. A journalist for the Sun Sentinel
came to photo our trip for a story later this week!
9:30 We loaded up the Researcher (Nova's boat) and the Monitor (Broward
County's boat) and headed out the inlet.
10 AM Dive 1 Coral recovery
Depth 30 ft
Bottom Time 1:10
We jumped in with two clothes baskets for collecting coral. Remembering
basic navigation, Andrea and I would choose and heading a swim off looking
for corals. We would just tap them to see if they were secure or just
resting in the sand. After finding a couple small ones or a big one, we
would return to the basket. From there we would slide the coral into a zip
lock back with a number. On a slate we would record the number, coral
condition, how we found it and at what depth. Ken Banks also had a chisel
and hammer for knocking off excess rock around the coral. After 45 minutes
were stopped looking and finished the logging. I found a piece of Great Star
Coral that had a rock lying on top of it. The center of the coral was
damaged, but there was plenty left so we shall see if it survives. With my
extra time I did a quick fish count (I'm a fish-id-aholic) I blue spotted
cornetfish swam by and I wanted to get him marked down. We also had some
coral thievery, a gray trigger fish picked up a zip lock bag with a small
coral out of the basked and started swimming off. I had to chase him down!
If I wasn't so reactive, I would have stopped to take a picture first!
11:20 Surface Interval and Lunch
It takes Jamie a while to bring all the corals up, tag them on the surface
and pack them on ice for the trip to their new home. We packed lunch and
worked on our tans.
12 Headed to the Nursery site.
The monitor is a good boat, but a slow one. It was a good 35 minute run. Now
its time for the fun! We use cement to secure the corals to there new homes.
Ken Banks, head cook, started to mix it up. Once it was solid enough, Ken,
Lisa, and myself started make cement balls. Using the same process as making
hamburgers our of ground beef, we took up a pile of cement and slapped it
together into a round ball and placed it in the bucket. When a bucket was
ready we would swim it down to the site.
1 PM Dive 2
Dept 45 ft
Bottom Time 55 minutes
Ascent 7 minutes
Ken beat me to the bucket so I didn't have a job in the water for this dive.
Jamie brought the corals down with tags inside. Helpers would clean the
algae off the site for the coral, slapped down some cement, place the tag
and finally the coral. We I arrived there was a huge brown cloud around the
working divers. I didn't even try for a photo. So I took a swim around and
completed another fish count. I found a juvenile Jackknife drum and there
was a school of Almaco Jack following us acting like foreman on a job site.
My coral I found under a rock was tagged number 160. You'll see lots of
photos of it on my yahoo site. I can't wait to come back and see what
happens. Jamie has about an 80% survival rate so far with the transplants.
2 PM headed home!
I had a great trip and look forward to the next one. Another plus was that
Jamie has a great for the project and Broward county has matched the grant
with time, materials and resources. The county gave us tanks to use and
there was no charge for the divers. I love diving for free!
How to find out more?
Tentatively Sept 24th Jamie will give a free presentation on the status of
the project. I'll post it as soon as I know!
Date: Sun Aug 4, 2002 9:12 pm
Subject: Saturday Dive Report: Ediver Dature Street Beach Dive
Edivers:
Trish, Charlie, Andréa, Matt, William, Connie, Joan, Christos, Lynn
Snorkelers:
Bryon, Tara, Brent, Justin, Dana, Amy
Photos: http://photos.yahoo.com/tiswango
folder: Edivers Beach Dive
8AM Trish calls me and says she is joining us for the dive and breakfast. We
got some rock star parking at Datura street and started plugging in the
quarters. Charlie has been in USA for 3 weeks and this is his first trip to
the beach. Breakfast was tasty at Mulligans, but WATCH YOUR ENGLISH MUFFINS!
Order extras, Trish will snatch those things up so fast you'll never know
they are gone!
9 AM William called to let us know he was there with his two hot blondes
(what is his secret?). We walked back and started the introductions. Cristos
was putting together some new halcyon gear.
9:30 Everyone straggled into the water. I gave the cliff notes version of
"Discover Snorkeling" to my friends who joined us and then we tool off.
Dive 1
Seas: flat
Vis 45 foot (as good as it gets)
Water temp 86 degrees
Air Temp 90 Degrees
Depth 16 ft
Bottom time 1:45
Charlie, Trish, Andrea and myself took off for the second reef. I was
trying to "make time" swimming out there, but Charlie was having too much
fun taking pictures of everything along the way! Andrea found a pearly
razorfish and scared him into the sand. I got some cute photos of him
sticking his head out to check if the coast was clear.
We made it out to the second reef in about 18 minutes. Right away I found a
star coral that was bleaching. Notice the white spot right in the middle
(see photo). The coral is not dead, it just expelled the algae that lives
inside the Polyp. If the algae is not replaced in 2-3 weeks the coral will
die. Its like heat stroke where the body starts to shut down.
Everything down there was pregnant! Not just the lobsters. We also found a
pregnant Yellow Stingray. Notice the humps at the base of the body. On our
last shore dive we found a baby Yellow Stingray under a ledge. There also
was a tasty looking hogfish.
On the way back I stopped off at the Shipwreck Snorkel Trail. I found a type
of slug or Neutibrich in the sand. If anyone can tell me what it is I would
love to know. So at the trail I notice something looks different? The rubble
pile of rocks is different. Upon closer inspection I see someone has pried
off the cemented rocks and created a pit in the middle of the pile. There
were equal numbers of moved rocks on each side of the trail so I know it was
not a "natural"happening! There were some crabs in the the pile before and
now they were gone.
There is a cute little scamp grouper that lives in the pile. I found that he
had eaten a baby grunt whole, but couldn't quite get the whole thing in his
mouth. I have never seen this happen before in the wild. It was so cool! I
guess his eyes were bigger than his gut.
Noon and time for lunch. We lost the snorklers and all the Edivers went to
Aruba for Lunch. It was fun to sit around and decompress after the dive.
William and his group had to head home so he could go to work. But after an
hour Charlie, Andrea and I decided to give it another go.
1:30 Dive 2
Bottom time 1:05
Depth 16ft
Seas kicked up to 1-2 with wind out of the SE
We jumped back in the water and headed out. After 10 minutes Charlie had a
headache and aborted the dive. Andrea and I went on without him. Dragging
the flag was draining my air so we decided to stay on the first reef line.
Our first find was a Green Razorfish hiding in the soft coral. I found
another crab like the ones there were in the Snorkel Trail. The we found the
nurse shark William was telling us about. There was some old encrusted rope
right next to him that was damaging a soft coral. The handy sea snips took
care some some of the rope. I had to leave some behind.
We popped out and packed away our gear. Since we still has some time in the
meter we drank some water in the shaded benches and watched the ocean.
Charlie noticed a solo diver coming out of the water without a flag. As he
walked by I noticed he was carrying a 8x10 inch Tupperware container in
green mesh bag. Curious, what could be in there and why would this diver be
so stealthy. I went for a walk in the parking lot and saw the container next
to the car, his fresh wet dive gear was in the trunk and he was taking a
large bag back to the ocean. Andrea walked over and asked "What did you
catch?" He said he just picked up some rocks.
My ASS! This guy was stealing coral! I wish I new what to do! It is against
the law, but I don't think I can call 911 to report a robbery. I could call
fish and wildlife, but it would probably take them an hour or two to send
someone over. I let the guy go without even giving him a piece of my mind.
He knows that he is poaching and he knows 95% of the people really don't
care if he takes a couple of chunks home to his fish tank.
So even though I had a WONDERFUL set of dives I was upset that the Snorkel
trails needs repair with MORE cement. There was old line tied off to the
hardbotton for some forgotten reason. And some jerk was stealing our coral
(it belongs to you and me!). If I see this guy underwater I will rip off his
mask and cut his hose, just like James Bond!
Matthew Hoelscher
Subject: Saturday Dive Report: Ediver Dature Street Beach Dive
Edivers:
Trish, Charlie, Andréa, Matt, William, Connie, Joan, Christos, Lynn
Snorkelers:
Bryon, Tara, Brent, Justin, Dana, Amy
Photos: http://photos.yahoo.com/tiswango
folder: Edivers Beach Dive
8AM Trish calls me and says she is joining us for the dive and breakfast. We
got some rock star parking at Datura street and started plugging in the
quarters. Charlie has been in USA for 3 weeks and this is his first trip to
the beach. Breakfast was tasty at Mulligans, but WATCH YOUR ENGLISH MUFFINS!
Order extras, Trish will snatch those things up so fast you'll never know
they are gone!
9 AM William called to let us know he was there with his two hot blondes
(what is his secret?). We walked back and started the introductions. Cristos
was putting together some new halcyon gear.
9:30 Everyone straggled into the water. I gave the cliff notes version of
"Discover Snorkeling" to my friends who joined us and then we tool off.
Dive 1
Seas: flat
Vis 45 foot (as good as it gets)
Water temp 86 degrees
Air Temp 90 Degrees
Depth 16 ft
Bottom time 1:45
Charlie, Trish, Andrea and myself took off for the second reef. I was
trying to "make time" swimming out there, but Charlie was having too much
fun taking pictures of everything along the way! Andrea found a pearly
razorfish and scared him into the sand. I got some cute photos of him
sticking his head out to check if the coast was clear.
We made it out to the second reef in about 18 minutes. Right away I found a
star coral that was bleaching. Notice the white spot right in the middle
(see photo). The coral is not dead, it just expelled the algae that lives
inside the Polyp. If the algae is not replaced in 2-3 weeks the coral will
die. Its like heat stroke where the body starts to shut down.
Everything down there was pregnant! Not just the lobsters. We also found a
pregnant Yellow Stingray. Notice the humps at the base of the body. On our
last shore dive we found a baby Yellow Stingray under a ledge. There also
was a tasty looking hogfish.
On the way back I stopped off at the Shipwreck Snorkel Trail. I found a type
of slug or Neutibrich in the sand. If anyone can tell me what it is I would
love to know. So at the trail I notice something looks different? The rubble
pile of rocks is different. Upon closer inspection I see someone has pried
off the cemented rocks and created a pit in the middle of the pile. There
were equal numbers of moved rocks on each side of the trail so I know it was
not a "natural"happening! There were some crabs in the the pile before and
now they were gone.
There is a cute little scamp grouper that lives in the pile. I found that he
had eaten a baby grunt whole, but couldn't quite get the whole thing in his
mouth. I have never seen this happen before in the wild. It was so cool! I
guess his eyes were bigger than his gut.
Noon and time for lunch. We lost the snorklers and all the Edivers went to
Aruba for Lunch. It was fun to sit around and decompress after the dive.
William and his group had to head home so he could go to work. But after an
hour Charlie, Andrea and I decided to give it another go.
1:30 Dive 2
Bottom time 1:05
Depth 16ft
Seas kicked up to 1-2 with wind out of the SE
We jumped back in the water and headed out. After 10 minutes Charlie had a
headache and aborted the dive. Andrea and I went on without him. Dragging
the flag was draining my air so we decided to stay on the first reef line.
Our first find was a Green Razorfish hiding in the soft coral. I found
another crab like the ones there were in the Snorkel Trail. The we found the
nurse shark William was telling us about. There was some old encrusted rope
right next to him that was damaging a soft coral. The handy sea snips took
care some some of the rope. I had to leave some behind.
We popped out and packed away our gear. Since we still has some time in the
meter we drank some water in the shaded benches and watched the ocean.
Charlie noticed a solo diver coming out of the water without a flag. As he
walked by I noticed he was carrying a 8x10 inch Tupperware container in
green mesh bag. Curious, what could be in there and why would this diver be
so stealthy. I went for a walk in the parking lot and saw the container next
to the car, his fresh wet dive gear was in the trunk and he was taking a
large bag back to the ocean. Andrea walked over and asked "What did you
catch?" He said he just picked up some rocks.
My ASS! This guy was stealing coral! I wish I new what to do! It is against
the law, but I don't think I can call 911 to report a robbery. I could call
fish and wildlife, but it would probably take them an hour or two to send
someone over. I let the guy go without even giving him a piece of my mind.
He knows that he is poaching and he knows 95% of the people really don't
care if he takes a couple of chunks home to his fish tank.
So even though I had a WONDERFUL set of dives I was upset that the Snorkel
trails needs repair with MORE cement. There was old line tied off to the
hardbotton for some forgotten reason. And some jerk was stealing our coral
(it belongs to you and me!). If I see this guy underwater I will rip off his
mask and cut his hose, just like James Bond!
Matthew Hoelscher
Date: Mon Aug 12, 2002 10:39 pm
Subject: Sunday Dive Report: Navy Table Six Treatment, AKA Matthew's Chamber Ride
ADVERTISEMENT
Hello E-Divers,
I wrote this so that you can learn from my experience. Accident analyses is
a great teaching tool. I hope that if you ever feel like you have a mild hit
you build up the courage to make the phone call and talk to a medical
professional. It was not easy for me, but I'm glad I did. My story below is
a detailed account of what happens after I admitted I had Decompression
Sickness.
I was treated at Mercy Hospital.
Dr. Ivan Montoya, M.D.
Emergency: 1800-NO BENDS
Phone 305.854.0300
email: montoya@hyperbarics.com
--Matt
Sunday morning I awoke I awoke to a numbness and tingling in my right hand.
It felt like I had slept on it the wrong way. I would have gone back to bed
except I felt the same thing on the drive home at 12:30 AM in the morning. I
had completed 6 dives on Saturday and thought something might be wrong. I
laid flat on my back and decided to go back to sleep and see if the feeling
receded. At 9 AM it hadn't. Now I felt concern and decided to download my
dive computer and fill out my log book.
I wanted a consultation and remember Dr. Montoya speaking at my dive club.
His phone number stuck in my head, 1800-NOBENDS. The Emergency room at Mercy
took my name and number and said the doctor would call me soon. 5 minutes
later my phone rang. I explained how I had completed 6 dives the day before
and the feeling in my right hand. He confirmed that I had a mild case of
Type II decompression sickness. If I came to the hospital he would treat me.
An hour later Andrea and I were at the hospital. I checked into the
emergency room and told them I had DCS. They took my vitals (Blood Pressure
and pulse) and took me to a bed. I put on a gown, kept my boxers for dignity
and started sucking on the O2. Then they put in an IV to hydrate me. 5
minutes later Mike the Chamber Technician came in to wheel me to the x-ray.
They took a chest X-ray before taking me to the chamber. I forgot to ask why
they did that? After 2 quick zaps for a front and side view it was off to
the chamber.
The chamber itself was cool to see. The door opens in the waiting room, when
the rest of the chamber is behind a wall in the control room. I upgraded my
gown to hospital scrubs for the ride. At least now I was rule #6, look good
while doing it. However changing shirts with an IV in your hand is not
pleasant. They took my vitals again and in I went.
Everyone was great about explaining the process for the treatment. I would
be pressurized to 60 feet, have 3 cycles of 20 minutes of pure O2 and a 5
minute break. Then we will ascend to 30 feet and have 5 cycles of 20 minutes
02 with 5 minute breaks. Total "dive" time would be roughly 5 hours.
In the chamber with me was Candice the technician and another patient. It
was this guy's 4 full ride so he was getting to be a pro at this. As they
started pressurizing the chamber I learned what it feels like to be a scuba
tank. This on the sound of a tank being filled and imagine it about 5 times
louder. We were provided with hearing protection for the decent. We took 10
minutes to get to the bottom. The chamber heated up instantly. Then over the
intercom we heard, "Everyone on O2." Candice helped me put on the head gear
and attach the 4 points to my face mask regulator. It looked like the one
pilots were in the movies. The chamber imitated DIR with about a 9 foot hose
for the face mask. It plugged into the ceiling where for the O2 Dealing with
that long of a hose was a pain, I didn't have anywhere to put, so I held on
most of the time.
At 60 feet we laid down and were not allowed to speak.Running a PO2 of 2.0
is not fun. I could feel my lungs ache. The first hour and a half was by far
the longest. After we reached 30 feet I sat up and stretched my neck. Now I
could finally see the monitor and watch the movie. You should pack a DVD
movie in your DAN 02 kit in case your have to go to the chamber at Mercy.
There are two small TVs mounted to the windows on one side of the chamber.
You can hear the sound as long as no one is inhaling. The other patient and
I practiced our Darth Vader imitations for five hours. I don't think I'll be
able to watch Star Wars for quite a while.
In the chamber the air lock allows items to come in and out of the chamber
during treatment. It also serves as a bathroom. During one exchange we even
got some turkey sandwiches to woof down during a five minute air break.
After five hours I was glad to get out of the chamber. I skipped the tour of
the airlock in favor of the full size bathroom in the outer room. I felt
quite high after the treatment and there was no tingling feeling in my right
hand. It was a little swollen from the IV and that disappeared in the
morning. They took my vitals again and asked how I felt. The good doctor
asked me to call him first thing in the morning and tell him how I felt. He
invited me back for a "wash-out" treatment Monday at Noon.
I went home, watched my forth movie of the day, and went to bed. The high I
felt quickly subsided into fatigue. My chest started to ache when I breathed
deeply and filled with fluid. I spoke and coughed like I had a chest cold. I
was a deflated balloon.
The next day I got up and went to work. Called the doc and told him I felt
fine, but I would be there for the second treatment. I love diving too much
to mess myself up now. After very little work and explained to everyone what
had happened. The words "that was stupid" echoed throughout the
conversations. I left at 10:30 AM to head back to Miami and make my next
treatment. My scrubs were waiting for me and changed again. The technicians
took my vitals and temperature yet again and we prepared to load up the
chamber.
This time I was joined by 3 other patients who were going in for wound care.
Instead of the face mask they had a rubber collar put around the neck and a
big soft plastic helmet attached to their collar. They looked like
astronauts from a B movie without a budget. For this treatment we went to 30
feet for two hours of straight O2 with no breaks. At least this time I got a
good seat for watching "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." With five people in
the chamber it was impossible to hear the audio, but luckily there were
subtitles. It made the time pass. The mask became very uncomfortable after
two hours.
As the chamber was coming up we took off our head gear. One of the patients
was a 78 year old woman was a broken foot. This was her 2nd or 3rd treatment
and she still didn't know what was going on in the chamber. I tried to
simply explain how the 02 dissolves into the blood stream under pressure so
more of it gets to the cells that are rebuilding her injury. She still
didn't understand how any more air was getting to her lungs. After Dive
Master and Cave training I had lost touch with how much I had learned about
physiology over the past 4 years of diving.
Still with all my knowledge the dive computer between my ears told me two 55
foot hour long dives even on 33% Nitrox is not a good idea after 4 air
dives. I silenced that side of my head in the name of fun, diving, and trust
in my new Aries 2 dive computer which read 5 green bars and one yellow of
nitrogen. I still had one full yellow bar before I hit Decompression. I was
I doing 10 minutes ascents. Heck that is like doing deco stops anyway. I'll
be fine, I told myself.
I remembered Dr. Montoya's presentation to my dive club. He said that Denial
was the number one reason people do not get treatment. When I first got to
the hospital he said that my mild hit often goes untreated. Most of the time
it doesn't reoccur. But when it does, people get hit harder and more damage
occurs. I trusted what the good doc had to say and went for the full
treatment. He also recommended that I not dive for 6 weeks! That is at least
24 dives I'll be giving up and this is the summer. I promised myself I would
do my "time" as a man and not rationalize myself back into the water sooner.
When I do, I'll take it nice and easy.
This six weeks will give me time to get ALL my tanks Nitrox cleaned. It is
ironic two weeks ago I was diving with William and I teased him about diving
Nitrox on a 18 foot beach dive. He said it was already in his tanks before
he knew he was going to do the dive. Soon it will be in my tanks as well and
I won't sweat it when I do dives that do not take advantage of it. I dove
air because it was cheap. $2.50 compared to $8 a fill really adds up on 4
tank weekends. But the other DIR motto of, "If you can't afford to do it
right, then don't do it" is also ringing in my ears. If I can't afford the
gas then I won't do the dive.
Conditions:
Seas 1-3 foot swells
Sunny Day
Water Temp 83-84 degrees
I had 1-3 cups of water between dives and 2 Lipton Brisk ice teas. I ate
cereal for breakfast and had a sandwich for lunch. All the dives were drift
and I had no heavy effort while diving.
Dive Profiles:
Dive 1 Princess Anne
8:08 AM
86 feet
37 mins BT, 12 min ascent
Air
Dive 2 Rybovich
9:47 AM
SI 1:01
28 ft
54 mins, 5 min ascent
Air
Dive 3 Razel Dazel
2:10 PM
SI 3:28
56 ft
64 mins, 10 min ascent
Air
Dive 4 Copenhagen
3:49 PM
SI 0:34
29 ft
59 mins, 5 min ascent
Air
Dive 5 Razel Dazel
6:55 PM
SI 2:06
58 ft
53 mins, 10 min Ascent
32.5% rounded to 33% Nitrox
Dive 6 Razel Dazel
8:10 PM
SI 0:26
61 ft
51 mins, 6 min ascent
32.6% rounded to 33% Nitrox
Any private or public feedback or comments are welcome!
Subject: Sunday Dive Report: Navy Table Six Treatment, AKA Matthew's Chamber Ride
ADVERTISEMENT
Hello E-Divers,
I wrote this so that you can learn from my experience. Accident analyses is
a great teaching tool. I hope that if you ever feel like you have a mild hit
you build up the courage to make the phone call and talk to a medical
professional. It was not easy for me, but I'm glad I did. My story below is
a detailed account of what happens after I admitted I had Decompression
Sickness.
I was treated at Mercy Hospital.
Dr. Ivan Montoya, M.D.
Emergency: 1800-NO BENDS
Phone 305.854.0300
email: montoya@hyperbarics.com
--Matt
Sunday morning I awoke I awoke to a numbness and tingling in my right hand.
It felt like I had slept on it the wrong way. I would have gone back to bed
except I felt the same thing on the drive home at 12:30 AM in the morning. I
had completed 6 dives on Saturday and thought something might be wrong. I
laid flat on my back and decided to go back to sleep and see if the feeling
receded. At 9 AM it hadn't. Now I felt concern and decided to download my
dive computer and fill out my log book.
I wanted a consultation and remember Dr. Montoya speaking at my dive club.
His phone number stuck in my head, 1800-NOBENDS. The Emergency room at Mercy
took my name and number and said the doctor would call me soon. 5 minutes
later my phone rang. I explained how I had completed 6 dives the day before
and the feeling in my right hand. He confirmed that I had a mild case of
Type II decompression sickness. If I came to the hospital he would treat me.
An hour later Andrea and I were at the hospital. I checked into the
emergency room and told them I had DCS. They took my vitals (Blood Pressure
and pulse) and took me to a bed. I put on a gown, kept my boxers for dignity
and started sucking on the O2. Then they put in an IV to hydrate me. 5
minutes later Mike the Chamber Technician came in to wheel me to the x-ray.
They took a chest X-ray before taking me to the chamber. I forgot to ask why
they did that? After 2 quick zaps for a front and side view it was off to
the chamber.
The chamber itself was cool to see. The door opens in the waiting room, when
the rest of the chamber is behind a wall in the control room. I upgraded my
gown to hospital scrubs for the ride. At least now I was rule #6, look good
while doing it. However changing shirts with an IV in your hand is not
pleasant. They took my vitals again and in I went.
Everyone was great about explaining the process for the treatment. I would
be pressurized to 60 feet, have 3 cycles of 20 minutes of pure O2 and a 5
minute break. Then we will ascend to 30 feet and have 5 cycles of 20 minutes
02 with 5 minute breaks. Total "dive" time would be roughly 5 hours.
In the chamber with me was Candice the technician and another patient. It
was this guy's 4 full ride so he was getting to be a pro at this. As they
started pressurizing the chamber I learned what it feels like to be a scuba
tank. This on the sound of a tank being filled and imagine it about 5 times
louder. We were provided with hearing protection for the decent. We took 10
minutes to get to the bottom. The chamber heated up instantly. Then over the
intercom we heard, "Everyone on O2." Candice helped me put on the head gear
and attach the 4 points to my face mask regulator. It looked like the one
pilots were in the movies. The chamber imitated DIR with about a 9 foot hose
for the face mask. It plugged into the ceiling where for the O2 Dealing with
that long of a hose was a pain, I didn't have anywhere to put, so I held on
most of the time.
At 60 feet we laid down and were not allowed to speak.Running a PO2 of 2.0
is not fun. I could feel my lungs ache. The first hour and a half was by far
the longest. After we reached 30 feet I sat up and stretched my neck. Now I
could finally see the monitor and watch the movie. You should pack a DVD
movie in your DAN 02 kit in case your have to go to the chamber at Mercy.
There are two small TVs mounted to the windows on one side of the chamber.
You can hear the sound as long as no one is inhaling. The other patient and
I practiced our Darth Vader imitations for five hours. I don't think I'll be
able to watch Star Wars for quite a while.
In the chamber the air lock allows items to come in and out of the chamber
during treatment. It also serves as a bathroom. During one exchange we even
got some turkey sandwiches to woof down during a five minute air break.
After five hours I was glad to get out of the chamber. I skipped the tour of
the airlock in favor of the full size bathroom in the outer room. I felt
quite high after the treatment and there was no tingling feeling in my right
hand. It was a little swollen from the IV and that disappeared in the
morning. They took my vitals again and asked how I felt. The good doctor
asked me to call him first thing in the morning and tell him how I felt. He
invited me back for a "wash-out" treatment Monday at Noon.
I went home, watched my forth movie of the day, and went to bed. The high I
felt quickly subsided into fatigue. My chest started to ache when I breathed
deeply and filled with fluid. I spoke and coughed like I had a chest cold. I
was a deflated balloon.
The next day I got up and went to work. Called the doc and told him I felt
fine, but I would be there for the second treatment. I love diving too much
to mess myself up now. After very little work and explained to everyone what
had happened. The words "that was stupid" echoed throughout the
conversations. I left at 10:30 AM to head back to Miami and make my next
treatment. My scrubs were waiting for me and changed again. The technicians
took my vitals and temperature yet again and we prepared to load up the
chamber.
This time I was joined by 3 other patients who were going in for wound care.
Instead of the face mask they had a rubber collar put around the neck and a
big soft plastic helmet attached to their collar. They looked like
astronauts from a B movie without a budget. For this treatment we went to 30
feet for two hours of straight O2 with no breaks. At least this time I got a
good seat for watching "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." With five people in
the chamber it was impossible to hear the audio, but luckily there were
subtitles. It made the time pass. The mask became very uncomfortable after
two hours.
As the chamber was coming up we took off our head gear. One of the patients
was a 78 year old woman was a broken foot. This was her 2nd or 3rd treatment
and she still didn't know what was going on in the chamber. I tried to
simply explain how the 02 dissolves into the blood stream under pressure so
more of it gets to the cells that are rebuilding her injury. She still
didn't understand how any more air was getting to her lungs. After Dive
Master and Cave training I had lost touch with how much I had learned about
physiology over the past 4 years of diving.
Still with all my knowledge the dive computer between my ears told me two 55
foot hour long dives even on 33% Nitrox is not a good idea after 4 air
dives. I silenced that side of my head in the name of fun, diving, and trust
in my new Aries 2 dive computer which read 5 green bars and one yellow of
nitrogen. I still had one full yellow bar before I hit Decompression. I was
I doing 10 minutes ascents. Heck that is like doing deco stops anyway. I'll
be fine, I told myself.
I remembered Dr. Montoya's presentation to my dive club. He said that Denial
was the number one reason people do not get treatment. When I first got to
the hospital he said that my mild hit often goes untreated. Most of the time
it doesn't reoccur. But when it does, people get hit harder and more damage
occurs. I trusted what the good doc had to say and went for the full
treatment. He also recommended that I not dive for 6 weeks! That is at least
24 dives I'll be giving up and this is the summer. I promised myself I would
do my "time" as a man and not rationalize myself back into the water sooner.
When I do, I'll take it nice and easy.
This six weeks will give me time to get ALL my tanks Nitrox cleaned. It is
ironic two weeks ago I was diving with William and I teased him about diving
Nitrox on a 18 foot beach dive. He said it was already in his tanks before
he knew he was going to do the dive. Soon it will be in my tanks as well and
I won't sweat it when I do dives that do not take advantage of it. I dove
air because it was cheap. $2.50 compared to $8 a fill really adds up on 4
tank weekends. But the other DIR motto of, "If you can't afford to do it
right, then don't do it" is also ringing in my ears. If I can't afford the
gas then I won't do the dive.
Conditions:
Seas 1-3 foot swells
Sunny Day
Water Temp 83-84 degrees
I had 1-3 cups of water between dives and 2 Lipton Brisk ice teas. I ate
cereal for breakfast and had a sandwich for lunch. All the dives were drift
and I had no heavy effort while diving.
Dive Profiles:
Dive 1 Princess Anne
8:08 AM
86 feet
37 mins BT, 12 min ascent
Air
Dive 2 Rybovich
9:47 AM
SI 1:01
28 ft
54 mins, 5 min ascent
Air
Dive 3 Razel Dazel
2:10 PM
SI 3:28
56 ft
64 mins, 10 min ascent
Air
Dive 4 Copenhagen
3:49 PM
SI 0:34
29 ft
59 mins, 5 min ascent
Air
Dive 5 Razel Dazel
6:55 PM
SI 2:06
58 ft
53 mins, 10 min Ascent
32.5% rounded to 33% Nitrox
Dive 6 Razel Dazel
8:10 PM
SI 0:26
61 ft
51 mins, 6 min ascent
32.6% rounded to 33% Nitrox
Any private or public feedback or comments are welcome!
Date: Mon Aug 26, 2002 6:17 pm
Subject: Snorkel Report Re: [E-DIVERS] Sat: Shore Dive Hollywood Beach 9 AM
Hey Gang,
I'm still on the Scuba Bench for 4 weeks, but that doesn't mean I have to stay
out of the water. Hollywood is a great spot. William calls it the rock pile. I
found out later what it really is.
Conditions:
Seas flat
Vis 25 ft
Max depth 15 ft (free dive)
Bottom Time (7 minutes) [ my computer adds up the free dive bottom time in
Gauge mode]
Time in the water 1 hour 20 minutes
Breakfast $2.22 {Eggs, bacon, and pancakes. Cheaper than Commercial}
The rock pile heads due east roughly 2 miles to 130 feet of water. We swam out
south of the pile until we hit the first ledge. Its about a 4 foot ledge and
very pronounced. Then we headed North till we hit the rock pile. I school of 50
Creval Jacks circled me and took off. The green water made it hard to id the
little fishies, but I still got a good fish count.
It was a great beach dive and I'll be back for my gear. Read on if you really
want to know what were diving, you have been warned.
=========================================================
Sunday I was snorkeling with Ken Banks from Broward County and he confirmed
what I thought. Hollywood can't process all the sewer waste from the
communities. So they built a pipe from Hollywood Beach to 130 ft of water to
pump treated sewage into the ocean. Many years ago when this pipe was built
they put boulders on top of the pipe to hold it down. Andrew blew the boulders
off and now concrete mats are covering to pipe to hold it. The rock pile is a
few of the remaining boulders and there is a lot of fish life and coral growing
on them. They have been stacked up roughly 8 ft high. The water there is fine
and I have spoke with divers who have seen the outfall pipe at the 130 ft end.
That is one place not to high on my dive list.
For those looking for a environmental cause, Hollywood is also pumping out WAY
more that what they have a permit to pump. Hum, guess there are too many people
in S Fl. I say all the non-divers should leave. :)
--Matt Hoelscher
Subject: Snorkel Report Re: [E-DIVERS] Sat: Shore Dive Hollywood Beach 9 AM
Hey Gang,
I'm still on the Scuba Bench for 4 weeks, but that doesn't mean I have to stay
out of the water. Hollywood is a great spot. William calls it the rock pile. I
found out later what it really is.
Conditions:
Seas flat
Vis 25 ft
Max depth 15 ft (free dive)
Bottom Time (7 minutes) [ my computer adds up the free dive bottom time in
Gauge mode]
Time in the water 1 hour 20 minutes
Breakfast $2.22 {Eggs, bacon, and pancakes. Cheaper than Commercial}
The rock pile heads due east roughly 2 miles to 130 feet of water. We swam out
south of the pile until we hit the first ledge. Its about a 4 foot ledge and
very pronounced. Then we headed North till we hit the rock pile. I school of 50
Creval Jacks circled me and took off. The green water made it hard to id the
little fishies, but I still got a good fish count.
It was a great beach dive and I'll be back for my gear. Read on if you really
want to know what were diving, you have been warned.
=========================================================
Sunday I was snorkeling with Ken Banks from Broward County and he confirmed
what I thought. Hollywood can't process all the sewer waste from the
communities. So they built a pipe from Hollywood Beach to 130 ft of water to
pump treated sewage into the ocean. Many years ago when this pipe was built
they put boulders on top of the pipe to hold it down. Andrew blew the boulders
off and now concrete mats are covering to pipe to hold it. The rock pile is a
few of the remaining boulders and there is a lot of fish life and coral growing
on them. They have been stacked up roughly 8 ft high. The water there is fine
and I have spoke with divers who have seen the outfall pipe at the 130 ft end.
That is one place not to high on my dive list.
For those looking for a environmental cause, Hollywood is also pumping out WAY
more that what they have a permit to pump. Hum, guess there are too many people
in S Fl. I say all the non-divers should leave. :)
--Matt Hoelscher
Date: Mon Oct 21, 2002 12:37 pm
Subject: Party Report: 3rd Anniversary PARTY
Check out what you missed below.
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/1019party/
THANK YOU GLEN and NANCY for putting this all together. Glen you have a
beautiful house. Wow, there was so much food!
I love these parties. I always meet some new and interesting people. Joseph and
Tara were a blast. They both love to spearfish and eat want they kill. I
introduced them to Eric and they were trading fish recipes. I also meet Manny
who just go certified and is just catching the diving bug.
Eve was out diving with us and it was nice to speak with her She told me all
about her site for watching juvenile African Pompano. I want to go check it
out! I also recruited her for doing some fish watching.
After a couple a drinks I had to stepped up the entertainment. So I spoke with
JC and told him Eric said he was a better spearfisherman. JC was off for 10
minutes and it was a hoot. Later on in the evening I told Eric the same thing,
except JC said he was better fisherman. Eric went off for about 20 minutes.
Randy over heard us and got going on both of them. I love playing with these
guys because they are both better spearfisherman than I am! We need to get
these boys out again for an End of Lobster season bash because they bring home
the good eats!
I can't wait to dive with my new friends and start planning another party!
Subject: Party Report: 3rd Anniversary PARTY
Check out what you missed below.
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/1019party/
THANK YOU GLEN and NANCY for putting this all together. Glen you have a
beautiful house. Wow, there was so much food!
I love these parties. I always meet some new and interesting people. Joseph and
Tara were a blast. They both love to spearfish and eat want they kill. I
introduced them to Eric and they were trading fish recipes. I also meet Manny
who just go certified and is just catching the diving bug.
Eve was out diving with us and it was nice to speak with her She told me all
about her site for watching juvenile African Pompano. I want to go check it
out! I also recruited her for doing some fish watching.
After a couple a drinks I had to stepped up the entertainment. So I spoke with
JC and told him Eric said he was a better spearfisherman. JC was off for 10
minutes and it was a hoot. Later on in the evening I told Eric the same thing,
except JC said he was better fisherman. Eric went off for about 20 minutes.
Randy over heard us and got going on both of them. I love playing with these
guys because they are both better spearfisherman than I am! We need to get
these boys out again for an End of Lobster season bash because they bring home
the good eats!
I can't wait to dive with my new friends and start planning another party!
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