We’d been planning this spring break trip with the Crew for almost 2 years. Originally, we wanted to go to Bimini, but expenses kept us a little closer to home. Last summer, when it was determined that we weren’t going to be able to raise the near $1500 per person, we switched gears and decided to do a week in the Keys.
Camping reservations for Pennekamp State Park were made last September. Making reservations this far out didn’t even allow us to book 5 campsites in a row. We ended up with 2 side-by-side and 3 side-by-side 6 sites down the row. This actually worked out well. We decided that the 2 would be our kitchen and social area and the 3 would be our sleeping sites with the boys on one site, the girls on another, and the adults in the middle.
Fund raisers helped to offset much of the cost. We guestimated $500 for each diver and $300 for non-divers. This included EVERYTHING - transportation, food, camping, diving, and a full day of activities in Key West.
Dave acquired a troop trailer for us to use. He got the little green trailer that we’ve used in the past. He dropped it off at our house on Wednesday.
We gathered personal gear on Thursday (3/27). I took a vacation day on Friday in order to get everything else together for the trip. Even with taking the day off, Bobby and I worked until 4:30 AM in order to get everything packed and ready to go.
Bobby, Kent, and Bob all decided to bring their boats. Kent stopped by early Friday evening and we packed a bunch of stuff into his boat.
We originally had 20 people signed up for the trip. However, 3 were last minute dropouts due to illness and personal issues. So we were going with 17 - 8 youths and 9 adults.
Dustin came by the house at 7:30 AM on Saturday morning. We were to meet at Big Lots in Palm Bay at 8:00. Due to last minute packing and having to gas the vehicles, we were a little late and arrived around 8:20. Crew youth going on Saturday were Emily, Amanda, Hillery, Dylan, James, Drew, and Dustin. Crew adults going on Saturday were Bobby, Emily, Bob, and Bonnie. Kent and Judy had headed out early, Ed and Paul were meeting us there due to work conflicts, and Bill and Matt were meeting us on Sunday at the dive shop due to a school activity that Matt was involved with on Saturday.
We all piled into the 4 vehicles. Every vehicle was pulling something - either a trailer or a boat. We headed south on 95 shortly before 9:00 AM.
The trip south was uneventful. We jumped on the turnpike at Jupiter and took the Sawgrass Expressway to avoid Miami. We arrived in Florida City around 1:00 PM and stopped at Burger King for lunch. We then proceeded down US 1 to Key Largo.
We arrived at Pennekamp State Park shortly after 2:00. Kent and Judy were just pulling in at the same time we were. Ed arrived shortly after the rest of us. We unpacked and setup camp. It was a beautiful day. Once camp was setup, the kids ventured forth and explored the park.
Amanda had made a duty roster for the kids for each meal for the week. They were responsible for getting the meal ready and cleaning up afterwards. I had decided to assign a camp captain each day to be responsible for knowing where the kids were and making sure that the kids responsible for meals did their jobs. We brought 5 walkie-talkie radios with us and whenever someone left camp, they were required to take a radio. This worked out GREAT! Bonnie and Paul were camp captains for Saturday.
Pennekamp is small compared to other state parks we’ve stayed at. However, Pennekamp also includes the underwater park. There is a wonderful visitor’s center with an aquarium of reef fish found in the aqua-park. The park also has a number of nature trails that meander through the mangroves and other areas.
We were bummed to find out that Pennekamp does not allow ground fires. We did find, though, that there are 2 fire rings in the park. We asked a ranger about them and found that it was OK for us to use them as long as no one else had reserved the area.
After we setup camp, I took the girls and we did a quick trip to the local Winn-Dixie to pick up groceries. Saturday’s meal was spaghetti and salad. While at the store, Hillery reminded us that it was James’ birthday and suggested we get him a cake and a card. Woo-Hoo! Great idea! James was very surprised!
Everyone was up late on Saturday - except me. I was exhausted from the day (and night) before and from the long drive. After handing out gear to those who needed it, I crawled into my tent around 8:00 PM and crashed hard.
We all got up around 7:30 on Sunday morning and we had a quick breakfast of fruit and toasted bagels with cream cheese. Kent was our camp captain for Sunday.
We were scheduled for our first dive on Sunday afternoon. I had made diving arrangements for the week with Captain Slate’s Atlantis Dive Center. Captain Slate is a personal friend and he gave us a heck of a deal on our dive package!
I had given Bill directions to the dive shop and he and Matt were to meet us there at noon. They made it to Key Largo plenty early. They even came into Pennekamp, but we had already left for the dive shop. So they headed up US 1 and onto Card Sound Road. There, they missed the turn to the dive shop and ended up at Ocean Reef Club way down Card Sound Road. They turned around and finally arrived at the shop at 12:30. This was OK, though, since the boat didn’t leave the dock until 1:00.
We loaded our stuff on the boat named Coral Princess I and got our first tank setup. Harry was our captain and Susan was our Dive Master. Susan gave a boat briefing and then we were off to the ocean.
The seas were about 2 foot and we had a pretty good breeze blowing.
Our Sunday dives were easy shallow reef dives to get some of the Crew back into the water after a long, dry winter. I was very pleased to find out that we were the only folks on the boat (except for one additional walk-on diver). We had 13 divers on a boat that holds 25. James and Paul also came along to snorkel. First stop, Christ of the Deep. I got a tear in my eye as Bobby and I swam up over the coral fingers to the awesome statue were we got married 5 years ago. Ah, the memories… The water was a bit cooler than normal for the Keys at 75 degrees. The vis was great and the reef was beautiful. After 50 minutes of down time, we returned to the boat.
Between dives, I broke out the lunchmeat and rolls and we all had sandwiches. Captain Harry moved us a short distance to North Dry Rocks and we dove the site called Minnow Caves. Bonnie was my buddy for this dive and we actually found the cave. It’s not really a cave but rather a large swim through with a small room in the middle. It was really cool. Bonnie and I started to get a little chilled after about 45 minutes so we headed back to the boat.
We came through a rainstorm as we headed back to the dock. We were a little worried about camp, but Bob had said that he would secure things if the weather turned bad.
Once back at the dock, everyone gave their gear a fresh water rinse at the dockside rinse tanks.
We got back to camp around 5:30. Bob had, indeed, secured everything before the storm came through. Thank you, Bob. The dinner crew got things going. Sunday’s meal was hot dogs, Italian sausages, and brauts on the grill with macaroni and cheese on the side.
We had an unexpected visit by Bobby Putnam on Sunday. He is a Crew Advisor who was already in the Keys with a BCC group. He brought us bags and bags of Publix Bakery goods that had been donated to his BCC group - but since they were going home, they weren’t going to be using them.
After dinner, we relaxed and reflected on the day. Our neighbor was the Campground Host and he told us that 10:00 PM was quiet time. Apparently, we set our social area up right beside his tent and he didn’t appreciate our adults talking so close to his bedroom. We ended up making this site a parking site rather than a social site. Everyone hit the hay around 11:00.
Monday was a down day for those not taking any classes. During the week, I was teaching a Rescue Class, an Advanced Class, a Fish Id Specialty Class, and a Nitrox Class. We got all of the academics out of the way before our trip, but we still had a lot of work to do.
Everyone was up around 7:30 and we had a great breakfast of pancakes and sausage. Yum! After breakfast, I started the Rescue Class in the Pennekamp swim area. Dustin and Dylan took this class and Bill used exercises 1 and 2 towards his Advanced certification. By lunch, we had gotten through half of the requirements. Monday afternoon was dedicated to the Advanced Navigational Dive so after lunch (sandwiches), I met up with Bill, Matt, and Drew for the Nav dive.
Bobby, Bob, and Kent all took their boats out on Monday. Unfortunately, Bobby’s boat broke. L We had just had the lower unit rebuilt and, apparently, something wasn’t done properly.
We finished up the Nav dive around 5:30 and headed back to camp for dinner. Dinner on Monday was chicken and beef shish-ka-bobs and salad.
Monday was rather breezy and Bobby had been listening to the marine radio on our broke boat. The report for Tuesday didn’t look good for diving. Winds were predicted at 20 to 25 knots out of the northeast with seas beyond reef at 7 to 9 feet and inside 2 to 4 with a heavy chop. It didn’t look like we were going to dive on Tuesday. I called the dive shop and was informed that the call would be made on Tuesday morning.
We all got up early (6:30 AM) and had fruit and toasted bagels with cream cheese for breakfast. I called the shop at 7:30 to find out if we were diving. Bobby had already determined that we weren’t but we needed to hear it from the shop. Betty confirmed our expectations and the dive was cancelled.
Bobby was camp captain for Tuesday so he decided to take the kids on a walk through the parks nature trails, visitor center, and aquarium. He put the kids into pairs and told them there would be a ‘quiz’ afterwards. Whichever team scored highest would earn an extra $20 pocket money for our day in Key West. The kids liked this idea. What Bobby didn’t tell them was the ‘quiz’ was a scavenger hunt.
After the walk, we had lunch. Then Bobby read the list of items he wanted them to find. Each team wrote up their list and then they were off. It was fun sitting back at camp listening the kids on the walkie-talkies. One item on the list was a 1956 penny. Bill was sure no one would find that item. His son, Matt, asked him to empty his pockets of change and guess what he found! Yep, a 1956 penny!
Amanda’s team won the hunt. However, Amanda didn’t feel right getting extra money that the other kids didn’t get. She convinced us to give EVERYONE an extra $20 for Key West. This worked out fine since we didn’t have to pay for the cancelled dive.
The kids then decided to send the adults on a scavenger hunt. Hey, what’s good for the goose… The kids came up with some really good items and they had us running around all over the park. Even the park employees were in on it and wouldn’t give us any clues. We had a blast!
Dinner on Tuesday was hamburgers on the grill with chips and salad. After dinner, Bobby and the kids took wood to the fire ring by the water and made a great campfire. We made smores and fished until about 10:00. Then it was off to bed to rest up for our day in Key West.
A cold front had moved in and Key Largo had a record low of 50 degrees Tuesday night. It was GREAT camping weather!
Up by 7:00 on Wednesday and a wonderful breakfast of bacon, eggs, and hash browns. After breakfast, we loaded up the vehicles and headed for Key West. I had to make a brief stop in Big Pine to pick up some items from the Sport Diver distributor. After 30 minutes, we were back on US 1 heading south (well, actually southwest at this point)
We arrived in Key West shortly before noon and parked at the municipal parking garage. We had budgeted $100 per person ( + $20 extra per kid) for Key West with the following breakdown: $10 Aquarium, $10 Shipwreck Museum, $10 Mel Fisher Museum, $20 Dinner, $60 spending money, $10 Ghost Tour. I gave each adult $100 at the garage and gave each kid their $60 pocket money.
It was a beautiful sunny, breezy day. Temperatures were in the low 80’s but the breeze kept everyone cool.
We walked the dock area and enjoyed the free Turtle Krawl museum. The big clipper ships at the docks were awesome. These are used for sunset cruises during the Mallory Square sunset celebrations.
First stop was the Shipwreck Museum. I gave each Crew member $10 to cover their admittance. We watched a brief film about the wreck salvagers of Key West. Then we toured the museum and climbed the look-out tower. What an awesome site to overlook the ocean and the entire island of Key West.
Next stop was the Aquarium. Again, each Crew member got $10 to cover their admittance. The Aquarium was full of critters that we see on the reef.
It was about 4:00 by now and the kids were getting hungry. They decided that they didn’t want an expensive dinner (since they got to keep the change from their $20 dinner allowance.) They decided on Burger King. The adults didn’t jump on this bandwagon. Bobby and I had decided to get our dinner at the Mallory Square celebration.
The girls wanted to shop. The boys wanted to hang with the girls. So we passed on the Mel Fisher Museum and gave each kid the $10 allowance for this museum. We roamed Duval Street and the kids darted in and out of T-Shirt and souvenir shops. Everyone got something to remember their trip.
At 5:30, we headed for Mallory Square for the sunset celebration. If you never experienced a Mallory Square Sunset Celebration, you are missing some intense fun. The square, which is right on the water, is normally empty, until about 5:00 when the vendors, craftsman, and entertainers take up their spots. There’s a high wire act, jugglers, musicians, escape artists, as well as all kinds of craft booths and food vendors. The adults indulged at the ‘meat on a stick’ booth with funnel cake for desert. It was yummy. We all had a great time. Amanda, Hillery, Emily, and I each got a henna tattoo.
We were scheduled to meet the Ghost Tour at La Concha Hotel on Duval Street at 7:30. We were right on time. The tour is usually $18 / person, but we got a group rate of $200 for our 17 people. Not bad. This was a very interesting tour. I wasn’t aware of the haunted history of the island.
The tour was over by 10:00 and we headed back to the garage for our vehicles. We weren’t looking forward to the long drive back to Pennekamp - but it had to be done. AND we were meeting a morning boat so we had to get up at 6 oh my gosh 30 AM. We got back to camp around 12:30.
Up at 6:30 to prepare to dive the Spiegel Grove. This is an advanced dive and I was using it as the deep dive for my advanced class. A quick breakfast of fruit and toasted bagels and cream cheese and we were headed for the dive shop. Ocean conditions had improved tremendously and we were all excited about this dive. I was again very happy to find out that, with the exception of 4 walk-ons, that we had the entire boat.
We boarded the Starfish Enterprise. Captain Slate was our captain and Mike was our dive master. Susan came along as a dive guide for the walk-ons. We had 2 foot seas inside the reef but as we approached the dive site (which is outside the reef) the seas built to 4+ foot. But this was still do-able.
The plan was for me to enter the water first and make my way up the granny line to the mooring ball and then down the ball line to the wreck. This wreck sits on its side in 130 feet of water. The captain said that we had a moderate current. I wouldn’t want to see a strong current. I had a tough time making my way up the granny line mainly because one hand was full of dive slates for my 4 advanced students to do their math problems on at depth. (We do this so we can show how pressure can effect your response time). I had to pull myself along with one hand and kick real hard to advance on the line. I was thinking, “I should have these slates in a bag attached to my BC”. Live and learn. But I made it. Things got a lot easier once I got underwater on the mooring line. I was a little concerned that some of the Crew might not make it down.
The vis was great. I could see the ship from the mooring ball. But the current was a bit rough.
I got to the ship and got out of the current. I sat and waited for my class to descend. Ten minutes went by and still no one. Hmmm…. I checked the temperature - 74 on the bottom. A few minutes later I saw figures descending the line. Emily was the first down. Then Kent, Dustin, and Dylan came into view. Amanda and Hillery weren’t far behind. Bobby came down and gave me hand signs to let me know that 3 of my students were still on the boat and one was coming down the line. Then I saw Bill slowly making his way towards me on the line. I found out later that both Bonnie and Ed lost their weight belts at the granny to mooring line change. Matt lost a fin and Drew didn’t feel comfortable in the strong current.
Bill and I ran through the advanced deep skills. Bill was also doing his Nitrox checkout dive so we got a little more bottom time (I was on a 100 cubic foot 32% nitrox tank). We got to do a little bit of exploration of the ship but not near as much as I would have liked to do. I want to come back here again when I don’t have a class to do. I had a total of 30 minutes down time.
We made our way to the line and started our ascent. I looked up to see the other Crew members hanging on the line doing their safety stops like flags flapping in a strong wind. After 3 minutes, we made our way back onto the boat.
As I boarded, I noticed a bunch of whooped puppy divers sitting around like they had just done some really tough diving. A couple were showing signs of seasickness. I had handed out Bonine each morning we dove, but this morning I had forgotten and didn’t get it to the kids until we were at the shop. I’m afraid it was a little too late then.
Next stop, The Elbow. Four divers sat out on this dive - both Emily and Drew were feeling seasick and Dustin and Dylan said that they were wore out. This dive was inside the reef so the seas weren’t near as rough as there were out at the wreck. We enjoyed a 45 minute dive in 50 foot of vis. Bonnie was my buddy and we found a large green moray eel tucked up in the reef as well as many, many large grouper - reds and gags and blacks - oh my! Bonnie used this dive for Fish Id towards her advanced certification. Amanda and Hillery took the opportunity to use this dive as their first Fish Id Specialty dive.
After the dive, we headed back to the dock. Another great day of diving.
Back at camp we all said goodbye to Bob. He couldn’t stay the entire week. Bill, the camp captain, kept track of the kids. At around 4:00, he got the dinner crew started making grilled chicken.
The kids were worn out and we had yet another day of diving ahead of us. After dinner, we did our log books and had a debriefing on the Fish Id Specialty. Dylan setup the TV/Video and we watched the tapes that he and Bobby had made during the week. Then we took it easy. It was an early night. I think everyone was asleep before 10:00.
Friday morning came quickly and we had to fight with some of the kids to get out of bed. We had to leave by 7:45 to meet the boat. A couple of the kids didn’t crawl out of their tents until 7:30. A quick breakfast of, you guessed it, fruit and toasted bagels with cream cheese, and we were off for our Friday Feature Creature Feeding with Captain Slate.
We arrived at the dive shop to find that there were 40 divers signed up for this dive. WOW! Slate was taking 2 boats out. I was thrilled to hear that an Emmy winning videographer was joining the dive along with his camera. Dylan also had his camera with him.
We boarded the Coral Princess VI and headed out to the Wreck of the City of Washington. Our captain was Terry and our dive master was Scott. The day was glorious. Paul and James came along on this dive to snorkel. The sun shown bright and the breeze was minimal. We moored up at the feeding site and entered the water and waited for Slate and Mike to come feed the fish.
Nurse sharks swam all around us. A large black grouper hung out with us as well as a large barracuda named Psycho. Slate and Mike made their way to the group. The carried their bucket of bally-hoo and came right over to Bonnie and me. Slate began to feed the sharks and then he started shoving them at me to hold. One after another after another. I was laughing so hard that I’m sure Slate could hear me. I saw in his eyes that he was enjoying this, too. While Slate was handing the sharks off to me, Mike was handing them off to Bonnie. At one point, Bonnie had 2 sharks between her legs, one going back to front and one going front to back. I laughed so hard.
Then Slate and Mike moved off and on to the next group of folks. Everyone got the opportunity to hold many of the sharks. Slate and Mike would occasionally place a bally-hoo in their mouths by the long bill and present the fish to either the grouper or the barracuda. It was awesome watching these large fish come in and eat right out of the divers’ mouths!
After about 20 minutes of shark feeding, we moved out of the sand to the wreck of the City of Washington. Here, Slate feeds Sundancer, a 6 foot long green moray eel. And, of course, the sharks, grouper, and barracuda move right along with him.
Amanda, Hillery, and Dylan were doing their second Fish Id Specialty dive. Bill, Matt, and Drew used this opportunity to do their underwater photography dive towards their advanced certification. I can’t wait to see their photos!
Paul and James had decided that it was too rough to snorkel so they hung out on the boat.
Captain Terry told us that the second dive of the day was at Mike’s wreck. But we found out later that he had mis-informed us. We were actually on a site called The Five Fingers. The other boat went to Mike’s wreck. Bobby and I buddied up for this dive. Again, it was a shallow dive with long reef fingers. Fish were everywhere. I saw more lobster on this dive than on any other dive all week. But, of course, lobster season closed on 3/31 and this was 4/4. I did find out that we WERE in a take zone, too. Don’t it always seem to happen that way?
Emily and Hillery joined up with Bobby and I about 2/3s through our dive. Emily was shivering and I asked her if she wanted to go back to the boat. She shook her head No. A few minutes later, I asked her again, and again, she said No. I know better, though, and started to guide her back to the boat. I found out later that she was afraid if she got back on the boat that she might get seasick. She said she’d rather be cold in the water than seasick on the boat.
It was about 11:30 when we finished our last dive and headed back to the dock. It was a beautiful day and we had a following sea on the way in. The kids said that it didn’t feel like we were running very fast and I explained when the wind is to your back, if you’re running the same speed as the wind, it will feel as though you are barely moving.
Back at the shop, we had the chance to review the raw footage the videographer took and I knew I had to buy a copy for the Crew. There were great shots of everyone. He even got the shot with Bonnie with 2 sharks under legs. I noticed on the film that Slate actually swam behind her and guided one of the sharks underneath her. Too funny!
I settled up with the dive shop - $2000 for our 3 sets of dives (13 divers and 2 snorkelers). This included tanks. It was wonderful not having to schlep tanks around for our dives. And everyone that dove the Grove came away with an Upper Keys Wreck medallion ($10 value required by charter operators to take you to the wrecks good for the entire year). This cost also included the daily boat tips ($5 per person per trip) and extra charges for the feeding dive and the wreck dive. The cost averaged out to less than $50 a dive inclusive. Not bad. Thanks Slate.
We headed back to camp around 1:00 for lunch. Judy was camp captain and got the kids organized. After lunch, I met with Dustin and Dylan to complete their Rescue Diver training. Amanda volunteered to help by being a victim. I also asked the other Crew members to meet us at the swim area beach at 3:00 for the accident management scenarios.
The kids did a great job. Both Dustin and Dylan handled their accident scenarios extremely well. We did, however, loose yet another weight belt. And you should have seen these guys pulling Amanda out of the water. She sure was a trooper.
Bobby was back at camp getting fire going for our foil pack dinners. We had lots of good stuff - hamburger, chicken, kielbasa, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, potatoes, green peppers, garlic, soy sauce, ketchup, mustard, yummy! Everyone made their own foil pack and put it in the fire. Each pack took about 40 minutes to cook and it sure was good.
After dinner, we relaxed and reminisced about the trip. It was a great end to a wonderful week. No equipment problems. No people problems (except for the occasional teenager issues J). All of the classes got completed. We had great diving. We had a great day in Key West. The weather was wonderful (except for one blown out day - but the weather was still great). It wasn’t too hot. It wasn’t too cold. The bugs weren’t too bad. The food was great. But the company was the best.
Bobby let everyone know that Saturday was dedicated to tear down, pack up, and go home. He told everybody to up by 8:00 and have their stuff packed and stacked by 10:00.
It was early to bed and early to rise. Again, a final quick breakfast of fruit and toasted bagels with cream cheese and the packing commenced. Everyone had their stuff packed and stacked as requested. Then, the trailer and boat packing started. Bobby organized the packers. The kids worked hard, everything got packed, and we hit the road by 11:00.
After a quick stop at the dive shop to pick up our video, we made our way up US 1 to the Turnpike. We jumped on 95 around Lauderdale in hopes of finding a wonderful Chinese Buffet that we found by accident during our last trip back from the Keys in October. But no one could remember the exact road it was on and we never found it. We ended up at Burger King.
Another stop for gas and then it was a straight shot to Melbourne. We arrived around 4:30 and started unpacking. Bobby called Kent and found out that he was having car problems and was on US 1.
We sorted through all of the gear and then we went inside to preview the video. It is GREAT!!!!! I’m really glad that we picked one up for the Crew.
After everyone left, I just looked at all of the camping and diving gear stacked up in piles and decided it would just have to wait. I wanted my shower and my bed! It was a wonderful week, but it was also nice to be home.
After figuring out all of the expenses, I found that our guestimate had been high and all participants got a $70 rebate. However, if our Tuesday dive hadn’t been blown out, we would have come extremely close to our original budget. And I’m proud to say that we came home with the following newly certified divers: 4 Nitrox, 3 Fish Id Specialty, 2 Advanced, and 2 Rescue.
Average Individual Breakdown is approximately:
Camping $50 Food $50 Diving $150 Key West $117 Petty Cash Items $20 Transportation $30
What a GREAT week!
Dive Safe! Dive Often!
Emily