Dive Report: Saturday 10/4/2003 Shore dive at Hibiscus Street, LBTS
Photos:
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/1004hibiscus/
Team: Matt and Ralph Figuroa
Dive Start 12:40 PM
Seas: 3ft
Low Tide at 12:30 PM
Water/Air: 84 degrees
Surge: 1 ft
Visibility: 20ft
Gas 32%
Depth: 19ft
Runtime 1 hour 5 minutes
My morning boat dive out of Miami was cancelled as the owner was not feeling 100%. We thumbed the dive from bed at 7:30 AM. However, I called Ralph and he was up for a shore dive, especially if I loaned him my doubles for a test dive.
At 11 AM Datura was full, so we went South to Hibiscus to find rock star parking down front and broken meter bonus as it read "4 hours" for the whole time we were there, no quarters required. I dive there enough I didn't mind shorting LBTS $4.
We geared up and I ran Ralph through my "How to dive doubles in 5 easy steps" lecture.
1. Roll to far to either side and you loose balance.
2. To balance the gas in the wings, go head up and shake your shoulders a little.
3. To dump gas, the valve is in the middle of the wing on your back, use #2 to vent.
4. You need to add more gas and vent more gas on accent and descent.
5. You will hear the gas moving in the wing, don't freak out. (I forgot to mention this one to him)
When Andrea dove doubles the first time I didn't do the lecture on land, I tried to show her underwater, which didn't work as well. This time Ralph got 1-4 and asked me to add #5.
I also forgot William's classic pre-dive doubles question, "You do know the 5 ways a isolated manifold can kill you, don't you?"
We checked equipment and headed out. On the way to the second reef line we stopped to give Ralph a chance to play with the wing and get used to it. I also shot some video of a Yellow Stingray swimming away from me. I could chase him down with my single tank wing.
On the second reef line I was shocked and pissed. The red algae that has taken over Pompano is now all over Datura Street as well. I found little patched a couple of weeks ago. Now there is a full scale invasion! The ground was covered and the several soft corals had it really bad.
There were squadrons of Surgeonfish feasting on it, but there is way more than could be eaten. I ran into a banded butterfly fish that was friendly and posed for a couple of pictures. Because of time restraints I wanted to keep this dive to on hour, but I also wanted to check back in on the coral I flipped over. We swam down to it and I was happy to see a lot of the bleached tissue was getting color back into it. The water was so clear I took a few scenic shots as well. There is more coral here then probably anywhere else in Florida.
We swam back to the probe that marks Hibiscus and headed back home. On the first reef line I saw a fish net entangled in a softcoral. Ralph assisted with seasnips and I cut it out. The coral was badly mangled, but might make a recovery. At least the net was removed so I wouldn't harm anything else. I went back to swimming and went right by this nurse shark napping with its head under a ledge. I'm glad Ralph stopped me to point him out. The locals always ask, "Are there sharks out there?"
We saw another sick coral and took some photos. This looked like some kind of disease, but I don't know what, yet. I also found a sea urchin. Urchins can vacuum a cubic yard of algae per day. I hope they start munching on this red crap soon!
As we were coming in I notice two divers heading out and one diver crawling out of the ocean like our ancestors did 100 million years ago. The poor guy looked like a sugar coated doughnut, only he was covered in sand. Ralph and I were breaking down our gear as this guy carried up his rig, piece by piece, from the water's edge. His regs were coated with sand and he was rinsing them without the dust cap on the first stage.
Ralph and I struck up a conversation with him. "How was your dive?" He said he didn't get past the surf zone as he couldn't get his fins on. He panicked and waved the others on as he went back to shore. Later we found out he was an Openwater student and the instructor took off with the other student while he crawled back a shore. He looked very sad and disappointed. I got some more details and looked over his rental gear all marked with "TSS". A quick look at the VIP sticker showed he was working with "The Scuba School" off Oakland and A1A. The student was also packed down with 16lbs of lead in his BC!
Considering that a student drown off Pompano several weeks ago in 10 ft of water, I was not happy that an instructor swam off and left a student in the water after they had panicked. Ralph and I gave a pep talk to the student about the joys of diving and told the student that the instructor had not acted in his best self interest and deserved more than he was getting out of the class. I told Ralph we needed to leave as I saw the instructor was getting out of the water with the other student. I didn't want to go G3 on her!
Now that I'm calmer, should I email the owner of the dive shop and share my feeling with him?
Saturday, October 04, 2003
Tuesday, September 30, 2003
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
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
Saturday, September 27, 2003
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
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
Tuesday, September 23, 2003
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
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
Monday, September 22, 2003
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
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
Saturday, September 20, 2003
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
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
Thursday, September 18, 2003
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
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
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