Dive Report: 9/30/2003 Orion

Photos:
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0930orion/

Team: Jody (Lead) and Matt (deco)

Time: 8 PM
Seas: Flat
Temp: 82 degrees
Water: 80 degrees
Visibility: Past the nod of light beam, 40 ft horizontal
Gas: Jody 30/30 Matt 32%
Current: .25 knot on bottom, .50 between 20-60ft, and little on the surface
Depth: 94 feet (planned 100ft for 30 minutes
Bottom Time: 40 minutes
Deco: 70/1 60/1 50/1 40/1 30/1 20/3 10/3 = 11

Jody called me at 2 PM and said that it was just us for the dive Tuesday night and he would understand if I wanted to cancel since there wouldn't be anyone on the boat. After reading the weather reports, and more importantly, staring at the flat calm sea all day in the webcam, I told him we were a go. I have spoken and written out against diving off a boat with no one on it. Its certainly not my first choice and I had done everything possible to prevent it, I was down to calling the dive and something inside of me said to go, so I did. This way I can at least say that I have done it once.

One quick load from the car to the boat and we were off. It was a perfect evening with the exception of a little rain. I asked for the best 80ft night dive without drifting or swimming to other wrecks like we have done in the past. We decided on the Orion, which has been down since the early 80s and is heavily grown over and covered with life.

On the way out we reviewed failure points that might separate the dive team from the boat. Feel free to comment on the list:
1. Anchor slips
2. Shackle between anchor and chain breaks
3. Winch breaks or isn't secured (end of line is tied off to boat, we just have a long ascent)

If the boat was truly gone for any reason, we would have to swim to shore or wait to be rescued. A West wind would prevent the swim and blow you out to sea which would be very dangerous. This calm night would also make the swim tough, but we could probably swim down the boat. We decided that a Gavin scooter would make an excellent safety device as we could scooter down the boat.

We pulled up, dropped anchored, stopped and waited. After three minutes the boat had only moved 30ft and the anchor was never going to grab. We suited up and checked the anchor one more time. Jody joked about tying a reel to the bow and tow the boat as a flag, it was that calm.

We headed down the straight line and at 20 feet it bowed out, we went through the current and found the plow anchor on its side right were it was dropped! Jody secured the anchor line to a smooth part of the wreck and we headed off.

Jody's light woke up a chub and it went spastic, it scared me and I was 5 ft away. We continued around the base of the wreck and looked at the French and Gray Angelfish. Then Jody pointed out a strange looking creature. It took the brain cells a couple of seconds to process that we were looking at a crab with a sponge on its back! It was the wackiest thing I have yet to see underwater, check out the photos!

At the stern I was trying to get a wider angle photo of the large prop, but my camera just couldn't hack it. As we went around I saw a Trumpetfish head down, swim fast and pile drive into the sand. He came too, saw us, and swam off. Around the next corner was a beautiful Black Grouper. He swam off before I could get a good photo of him, they are so shy.

We checked on the anchor again, it hadn't moved. Then we went up to the deck. A pencil urchin caught my eye and I noticed an eyeball looking back at me. It was the coolest baby octopus I had ever seen. He didn't like the HID and was swimming in patterns trying to loose us. We were playing "Wack-a-pus" trying to get him in the open for a photo. His body was changing colors from fluorescent blue to brown trying to blend it. I shot 20 photos to get these three keepers. This was almost the highlight of the dive.

On the deck there was a stern hold with lots of stuff in it. Jody penetrated first, went down in the hold, and came right back up with a puff of silt. I looked a him and he gave me the "eel" sign. I thought, "Cool, I want a picture!" I headed in and didn't see anything? Then I looked to the left and saw my mystery fish! I found one of these fish under Tenneco Towers in 115 ft of water without my camera and I could not ID it! I scoured the brains of fellow fish watchers, books and websites with no luck.
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0930orion/pages/miapro050.htm

Lad at Reef told me it was a either a Conger Eel or a Mannytooth Conger and the difference is based on the length of the jaw. Now I need to start carrying a tape measure underwater to ID fish?

I snapped several photos and saw Jody up out of the hold looking at me. I came out took a few more photos. There were terminal phase Creole Wrasse tucked away in the structure sleeping for the night.

Back on the deck I thought I saw a thumb in the distance. I didn't respond to it and notice Jody had turned and moved the anchor line away from the wreck so it was be easy and snag free to ascend. There were several ropes around the wreck and old lobster traps so it there was lots of stuff to get hung up on. He gave me another thumb, I responded and we headed up.

At 60 ft we went up the line hand over hand with Jody right above me, watching my signals as I timed the ascent. There were little squid all over the place. At 20 ft I was buzzed by a passing Moon Jelly in the current. Yipes, Jelly-kline! For the next 6 minutes we kept scanning in front of us with HID beams looking for incoming Jellyfish. One light continued scanning while the other one was checking a gauge.

Back on the boat we were stoked from a great dive! Looking North, we were squared up between the red and green lights of the gambling, disco boat, again. Both the Alpha and Diver Down Flag were displayed and we left all the deck lights on. It changed course as we broke down our gear, still anchored.

I asked Jody why he was afraid of the little eel I found? He responded, "Oh man, didn't you see that HUGE green moray swimming around in the hold?!?" Jody went on to tell me some good Green Moray eel encounter stories on the trip back in.

--Matt

Dive Report: Cave Diving and Andrea's Cavern Class 9/26-9/28 @ Peacock

Photographs:
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0928cave/

Mpeg Movie links at the bottom of this email. You could probably download them all by the time you finish reading this!

Friday 9/26 4:00 PM

After a full week at work, I skipped out an hour early to start prepping for the trip. Reserving temptation to give myself a "Norm Blitch Fill" (Quote from Norm, "I can't remember the last time I dove an Al 80 filled to 4600 psi?") I made sure to take advantage of the Fill Express hot fill policy and headed home to load the car. Andrea showed up 15 minutes early and we had the car loaded and ready to rock 10 minutes early and pulled out at 6:50 PM.

We headed up to pick up Gamba and Manny. We were supposed to hook up on the turnpike, but Manny was running late, so we went to Gamba's. Manny showed up at 7:45 PM after driving by Charlie's twice and trying to make a u-turn and ending up on the turnpike heading South. My Type A personality blood was boiling, but I remained calm and we decided to drive through McDonalds so we could make time on the road. After being asked to pull ahead in the drive thru we waited outside Micky D's for 15 minutes waiting for our food! We hit the turnpike at 8:18 PM and I was not looking forward to the 6 hour road trip ahead.

We stopped 40 minutes later for Manny and I put 3 gallons of gas in the truck. "We're never going to get there...." Is all I could think about. Andrea took over driving so I could nap and lead the caravan on the last leg through cave country. We had talk-a-bouts so we could communicate between the two vehicles. Andrea and Charlie started playing name that tune by singing Spanish Nursery rhymes and commercials to each other. I passed out.

The slowing of the vehicle for the toll plazas woke me up, but finally we were at exit 399 for High Springs. We pulled off again to fuel up and feed the other vehicle. I filled, shopped and emptied the bladder and hit the car. Charlie and Manny were taking forever, 5 minutes later Charlie walked out and said that Manny was explaining the concept of "mask squeeze" to the checkout clerk. I thought again, "Were never going to get there..."

We headed cross country to the Dive Outpost which is 50 miles away. The fog had settled in and the deer were out. 1 PM is not a good time to be driving in the country. William's directions were as I remembered and it was a relief to see the old steel bridge emerge out of the fog like a ship wreck, then the famous flashing yellow light at Loraville.

We greeted William and Joan, then headed for out room. Our names were on the outside door and our names were in a heart on our room door. Much better than a mint on a pillow! I set my watch for a 8 AM wake up call and passed out for good.

Weather:
It was 85 during the day at 68 at night. No rain, just perfect weather for cave diving. I was diving double Al 80s with 32% for all the dives. Cave water was 70 degrees on my Oceanic gauge and 72 on Jody's Vyper. Judy was diving double AL 80s with 30/30.

Saturday 8 AM 9/27

I awoke a little after 7 AM to my mind screaming, "I'm going cave diving....whoo hoo!" I really need to install a snooze button behind my ear. I ran over to the other trailer to take the breakfast order, two bowls of banana oatmeal, from Charlie and Manny. I had no cell phone service and knew I was running late so I parked my truck out front so Jody, my cave diving buddy, would see it and stop in. Right before 9 AM Cathy was yelling, "Matt, Jody is here." With a quick introduction to Jody's wife Kim and the puppies, we were off to Peacock 1. Andrea's Cavern class would catch up after running some line drills at the Dive Outpost.

Dive 1: Peacock 1 Pot Hole Tunnel
10:13 AM, 67ft ft for 30 mins on 32%
3200 PSI start, 2700 turn, 2500 ending, 50 minutes bottom time
Ascent: 40/1 30/1 20/5 10/1

We started with a safety drills. I pulled my inflator out to dump gas and heard a slight pop. Once I got down 10 feet, I couldn't put gas in my wing. The bungee had caught the inflator hose and popped it off. I put it back on and we continued with S-drills. Since this was our first dive would have also done a valve drill and bubble check, but we forgot. Back on the surface, Jody couldn't clip his SPG off, his belt was inside of his shoulder webbing. We sorted it out and got ready to dive. I would lead in, he would follow.

It was an easy swim in and I went down the right side of Pot Hole entrance. When I hit the bottom, it didn't look right, until I jogged left and saw the sign. We were the first line in for the day and everything was nice and clear. It was an easy swim to the gap and we got there in 11 minutes. We planned on not running the gap, so we stopped and smelled the roses. I stared up at Pot hole with the crack of green light. Jody signaled "turn around" and we started swimming out easy. At 2700 psi I thumbed the dive and Jody's eyes got bigger. He gave a thumb back and I gave an OK. I wanted to let him know I had reached a turn point and we were now exiting and not looking around.

I picked up the reel and Jody timed deco as he was on 30/30 and wanted a nice slow ascent. I noticed the little flounder on the way up. At 20 ft I picked up the O2 bottle for a 5 minute clean up. It was a great first dive with a new team member. On the surface we talked about the old school of training using "turn around" to end the dive with no problems. The "thumb" was used when there was an issue and you needed to get out of there. He was trained back in 1996. I explained that in my GUE training, "turn around" is for exploring in a new direction that is not further up the line. The thumb is thrown when you reach a turn point or problem.

Dive 2: Peanut Tunnel
11:25 AM, 31 min SI, 57ft for 39 minutes
2500 start / 2000 turn / 1900 ending psi
20/5 10/1

Kim and the puppies came down to visit with us while we floated through our surface interval (SI). I love floating there and eves dropping on cave instructors debriefs and suggestions to their classes. The instructor next to us has a manifold that I had never see before. There was no isolator and both valves pointed straight up with plastic knobs. Not that you should be hitting the ceiling of a cave, it sure is a possibility, and those knobs were at ground zero. Too bad I left the camera in the car!

Jody was leading this time and we dropped in and tied off. We parallel two other lines and tied into the main line. I love the peanut tunnel. We cruised through with little disturbance and then made the hard right turn at the exit, my favorite part. We went about 750 ft back in 17 minutes before Jody turned the dive. After clearing the Peanut Tunnel I gave Jody an OOA and we shared gas and swam back to the reel without a problem. I picked up my bottle for another 5 minutes of 02 and we exited.

After getting out of the cave, there was still no sign of the Cavern class. I left my rig together, but took off the 7 mil suit and gave it a quick rinse. Then the class appeared. I inhaled a quick sandwich and got suited back up to help with the open water cavern drills.

Dive 3: Peacock 2 Basin Open Water Line Drills
12:40 PM, 19ft for 34 minutes

This was a really pretty spot. The green algae was stringy and not slimy at all. It was very easy to stir up and I could tell we were going to make a fun mess like kids playing in mud. William started laying out his line course which was about twice as long as what I had to do in the clear, algae free waters, of Ginnie Ballroom in GUE Cave 1. I kept teasing William all weekend, this is PADI Cavern, not GUE Cavern! I buddied up with Manny so he would have a team and I wanted to test my skills. I swam it with my eyes open in 2 minutes 40 seconds. Andrea and Charlie got the first go eyes closed.

William put down and good course, but Andrea kept pulling up his placements! By the time Manny and I got there the course had changed. I made it around eyes closed at 4 minutes 44 seconds, the second time. The first time, I made it to the first placement, got confused, due to the thick algae and turned myself around. That's why there are line arrows in a real cave. Everyone was laughing hysterically!

Then it was time for Manny and I to do it sharing gas. With Manny in the lead and me donating we made it in 10 minutes 30 seconds. Manny gave me the touch contact signal for changing the side of the line we would follow, by placing the my hand on his elbow, on the line so that we would switch. I thought he was lonely and missed his girlfriend. We kept going, but that slowed us down for a couple of minutes. With me in the lead and Manny sharing it was 6 minutes 48 seconds. On my final lap the line was in ruin. It went slack and I went head first into an algae pile. I didn't keep my hand up blocking as I was going hand over hand through the field of goo. William gave me a "Judo Chop" to the forehead as a warning of rocks to come, but I just kept going! William said he was pulling gobs of the stuff off of us.

Dive 4: Peacock 1 Cavern Dive
5:18 PM, 25ft for 16 minutes
1000 start/ 800 turn/ 700 end
20/5 10/1

For the first Cavern experience dive William would run the reel in and lead the team. Andrea was in the middle and had to keep everyone together, and Charlie would be in third place. I got to go along as a "shadow" diver. I would keep off to the side and above the students with my light on, but covered against me so I didn't mess up the students light communication. William made good placements and headed for the Peanut tunnel. He kept his line to the far left as there were already 3 or 4 lines in. In the briefing William mentioned that the "stop" signs were sometimes in the cavern zone and others are back into the cave. William was going to go a little past this one and Andrea tossed him a quick thumb! We were 8 minutes into the dive. Surprised we turned around and headed out. I had a great time without my light out. You see so much more looking at others with their lights. It was a much wider perception then leading a dive with my own light. A couple quick stops and we were out.

During the debrief, William asked about the thumb at the stop sign? Andrea thought it was a drill and William was trying to get them to go into the cave. William asked if Andrea saw natural light? Andrea said, "I never see natural light!" And went on to explain, 'All I see is my buddies HID when I lead." After the dive Charlie had the juice, he wanted to see more. Andrea was enjoying the class, but she still wasn't full comfortable with the hole idea of going into the cavern zone of a cave.

While we were breaking down gear Christos came over to share his experience. He tried to be humble in catheter selection and found that medium was just to big to stay on. It seems he had some sloshing around in his right foot and he smelled worse than "Big John". We tried to explain that he needed to be a little more excited about his diving. William broke down his gear and took off his dry suit to find that "Fountain Willie" also sprung a leak. Seems the P-valve re-assembly after cleaning was not completly successful. This double whammy hindered my case for needing a "dry" suit with Andrea as everyone she meets seems to only have a semi-dry suit.

Dinner at Rhodes Pit BBQ

We rolled out of Peacock at 6:58 PM and the team gave up more diving for food. We headed to Mayo to Rhodes Pit BBQ. Christos and Bob Rowlette (starting DIR-Tampa@yahoogroups.com) also joined us for good company. All you can eat ribs and chicken for $6.99! I love dinning in the middle of no where. I thought the food was good and tasty. We had to explain to Charlie that there was different types of BBQ besides an Argentine asado. There were several sauces to choose from on the table. Charlie had to move his truck so a delivery could be made out back. The large, down home, African-America cook asked Charlie how he liked his BBQ? Charlie said the meat was dry. And I though cave diving was going to be the most dangerous activity on the agenda for the weekend! William needs to write a lecture on dealing with locals while cave or cavern diving.

As much fun as a night dive at Royal sounded, we all pulled out our thumbs in favor of a pillow.

Sunday 9/28/2003

Dive 1: Orange Grove Deep Tunnel
10:30 AM, 92ft for 21 minutes
3400 start / 2900 turn / 2900 end
20/3 10/1

William had showed me on the map that there were two entrances at Orange Grove, one at 60ft and one at 100 ft. Jody and I would try the deep one first and then do the shallow one on the second dive. We jumped in, ran through all the drills, S, Valve, and Bubble check. The surface water was 7 ft of vis and green. We tied off at the log and made a secondary tie of at 60 ft and the water was still a mess. We headed to the left side of cave and went down. It was beautiful! Vis retuned at 70ft and we hit the bottom at 92 ft for me and 105 ft for Jody. I saw a small hole that would count as a restriction (no go by Cave 1 standards). Jody gave me the "turn around" signal as we were not in the right place and were not going to go any further. Back up at 70 ft Jody did a stop for his 30/30 mix and I picked up the O2 bottle and extra reel. Then another dive team came over and got out their slate. "Where's the main cave entrance?" I thought to myself, "I know I look like I know what I'm doing, but this is only my second time in here and I'm lost too." Jody made an over the top gesture with his hand to the other side of the cave and they took off. While messing with gear and being distracted, Jody dropped the reel and it was not locked. I dive bombed for it and got quickly.

We still had plenty of gas and I was thinking of making this a cavern dive. It was cool place and we should go find the entrance to the 60ft section for the next dive. Jody pulled and thumb and I agreed that it would be good to cut our losses on this dive and give it another shot form scratch. At the surface we took a break, laughed, and got some better directions from William on how to get in the cave.

Dive 2: Orange Grove 60ft passage
11:24, 67ft, 35 min, 31 min SI
2900 start / 2400 turn / 2100 end
50/1 40/1 30/1 20/5 10/1

I decided to leave the O2 bottle at the surface as I wasn't familiar with this cave and didn't need it to slow us down. We started on the far right and followed some bubbles down to the entrance of the cave. We started our line on the far right and notice that there was a narrow passage at the beginning and there was already a line on the right wall. I reminded Jody to run our line under the existing one and headed in. There were 4 lines already run and we were number 5. At one critical point we needed a placement and I couldn't find one. I didn't want to use someone else so we tried to run the line next to a small rock to keep it spaced apart. It came off once Jody placed it and I fixed it. We were tied in, but I knew our line was not run very well. I relaxed assuming we would be the first team back out with our short penetrations.

I really like this cave. It was a little bigger than the peanut tunnel, but there were a lot of turns with nooks and holes to look it. I even made a couple of barrel roles to look at the ceiling. As we were coming to turn pressure I see another teams lights in the distance. I should have turned the dive, but we let them pass and continued a little further to about 450ft into the cave. It was my side mount friends that asked us for direction on the last dive.

We followed the other team out. Between our lights and theirs ahead the cave was really well lit up. The little bit of flow made our kicks feel more powerful and we cruised on out. They picked up their reel and we grabbed ours. Then I saw the mess! My weak placement came off and our lines were twisted together, crossed, crossed again, and our line was tucked back in a line trap. I was so embarrassed! My worst fear is my lack of experience running a bad line into a cave and if there had been an emergency I would have been tempted to follow another line out as our two lines were a mess and it was my fault, not Jody's. The other team patiently unraveled the two lines and we both reeled them in without a problem. We did our minimum deco and ascended.

The sidemount couple were parked next to us yesterday and I noted their good idea of taking suction cup shower baskets and sticking them to the back windows of their dive mobile to increase storage of little stuff, like mask defogger. They were up from Orlando. On the surface, embarrassed, I started the conversation with the joke. I'm glad you guys found the entrance to the cave, sorry we weren't more of help as this is out first time diving this system. She then asked if he line was loose when we came in? I apologized for not make a good key placement and that their line was fine, but ours came off and entangled theirs really badly. I told her we were new to cave diving and were getting practice in. She asked about our certification level and I said I was GUE Cave 1 and she said, "What's that?" in a genuine manor. I explained it was Intro to Cave, with doubles, and limited gas usage (500 psi) for penetrations. She thought that was a good idea.

Every time I go to Peacock I'm amazed at what a small percentage of DIR divers represent in diving.

Dive 3: Orange Grove Cavern
12:35 PM, 82ft for 32 minutes
2100 start / 1600 turn / 1500 end
40/1 30/1 20/3 10/2

The was Charlie's turn to lead the dive in. I got to be a shadow again. William's plan was to take them into the coliseum, but they had to stick to the ceiling so as not to heavily violate the 70ft depth restriction on cavern. There were no need to hit the bottom at 100ft plus and deal with narcosis. On the descent William headed for the entrance and Charlie started going the wrong way. Andrea got the team back together and headed in. At 40ft the vis really cleared up. The 8 openwater divers that hit this site in the morning were in the cavern and made a huge mess. It had finally cleaned up and was beautiful. Charlie's secondary tie off was weak and pulled off when he headed out. Andrea started re-wrapping the line right away and Charlie came back to put the final loop on it. The headed into the big cavern and it was wonderful watching everyone else's lights explore while I could step back and see the big picture. I kept my light hid so as not to distract the class and William and I check on each other several times through out the dive.

Then the class headed over to the right to the cave entrance. After going past the memorial William got a head and told them to turn around as they were entering the cave without seeing the warning stop sign yet. They turned around and headed out. Opps, there goes Charlie's light, he switched to back up and thumbed. Ops, there goes Andrea's light, she switched and repeated the thumb. Ops, Andrea's out of gas, time to share gas on exit. All the drills were no problem with no loss of trim or buoyancy and good communication.

On the surface there were big smiles all around. Andrea's first comment was, "I want to go back in!" And followed it with, "We can come back to cave country in two weeks!" I haven't seen her this excited since her open water class. There is something about cave diving that is like learning to dive all over again, only this time you know your going to love it, because you already do!

William took the holy jetfin (the right one) and baptized both Andrea and Charlie as Cavern Divers (see the last video).

We packed up, headed to the Dive Outpost to Seattle our bill, get some T-shirts. I purchased a paper map of the Peacock cave system to mark my progress and we headed for High Springs at 3 PM. We stopped at Floyds diner for a farewell dinner. William handed out his last award to all the divers, little packs of Kool-aid. For the non-internet-divers I had to explain where this reference came from, but it was funny all the same.

At 5 PM we rolled out for home. At 8 PM I made Andrea take over the driving and that'd when we hit accidents and heavy rain. We arrived home in Hollywood at 10:41 PM with 781 miles of adventure for this trip!

Cavern Dive MPG Movies: 1.3 mb per file
The movies are not very good, don't waste your dial up. The last one is the best.

http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0928cave/1entering.mpg

http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0928cave/2primetie.mpg

http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0928cave/3sectie.mpg

http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0928cave/4cave.mpg

http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0928cave/5baptism.mpg

--Matt

Dive Report: Tuesady 9/24/03 7 PM Belzona Tugs 1,3,2 and the Belcher Barge

Captain: Buck
Team A: Jody and Matt
Team B: Charlie and Andrea

Seas: 0-1ft
Current: zero
Visibility: 50ft after 15ft green layer on surface
Temp: 83 degrees
Mix: 32%, Jody 21/35 w/ 50% deco bottle
Depth: 80ft max - decreasing to 50ft at end of dive
Plan: Avg depth 70ft for 50 minutes
Ascent: 7 minutes

On the way out I predicted the ocean would be calm with no current after the storm moving through and causing a South current for a week. With Captain Buck we were free to drift some more wrecks in the 60-80 ft range. My predictions were right on as we positioned over the wreck. The trick is to know which way the current is running so you start at the right end. We planned to dive the three Belzona Tug boats starting in 80ft of water and ending at the Belcher Barges which are in 50ft of water. Andrea with her single tank would be the limiting factor and she would call the dive at 700 psi.

We geared up and went through checks and lined up at the back of the boat. Buck gave us a perfect drop and landed right on Belzona 1. The 4 HID lights at night descending to the bottom looks so cool. The upper deck of this tug was sheered off by Andrew and is laying in the sand next to the deck. I tied off the flag and we swam around the wreck. There were Glassy Sweepers up feeding off the wreck, Grunts in the sand. The surgonfish and parrotfish were tucked away in the corners sleeping. At the bow, in the debris, I found a beautiful Green Moray Eel. It was light green color and didn't have any nicks or scars, it was truly a beautiful fish!

I picked up the flag and headed for the rebar I found off the stern. The rebar acts as bread crumbs every 15ft or so pointing divers to the next wreck due West, Belzona 3. She was bigger and much more impressive. I wanted to swim inside the engine hatch, but there was rope dangling all over and I just don't need that hassle. I swam into the forward compartment hoping it would lead to the stern. I would have made it if I had a single tank, but I couldn't swim 10 ft on my side with dubs on, so I continued through to the outside. Up on the bow, Andrea and Charlie were sheparding a lobster with their HID lights. With all four on him, the bug didn't know which way to turn. Back to the stern to pick up the rebar heading North.

It was a couple hundred feet to the Belzona 2. This wreck was still in tact, but the center section looked like it was peeled open like a can a beans with a boy scout knife. I swam inside to penetrate and realized there wasn't any ceiling. What's the fun of that? Inside in the sand I found some anomies and starfish. There were flamefish and Glassy Sweepers all over this wreck too. These wrecks have been down for so long its interesting to see the sand is coming up over the freeboard. Back to the stern again.

Now the rebar took us NW to the Belcher Barge. We only saw the first of three 90ft long barges. We swam along one side admiring the billowing softcoarls that were picking food out of the water. I looked at a couple of holes to penetrate and had no luck. Then Jody pointed to the top of the barge, which was upside down, and showed me the huge opening to get in. It looked a can of soda with the pop top pushed in. I tied of the flag and headed in. There were lots of little creatures sleeping on the inside. There were two hatchways leading down the barge and at night, with no experience on these wrecks, I didn't see another way out besides the way in. We were 5 minutes away from our end time so I made a mental note to come back later. While its fun to swim inside the wrecks, there is very little fish our life due to the lack of light and nutrients not being carried in by flowing water. We met back at the flag and I saw a thumb to end the dive, don't know whose black gloved thumb it was, but it didn't matter.

I started bringing in the flag line, Jody switched to his deco bottle and Charlie started timing our ascent. I tied off the spool and it just hung in front of me, not moving, I love dives like this! I noticed everyone was up at 10ft, nobody told me. I caught up again and we finished the ascent. Floating in the calm ocean at night is so peaceful. This time we didn't have disco boats bearing down on us. Buck back up slowly and we got back aboard.

On the way in, the blowing night air was chilly, summer is over and its only going to get colder! Time to get that drysuit on order. Jody told me the story of Terry Helmers who is responsible for coming up with the rebar bread crumb idea and laying a lot of it out there. Most of the rebar is in shallower water because of the time it takes to navigate, lay the rebar down, and then work it into the sand. The idea is great compared to ropes or chains which get snagged, broken covered or moved. The problem is diving and maneuvering a pile a rebar into position form deployment and keeping it in a straight line to the next wreck. Its not as easy as it sounds. If anyone knows Terry I'd like to speak with him and see about rebarring some trails in the FTL and WPB wrecks. The Scutti, Tracey, and Mercedes make a perfect combo and location. So would Governors Riverwalk in WPB, though it is a little deeper.

We were back at the dock by 9:15 PM and home in bed by 10 PM. Another perfect night of diving.

--Matt

I asked Jody for some feedback on the report and got this...

Andrew told me that he likes to put in his logbook the SADDDD for the dive, which is essentially what you have here. The only thing I would change is to be more specific on the Deco. You could say any of the following:
Deco: 20/3 10/3

Deco: First stop 40ft 20/3 10/3

Deco: 40/1 30/1 20/3 10/3

Just to complete the de-brief for the dive; yes, we definitely blew it not being more assertive in getting you off the 20ft stop. We were also bad boys (and girls) not staying closer to you on the deco; generally the flag guy is supposed to stay as motionless as possible while everyone else stays near him. We also messed up by getting below you on the descent. The idea is that the guy with the flag goes down first and is always deepest, with the other divers shining their lights down past him so he can see that everyone is there without looking back. The problem with getting below the flag guy is that if he has a problem, the people below him might not notice and the group can get separated.

--Joel Svendson

Dive Report: 9/20/03 4:40 PM Blue Heron Bridge with Lad from REEF

Teams: Matt and Charlie
Laddie and Candy

Photos:
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0920bh/

Seas: calm
High Tide: 4:41PM
Visibility: 7 ft
Water Temp: 83
Depth: 12ft
Gas: 32%
Bottom Time: 1 Hour 20 minutes

After several Advanced Assessment Team dives, REEF Director Laddie Akins has always wanted to dive the Blue Heron Bridge. We tried to make a double header with Commercial Pier, but that didn't fit into his schedule. But he did drive up from Key Largo, just to dive the bridge. He was waiting for us in the parking lot when we pulled in a 4:15 PM. After a site check and plan we geared up. Visibility was green and ugly. The rough water this week outside and fresh water runoff inside made for tough diving conditions at the bridge.

We started exploring the first set of bridge pillars at the entry point. The murky water ate up our light and it was hard to see what was back in there. Then we swam over to the first set of bridge footers in 6 ft of water. Lad was diving with Candy and she was new to fish watching. It took me a while to learn Lad's pace, slow. When we reached the footers we found two small flooders dancing in the sand. It looked like it might be mating ritual? Lad didn't get over in time to see it, we lost them in the sand. Then we found a cute fish hanging out and Lad asked me what is was? I wrote "Hairy Blenny" as it had a spot by the gill plate. He wrote me back, "Bank Sea Bass". Duh, I got schooled! It was a different coloration then in the book and they are rare to find this far North. Diving, as in life, if you want to get better at something, find someone who is better than you and learn as much as you can from them!

After spending 25 minutes on the first bridge footers I signaled to swim over to the fishing pier. We swam slow, got there, and Lad was not to be found. I waited, and looked at tiny, 1 inch mahogany snapper juveniles with patience. After a couple minutes Charlie and I swam back, no lad. We surfaced and found his flag at the next bridge footers in 10 ft of water. It was a quick swim to connect again. Looking inside the 9 pilings that hold up the footer, I saw a large tail, then a huge head of a 6 ft Barracuda. We looked at the Parrotfish, Surgeonfish, and baby grunts schooling around.

Then we swam over to the fishing pier and headed towards the rubble pile. There were several spotted moray, flamefish, and Lad pointed out a huge Porcupine Pufferfish. I nabbed a good shot of a Seaweed Blenny. I also found several of the large Hairy Blennies that live there. At 45 minutes past high tide the vis was getting worse. We headed back under the fishing pier and then swam along the wall to the exit point. Charlie was ready to go, so we left Lad with the flag. Candy spotted a Pipefish right at the exit point and I missed it. There are still several species of fish spotted there that I have yet to record. The bridge still holds secrets that I must explore!

--Matt

Dive Report: Sat 9/20/03 9 AM Commercial Pier Clean Up with Ocean Watch

The day was PERFECT for a clean up. I've tried to dive Commercial pier itself for 2 years and this was the first time I could get in the water! I'm proud to be a member of Ocean Watch and thank them for organizing the Commercial Pier and Lauderdale by the Sea beach clean up.

Photos:
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0920owclean/

Team: Andrea and Matt

Temp: 85
Water Temp: 84
Seas: 1 ft
Surge: minimal
Visibility: 35ft
Gas:32%
Depth: 12ft
Bottom Time: 1 hour 42 minutes

Andrea and I showed up a little after 8 AM and got a rock star parking meter near the pier. Hauling the gear around wasn't worth the free parking offer a block away so I plugged some quarters. We had breakfast at Mulligans and came back to find several members of the PBCRRT had also shown up for the clean up. Ocean Watch gave a good briefing on dangerous sea life (Scorpionfish and Jellyfish), entanglement and rusty fishing hooks, and falling buckets as potential hazards while diving and cleaning the pier. There was also a display board with all this information clearly listed out. I was impressed!

We geared up and hit the water. The pier was cleaned three months earlier and wasn't disgusting, but there was still a lot of fishing line down there. We picked a set of pilings in 12ft of water and went to work on the reef on the northside. After gathering up piles of line, I surfaced and called for a bucket to haul this stuff up and away. The bucket people on the pier were quick and responsive. Next we went to work on the pilings. There were big balls of line, weights, and hooks at the base. Then I would pull line off the piling and it would unwrap and magically appear from the growth that was covering it. Line in the left hand and sea snips in the right I hacked away like Edward Scissor hands at the monofilament.

After working for 45 minutes I went up again with another bucket load. After getting rid of it, I couldn't clear my ears at 6 ft. I blew solid breaths without trying to force it. I surfaced again, took my reg out, blew my nose, and swallow a couple of times. Once I could clear my right ear on the surface I headed down again. Next stop was cleaning the south side of the pier. There were several large coral heads under the pier which surprised me. I thought it would be more torn up.

Some other divers came by while we were cleaning. One had a light and console clipped off, but still dangling 8 inches below him. It banged into the Brian Coral head and I made some comments through my regulator and lifted the diver up. As the diver turned to apologize his knees dropped and hit the coral again with his fins! Arrrrggg! I lifted him up again and pushed him over to the hard bottom. He swam off from there.

After an hour and 10 minutes of cleaning, we were down to 1000 psi and decided to take a tour around the pier. We swam through a school of a 100 Look downs. There were bait fish all around us and they were schooling close hoping the hungry jacks, Horseeye, Blue Runner, and Yellow wouldn't charge close to us. At the end of the pier we found 30 or so Snook in the 3ft to 5ft range. Beautiful! I also found a sealed box of remains. People, please remember what ever you throw in the water at the end of the pier will stay there or wash back up on shore. I really like the idea of having my ashes scattered in the ocean, but besides being illegal, people are not doing it right! Don't make more of a mess for someone to clean up later.

We climbed out of the water with a big smile on our face! Pier clean-ups also offer bragging rights to the more creative item found under the pier. Will won with a gun! The barrel wasn't attached, but Broward Sheriff's Office (BSO) was notified to come over and take a look. They wanted us to get back in and find the barrel, but it was close to Noon and the pier needed to re-open to fishing. Andrea and I headed home with a warm feeling of accomplishment.

--Matt

Dive Report: Thursday 9/19/03 El Prado Night dive

Team: Christos, Manny, and Matt

Seas: 1-2 ft
Surf: 3-4 ft (serious stuff for FL)
Visibility: 4 ft
Temp: 82 degrees
Bottom Time 49 minutes
Gas: 32%
Time: 7 PM

El Prado is one block North of Commercial. Manny wanted to work on his buoyancy and trim with a back plate and harness. Christos and I wanted to work on mask off hovering and other tech 1 drills.

The seas were not rough, but there were swells and surfers catching a ride the last bit into to shore. Common senses would have been to call it, but we were already there. We geared up and headed in, once you cleared the surf zone it was a piece of cake. We surface swam out past the buoys and descended. 1ft vis. ugly...

I lead out East, Manny was in the middle and Christos brought up the rear. The plan was to swim out to the end of the second reef, hit 20ft of water, drill on masks and swim back in. I swam out ahead of the other two and waited for them to catch up. Our pace was slow so we swam for about 15 minutes out over the first reef line. I felt Christos swim up behind me and then I heard bubbles coming out of the left post. I shut it down, and still heard bubbles. I reached back for the isolator and grabbed one of Christos' valves and started shutting it off. Then he show me the bubbler. I ended the drill with the hand signal saying that my left post was no longer functional. I checked valve and continued.

We were not going to make it out to the second reef line, so I popped my mask off to see how long it would take them to find me. After 15-20 seconds I felt a hand on my arm. After about a minutes I put my mask back on. Christos followed suit. He was floating up very slowly and I tried to tell him to come down a little. I discussed my hovering problem with a veteran cave diver and he gave me a good analogy. When you try to walk with a full cup of hot coffee, consciously trying NOT to spill it, you do. When you walk normally and pay no attention to it, you don't have a problem. I still thought about it, but I tried hard not to think about it. To test the theory on Christos I gave him something else to think about. I switched to my back up reg and put the primary next to his right ear and purged. With his mask off, Christos started to shut down is valve and switch regs. He hovered perfectly under the added task load.

Manny was feeling left out, so it was time to drill with him. I loaned Manny Andrea's HID to play with. Mental note, when giving a new diver a HID light, wear sun glasses! Manny did a great job of keeping the light out in front of me on the swim out. When I gave him an Out of Air, he must have though I wanted to see the inside of the HID light as he put it right in my face. I couldn't see the reg he was trying to donate. We shared gas, swam, and then he put it back. I had him switch the light from the right to the left hand. Then Christos gave Manny an OOA and he got the reg right away. Then Manny got to solve the light cord / long hose problem when sharing gas. Manny floated up while untangling the cords. Christos pulled him back down by the long hose. I cracked up laughing. It was funny, plus the Deja'vu of remember myself being in the same position and seeing Christos have the same problem when he was getting back into diving over a year ago. Everyone forgets that we all walked down that road at some point in their diving career.

Time was ticking on the parking meter. It was time to head back in. On the way and looked back and found the bright beam of the 18 watt HID has been replaced by a dull orange circle. We switched positions and put Christos in the lead with his dull light. We didn't swim very far before he switched back to his primary. I took back over as the lead and started swimming. I checked my compass and it said due East. I paused, engaged the brain, and realized I had gotten turned around and we were heading back out to sea. I asked my buddies which way to swim? They pointed East, Err... primary and back up brains have failed. "East ocean, West Everglades, I want to go West!

We swam until the vis dropped back down to a foot and then surfaced. We were still a ways out and had drifted North of our exit point. A 10 minutes swim in got us to the beach and back to our cars at 8:57 PM, right before the 9 PM parking deadline.

We broke down our gear and headed over to Mulligans to debrief.

--Matt

Dive Report: Tuesday Night 9/16/03 Rio Miami, Paraisio, and Princess Britney

With all the fun everyone had Saturday on the wreck trek I asked Jody if he was up for navigating again at night assuming we still has a South current? Buck came down to drive boat and not dive so we would be free to drift live boat instead of anchoring.

Team 1 A: Jody & Matt
B: Charlie & Andrea

Seas 2-3 ft rising to 4-6 after the dive
Temp: 84 degrees surface and 82 water
Visibility: Excellent, top to bottom, as far as the HID would glow

Plan:
80ft dive
50 minutes
32% Nitrox
3min @20 and 3min @ 10
Rock Bottom 700 PSI dubs or single tank

While gearing up we found Ballyhoo jumping and skipping over the water. It was really cool, one almost hit the boat! So where they feeding? Or was something feeding no them? We would just have to jump in and see!

Buck gave us a good drop on the Rio Miami. I saw it from 20ft and we landed right in the middle. It was a small wreck with several penetration options. The current was mild, but we didn't try to swim back to the stern. We explored the bow and headed out to the Paraisio. Swimming over the sand is a empty feeling, like being in a desert. There were holes all over the place where sting rays buried themselves to sleep during the day. Only creatures with heavy armor like crabs and conch brave crossing this exposed area.

The best part of the dive is the anticipation in wondering IF your going to hit the next wreck? The sand had a coating of algae on it. After a couple of minutes the sand turned pure white and I started to see Grunts our foraging for detrius (plant and animal matter in the sand). There was a mound of sand and over it a huge valley where the prop of the Paraisio was supposed to be. Swimming up to a wreck from the sand really gives you a good impression of how big a ship is.

This one looked like a work boat. It had a A frame lift at the stern. The bottom deck was exposed and several pieces of concrete were placed inside. We planned on A team penetrating the wreck and B team staying outside. Being new to the wreck I left Jody lead in. The main deck was a large open area about 15ft wide. We swam in a ways, further then I've been inside a wreck without knowing a way out. I looked for other exits, but without natural light pouring in, they were hidden to me. I though, "I'm now in a steel cave and I haven't run a guideline." I could still see the exit and any of the four walls would lead me out. Just when I was thinking, "We really should have run a line," Jody turned. I though we were going to head out. He pointed to hole in the floor that was about 3ft square and gestured down and out.

He slipped through with ease, I didn't look so pretty. I noted some cables on the right side that I didn't want to tangle in (Remember John Ornsby from Deep Descent?). I went head first down the hole and barely wiggled my shoulders through. I tried to move ahead and realized I wasn't down enough and my manifold was hitting the ceiling. I saw Jody ahead of me, now were returning through a hallway just big enough for a person without scuba gear to walk through. There were racks on each side and huge air conditioners hanging from the ceiling. I looked ahead and see a plum of rust colored silt poof up ahead of me. Jody switched from the frog kick to modified flutter because there wasn't enough room to expand your legs for full kick. I flashed him and gave him the "silting" hand signal. As my heart rate increased and stress level raised up and I fell back on my cave training. Relax, you got plenty of gas and bottom time. Kick easy, look around, and enjoy the dive. A small modified frog kick, gave just enough thrust to move me forward. I could always pull and glide off the storage racks. Once I started looking around there were 5-7 terminal phase parrotfish sleeping inside the wreck. They were tucked way back in the corners. I was back to the stern in no time and came out of one of the bigger holes in the aft deck.

B team had circled the wreck from the outside and watched our progress through some of the smaller holes. As Jody was untying the reel I though, "this wreck would be good for a whole dive, I need to come back here!" We drifted back over the sand heading SE. We were buzzed by a small Southern Stingray out looking for a meal. Also, there were little tiny squid all over the place. Another 5 minute swim and the sand turned pure white again. We looked around and couldn't see the wreck until one light finally hit this huge wall in the water.

We came up on the stern of the Princess Britney, the latest wreck to be sunk off Miami. The prop was big and the name was still painted on the back of the ship. The teams split up again and I lead into the ship. I went into the crew deck, there is still Linoleum on the floor, a toilet and sink. I forgot its the deck below that leads the engine room. Andrea and Charlie were waiting for us outside.

Andrea was diving a single tank and we knew she would be the limit on the planned dive and everyone was cool with that. We went back to where the flag was tied off and I tried to signal that we should untie and swim to the bow of the Britney. We hadn't seen the bow of any of the ships yet. Then we could drift off and ascend. Jody thought I wanted to press my luck and try for one more wreck. He untied and we drifted off out over the sand. This time we found two huge craps digging away at the sand like back hoes. There was a path of clean sand behind them. It reminded me of the spice mining factories in the movie Dune. There was a silt trail drifting away from each crab.

After 45 minutes of bottom time at an average depth of 66ft it was time to make our ascent. Andrea pulled her thumb and we all followed suit. Charlie was to run the ascent time, to my surprise Jody handed me off the reel. Reeling up, staying with the group, venting my BC and keeping my light in my hand was a little more than what I had expected. I should get a DIR demotion for venting to much gas, going vertical and swimming up while reeling in. I was below everyone on ascent until we got to 20 ft when I could hover again, lock the reel off and get into position to look at the team leader. I could see the white sandy bottom. There were more squid and a school of little 4 inch fish circling around us. I saw one out in the distance and it changed me and swam into my stomach! I blurted out so everyone could hear me as I tried to swat it away. It was pretty funny!

When we popped up on the surface conditions had gotten a lot worse. Inside the Paraisio I could here the diesel engines idling. I just realized that I was missing that sound. The seas had kicked up and there were a few waves breaking over our heads. There were "disco boats" (dinner cruise ships) on both sides and one had us right between the red and green (aka heading right for us). I found our boat off in the distance, but it was not underway to pick us up. I locked the reel, clipped it to the flag and held in between my legs to get he sausage underwater enough so it would stand up. That put the glow stick high in the air and my HID lit up the orange marker and reflective tape at the top. After a couple minutes at the surface Buck came over and backed up to us. The disco boat changed coarse to avoid us. I wonder what the diners were thinking?

After we stowed to the gear we exchanged smiles and multiple, "that was awesome" were exclaimed. Jody guesses were not that far from the South Seas, but I'll take 3 wrecks on a swimming dive any day on the week. We headed in from another good night of diving. I wonder how many we could hit with scooters?

--Matt

Dive Report: Sunday 9/14/03 Datura Street Beach Dive Mapping Mission

Photos:
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0309daturamap/

We parked at 8 AM and came back to dive around 9AM after breakfast. I saw the same Lauderdale Rescue van parked in the lot. I introduced myself to Sgt. Rick Rocco and asked him about the lost diver search and what had happened? He didn't know, but then he asked me about DIR and recalling seeing our sets of doubles. He had picked up and started diving a DIR OW rig and had some questions. Then he gave us a tour of his dive mobile. He created some tank holders from PVC and had a dry and wet gear locker created, complete with drain. It was pretty cool, except there wasn't any room for doubles. He also showed us is black water rig with comm unit for intracostal dives and car recoveries. He was just out fun diving with friends, but I got his card and we'll go out diving sometime.

Team: Matt H., Andrea V., and Charlie G.

Log:
Seas 1 ft
Vis 15ft
Light Surge
Water Temp 84 degrees
Max Depth 20 ft
Bottom time: Insane => 2 hours 22 minutes
Rock Bottom: 500 psi

GPS Mapping while diving:
http://www.wadespage.com/D800DS07RF00.shtml

Charlie and I have been wanting to map out Datura Street and have a more accurate description of how big the reefs are and how far of a swim is it? With the GPS points we can measure the distance have a better idea.

It was also Andrea's first time diving doubles! I helped her rig them up, review what's attached to the right and left post, valve drills, and the "9 ways doubles can kill you".

I wanted to keep up with Charlie and Andrea in dubs so I put an Al 80 on my back and carried and other Al 80 as a stage. Following the basic rules for independent doubles I would dive each tank to 1500 psi and then switch to the other.

We swam out to the Snorkel Trail and descended. Charlie and I both warned Andrea about putting more gas in the wing for buoyancy over a regular single tank set up. What we forgot to tell her was how to balance the gas in both sides of the wing and vent gas. A doughnut wing will balance heads up or heads down. Doubled, being U shaped only balance heads up. It was a good test of being a future supportive husband by not laughing outwardly as Andrea swam around in circles, sideways with all the gas in one side of her wing. After some role modeling we showed her how to get it straighten out.

Each section of the Snorkel Trail has a pin to measure if anything is moving. We GPS all four pins for a warm up. As we headed out due East, we measured the beginning of the hard bottom at the first reef line, the beginning of the Swiss Cheese, the patch reef on the back side, the last point before sand, and finally the beginning of the second reef line. With all these points I can make some measurements on the width of the reef lines.

We started South and hit the Alien Probe, which is a key land mark for my navigation. With the good visibility and a scanning eyes, I found another probe in the middle of the reef. We measured that as well and finished swimming to the back of the second line. We swam back to the West edge and continued South.

On our way I found a patch on the disgusting red algae that is all over the reefs in Pompano. We GPS'd and took photos of the largest patch so I can provide the information to Broward County.

We found the other probe that marks Hibiscus street. I got approval from the team to go a little further South to find the coral I flipped over. 10 minutes later, there it was just as I had left it. But it was buried a good 4-6 inches in sand. I snapped a photo, then lifted it out and placed it high on a flat ledge with nothing but algae growing there and snapped a few more photos so I could find the spot and check on it again in a couple of months.

We were making great time and progress. Now we turned West to head back in to the first reef line. My goal was to follow the Swiss cheese back to about Datura Street. We took a few more data points including one severally bleached and dying coral. Its base was strong and I didn't see any disease on it. About half way back I couldn't tell if we were East or West of where we wanted to be. We swam East 30ft and hit the area I wanted. Then I got a wetnote from Andrea saying to wrap it up. She was getting tired of swimming the dubs around and was ready to head it. We headed East and swam in.

I was ready to help Andrea out of the dubs as I didn't think she was going to get them up the beach. She did! She sat down next to the shower and said that I owed her a big back rub tonight! I was so proud!

We broke our gear down and headed to Flannigans on Atlantic for lunch and the end of the Dolphins game. Then to Fill Express to VIP some dubs, thanks for the lesson Mark, and fill back up. I can't wait for next weekend!

--Matt

Dive Report: Saturday 9/13/03 Miami Project dives the Lakeland, East Coast Reef, and Paraisio drift

Photos:
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0309mplakeland/

Team 1: Buck, Jody, and Gwyn
Team 2: Matt, Andrea

Team 1: Lakeland

The calm seas made for a nice boat ride out on a sunny Saturday morning. I got a good reading on the sounder so the first team started to gear up. The planned for a 150ft dive though the deck was at 120. A 20 minutes bottom time on 21/35 and 19 minutes of deco switching to 50% at 70ft and shooting a marker as they drift off the wreck made for a 30 minutes run time. Everyone geared up and starting running through the checks.

At the end of the valve drill Gwyn reached back and pulled the rubber knob clean off her left post. The metal insert was still in place but the rubber had come off clean. Hum, those factory recalls really need to be noticed. Buck had a back up knob and I had the knowledge to replace thanks to Mark at Fill Express making fix my mistakes. I grabbed the tool kit and went to work. Before losing the screw that holds the knob in place I asked Jody to lean forward so any projectiles holding back 3300 PSI would have a clear shot to the ocean. I replaced the valve in 5 minutes and they were back up and running. There was no current so I set them up right over the wreck and they splashed.

The dive went perfectly. During the debrief Buck added an extra minutes or two of deco and Jody was a little late shooting the bag at 70ft after the gas switch.

Team 2: East Cape Reef

Looking for some new reef to explore. Jody pulled out the map and found the numbers for East Cape Reef. Andrea and I planned for a 60 minute dive, fish count, and some mask drills at the end.

Seas: 1-3 (calm in the morning and built up through the day)
Temp: 84 degrees
Visibility: 75ft, nice blue water top to bottom
Bottom Time: 55 minutes
Ascent: 6 minutes
Depth: 44 ft
Current: .03 knots

We jumped in and headed down. The vis was great the current carried us along. We had to swim slightly into the current to stay on the reefs edge. I didn't know this reef and didn't want to get blown off into a sand dive. The sandy patchy reef was ideal conditions for hogfish. There were a few nice ones, but mostly babies. Andrea had to fight off up to six gray triggerfish at a time. They were quite annoying and fortunately they liked her more than me!

Andrea got to play with the camera while I took a fish count. When ever we could find a coral structure, there would be a lot of fish around it. Andrea lost her spool again. I think this makes four times now. I'm glad her coldwater suit has pockets!

At 45 minutes we decided to work on our drills. Andrea practiced taking off her mask and maintaining buoyancy. She did much better, but still floated up a little. I realized this is a major skill for Tech 1 I hadn't been working on, so I whipped off my mask. I passed it to Andrea and got out my back up. By the time I was done I was about 8 ft higher then when I started. Errrrr.... Game Over... Thank you for playing. I need to work on this on every dive until I get my breathing back to automatic.

Team 2 Second Dive: Paraisio Drift

Since the current was still moving out of the South. I dropped the other team on the Paraisio. When they left the boat with a 20 min bottom time, they shot a bag and continued to drift.

I wanted Andrea to get some practice driving the boat. I explained how to get a heading from the GPS and then transfer it to the compass and get the boat going in that direction. The trick with a large boat is the steer it using the transmission and not the steering wheel. We were heading back to the wreck and while I was teaching her I noticed a sportfish pass close by. I looked and saw them on coarse for the lift bag. We ended the drill and I spunt he boat around and gave chase.

There was a woman on the tower with her feet on the controls and a group of people in the stern looking at the fishing poles. I gave chase and got my boat between them and the sausage while honking my horn. The guys on the back of the boat where holding up their arms in the "What do you want buddy?" position. I guess they didn't notice the 24" Alpha and Diver Down flags flying clearly above the boat. After 30 seconds, one of them figured it out, went up to the bridge and changed course. The ocean is so big, but let your guard down for a moment and it gets very small.

When the divers came up they had a big smile on their faces. The current was just right and they drifted over the Paraisio. They then drifted over some tanks and concrete wreckage, followed by the Princess Brittany, followed by the South Seas, 727 airplane wreck, what Jody thinks was the Houseboat Barge, then the two barges east of the Belcher barge, and finally the Belzona III. Not bad for not having scooters or an underwater map to follow.

We returned to the dock at 2 PM from a great day out on the ocean!

--Matt

Dive Report: Lost Diver Search, then Datura Street Night Dive Friday 9/12/03 5:30 PM

Photos:
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0309norm/

Team 1: Norm Blitch, Suzy, and Gillie
Team 2: Matt H, Mike W., and Christos K.

While were setting up and testing gear at the Datura parking lost we hear a Fire Rescue truck go by. 5 mins later, a Fire Truck, then the thumbing of a helicopter with a big 7 on the side trying to catch the excitement. We went out on the beach to catch the excitement and saw all the action was one block South at Hibiscus Street. The Broward Country Sheriff's helicopter showed up. 3 Seatow boats, 1 tow boat US, 2 orange Coast Guard ribs, and another CG boat came flying up from Port Everglades launching itself out of the water. Drive it like to Government paid for it I guess?

** Disclaimer **
I did not see any of which I'm about to report. It is a collection of rumors spread around the beach. It makes a good story so I'm typing it. I did not interview the participants and have no first hand knowledge.
** ** **

It seemed three divers went in for a shore dive lobster hunt. One buddy become separated and the two with the flag surfaced, then exited to look for their buddy. After waiting 25 minutes they made the call to 911 and reported a lost buddy. 3 searching dive teams went in at Hibiscus, the Coasties pulled up all the dive flags to check the divers in the water even on the North side of the pier. Team 2 was packing full doubles and the Lauderhill Dive Search and Rescue truck pulled up and I tracked down the officer to volunteer us as another search team. I couldn't find the officer. Since there was so much boat traffic we decided to postpone our dive until things calmed down.

Around 6:30 PM helicopters left and boats dispersed. We found out the search divers found the diver and the diver walked out of the water. No one was hurt, thank goodness. There is no law against solo diving, no law against being a moron or loosing your buddies, but after all those public servants coming out to check on your well being, I don't think that was the most ideal time for the missing diver to have short lobsters in his bag :)

Seas 3ft
Vis 10ft
Depth 18ft
Bottom time 45 minutes
32% Nitrox

At 6:45 PM the fun was over and it was time to dive. The plan was to head out over the second reef and look for bugs. The waves were a little big for a first time surf entry, but Gillie did well and we swam out to the snorkel trail. We descended and I only counted 5 divers, we were missing Gille. I surfaced up the flag line and found her 20ft South, trying to kick back on one fin. She thought she had broken the fin strap. It was all rental gear, so I wasn't surprised. I took a quick look, found the quick disconnect had done just that, then got her finned back up.

We started back out over the reef. In the bad vis it was hard to keep everyone together. After 10 minutes we got to the Swiss cheese and decided to forget about the second reef line and head South down the cheese and look for bugs. We found some and I they chased them around for a bit. Afterwards Norm told me it was his first time and chasing bugs isn't as easy as it sounds!

Gillie hit turn pressure and we headed back in. Crazy Christos still had to go home to WPB, pack, and head up to the caves that night. He bolted off and Mike and I went with the gang to Mulligans for diner and drinks. Norm told some good stories about surprised skinny dippers above the Devils eye and ear when he would return from cave diving. Suzy told me how to land a helicopter without and engine, very interesting, I didn't think it could be done. After a few drinks political conversations flew up as the liberal kept pushing buttons on the two ex-military conservatives. Good Stuff! Where was Eric S. when I needed him?

--Matt

Dive Report: Hibiscus Street Night Beach Dive 9/10/03

Photos at:
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0309hibicus/

Team: Matt Hoelscher, Alex B
Seas: Less 1ft
Temp: 86 surface, 83 5ft plus
Depth: 18ft
Bottom Time: 1 hour 28 minutes
Gas: 32%
Current .02 knot south
Visibility: Poor @ 10 ft

Location: Hibiscus Street is 2 blocks South of Commercial Pier, its the next block South of Datura. Meters enforced 24hour, NO 9 PM night parking limit. Shower and bench available. Only about 7 parking spots.

Report: Alex and I showed up at 6:15 PM for a quick afterward night dive. We have dove the heck out of Datura Street and wanted to explore further South. The concrete cylinder I use as a mark to turn West and head home also has a swim further South and I was guessing it marked Hibiscus. I never surfaced to check, that would be cheating :) We swam out on our backs past the swim buoys and then dove.

The first reef line was really nice, it was twilight so we could look around. There was a lot of bottom structure for stuff to grow. The first reef line is really nice between these two streets. A manytooth conger eel popped out and there were Ocean Surgeonfish all over the place.

Perhaps our pace was slower, but the trip over the sand to the second reef line seemed a lot longer. When we did get there, we swam right into the concrete cylinder I call the "alien probe" Andrea was telling me she "heard" that these cylinders were mock bombs the Navy used for training. I would love to hear if anyone else has an opinion? I have gone North of the probe previously. The reef is really good for 10 minutes, then flattens, then gets really good again as you approach the Datura street probe. Even though we were going with the current, we drifted South to explore new area.

This section of the 2nd reef is excellent! There were large corals all over and tons of fish. At one point I found a small Mountain star coral colony flipped over. I'm confessing right now to a misdemeanor of touching a coral colony, which is illegal. But it was only to flip it over and place it back in the sand. You can see the white area where the coral bleached and died. I bet 90% of the white area will come back. I tried to make a mental note of the large Mountain Star Coral colony next to it so I can check back and see how its doing in a couple of weeks.

After a few minutes dinner swam by, or I mean a hogfish, and me without my gun? I swam up to him and told him it was past his bed time and he should go to sleep (my only chance to knife him), but he didn't listen. We also found a couple of bugs in the ledges. After drifting 22 minutes South Alex passed a wetnote to swim over to the first reef and swim back North. I agreed for a change a pace.

The first reef line didn't have much to see. I remember one huge dead coralhead that was probably only 5 feet from the surface. Alex tried bare-handing a lobster out for a walk and only touched his tail before it shot off. We didn't have a place to put him if we caught it. There were several large Porcupine Pufferfish out swimming around. One wouldn't stick around for a Kodak moment. The green water was foggy. Several times a school of silvery fish was reflect the HID light in the distance. I always wonder what is chasing them? There were also two schools of Glassy Sweepers hunting above the reef. There were also a lot of Stoplight and Redband Parrotfish asleep on the reef. I couldn't get close enough for a photo before they would wake up and take off.

Since Alex had been to this site before I had him lead with the flag. I like to lead dives due to my supervised type A dominate personality. I had a hard time following Alex and slowing to his pace. With a 20 minutes drift I figured we would need 30 minutes swim North to get back to where we started. When we started heading North I lost my internal sense of where we were at and resigned myself to trusting Alex to get us back to the spot or we might be going for a walk up the beach back to the car.

Once we got off the reef and into the sand I found the last Yellow Stingray of the dive. It was just a baby lying in the grooves of the sand. We swam East and hit a few Flagfin Mojarra before the water got noticeably warmer.

Alex and I surface a good bit North of Hibiscus. We floated on the surface and drifted back to the exit point.

**Soapbox on**
The first 5 ft of water was a dark chocolate brown. I know that South Florida Water Management was empting lake Ochachobee. I believe the water is pushed down the Everglades and then pumped out to the ocean through the canal system. FOS had pictures of black water running through the Indian River and heading out to the ocean. I know there is a balance between living here and managing the environment, I hope we can get closer to equilibrium in my life time.
**Soapbox off**

--Matt

Dive Meeting Report: Gary Goss's Research on Sharks 9/903 at PBCRRT

Professor Gary Goss spoke at the PBCRRT meeting last Tuesday night. He gave a great perspective on sharks over his 30+ years living in Florida.

He spoke about working on a long lining boats and catching sharks and discarding them as by catch. Private boats fished for sharks, took pictures with these huge monsters and then threw the fish away. People thought they were doing good by getting rid of these creatures that could bite you.

As fish stock dwindle, sharks are commercially viable for their skin, oil, meat, and fins. Overfishing is causing decline in populations. Unlike bony fish that release 1000s of eggs per spawn, sharks only live birth a couple of pups per cycle. There numbers will take a lot longer to recover.

15ft sawfish sharks were a common site off Florida. Now they are extremely rare and almost extinct. I just got an email some have been spotted of Jupiter.

How sharks hunt according to Gary Goss:

**Note these are general guidelines. Sharks use a combination of their senses at different ranges in hunting.**

1000 yards away
Sharks have HUGE ears inside their head and they pick up low frequency vibration from fish. Everyone is familiar with the Goliath Grouper's "boom" but Snappers and Grunts were named after the sounds they made when caught out of the water. Most fish make sound from their swim bladder, we just can't hear it. Spearing a fish and not killing it is like ringing a giant gong, "Dinner is served" you just can't hear it!

100 yards away
Sharks rely on smell to pick up blood in the water of hurt fish OR they can smell the slimy fish coating. Schools of fish leave a huge smell trail. Sharks swim in an S pattern to lock in on the smell

100 ft away
Sharks have good eye site and can determine size and shape. Most shark attacks are in Volusia county because there are a lot of swimmers and surfers in turbid water where sharks can't see and have to use their other senses.

10 ft away
Sharks can feel water pressure through their lateral line. Just like other fish, tiny hairs detect changes in the water pressure and alert the fish to danger and lead the shark to prey.

1 ft away
Sharks pick up on electrical fields with their Ampullae of Lorenzini which are all up in their nose. They can pick up the irregular heartbeat of a dying fish. Often sharks "bump" their prey before biting and scientists think this bump is for a close up electrical look at its prey.

- 6 inches
Sharks bite and can "taste" their prey. Scientist believe the Great White can taste the difference between a fatty seal and human meat. They are also not used to the thick arm and leg bones when they take a bite. Most shark "attacks" are actually "bites" and the shark leaves you alone once it figures out you are not on the menu or listed on the marine version of the Atkins diet. Depending on the shark, the "bite" can be fatal.

Categories for Bites and Attacks

1. Resemble Prey (Black wetsuit and fins swimming with seals)
2. Blood in the water (Spearfishing or boating accidents)
3. Turbid Water (swimming among schools of fish in no visibility

That's the highlights I got out of my notes.

--Matt

Dive Report: Sunday 9/7/03 Blue Heron Bridge PBCRRT Research Diver ITC and Photography

Photographs:
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0309blueheron/

How to dive Blue Heron:
http://www.wadespage.com/D800DS06RF01.shtml

Map of bridges:
http://www.pbcrrt.org/Training/Inwater_1.shtml

ITC Report:
Charlie and I showed up at 5:30 PM for the 7 PM high tide. The water was nice and clear, but flowing rapidly in. Snorkelers collecting tropicals were swimming hard to make it back to the entry area. We decided to put our gear together, go for a quick snorkel and then Wade should be there for the class. Our goal was to learn the orientation program Wade has developed from the Palm Beach County Reef Research Team. We want new team members to get a taste of the task loading involved while being in a controlled environment. For this mission we will load up the new diver with three times the tasks of a normal dive to show them how important it is to hear, record, understand, and perform directions underwater.

The key to the dive plan is the briefing, which started at 6:15 PM. Wade handed us our slates, pencils and we stood under the bridge. First we had to demonstrated an understanding of how to use a compass. We pointed to the cardinal directions and matched the map to the layout for the task briefing. All tasked and directions of travel were marked down on the map.

1. Measure the distance and heading between four bridge footers
2. Measure the distance and heading of two sides of the Southern footer
3. Place a fish station marker off the West side of the third footer
4. Navigate to the established fish counting locations
5. Perform 10 minute fish count
6. Inflate safety sausage from 15ft at the end of the fishing pier
7. Tow sausage surface marker to bridge and navigate home through the center footers

We geared up and hit the water. Wade issued the tape for measuring, stake for marking, and hammer. These tools did not come on retractable clips and are not easy to swim around with as they are very negatively buoyant. Charlie and I hit the footer and already there was some confusion on the first task. A little writing on the slates got us squared away and Charlie took the measurement and then I did for steps 1 and 2. We checked our answers in with Wade and moved on. Then we moved to the 3rd footer and found a spot to start hammering away. We passed again.

The navigation for #3 was fun, we left from the correct position, but when we got to the fishing pier it wasn't evident if we hit the 2nd or 3rd row of pilings. The map wasn't identical to the location, or we might have swam at more of an angle. This is true to real life were our maps are Good, Ok, hand drawn guestimates, to "Well I heard from someone who dove this 3 months ago..." After another discussion, we started our count and swim out the pier to the 6th row and headed for the fish counting location. We both got on-site and passed. Since Charlie and I are both fish counters, we fast forwarded 10 minutes and moved on.

The sausage deployment was a bit tricky. You have to unwrap 20ft of line before you can inflate the sausage. In the real word you could let the line dangle below you at the 15ft safety stop. We had to be careful to pull the line out and not get it tangled. I choose to "hand fan" the line away. Charlie, being much smarter, put the clip on the bottom and unwrapped the line out as he swam away. One good breath sent the sausage up. I didn't leave any gas in my lungs for the reg purge, but a quick block and tap on the purge button got me gas again.

I wrapped the extra line around my left hand and started the last navigation exercise home. I wanted to keep the line tight so we wouldn't get tangled. But my compass was on the left forearm and I didn't check it on the way in. Halfway between the rows of bridge footers I switched the line to the other hand and checked my heading, almost North, I was supposed to be going East. Charlie and I hit the next set of footers and regrouped. We made it back to the exit in good fashion and only lost a couple of points off navigation.

We passed! Currently there are over 10 people waiting for orientation so now we four trainers we can start knocking the classes out.

Fun Dive Report:
We still had 20 minutes of diveable conditions before the current started ripping. Wade is a pro at the bridge and I wouldn't try to guess how many dives he has under it. Charlie and I decided to tag along while Wade shot some photos.

First improvement was following the seawall from the entry point to the debris under the fishing bridge. That is where the striated Frogfish was spotted the day before, but we didn't have any luck. There was a ton of fish packed under that wall. The current had reversed and we were swimming in to the warmer freshwater as it mixed with colder seawater making for some interesting visibility. We headed West under the bridge and that cleared up the visibility problem.

We got back to the rubble field and there was were all the action was. I got out the camera and snapped a Hairy Blenny, Arrow Crab, Blue Crab, and some garbage. I noticed Wade's modeling light being waved up and down and went over to check it out. Wade found an Octopus out in the open posing. I fought off the urge to jump in and waited for him to shoot a few photos before I got mine. Wade's buddy Pam likes to play with the critters. She tried to get the Octopus on her hand, but it was feeling shy. These creatures amaze me in how they change color and move. There's nothing to them! They can contort into any shape and their very strong and intelligent. Pam got two tentacles wrapped around her hand and tried to coax it out before it holed up under a ledge. Play time was over.

I found a few more good critters, with the exception of a Sharpnose pufferfish that would not pose for me. I was able to get me finger within a inch of the hogfish and then take a photo, Eric's technique for night hunting works wells! We decided to exit and found a horseshow crab scampering across the bottom. I headed it off and turned it towards Wade, but he was out of juice for the camera. I got a few shots. These things look like little tanks. Now I have to find a the website to report the mating observation.

Blue Heron could sure use a cleaning crew. There was crap all over the place. I found a Barracuda head near the rubble pile that was disgusting. There is glass all over and I found a bike chassis on the way out.

Overall it was another great dive in the wacky world living underneath Blue Heron Bridge.

Want to dive Blue Heron for fun? Here's a great "how to" page:
http://www.wadespage.com/D800DS06RF01.shtml

Dive Report: Saturday 9/6/03 PBCRRT dives Boynton Cooridors and Delray Ledges on Lady Go

Photographs:
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0309pbcrrt/

Report:
At 7:30 AM the majority of the team was loaded and ready to go. 16 people on that boat makes for a very comfy trip considering the long ride we have up to Delray. We left right at 8 AM and started working on our dive plan and teams.

Dive one on Boynton Corridors was perfect, we had a great drop into the rockpile with a moderate current of .6 knot. I had to work up to the South end and begin the trip. I had my choice of fish stations so I made sure teams hit the first two stations and then went to the third one on the North end to count fish for 10 minutes.

On the drift North I was surround by a squadron on of Rainbow Parrotfish dive bombing the limestone boulders for algae. They moved off as I approached and didn't let me snap a good photo. We hit station 3 and I hovered to count all the Striped grunts, Gray and Mahogany Snappers, a Bi-color Damselfish.

Water was 60ft vertical and 50ft of horizontal visibility. We tried to swim to the Bud Bar which is just NE of the last rock pile, but my buddy was low on gas and drifted our ascent. Bottom time of 27 minutes at 87ft max depth on 32% Nitrox and a water temp of 84 degrees.

After a 45 minutes surface interval we started the challenging dive. We always try to have a marked starting place in which people can navigate to fish counting locations. On a wreck or this rock pile its easy, on Del Ray Ledges its a problem. We only put down 1 out of 4 marks last time and that mark, #4, was on the back side of the reef. I'm sure you've heard of finding a needle in a haystack, well we needed to find a 4 inch square piece of bright orange plastic, nailed to bottom, with 6 months of growth on it. What we did have was accurate GPS numbers, which are great for the boat, but weren't much help underwater. We put together a team of 6 who would spread out and drift the backside looking for this marker. After 7 minutes of search time we would do a three minute ascent. Lady Go gave us a bigger lead into the numbers and we searched. The problem was the current wasn't as strong and as we surfaced we were just over the numbers, meaning we drifted over the spot while ascending. Life goes on!

This time the Lady go set us up for a drop on the Delray Ledge just south of the GPS mark. The ledge is easy to find and we placed markers 3, and 5 on the ledge 75ft or so apart and GPS'd them. Then we went due East from #5 and swam a good 4 minutes and placed #6 down. I stuck around and counted fish at this distant spot and by the end of my count the photo team and second assigned fish team drifted in to the location which gives me hope it can be found again.

There were cute little Purple Reefish, Sunshinefish, and Striped Parrotfish. I nice sized lobster was holed up near the mark and there were several others on the trip.

In the photos you can see Lin shooting invert photos near the orange square, that's the mark we were looking for. In 6 months when we return we can scout for 4 again, but we consider it lost after year of growth and we'll place a replacement off #3 on the ledge so that it can be found as well. I dove for 45 minutes at 65ft with a 8 minute ascent.

Another mission accomplished! If you see our orange markers on DelRay Ledges, please leave them alone. If you find someone has pulled it up and brings it on the boat, please let me know!

--Matt

Dive Report: Tuesday 9/2 St. Henry off Miami

Photos:
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0309sthenry/index.htm

Why does the work day slow down when you have a fun dive scheduled after work? We showed up at the boat at 6:30 to make our 7 PM departure. Watching the sunset over Miami and seeing the lights on the way back makes for a great evening. Add a little diving in the middle and its all good!

Last time we tried to dive the St. Henry we ended up on a 75 steel dive boat that's about 150ft away. This time we tried the GPS #s for the dive boat to see if we hit our original target, the St. Henry. Laying in 110ft of water, this 110ft steel freighter was put down in 1997. The sounder hit the wreck on the first pass and the anchor grabbed on the first drop. I paired up with Steve and we worked out our plan. I would lead, 25 mins bottom time on 32%, 1 min per 10ft ascent starting at 80ft and I would switch to my 50% bottle on the fly at 70ft with no additional stop since my buddy was on 32% the whole way up.

Seas were choppy 3-4 with a few rollers spilling over the bow. I just got my camera in the housing before a big wave rained down on me, the saltwater electronic gods were smiling on me. Surface current was slight, so we jumped in for the line. Anchor diving always has the mystery of "where's the wreck" the whole way down. Seeing the anchor in the sand always makes me wondering, "Where is it?"

Fortunately with sunset there was a dark shadow just ahead. I tied off my reel and Steve and I headed off. The water was clear blue so the stern appeared to us. I tied in and we headed off towards the bow. There was a thermocline at 60ft. On the deck there was cold water 76-78 degrees washing over us in waves. Steve kept sticking his head into the cargo hold, he told me on deck it because it was full of warm water!

Besides the big school of jacks that met us at the anchor, there wasn't many fish on the wreck. Only a hundred or so grunts (that's not a lot, really), a few Redband Parrotfish and the traditional Sharpnose Pufferfish. On the second lap around I realized there wasn't much growth on the wreck for 5 years of sitting on the bottom and the surfaces were smooth. The deck covered the cargo hold except for two openings big enough for divers to go through single file. There were no fish inside. The most unique thing about this wreck were the sea slugs everywhere.

We circled the wreck twice in 15 minutes and I shot some photos of what I could find. We left the reel in for the second team. On the ascent, we noticed the current had picked up to about a knot or so. I grabbed the anchor line and relaxed on the trip up. Steve runs a mean, well timed deco. I made my gas switch and kept the pace right up to the surface. The 10ft stop was not fun, but manageable. I just relax and go with the flow of the line. Steve gave me the thumbs up and I let go to drift to the boat. As soon as I let go the peace and joy of diving returned.

We reported conditions to the next team who also noticed the current and they put a granny line (Anchor to stern of boat) out for them. After their dive they reported no cold water and 1 knot current on the bottom over the wreck. It was amazing how fast conditions can change!

Now that we have been there and dove that wreck, I don't think we'll be going back anytime soon. This is one of wrecks you dive just to say, Yeah, I dove that.... don't bother.

--Matt

Dive Report: Sunday Aug 31: Noula Express, Ancient Mariner, and Berry Patch on Lady Go

At 8 AM we all meet at Datura Street for a beach dive. Terrance wanted to practice with reels and he kept saying, "you guys have it too easy down here." After a delightful breakfast at Mulligians discussing the local Malaysian diving and 3.8 to 1 exchange rate, Andrea and I think we need to pop over there sometime.

We geared up at 9:30 AM and the seas were still 4ft breaking into surf. Charlie and I plowed right through and watched Terrance and Ralph make a run for it. Both lost their masks, Terrance made a behind the back save on his mask. Ralph popped a thumb and headed out to enjoy the morning with Andrea. We kicked out to the buoy and descended. It was dizzy in the zero vis. I hand to put my hand down in the sand to feel the bottom. We got settled and head out over the reef. The vis opened up to 5 ft. This makes for good conditions to test buddy and team skills. We all stayed together and didn't loose the guy in 3rd place.

On the back side of the third reef I pointed out a nice rock to make a primary tie. We ran the line out and made a couple of wraps. Then Terrance tied the reel off. Working in 3 ft surge is very hard but Terrance figured out his timing between the waves of surge. Now I couldn't find Charlie. I asked Terrance and he didn't know where he was? We were bumping into each other like the three stooges, but Charlie got away from me. I pulled out my spool, tied into the line and started off looking for him. After about 10 ft I turned Terrance around to go the other direction and there was Charlie following us! He moved off while Terrance was tying and he light was pointed at us so he disappeared in the foggy water. We "ok-locked" the line and followed it back, I pulled off wraps on the way back. Then we continued to swim in after 30 minutes. There just wasn't anything to sightsee and our mission was accomplished.

We rushed over to Fill Express for a fill and ordered lunch to make the boat at 12:30 PM. We ran into Marv G. and Christos K getting a top off before heading to Dania. Once they drove down they found the boat cancelled so they drove back up to Lady Go to join our hearty group.

Cliff did a good job getting this trip together and talking to Pavan, owner of Lady Go to make this dive, Diver's Choice, meaning we wouldn't have to pay to go due to weather. We lost a few and gained a few more as many boats cancelled their trips. It just plain nice to have the choice! After yapping on the dock we got a late start at 2:30 PM for our trip. This time we brought Ralph along to buddy up with Andrea so Charlie, Terrance, and I could dive as a three person team.

We planned, checked and jumped in the water with our own flag instead of being tied in, much nicer for rough seas. The last thing I heard from the captain was "swim West" to the wreck. We landed in 85ft of patch reef. I listened, swam, and ran into JC. "Wait, DON'T Shoot!" I put my hands on my head. "Darn, now were lost!" I kept swimming West and hit the stern section. Multiple teams with flags is tough to navigate. We should have said to tie the flags off to the wreck and not drift around with them.

Andrea and Ralph were leading so we headed over to the bow as Christos and Marv were coming back. Christos armed and loaded and me with my sawed off knife didn't seem like much of a fight so we steered clear of them as well. By then we almost had the wreck to ourselves. I pointed out the drug sub and what looks to be a H bottle lying next to it. Wonder if its still pressurized? I also found 3 yellowheaded Jawfish in the sand by the bow. I love those little guys!

After admiring the wreck we drifted off to the reef. There were lots of Deep Water Seafans and Tobbacofish in the sand channels. Andrea and Ralph ran low on gas first and followed the flag line up to surface by the flag.10 minutes later we headed up with another practice gas switch.

After a nice 1 hour SI, we got ready for the double header. First a drop on the Ancient Mariner and then a swim over to the Berry Patch taking a 150 degree heading off the bow. We were the last team in and hit the bottom to find sand. There were no "final words" before I jumped and I had a 30% chance of going the right way. Once everyone was on the bottom I found a skeleton of a small boat. From there I saw a shadow in the distance and swam for it. It was a small tug boat, the Berry Patch.

What a great little wreck. It was all grown over and looked like it wasn't dove that much. In fact the school of grunts looked at me like, "hey the tourist boat is over there, leave us alone." We swam into the stern section and out through the bridge. I told Terrance to run OOA with Charlie and I hoped they would share on the way out as it was single file. Terrance spun around, didn't silt out and everything went well, but they didn't share on the way out, oh well.

After 10 minutes I had to figure out where the Ancient Mariner is? I reverse course from 150 would be 330 degrees, but off the bow or stern of the Berry Patch? The Bow had patch reef and the Stern was sand. I decided to head for the stern. Right then Eric and Nancy were pulling up out of the blue. We were 15ft apart, but I looked up and saw they had a lot of flag line out and I didn't as I just untied from the wreck. I swam off and prayed. Then it got tougher, and tougher and I knew there was no reason to play Flag-o-war. Usually the boat will pull them apart. I turned the group and headed back for the Patch. I wound the flag tight and couldn't see the other divers line. We started back across and I was free.

The Bow of the AM came out of the haze. I have never swam up to a ship from that angle. It looked huge! I ascended and tied the flag to the port cleet. I took Terrance and Charlie inside to swim through the center and Ralph and Andrea circled the outside. In the middle I ran an OOA with Terrance and we shared gas on the way out. On the deck he thumbed me and we started back to the flag. Once clear, we saw the resident Green Moray swimming out to the huge dead HorseEye Jack and try to drag it back into the ship for dinner.

We ascended, switched gasses and floated in the rough seas for a couple minutes before getting picked up.

Walter was asking for the number to Fill Express during the Surface Interval. He was kind enough to tell Mark we were not going to make VIP E-Hour at Fill Express. Mark was cool enough to go have dinner and we gave him another call when the boat got back. Thanks to Walter for bringing the cooler of tasty beverages and Jeff ect who brought chips to munch on.

From there we invaded piranha Pat's Flanagan's and took over the three tables in the back. We were expecting 10 and 15 showed up! I've never laughed so hard, especially at some of Cliff's jokes that were on their 2nd round!

--Matt

Dive Report: Aug 30th, Capt Dan and Sunkist Reef on Fathoms

I showed up 15 minutes early to the boat to find it half loaded already. Darn E-divers, always early. I was happy to find Charlie beat them to the punch and had the port side reserved for us. Terrance show up right at 8:30 AM and we helped him get his gear loaded up on the boat for the trip out.

We worked up out plan for the Dan, 30 minutes bottom time on 32%, 1 team of Charlie, Terrance, and myself. And then there wan Andrea. I didn't have anyone for her to team up with so I said I would be a team of 2 with her and 3 with the other guys. The rules say we should have broken into two teams of two, but what fun would it be to follow the rules? Terrance and Charlie worked their equipment checks and Andrea and I did as well. Its so cool to meet someone off the web from a 1000 miles away and dive together on the same page instantly.

The DM said there was current teams would be dropped up from the ball on the wreck, then pull yourself down. I splashed, dropped 10 ft and did a mad swim for the line. Once I hit it I looked for Andrea and the rest of the team. Andrea dropped to 20 ft and was next to the line, but not grabbing on. Cliffy reached out and pulled her on the line. We started the hand over hand down to the Dan. On the bottom the current was light. The hard descent gave me a CO2 head ache and I don't remember "seeing" much on the wreck. I did notice the corridors at the stern calling me to tie off my reel and head inside. My team wasn't ready for that, but I'll remember it for next time.

We worked up to the bow platform and ran a valve drill with Terrance and myself. We started heading back to the line and I learned after the dive, Andrea told Charlie she was low on gas. A little later she told me, "1000 psi" and we still were not at the line. At the line Andrea "thumbed" the dive and started up. The dive should have ended after Andrea told Charlie she was low. This was about 25 minutes into the dive.

The current was strong 1.5 knots and I cancelled the stage switch at 70ft and we continued up at 10ft per minute. At 50 ft I felt a tug on my fin and got an OOA. I shared with Andrea, surprised, and checked her gauge. She was at 500 psi and I had plenty so it was good she should save her gas for getting on the boat. People look at you strange for diving doubles on recreational dives, but having more than you need for your plan is a very comforting factor.

On the boat we talked about how we didn't set the teams up properly in the plan and they fell apart underwater. Teams need to 2 or 3 divers max. We planned 2 and 2 on the same flag for the reef drift dive. Terrance was heavy on gas diving wet in warm water for the first time, he is from NYC. Instead of playing with deco bottles, he practiced stage diving. First he would breath the 40cuft of 32% from his stage bottle and then go to his back gas. At 500 psi he would end the dive. Charlie and I used our back gas and would switch to the deco bottle at 70ft or 10 ft off the bottom and continue up with a regular ascent.

The reef was covered with the red algae. Its such a mess! We were on the top and I headed West to the ledge. Found a Jack knife drum among other fish. At the end there were large schools of snappers and grunts. At one point I tried to sneak up on Charlie and "air gunned" him to simulate a blown burst disk. Charlie shut down the post, switched regs and then went for the isolator. He was calm and cool through the whole thing and I gave him no warning, except my presence above him.

We stopped while Terrance switched from stage to back gas. I offered him my 70ft bottle since we were at 50ft and solid bottom beneath us. He declined and called the dive at 40 minutes. Charlie and I switched gases at 30ft and continued our normal ascents. It was a perfect drift dive. Charlie and I stored our stage regs on the surface and waited for the boat.

--Matt