OceanFest is an Ocean Festival (similar to an Arts Festival or SeaFood Festival). Visit their web site at http://www.oceanfest.com
In the past years, OceanFest was held at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. This year, it was moved south to Ft. Lauderdale. However, since we were familiar with LBTS, we decided to get a motel room there, do our beach diving there, and travel to the daily festivities.
Crew members Dustin and Jacquie and Advisor Don met up with Bobby and I at 6:30 AM on Saturday morning (5/17) at our house in Melbourne. We loaded 33 tanks into Don's truck and lots of dive gear into Bobby's truck. We headed to Palm Bay to meet up with the rest of the Crew at the Big Lots parking lot at 7:15. Crew members Amanda, Hillery, Emily, Dylan, and Matt and Advisor Bill were waiting for us when we arrived. We finished packing everyone's gear and headed south on 95 by 7:30. Dylan road with Don and Bill drove the van with the rest of the kids. Bobby and I road in our truck. Note: We brought 2 way radios along with us and each vehicle had at least one. Having these radios is GREAT!
We did our usual rest stop in Stuart and continued south.
We hit Commercial Blvd and headed east, across US 1 and the Intercoastal Waterway. Across A1A to El Mar Ave. A right on El Mar and a left on Datura brought us to our favorite beach diving spot. This spot has a small pavilion, metered parking, and a shower. We unloaded the trucks, parked the vehicles and fed the meters. It was 10:15 AM.
The weather was wonderful. It was around 90 degrees and the sky was clear. Their was a little bit of a breeze so we didn't have our typical flat seas. We had about 2 foot seas - still great conditions for a beach dive.
We had motel reservations at the Beachside Apartment Motel a half a block from Datura. I stopped in to find out when we could check. 2 o'clock.
We established our buddy teams, suited up, and hit the water. It was 84 degrees - nice. I was doing Jacquie's open water check out dives this weekend, so she and I headed out to the swim area buoy. Bobby took Matt and Emily. Dustin and Dylan have both dove here before so they buddied up and headed out. Don and Bill, as well as Amanda and Hillery, decided to follow Bobby. Bobby had already decided he was going out beyond the pier where the best diving is. We noted that the current was running south to north - which meant that they were starting their dive WITH the current. Hmmmm......
Jacquie had problems equalizing. She was using an unfamiliar mask that had a purge and she couldn't get her fingers around the nose pocket. We spent 30 minutes going down and up and down and up trying to get her ears cleared. It never happened. We decided to head back in.
There were huge schools of bait fish in the water. It's cool when they engulf you but can be a little unnerving knowing that larger fish are attracted to these finds of pods. Dylan and Dustin came in and reported that they had a great dive.
Don and Bill came in next. This was Bill's first beach dive. It was an education. Getting in and out through the surf can be challenging and they had to come back against the current to return to the exit point. And walking out of the water through the loose sand with that heavy equipment can be a workout.
Bobby, Matt, Emily, Amanda, and Hillery weren't far behind. They were all a buzz about their dive and all the cool stuff they saw. We've dove this spot so much that we know where the hens and chickens reef formation is that is full of hatchet fish. A large green moray eel lives here. We recognize ledges, holes, and sea fans. It's like wandering around your backyard garden. It's a great place to beach dive.
It was 1:30 so I walked across the street and checked to see if our room was ready. Not yet. We all walked down to fishing pier and had lunch at the restaurant on the pier. This is a great affordable place right on the water. After lunch, we went back to the motel and checked in.
By 3:00, we had unloaded ALL of our gear into the room. This was an apartment with a kitchen, dinning room, living room with double bed and soft bed, large bedroom with 2 double beds, and a bathroom. We also rented an additional room that connected via a locked door that had it's own TV, double bed, bathroom with shower, and refrigerator. The 3 boys claimed the small room, the 4 girls claimed the big room, and the 4 adults got the middle area. I had brought along our camping bed. Don said he'd use that, Bill opted for the sofa bed, and Bobby and I got the double.
Next, we were off to OceanFest. It wasn't hard to find. South down A1A until you see the big white tents and all of the scuba stuff.
We found $6 parking that was pretty close to the festivities. The entry fee was $7. There were lots of booths representing all kinds of vendors: dive operations, dive resorts, clothing, organizations (such as DAN, PADI, and NAUI), jewelry, dive gear, books, CDs, art, food, etc... They had their pool setup again and Matt and Emily tried out the FM Radio snorkel. Yep, listen to music on the radio while you snorkel.
A bandstand was set up on the beach and a band was playing island music. Emily and I joined in on a dance contest and we both won a T-Shirt and a CD.
We all purchased our wrist bands for Sunday's Treasure Hunt. There was a $10 entry fee as well as the $7 OceanFest fee.
At 6:00 we headed back to the motel. We decided to get pizza for dinner. So off we went to Domino's. Jacquie and Matt came with me. We ordered 4 large pizzas for 11 people. We also picked up a couple of 12 packs of soda.
After dinner, we took a survey of who was doing the night dive. Amanda and Dylan were in. Dustin volunteered to be surface support. Jacquie got a regular mask and decided to give it another try. Her dad, Don, came along, too, for parental encouragement. Bobby was also up for it. Bill volunteered to stay behind as the advisor to supervise the kids who decided not to dive. Matt, Hillery, and Emily were so wiped out that they all promptly fell asleep as soon as we left for our dive. :-)
We loaded our set up rigs into the back of Bobby's truck and we walked to the beach while Bobby drove our gear over to Datura Ave. It was just about 9:00 PM and the parking area was empty. There are signs that say No Parking 9 PM to 5 AM, but we've talked to the cops here and they don't mind divers using it for night dives. They just don't want folks parking overnight here.
Dustin set the lantern up on the beach. We use it for reference from the ocean. We entered the water a little after 9:00. The moon had not yet risen. It was full on Thursday, so it would still be pretty big and bright when it did rise. Bobby, Amanda, and Dylan disappeared under the water. Their flashlights illuminated the water as they swam east. Jacquie, Don, and I got everything situated. I noticed that the current had changed and was now running north to south on the surface. We dropped under the water and headed east towards the reef. I knew exactly where we were as we passed the wreck re-creation that includes a number of cannons scattered at the edge of the swim area. Under one cannon was a small nurse shark. I knew the reef wasn't too far off.
I frequently checked Jacquie to make sure her ears were clearing. She gave me the OK sign every time. COOL! By this point, we were at the deepest we were going to hit - 15 feet. I shown my light ahead of us and noticed something black lying in the sand. As I swam closer, I noticed it was a spear gun. TREASURE!!!!!! My treasure.
I lead the way with Jacquie behind me and Don bringing up the rear. We were soon on the reef. But it wasn't good reef. Hmmmm...... We swam a bit and still kind of junky reef. Hmmmmm...... Well, here I was again without my compass. Hmmmmmm.... Next thing I knew, my light was shining on the line that holds the swim area buoy. Somehow, I had gotten turned around and was bringing us back in. Why does this always happen to me?
OK, got my bearing and headed east. AH! There it is. The reef I remembered with nooks and cranny, ledges, coral heads, and huge sea whips! We saw lots of lobsters out roaming the reef. I caught a large tarpon in my light beam as it swam away from us. There were tangs and sleeping parrotfish. There were pufferfish of all sizes. We came upon 2 small reef squid. They were very white and their tentacles were dancing in the water. Jacquie put her hand out and came up underneath one. They both turned bright red. Then purple. Then they inked us and disappeared - in unison.
I noticed that there wasn't much of a bottom current so I headed us north towards the pier across the middle of the reef (which also runs north/south). It was an awesome dive. However, I did get quite a surprise when my mouthpiece popped off of my regulator and I sucked in a mouthful of water. yum. I put my alternate regulator (spare) in my mouth and put my 'special custom' mouthpiece back on my primary regulator. Then I switched. About 5 minutes later, it popped off again. Darn! Back to my alternate and this time I just decided to finish my dive with the alternate.
Our next encounter was with a small loggerhead turtle. He was on the bottom with his head up under a small ledge. Jacquie put her hand out and I motioned her to come stroke his back. As we approached a noticed a very large fish hook sticking in the turtle where his front flipper meets his body. Jacquie moved in and stoked his shell. The turtle turned and looked at us. He didn't swim away. I noticed the fish hook had a very long string of fishing line attached and I stopped and thought for a moment - "What can I do to help this fella?" I approached him and stroked his shell. He just turned his head and looked at me. I reached down for the hook and tried to pull it out. It didn't come out. It was in pretty deep. He just looked at me again. I thought about pushing it through, but I didn't have anything to cut the barb with to bring it back out. Hmmmmm.... So I tried again to bring it out. It came out a bit, but got stuck again. Mr. Turtle just sat there. This was amazing. OK, give it another shot. I pushed down on the hook (away from the barb) and gave the hook a quick pull and twist. This time - SUCCESS!!!!! As soon as the hook was out, the turtle swam off. He knew I was trying to help him but he didn't stick around long to say thanks once the problem was solved. Last year Bobby saved a turtle that had tried to eat a garbage bag. This year it was my turn. :)
We were all doing great on our air and our time. After 50 minutes, we headed back to our exit point. As we surfaced, I noticed that the moon had just risen. It was about 20 degrees off the horizon and big and bright. I also noticed the bioluminescence in the water with each kick of my fin. Wow! We surfaced north of our exit point and let the surface current drift us back to where our lantern was on the beach. Bobby was already out with Amanda and Dylan. He said they surfaced just as the moon was rising and it was blood red. Cool.
We showered off and loaded our gear back into the truck. It was 10:30 when we got back to the motel. Showers and bed!
I was the first up at 6:30 AM. We had told the kids they could sleep until 9:00. So I walked the beach, watched two small rain squalls move though, went to Winn-Dixie and picked up bagels, cream cheese, and bananas, walked the beach - again, and finally at 9 o'clock, I started to rouse the troops.
The plan was to get something to eat, setup your gear, load your setup rig on Bobby's truck with your weight belt, mask, fins, snorkel, and wet suit and load everything else into Don't truck. The owners of this motel were super. They let us leave Don's truck at the motel while we went to OceanFest. We covered his truck bed with a tarp, picked up our mess in the room, checked out and headed for OceanFest.
It was a beautiful day. The rain showers had moved off and the sun was hot!
We arrived around 11:00 - a full hour before the treasure hunt started. Bill dropped everyone off at the front gate and left to park the van. Bobby stopped and we all quickly unloaded the equipment from the truck. Then he was off to park. The $6 lot was full so they had to park in the $10 parking. We lugged the gear down to the beach and were lucky to secure a picnic table for our Crew. I had to make a quick stop at the Atlantis Dive Center booth and say HI to my buddy, Captain Slate.
Pro Divers was sponsoring a "Best Dressed Diver" contest at the bandstand. They announced that "Everyone's a winner!" All but 4 of our folks entered. Each contestant was briefly interviewed - name, home town, how long certified, and such. When I got to the microphone, I asked if I could sing a song. The guy said "Sure". I sang "The Well Equipped Diver" It goes something like this:
I'm a SCUBA diver, I got a lot of gear
A regulator and a fishing spear
A BC, a compass, a divin' watch
A bang stick that hangs between my crotch
Weight belt, snorkel, prescription mask
My super jet fins, I go real fast
I go real fast, I go real fast
I'm a SCUBA diver and it's a gas
Imagine me up there singing and dancing in FULL gear including a tank! Well, I won first prize for the ladies division! Woo-Hoo!!!!!! And Jacquie won second!!!!!! More Woo-Hoos!!!!!!! I figured we won a T-shirt or something like that. Then, the others in our group were given constellation prizes - a $20 gift certificate at Pro-Divers (just north on A1A) Hmmmmm..... what did WE win? Jacquie and I asked the guy what we won as he gave us our certificates. "First place is an Aqua Lung Titan LX regulator (first and second stage) and second place is a Seaquest BC." WOW!!!!! Jacquie was thrilled! This is the same BC that her dad (Don) and Bobby have. And she's just getting certified!
We put our certificates away and got ready to dive the treasure hunt. Neal Watson, the organizer of the show, told us all that the format this year had changed. This year, we were looking for bright pink washers. Find one, bring it back to the information booth and exchange it and your wrist band for a raffle ticket.
We headed towards the water and started our search. Jacquie and I were going to continue with her certification checkout once we had our washers. Well, we never did find any washers. So headed out to the reef. I checked my computer and found that the water was a warm 84 degrees. On the way out, we stopped and did skills in the sand. Mask flood and clear, regulator recovery, etc. Then we headed east again. We soon found the reef and Jacquie came across her first nurse shark. She motioned to me to head the other way, so we did.
The reef here is much flatter than at LBTS. We didn't go out real far, though, and I'm sure it changes the farther east you get. But we hung close and checked out all the small ledges. There was an abundance of juvenile fish - angels, high hats, tiny moray eels. We also spotted a nice size red grouper and monster hog fish! The vis was easily 50 feet. We came across a number of nurse sharks and Jacquie's nervousness over them subsided with each encounter until she actually reached out and stroked one's tail. What a thrill! We had a great dive and headed back in after about 45 minutes.
We met up with our group back on the beach. Everyone found a washer - everyone except me and Jacquie. Jacquie lucked out. She found a guy who had two and since he could only turn one in for a ticket, she talked him out of it. I convinced Neal's daughter, Beth, that I deserved a ticket, too, so she gave me one. Sweet girl. It turns out, there were 90 divers registered and 100 prizes to give out. Someone said that a snorkeler picked up 15 but didn't know what they were - he was just out collecting. And some divers picked up more than one. So I was in!
They started to draw numbers - and everyone was going to get something. We ended up with a tremendous haul! Let's see if I can remember what everyone got:
Amanda - DAN T-Shirt Matt - Mares Mask and Snorkel Set Hillery - 64 oz mug Emily (youth) - Scuba Tunes CD Jacquie - Waterproof dive log book Dustin - Waterproof dive log book Dylan - Boat Music CD Emily (me) - Wrecks of Miami reference book Don - dive trip to the Spiegel Grove with Underwater Divers in Key Largo Bobby - Nikon digital camera with underwater housing Bill - Live Aboard trip for 1 on the Sea Fever
After the drawing, we packed up the gear and headed for Pro Divers to redeem our certificates. Hillery gave Dylan hers and he picked up a $63 UK light for $23. Matt and Bill combined theirs to take $40 off a set of Cressi fins for Matt that were already 30% off. Emily bought cloths. Jacquie got a Seaquest QD Pro weight integrated BC - retail value $510 and I picked up my $365 regulator. What a day!
Back to the motel for Don's truck and on the road. It was around 5:00 and everyone was hungry. We found a King's Chinese Buffet north on US 1 and stopped for a tremendous meal. This place had crawdads, shrimp, crab legs, stone crab claws, oysters, sushi, carved roast beef and lamb, pizza, all kinds of chicken, beef, and pork. And deserts galore - we pigged out!!!!!!
By 6:30, we were on the road north and heading home. We did our usual stop at the Stuart rest area on 95 and had all of the kids call home. We pulled into Big Lots around 9:30 - about an hour and a half later than we expected. But we hadn't planned for the trip to Pro Divers and we hadn't planned on such a long dinner.
Here's the per person cost breakdown:
$6 - Saturday Lunch $20 - Motel $5 - Parking $7 - OceanFest Saturday $5 - Pizza dinner $1 - Breakfast $7 - OceanFest Sunday $10 - Treasure Hunt $17 - Sunday Dinner =================== $78 - Total
Of course, everyone spent additional money on T-Shirts, drinks, snacks, and such. So figure it was a $100 weekend. Emily wins the shopping prize - a bathing suit, a dress, and a tank top!
After we got home, Bill and I discussed trading my new regulator for his Live Aboard dive trip. The trip is to Cay Sal Bank south of Florida and north of Cuba. The dive boat has OK'ed a transfer so it looks like Bobby and I are finally going to get to experience a trip on a live aboard. Woo-Hoo!!!!!!
It was a great weekend! I can't wait for next year.
Dive Safe! Dive Often!
Emily