Devils Den Camping Trip 1/13,14/01
Blue Spring 2/24/01
West Palm Lobster Dive 3/11/01
Key Largo Camping Trip 4/27,28,29/01
OceanFest Camping Trip 5/18,19,20/01
Lauderdale-by-the-Sea Beach Dive 6/23/01
Pompano Boat Dive - Aqua Zoo & Ancient Mariner 7/14/01
Pepper Park Lobster Beach Dive 8/18/01
Christmas Card Sale 2001
Rainbow River Drift Dive 11/17/01
Trip Report Page
Venture Crew Home Page
Devils Den Camping Trip - January 13 & 14, 2001
Another great trip! Devil’s Den is a hole into the Florida aquifer. It has a series of caves that are barred off to divers and a cavern system which has signs not to enter due to the silty bottom which, when stirred up, can change the visibility from infinite to zero in the kick of a fin. As long as you don’t violate these areas, this is an extremely safe and exciting dive. The dive includes a number of large swim-throughs which give you the feeling of cave diving without the risks of cave diving.
3 youth and 6 adults met at my house at 7:30 AM for our camping/diving weekend at Devil’s Den in Williston (north of Ocala). Another youth and an adult were meeting us there for a total of 11 on this trip. After packing all of our gear into 2 pickup trucks and 1 van, we were on the road by 8:10 AM. We headed up 95 to 528 and then took the turnpike to 75. We made a rest stop at the Turkey Lake rest area and then on to the Williston.
We arrived at Devil’s Den at 11:30 AM. We checked in at the office and then picked our camp sites. We found a couple of nice ones right beside the large man-made lake. The camp sites here rank high as far as camp sites go. We had water and electric. We setup one site as a kitchen area and another as our campfire area. We sprinkled our tents around the perimeter of the sites.
After we were setup, we had yummy chicken salad sandwiches and chips for lunch.
We met back at the office at 1:00 PM where Paul gave us our dive briefing. Our plan was to get our briefing on Saturday so we could dive first thing Sunday morning when they open the gates. Actually, we lucked out – we met one of the Den’s instructors – Dave. Dave told us that he gets to work early and that he would open the gate for us early, if we wanted, since we had already had our dive briefing. Woo-Hoo!! First in the Den yields the BEST visibility.
After our briefing, the youth went snorkeling in the Den. A couple of the adults relaxed (i.e. took naps) while others explored the area. Devil’s Den has very well kept grounds. The man-made lake is used for open water training dives and is teaming with fish. We did notice that the water level is extremely low. The water in Den is down about 8 feet. We’ve dove this spot when the water was UP 15 feet. What a difference.
We had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner and then enjoyed a raging fire. Everyone got their tank setup with their gear during the evening so we were ready to go in the morning. We headed to bed around 10:30 PM. It was cold – very cold.
Up at 6:15 AM and it was still cold – but not as cold as it was when we went to bed. We ate bagels and cream cheese while getting ready for our dive. Some of the youth had to put on wet wetsuits – burrrrrrr At 7:20, we loaded the truck with set up dive gear and headed for the Den.
As we walked down the steps into the Den, the cold air warmed up to 72 degrees. It was like walking into a heated room.
John Choate was gracious to let me borrow his underwater video camera. My buddy and I entered the water first with the camera and headed to the swim through at 50 feet at the 1:30 spot in the Den. There, I found a hole that I recognized from previous trips here. After a short wait, Dave and Dustin swam by. I got shots of them and then headed into the swim-through. Here, we encountered our first barred cave entrance. The video light lit up the entire ‘cave’. I swam out the other end and on to the next hole and into the rocks.
I came across Bob, Ed, and Kent coming into one of the swim-throughs as I exited. I think I blinded Kent with the video light. I didn’t even notice until viewing the film that Kent only had one fin on. Apparently, he had a fin strap break so he did the dive with only one fin.
I swam by Ann and Amanda outside of the second swim-through and got a good shot of them, too.
There were lots of catfish in the water. We found out later that they are pets of the staff at the den and they even have names. We also learned that the water in the aquifer and in springs doesn’t contain oxygen and, hence, can’t sustain fish or plant live. These fish survive because there are so many divers blowing bubbles in the den that water contains enough oxygen to sustain the fish population.
After about an hour of exploring and shooting video, I was running low on air, so Cathy and I surfaced. Even though the water was only 72 degrees, I never actually got cold. We hit a max depth of 60 in the deepest swim-through.
We noticed that quite a few divers had entered the den while we were doing our dive. When we exited the den, we noticed 2 buses in the parking lot. This hole is a lot bigger than it looks!
We headed back to camp for the real breakfast – pancakes and bacon! Kent brought fresh strawberries. Yum.
After breakfast, Dave and Ed headed to the den for a second dive. The rest of us started to clean up and tear down camp.
Around 2:00 PM, we boiled up hotdogs for lunch. Afterwards, we finished loading everything into the trucks. By 3:30, we were headed for home. We made a stop at the Okahumpka rest area on the turnpike and then on to Melbourne. We arrived home a little after 6:30.
We unloaded the gear and sorted everybody’s stuff out. Then we watched the video. There is about 30 minutes of really good stuff out of 60 minutes of film time. We’ll edit it down and add it to the Crew video that we’ve been making.
Costs were minimized due to us being part of a dive class. Instructors can sometimes get special rates at some dive facilities. Because we were part of a class and we were camping, we were not charged the regular $9 daily usage fee. This saved our divers $9 (not charged the day you dive) and our non-divers $18. We also saved on the cost of the diving because of the class. Normally, they charge $27 to dive. We were charged $22. An additional savings of $5. So how much did it REALLY cost? Divers paid $40 and non-divers paid $20 for the entire weekend. This included transportation, 4 meals, cost of diving, equipment, tanks, and camping. Note – after doing all of the accounting, the cost actually should have been $5 more per person to cover the cost of gas, taxes (this is a 7% county) and food that was bought for folks who had to cancel at the last minute. However, we opted to allow the Crew treasury to make up for any shortages rather than ask the participates for more cash.
We had a great time. This is always a wonderful trip.
Blue Spring State Park - February 24, 2001
Our CREW had a great dive on Saturday. We met at the Bank of America near the corner of EauGallie and Rte. 1 at 9 a.m. and got everyone a place in a vehicle and scuba gear stowed in Dave's truck. Off we went to Blue Springs near DeLand. Of course, it hasn't rained in Florida for six months, so we had scattered showers both on the way up there and again on the way back. We had 10 divers and four snorkelers.
Congratulations go to Shane Richardson who finished his last two dives to finish up his Open Water Class and is now a certified diver! Four of our other snorkelers are in a certification class now and will finish up their Open Water Dives on March 11 on a boat dive.
When we got to Blue Springs, we signed in at the Ranger station. Cost for divers is $5 each. The nondivers paid either by the vehicle or by the individual. We found parking. Blue Springs was really crowded. It was sunny and near 80 degrees.
We walked up to the spring head and saw where we would be diving, had a dive briefing by Kent Rivenbark, geared up, and headed to the entry area. The water level was down a bit and the flow wasn't as fast as usual. Four of the divers are working on Advanced and were working on Underwater Naturalist. (John, Jon, Jason, PJ) There isn't much fish life near the spring because there isn't enough oxygen in the water. The CREW did see an adult otter eating a large bass and saw two younger otters hiding along the shore.
As divers drifted closer to the swim area, more fish and vegetation were seen. The snorkelers got up to the spring area to see the entry area (John, Rob, Fred, James).
West Palm Lobster Dive - March 11, 2001
This trip was a combined Crew lobster dive and Certification dive. Rob, James, and Fred did their checkout dives and the rest of the group hunted lobster.
The trip was on one of the Diving Solutions boats. One of the highlights of the dive trip was the hammerhead encounter. A few lobster were sighted but none were bagged.
The cost for this trip was $40.
Key Largo Camping Trip - April 27, 28, 29, 2001
We started planning for this trip in February. The turnout at the Crew meetings increased the closer we got to the trip date. Due to the tremendous Crew response, we were not able to open this trip up to outside divers. One of the reasons for this was the invitation that the Crew gave to the members' families. We ended up with at least one parent of each Crew member joining us. We even had 2 families come along. We did this so the parents and siblings could see what we do on our outtings.
By the first Crew meeting in April, I had reserved the boat at Atlantis Dive Center, started collecting deposits, and started to generate organizational lists. I contacted Pennekamp State Park to make camping reservations only to find out that they were hosting an MS Bike-a-thon charity and there were no sites available for that weekend. My heart sank. I started making calls only to find out that there aren't many economical camping solutions before Mother's Day in Key Largo.
I made some calls to friends in the Keys and everyone I spoke to highly recommended America Outdoors. I called them and almost choked when they told me $70 a night for a camp site. However, they did offer sites right on the water on the bay side. I found a few places that weren't quite as expensive, but none of these were on the water.
After a discussion with the other advisors, we decided to go with America Outdoors. Being on the water would allow us to do the advanced navigational work with the Crew members right from our camp site. I called and reserved 5 joining sites.
At the last meeting before our trip, we finalized the camp gear lists, dive gear lists, food lists, and meal menus. Amanda (Crew president) and I did the grocery shopping on Tuesday. We decided to purchase the bread in the Keys so it wouldn't get crushed and stale.
We met at Dave's house (Crew advisor) on Wednesday to gather gear. Boy Scout troop 380 was gracious to let us use their brand new trailer (they haven't even used it yet). This is a huge trailer measuring in at 6 X 12 and 6 foot high inside. It even has shelves. It wasn't ready on Wednesday so a few of us met back at Dave's on Thursday to pack the trailer.
We had a total of 14 youths and 14 adults on the trip. Due to different departure times, we deviated from our regular car-pool and everyone was on their own to meet in Key Largo. Bobby and I left Melbourne by 7:30 on Friday morning. We stopped for breakfast at The Cracker Barrel along I-95 and then hit the turnpike.
We rolled into Key Largo at 12:30 PM. After checking into the camp grounds, we unloaded the trailer and setup our tent. What a beautiful campground. The sites are large and there are lots of trees. Water and electric is on each site. They even have cable hook-up!
The Geld family was not far behind us. They picked their site, setup camp, and launched their boat. We had 1 site right along the beach and the other 4 were on the next row. We decided to make the waterfront site the community site for cooking and eating.
One by one, folks showed up and setup their tents. The Rosaci's brought a pop-up trailer. The last group rolled in at about midnight, but weren't sure where we were camping so the security gaurd told them to just pitch camp and then find us in the morning - which they did.
Before breakfast, Amanda organized a duty roster and got everyone to sign up for jobs like cooking and cleaning up. Breakfast was pancakes and bacon with orange juice and milk.
After breakfast, we handed out dive gear and tanks to the Crew members that needed to do their navigation dives for advanced certification. A few were busily completing their knowledge reviews while others were getting ready to dive.
The vis in the bay was pretty poor. The wind had been ripping for all week and everything was churned up. But hey, you're not supposed to be able to see where you're going. That's what underwater navigation is all about. However, a few kids said it would have been a lot easier if they could have SEEN their compasses.
Congratulations goes out to Jon Rosaci who, with this navigational dive, completed his advanced certification requirements!
After the nav dive, it was lunch time. Cold cut sandwiches and Bobby's famous chicken salad. The afternoon was free time and some worked on their night dive knowledge reviews while others played volleyball. Bobby and I made a run down to the dive center to check the ocean conditions and touch base with dive operator. The report was not good. The wind was still out of the east at 15 to 20 mph. The seas were 2 to 4 inside the reef with low vis and 5 to 7 outside the reef. Hmmm.... Not what we wanted to hear.
Dinner was cheeseburgers and potato salad. The kids were serinaded by the adults singing along with a Grateful Dead CD while the burgers cooked. I think they think we're a little weird. Our older folks sure got some good voices, though.
After dinner, we all loaded up into the vehicles and headed south to Big Pine to do a night dive at Horseshoe. This is a large cut out hole about 100 yards by 100 yards on the bay side. The walls are crushed coral. Some thought it was a borrow pit when building the road. Others thought maybe the startings of a marina or safe harbor that never got finished. Bobby and I have dove this spot many times while vacationing on Big Pine. The max depth is 40 feet in the center, but if you come off the walls, you will see nothing but silt. You MUST stay up on the walls of this dive. The walls at some points are 20 feet tall and just some small rocks at other points.
We got to the dive spot around 7:30 PM. We unloaded the gear, handed out underwater lights, snapped our cylums, and made the short walk to the water.
Bobby was our surface support. Ann was snorkling with one of the young boys. Kent took 8 divers in his group, entered the water, and went to the right. I took 8 divers in my group and went to the left. The left side did not have much to see. Everything was covered with eel grass from the strong east wind. (the left side was the west side) Some of my divers kept wanting to go deep. I had to chase them down a number of times and bring them back up the wall.
We saw some sleeping parrot fish and a couple of lobster. But mostly eel grass. I was getting a bit disappointed since I remembered this as being a much more lively dive spot. When we reached the channel cut (the half way point) I surfaced my group and did a buddy check. One diver was running low on air and decided to snorkle back across the water to the exit point. I got bummed out when most of the divers decided to go with him and end their dive. Two divers (a father/son buddy team) told me that they wanted to go on. Woo-Hoo!!!
We dropped down and started along the inside of the east wall. At first, we saw mostly eel grass, then it started to clear up and we came upon the dramatic walls that I remembered about this dive. We saw sleeping grouper and parrot fish, juvenile angel fish and tangs, coral crabs, blue crabs, lobster, and (my favorite) a harlequin crab. The closer we got the exit point, the better the dive got and the more dramatic the wall face became with cracks and crevasses filled with bright red flame scallops and sleeping fish.
There were also a lot of small non-stinging jelly fish in the water. They looked like they were made up of clear orange segments. And the minnows - oh the minnows! If you kept your light in one spot for any length of time, you couldn't see through the silver minnows.
At the end of the dive, I was surprised to hear the different reactions of the divers. Some loved it and wanted to do it again while others hated it and felt it was a waste of time. We learned from this dive that our groups were too large. We should have had 1 guide for 2 buddy teams instead of 1 for 4.
We got out of the water around 9:00 PM, loaded up the gear and headed back to camp. We arrived back at camp around 10:45, cleaned up, and hit the hay!
Up at 7:00 AM for a quick donut and milk breakfast. Another lesson learned - if you want donuts in the Keys, the only place to get them is Winn-Dixie and you have to order them ahead of time. But Bobby's persuasiveness and mentioning that he had to feed a dozen hungry boy scouts before going diving pulled on the baker's heart strings and she gave him donuts that were slated for the church. Bobby got back to camp with the donuts at 7:15. Folks ate donuts while signing their dive waivers.
We loaded up and headed to the dive shop. The boat was scheduled to leave the dock at 8:30. When we got to the shop at 8:00 we learned that the seas were worse than the day before. 4 to 6 on the inside with hardly any vis and 5 to 7 on the outside. Bobby, our safety officer, made the call and cancelled the dive. We were all disappointed that the weather had not cooperated for us to do our ocean dive, but there will always be another day.
Since the captain and the mate are paid by the trip, and our cancellation caused them to not work, I tipped them both $25. They were extremely appreciative. We were not charged by the dive shop for cancelling the boat.
We went back to camp, tore down, and packed up. We had sandwiches and chips for lunch before heading home. Bobby and I headed out around 1:30 PM. We got back to Melbourne around 6:00.
Per Person Costs:
This cost included tanks, air, and dive equipment for those who didn't have their own. Can't beat it for a weekend in the Keys. If we HAD done the dive, the total for the weekend would have only been $90. And that's with the expensive camp grounds.
And we're doing it again in 2 weeks for OceanFest. Check out www.oceanfest.com This is going to be a GREAT weekend. Let's hope for blue skies and calm seas.
Dive Safe! Dive Often!
Emily
OceanFest Camping Trip - May 18, 19, 20, 2001
The planning for this trip started last year when the Crew decided to go on the trip again after OceanFest 2000. It was during June of last year that we reserved the Youth Primitive Camp Area at Huge Taylor Birch State Park in Ft. Lauderdale for the 2001 show.
We started planning the details of the trip about 4 weeks ago at the Crew meeting. We made equipment lists and planned the meals. Quick breakfasts and lunches at the show. Saturday dinner was planned for traditional Boy Scout foil pack dinners. We made gear lists and organized transportation. We had 21 people signed up for the trip. Amanda's family was joining us, including her 2 brothers - Nat (11) and Josh (12). Our friend who dove with Bobby for Brian's Eagle Scout project planned on bringing his 2 boys - Austin (11) and Devin (10). This was great! Up and coming Crew members!
Wednesday evening (May 16), we started gathering camping and diving equipment. A number of folks didn't show up with their gear so I started to make phone calls. We had a total of 6 people drop out Wednesday evening due to different personal reasons. I was bummed. I had already been tracking the weather and knew that we were going to have perfect conditions. These guys were going to miss out on a wonderful dive trip.
Thursday evening, I did the grocery shopping. Cold cereal, bagels, cream cheese, hamburger patties, lots of veggies, water, chips, gummy bears,...
Friday morning, Bobby picked up the Scout trailer. Our living room was filled with camping and diving gear. Bobby and I packed the trailer and put the 24 tanks into the back of the pickup truck. We are fortunate to have lots of friends who dive who allow our Crew to use their tanks. They store them at our house and we keep them filled with air. Not a bad deal.
By 12:45 PM, we were headed south on I-95.
We had a relatively uneventful trip until we hit the West Palm area. We ran into some nasty road construction and a lot of 18 wheelers. I was amazed at the number of people on cell phones. It was a truly dangerous place. I was happy when traffic got back to normal.
We exited at Sunrise Blvd in Ft. Lauderdale and headed east to the state park. The park is bordered by A1A and Sunrise. We checked in at the park office and headed to the camp area. Bobby parked the truck with the trailer and we got out to survey the grounds. We were immediately attacked by ferocious mosquitoes! We were being swarmed!!!! I jumped back in the truck. Bobby unhooked the trailer and we headed to the nearest store for Yard Guard and insect repellant.
We went back to camp and immediately treated the area. We also sprayed ourselves well. That was the ticket. They didn't bother me again for awhile.
Bobby and I unloaded the trailer and setup camp. The camp grounds are nice. There is a large open area where we setup the tents. There is a large fire ring under the trees. There is a cold water shower, a water spicket, and a biological toilet. There are lots of trees in the area. I particularly liked the huge banyon tree at the parking area.
Kent and Dustin showed up around 7:00 PM. Kent brought lots of firewood. We were expecting Amanda and her family to arrive very soon. Kent and Dustin left to go get dinner. Bobby and I took turns hanging out at the front gate. The gate was locked at 8:00 PM but we had a key for entry and exit. They arrived around 9:30. We took them back to camp and they got their stuff put into their tents.
We decided we were hungry so we ventured out. We found a Denny's just down the road on A1A. Be warned - this is NOT a place that you want to go to for a meal. We arrived at 10:45 PM. The waiter that took our order informed us that he gets off at 11:00. He was rushing around trying to get his side work done so he could go home. 11:00 came and went and we hadn't yet been served. Our drink glasses set empty. 11:15 came - still no food. I asked him if he had forgotten about us and he said that as soon as the cook puts our food up, we'll have it. 11:30 and the waiter finally delivered 2 meals. He apologized and told us that the cook refused to make our meals. The waiter told us that the other cook quit and left this guy to work all alone on the 11 to 7 AM shift. The cook was not happy. We made a joke out of it and had the entire place laughing. The cook was REALLY not happy! At 11:40, the manager came out and apologized and got the rest of us our food. She also did not charge us. Good thing. Avoid this place. I have to admit, it did give us a good laugh, though.
Back to camp and to bed. We were planning a morning beach dive after breakfast. I couldn't wait! The ocean looked so sweet!
Up early and a quick breakfast. Toasted bagels and cream cheese. Dave and Ann showed up at 9:30 AM just as we were getting ready to head to the beach. Kurt was with them and wanted to make the dive with us. As we started out again, James arrived with his 2 boys. They wanted to come along, too. James stayed behind with Dave and Ann and setup his tent.
We headed to A1A. The ocean looked wonderful - calm and clear. Up A1A to Hibiscus at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. One street over and one street up put us at the Wind Jammer motel. This is were our friends Janel and Mike had a room. Kent had left ahead of us and had parking spaces 'saved' for all of us. We fed the meters and unloaded our gear. Janel came out of her room and said HI! Dave, a member of the Descenders Dive Club, pulled into the access area right after we did. He joined us for our dive.
We got into our buddy teams and each team had a dive flag. We gave a dive briefing and then headed into the water. We had 8 people on this dive - 4 buddy teams.
Amanda and I had an extremely easy entry, put on our fins, put our regs in our mouth, dropped under the water, and headed out to sea. Next thing I knew, I was practically grounded on a sand bar. We got over the bar and the water drops to 6 feet, then 8, then 12. It becomes pretty flat at this point and a few more kicks put us on the first reef. I love hearing the crackle of the reef before I see it.
The first reef is not very interesting. There are some small fish, a lot of silty covered rocks, and some coral. The first reef builds into the second reef line where we started to see larger coral formations, more dramatic ledges, and bigger fish. We found a number of lobster. Amanda and I explored the reef. There was a very slight north current. Water temperature was 80 degrees. We had at least 50 foot of vis. It was wonderful! As we headed north toward Anglin's Fishing Pier, we started to hear music. Woo-Hoo! We were diving during OceanFest's underwater music festival. It was too cool. Amanda and I did a little mermaid dance!
After 40 minutes, we decided to head on in. We were the first to exit the water. My computer recorded a max depth of 18 feet. The 4 young boys spent their time snorkling while Ginny (Amanda's mom) watched over our stuff on the beach.
The rest of the buddy teams came out of the water soon after we did. We all rinsed off at the public shower and packed up the truck. Dustin and Kent went on to OceanFest. The rest of us headed back to camp to clean up, unload the dive gear, and head back to the beach.
We got back to Lauderdale around 1:45. We went to Anglin's Pier and took 3 of their outside booths for lunch. We had prime seats for the 2:00 show of the Coast Guard Air/Sea rescue. We watched as the red flares were dropped into the ocean to mark the victim. A diver dropped out of the CG helicopter. The diver secured the victim and road the line with him into the helicopter. The diver and the victim were then lowered onto the deck of a moving Coast Guard boat. It was extremely impressive.
Lunch was very reasonable and the service was much better than we expected.
After lunch, we hit the show. We all went in different directions. James' boys were into the rock climbing. Kurt enjoyed trying the sea sled in the above ground pool. A band played on the beach while a sand sculpter worked on a sand castle.
We stopped in at the Captain Slate's Atlantis Dive Center booth and said HI to our friends, Spence and Annette. I had the wonderful privledge to meet the newest member of the Slate family, 6 month old Hunter. What a cutie!
We wondered through the many tented exhibit areas. We spoke to travel agents, equipment manufacturers, jewelers, retail operators, boat operators, dive resort reps... You name it. If it had to do with diving, there was someone there selling it.
We regrouped at 5:00 PM and headed back to camp for dinner. Kent started the fire while Ginny, Ann, and I cut up the veggies. Once the coals got good and hot, we started to assemble our foil pack dinners. We marked the packs with our names and put them in the coals. After 20 minutes, we turned them and removed them 10 minutes later. Boy, they were good. We also had salad and fruit cocktail.
After dinner, we gathered our gear and started to prepare for our night dive. I forgot the cylums (again) so Bobby ventured out and found some at Target. They were expensive (3.00 each) but we needed them for safety on the dive.
Ann and Ginny, Nat and Josh stayed behind. The rest of us headed out around 9:30 for the same spot that we dove in the morning. We arrived at the Wind Jammer and Janel came out to say HI again. She had been there since Thursday and had already done 5 dives. I invited her to join us, but she graciously declined.
Dave was our surface support and setup 2 lanterns - one down on the beach and one up where the beach meets the parking lot. This was for reference so divers could surface and determine their location based up the space between the 2 lanterns. If you move and the gap between the lights gets larger, you are moving away from your entry/exit point - and vice versa. Devin and Austin gave Dave a hand on the beach.
We cracked our cylums and our buddy teams entered the water. Amanda was my buddy again. Her dad, Ed, also buddied up with us. We had decided that we would dive for 30 minutes or until the first person reached 1000 psi. We took the same entry approach as the morning dive. We got into thigh deep water, put on our fins, put our regs in our mouths, dumped our BCs, hit the bottom and headed out. I was expecting the sand bar this time. Once over it, it was smooth sailing.
It was a good swim out to the reef. It always seems to take longer at night. Crackle, crack, pop! I knew we were close.
The reef came into the scope of my light. We headed out over the first reef and when the scenery got more interesting, we headed south. We were taking our time exploring the darkness with our beams of light. There were lots of fish on the reef as well as crabs and shrimp. Tiny shrimp. Their little eyes glow when hit with a flashlight. After about 15 minutes, we headed east again and then back north. We were doing really well on our air.
I came upon a small ocean puffer and held him in my hands. He immediately puffed up and I got a little stick from one of his spines. I tried to hand him to Amanda, but she wouldn't take him.
Towards the end of our dive, we met up with Kent and Dustin. They followed us in. On our way back, we encounted a very large eagle ray. I first thought that my light was hitting a school of minnows, but I realized it was an eagle ray when it flipped his wings back and I saw the white underside. He headed straight up. It was too cool! My guess was about a 6 foot wingspan. He was a big guy.
We exited just a little south of the lanterns. I was pretty whooped and literally crawled out of the ocean on all fours. The sand at the water's edge was more like small, loose round stones and it was extremely hard to get a good footing.
We had a total of 42 minutes with a max depth of 16 feet.
Bobby's group exited shortly after we did. His group was a buzz about the cuddle fish that they had played with. They also tickled an ocean puffer and made it puff up.
We rinsed off, loaded our gear, and headed back to camp. Most of the group hit the hay, but a couple of us played stick toss with the cylums on the park road out along the intercoastal waterway.
Up early Sunday morning. Bobby picked up Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast. After breakfast, we tore down camp. Everything was stacked along side the trailer. Next, we setup our gear for the OceanFest treasure hunt. Once that was done, we packed up the trailer and put the empty tanks in the back of Bobby's truck. We made arrangements with the park office to leave the truck at the camp area until after our dive.
We headed off to OceanFest and dropped our gear at the entrance. Ginny and the boys stayed with it until everyone parked. We had bought our $10 treasure hunt entry bands the day before but were told that we also needed to purchase a day pass to OceanFest for $6. So to dive the treasure hunt, the cost was actually $16.
We setup our gear on the beach and waited for the treasure hunt to start at 2:00. James and I buddied up. We entered the water and floated out towards the reef awaiting the start signal. By the time we were told to start the hunt, we were already over the first reef.
What a sight! I wish I could have seen an arial shot of this. There must have been at least 200 divers in the water for this event. We dropped down and headed out. We looked and we searched. And we looked and we searched. We couldn't find any stinkin' large silver washers with numbers. But we did see lots of beautiful coral, fish, turtles, crabs, and sea fans. This is such a beautiful reef. And it is so easy to get to.
James and I enjoyed our dive in 80 degree water with 50 foot of vis. I had a max depth of 14 feet on this dive. We never did find any treasure. We found out later that all of the treasure coins were in the sand just passed the sand bar. We were passed them before we every dropped underwater to dive. Oh well, it was still a wonderful dive. It was almost like walking down the sidewalk waving to the other divers going the other way.
When I was at about 1500 psi, I came upon Dave and Kurt. Dave was low on air so he handed Kurt off to me and headed in. A few minutes later, James showed me that he, too, was low on air. I sent him in. Kurt and I spent another 10 minutes on the reef and then headed on into the beach. I had a total of 1 hour on this dive.
When we got back to our spot on the beach, I heard Neal Watson announce "The diver is fine. He's in the ambulance. They're taking him to the hospital to get checked out" I started looking for Bobby. I couldn't find him. Ginny noticed the onset of my panic attack and told me that Bobby was OK. He was out snorkling. What a relief.
We found out later that a diver had found another diver on the bottom just east of the sand bar in 6 foot of water. The speculation is a heart attack. Bobby said that he saw the EMTs working on him on the beach and was surprised to hear the annoucement. We soon found out that he did not make it. He was a 59 year old West Palm diver.
None of the folks in our group found any treasure coins but we were all entered in the grand prize raffle. Bobby, however, proudly showed us his treasure. It was a small white garbage. While searching for coins, Bobby saw a small loggerhead turtle on the reef. Bobby said that the turtle's head was pointing up and he appeared to choking on something. As he got closer, he saw that there was a bag in the turtle's mouth. He pulled on the bag and the turtle came with it. The turtle allowed Bobby to reach over his shell and get a grip. He then pulled hard twice on the bag and as soon as it was free, Mr. Turtle was quickly on his way.
While waiting for the raffle drawing, I took the four young boys (Josh, Nat, Devin, and Austin) to the scuba pool to try scuba diving for the first time. They all got to try the water scooter. I think they're all hooked. Our up and coming Venture Crew!
We stuck around for the raffle drawings and none of us won anything. Oh well, we still had a great time.
It was 4:30 when we packed up our gear into James' truck. Ed and Ginny headed back to Palm Bay with their crew and Kurt. Kent and Dustin headed home, too. James and the boys took the gear back to camp. Dave and Ann took Bobby and me back to camp.
When we got to the truck, Bobby asked me for his keys. I didn't have his keys. We came to the realization that Ginny had his keys! Oh my! Thank goddness for AAA!
We gave them a call and at 6:10, the locksmith opened the truck. I had a set of keys in my purse locked inside the truck so once it was open, we could get home. We made it back to Melbourne shortly after 8:30. We unloaded the trailer and some of the Crew came by and picked up their stuff.
This was a wonderful weekend! The weather was perfect! The diving was awesome! The company was great! We had such a good time.
Next year, OceanFest will again be the third weekend of May.
Costs:
The kids had such a great time at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea that they want to go down again on Saturday, June 23rd. If you would like to join us, drop me an email and I'll give you the details.
Dive Safe! Dive Often!
Emily
Lauderdale-by-the-Sea Beach Dive - June 23, 2001
We met at my house at 6:00 AM on Saturday morning for our journey south to Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. We packed up Ed’s truck with 22 tanks and gear and load up the 3 vehicles with the 13 people going on this dive trip - this included 5 Crew members, 4 advisors, one parent, and 3 bubble watchers. Due to some missing equipment, Dave and Fred ventured back to Dave’s house to pick it up. This put us a little behind schedule - but not too bad. We left Melbourne by 7:00 AM.
Once on the road, it was an uneventful trip. We arrived at our destination around 9:45. We unloaded our gear at the Wind Jammer Motel access area and parked the vehicles. Lauderdale-by-the-Sea is a metered parking town. However, there is one pay parking lot by Anglin’s Pier that charges $7 a day on the weekends. We parked our vehicles here so we didn’t have to worry about feeding the meters.
We spread out our ground tarps on the beach and laid out all of the equipment. We organized our buddy teams and got setup for our first dive. For my dive team, I had James (a newly certified 14 year old Crew member) and his father, Fred who is getting back into diving with his kids. Fred was certified a long time ago, but hasn’t been actively diving for some time. He told me that he is a bit of an air hog so I made sure he got a 90 cubic foot tank. The other 7 divers split up into 2 additional groups.
We were the first group in the water. I detected a slight south current. I told my buddies that we were going to head in a north east direction into the current once we descended. We snorkeled out beyond the swim buoys and drop down into 12 foot of water. My computer told me that the water temperature was a warm 84 degrees. I could hear the reef. A short swim put us on the first reef line. This is a rubble reef with a lot of silt covering it. A short swim beyond that put us on the actual first reef. This reef area has a lot of deep holes where you can observe a multitude of small marine life. We kicked out to the east side of the second reef to the sandy area that lies between the second and third reef lines. I decided if we all had plenty of air, we would attempt to find the third line. I had 2500 psi. James showed me that he also had 2500 psi. I checked Fred’s gauge to find that he was down to 1700 psi. Hmmmm… He was really going through the air fast. I decided that we would hang on then second reef line and not attempt the 125 yard swim over sand to reach the third reef. Since you can’t dive within 100 yards of the pier, we headed south. There is lots of great stuff to view on this reef.
We came upon a 4 foot nurse shark sleeping under a ledge. This was James’ first shark encounter. We also watched as two blue runners worked together to herd up a school of minnows and then quickly dart through the bait ball trying to catch their lunch.
I kept an eye on Fred’s air and when he hit 800 psi, we headed in. We had only had about 20 minutes of down time in a maximum depth of 18 feet. When we got to the beach, James and I still had 2000 psi. We decided to head back out. The swim seemed longer the second time.
James and I stayed on the second reef line. We saw a very large school of powder blue tangs. They were beautiful. James is a natural underwater. I was impressed with his buoyancy control. On the surface, James is like a spring wound up tight - just a bundle energy. Underwater, he moves with grace and fluidity. I never had to wonder where he was. He was always right beside me. Sometimes a little too close, but I’d rather have that then have to go hunt him down. I told James later that he could be my buddy any day!
When we both hit 1000 psi, we headed back to the beach. We had total bottom time of 57 minutes. We were the first ones back so we dropped our gear and hung out with the bubble watchers waiting for the rest of the divers to come in.
The next group back was Kent, Ed, Brian, and Amanda. They attempted to find the third reef line but were unsuccessful. We found out later that the third line is not really a reef line but a ledge. They said that they swam over a ledge, but didn’t stop because they were looking for reef.
They dropped their gear and since Fred was waiting for Freddy and Simone to come back with Dave, we left them with the gear on the beach and the rest of us headed to the pier for lunch. Amanda and Ed brought their lunch so when Dave came in with his team, the rest of the group joined us on the pier while Amanda and Ed stayed with the gear. It was about 1:00.
While we were dining on hot dogs and hamburgers, the afternoon thunderstorms started to roll in. Due to the bad weather, we were uncertain about doing the second dive. The Crew decided to hang out as long as possible to watch the weather and determine if we could do another dive. By 3:00 PM, it didn’t look promising so we packed up and were heading home by 4:00. It was a good call since the weather got worse. We passed 2 accidents on I-95.
We stopped at The Cracker Barrel in Ft. Pierce for dinner. The highlight of the meal was when the wait staff came to our table clapping and singing happy birthday to our Crew president, Amanda. Odd thing was, her birthday is in January. Brian pulled a pretty good joke on her AND he got to eat the free hot fudge sunday since Amanda didn’t want it. I’m curious to see what kind of retaliation she comes up with.
We were back in Melbourne shortly after 8:00 PM. We unloaded the gear and everyone headed home. Once things calmed down at my house, Bobby told me to call Elaine. He said that she had called and invited us to go diving with them out of Sebastian on Sunday but Bobby couldn’t go because he had to work. Well heck, you don’t have to ask me twice! I called Elaine and graciously accepted the invitation. Oh boy! I get to do it again!
Costs were minimal.
Our next dive is scheduled for July 14th out of Pompano. We will be doing the Aqua Zoo and the Wreck of the Ancient Mariner. Our next Crew meeting is July 2nd at PDI in Melbourne at 7:30 PM.
Dive Safe! Dive Often!
Emily
Sorry, no pictures on this trip. My camera is being repaired. :-(
Pompano Boat Dive - Aqua Zoo & Ancient Mariner - July 14, 2001
South Florida Dive Headquarters
I did not get to go on this dive with the Crew since I was taking my Instructor's Exam this day. :-( From what I've been told, it was a wonderful dive. My good friend, John, video taped the dives so I was at least able to experience the dive on my TV.
Ann wrote up this wonderful trip report:
Saturday July 14, 2001
Pompano Beach
Boat Dive
The Crew met at two different places. One group met at Nations Bank on Eau Gallie at 5 a.m. We packed up Kent’s truck with gear, and John’s van with youth. Off we went to Palm Bay to meet up with the other half of the group at 5:30 a.m. Once we got everyone a place to sit and all gear packed we headed South. We stopped about half way to the marina at a Burger King for a quick take out breakfast and back on the road again.
We got to the dock by 8:30 and started unpacking the vehicles and loading the boat. We were diving with South Florida Diving Headquarters on the Coral Princess. This is a pontoon boat with a cover over half of the boat, dry boxes in the center of the boat, and plenty of room for tanks to be secured. The Crew set up at the stern of the boat. Our entry would be at the bow. We would get back on the boat from the port or starboard ladders. This is one of the few anchored boat dives that we've done. We have been spoiled by West Palm drift dives. The Captain gave us a briefing about entering the water and following the line to the wrecks. There was just a slight current.
Our first dive was on the Sea Emperor at the Aqua Zoo. This was a special dive because the divemaster was doing a feeding. We went to the feeding area. Our instructions were to spread out arms-length and then fold our arms so that there were no fingers showing. The fish were to eat the bait and nothing else. Very quickly a few four-foot sting rays showed up along with an eight foot nurse shark who settled near the bait bucket and kept munching away. A remora was most interested in what we were doing. He seemed to be concerned with all those people in the water. The remora’s head looks like someone stomped on him wearing Nike Shoes. In the distance a Goliath Grouper watched and waited. This fellow was about the size of a Volkswagen bug. A friendly moray came out to see what foods were there for him.
We then followed the wreck around the edge while passing huge angelfish. The back portion of this barge is a wall rising from the sand with coral growth and fish hiding along the wall. We ascended to the top of the barge, which is really the bottom of barge as it landed on the sand with the bottom upside down. There are huge openings cut into the bottom, which is now the top. We dove down into one compartment and were able to swim through an opening in the wall into the next room. There are several rooms we went through. Our dive started at 10:10 and ended 30 minutes later at 10:40. Water temperature was 79 degrees. The sand area was 70 feet deep. Four of our Crew divers completed their Deep Dive Adventure Dive.
During our surface interval, the boat supplied Sea Creature Cookies, beverages, and tasty watermelon. We stayed on the surface until 12:10. That was and hour and a half surface interval. A few rain drops fell as we were gearing up. The wind started to pick up a bit. Seas were still calm. The dive flags on the boat were waving straight out.
On the second dive we visited the Ancient Mariner. The second dive was also a 70 foot dive. Some Crew members finished their Boat Adventure Dive or Fish ID Adventure Dive. After a much shorter dive, tanks started to go empty. So after 15-20 minutes, it was time to ascend. You really do get more tired and cold on a second dive! One of our divers had a video camera. We are looking forward to revisiting this dive on video. When we got back to the boat, gear got stowed away and put under the benches, except the dry gear that was safely put in the dry box - out of sight and out of mind. We are making arrangements for friends to pick up our spare gear bags. (Ooooops!)
The easy ladder entry and exit made it easy for those getting refreshed to get off the boat and back on again. A few would jump into the water, swim around and then easily get back on the boat. How refreshing! Everyone seemed to have a great time. Then it's time to unpack the boat and repack the trucks. We stopped at Subway for a sandwich and to fill out certification card applications. Four Crew members finished their Advanced Open Water Dives. Congratulations!
Dive Safe! Dive Often!
Ann Speer
Pepper Park Lobster Beach Dive - August 18, 2001
The Crew had decided to meet at the Nation's Bank parking lot at 9:00 AM on Saturday, August 18th. Ed and Amanda stopped by our house first to load 15 tanks into Ed's truck. Bobby had done shopping the night before and had the coolers filled with sandwich makings, fruit, chips, gummy bears, and bottles of water.
We had checked the weather report and we were supposed to have a beautiful clear, hot day! The sky was blue with big white puffy clouds. The marine forecast called for calm seas with 1 to 2 foot surf.
When we pulled into the parking lot, I was shocked to see the large turnout! There were 4 crew members, crew advisors, my last dive class, and friends and family - for a total of 19 people. We were also meeting 6 more people at Pepper Park - including 3 more crew members. So we ended up with 25 - 7 Crew, 5 advisors, 3 parents, 4 class, and 6 friends.
We loaded up the vehicles and headed south on A1A shortly before 9:30 AM. We arrived at Pepper Park at 10:30. Pepper Park is about 2 miles north of the Ft. Pierce Inlet. It is a wonderful park with bathrooms, showers, picnic tables, and pavilions. We unloaded the vehicles and headed down to water to check out the conditions. As I walked down the boardwalk from the parking lot to the beach, I could see that we were going to have an easy entry. There were small breakers just off the beach and then the ocean was flat.
We all met back at the pavilion and claimed a couple of tables for our own. We then took large blue tarps down to the beach and claimed our space in the sand. Next, we organized our dive groups. We were controlled here by the number of dive flags that everyone brought. We had 20 divers and 5 dive flags. That put 2 buddy teams under each dive flag. We made sure that each dive group had an experienced diver. We discussed water entry strategies for beach diving.
We broke up into our groups and started to setup our gear for the dive. Reports from divers coming out of the water was that the vis was only about 8 to 10 feet. OK, I thought, OK for hunting. Some folks got ready in the parking and hiked with their gear on down to the ocean. Others took their gear to the staging area in the sand on the beach. As each group was ready, they grabbed a dive flag and headed to the ocean.
The little bit of surf gave a number of divers a lot of problems. One group decided to put their fins on before entering the water and walking backwards into the surf. One member of this group couldn't seem to stay on his feet (I won't mention any names :) They finally made it out and headed down. When my group entered the water (I had 3 Crew members) one Crew member got hit by a wave and lost his mask. Another wave grabbed the flag off of our float never to be seen again. I think it swam away with PJ's mask! Debby (a member of my last class) had opted not to dive and to be surface support. What a life saver. She brought PJ her mask to use. Another group had a diver who didn't have enough weight. This was a Crew member who was doing his first dive after certification. Debby brought him clip-on weights to clip to his weight belt and get him to the bottom. Debby saves the day! Lesson learned - always have a designated surface support person when diving.
My group finally got into the water. The water was warm on the surface. We snorkeled out a short way and then dropped to the bottom. As we dropped, the water got colder. Hmmm..... Vis was about 5 feet. Hmmm.... Is this fun? We kicked out over the sand and quickly came upon rock reef with shallow undercuts. PJ soon spotted the first bug. All of a sudden, we were having FUN! I think that there were a number of lobster under this ledge, but I only saw one at a time. We chased them from one rock crack to another. All of a sudden, I see James with a small lobster STUCK in his net. I had James measure it and he realized that it had to be set free. PJ said later that he wacked the little guy into James' net to get him out of the way of a bigger bug - which got away.
We found that it was extremely hard to keep our 2 buddy teams together under one flag with the low vis - especially when most of the divers were hunting. Lesson learned - in low vis, have a dive float for EACH buddy team. James and I got separated from Amanda and PJ. Amanda was holding the flag. We surfaced and realized that we were closer to another one of our groups dive flags than we were to Amanda. So we headed that way. I soon came to realize that no matter where we were, we were close to one of our groups dive flags.
James and I continued to hunt. James is a wonderful buddy. He stayed right with me and was always within eye sight - which is saying alot for this dive. The farther we got into the dive, the worse the vis became. James gave me the 'lobster' sign and pointed under a ledge. I gave him the 'go for it' sign and he proceeded to tickle out and net his SECOND lobster. I tried to help him and reached in the net so the bug couldn't scoot away and, guess what?, the little bugger broke off both of his antennae and got away. But that didn't stop James. As I turned, I saw James net him again. This time, I got a good firm grip on his body and James measured him. LEGAL!!!!!! In the bag. James' FIRST LEGAL lobster. I wish I had had an underwater camera. I will never forget the look on his face as we gave each other a 'high five'.
That was the last bug we saw. After 45 minutes and the vis getting worse, we decided to head on in. We surfaced together and got our bearings for the beach. We had swam south against a south current, so we were pretty close to our entry point. Since we each had over 1000 psi of air, we decided to go in on the bottom. My computer showed a maximum depth of 11 feet.
When we got to a depth to stand up, I handed the catch bag to James and told him to go show off his catch! After talking to the other divers, we found that James had caught the ONLY legal lobster of the dive. Woo-Hoo!!!!!
Another group found themselves waaaaaaaaay north from the entry point and had a long walk back down the beach. Lesson learned: Always determine your bottom current and start your dive INTO the current.
Everyone reported the same thing - the farther into the dive, the worse the vis became. Lesson learned: Try to plan your dive during an INCOMING tide.
When everyone got back from their dive, we met at the pavilion for lunch. Some of the folks had brought their own lunches. The Crew brought chicken salad, ham, turkey, kaiser rolls, chips, gummie bears, and fruit salad. Yum.
We talked about our dives during lunch. You know that this is called Treasure Coast. Well, there is treasure at Pepper Park. During our dive, we lost a mask, a dive flag, a dive watch, a goodie bag, and a tickle stick.
Some of the Crew took a swim after lunch while others just hung out under the pavilion and talked about diving. We headed home around 3:30. What a wonderful day of diving and fellowship!
The costs for this dive were minimal. The Crew folks donated $2 each for lunch and tanks were $5 each. So if you used a Crew tank and ate a Crew lunch, the cost for the day was only $7.
Dive Safe! Dive Often!
Emily
The Crew had the wonderful opportunity this year to sell Christmas Cards. A friend of Bobby's and mine had these cards printed last year and he got a bunch of them made. He has not had the opportunity to spend the time necessary to market these wonderful cards. So he's given them to the Crew at a price far below retail. He sells them on his web site at http://www.missionmoon.com for $14.99 for 10. We're selling the same 10 for $6.
After contacting a number of establishments in the area, we finally got permission from Lowes on Minton Road to sell the cards outside of the store.
We setup a table and a sign. Amanda and Nate had signed up to sell on Thrusday. We didn't have a lot of luck on Thursday. We only sold 7 sets. Amanda, however, sold a dozen sets later that evening at the Boy Scout Round Table meeting. Amanda and James did much better on Friday by selling 16 boxes!
We've also had a couple of email orders. Thanks to everyone who has supported the Crew in this fund raising effort.
These are wonderful Space Coast Christmas Cards. There are 2 different styles and they almost sell themselves.
This report will be updated as new efforts are made to sell our Christmas Cards.
Rainbow Rive Drift Dive - November 17, 2001
Another wonderful day!
We had 2 Crew members, 1 guest youth, and 8 adults meet at my house at 8:30 am on Saturday morning. Crew members were wearing their new Crew Shirts.
We loaded up Dave's truck with tanks and gear. We loaded the van and Mel's car with more gear and people. We pulled out around 8:50 and met up with Tip and Krissy at the conner of Eau Gallie and John Roads Blvd. We did a little re-arranging of people and gear and then headed north on I-95. We left Melborne at 9:00 sharp. It was a beautiful day!
We were heading to KP Hole County Park in Dunnellon to do a drift dive down Rainbow River. This is on the west coast of Florida. We had about a 3 hour trip ahead of us. Up I-95 to the Bee-Line. From the Bee-Line, we headed west on the Turnpike. After the usual Turnpike stop at the Turkey Lake rest stop, we continued to the end of the Turnpike and picked up I-75 north. We took State Road 484 west into Dunnellon. At the intersection of 484 and 41 in Dunnellon, we took a right. The road to KP Hole Park is to the right off of 41 about 2.5 miles north. We followed the signs to the park.
We got the park a little after noon. We were meeting the boat from American Pro Divers at 1:30. This gave us plenty to time to scope out the park. After we each paid the $2 park entry fee, we picked out a couple of picnic tables for lunch. Everyone was responsible for their own lunches on this trip. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch and the wonderful park setting.
After lunch, we got out gear ready. The boat arrived a little early. I was happy to see our old buddy Captain Sean. Sean has been our captain everytime we've done this dive. He launched the pontoon boat and we loaded our gear onto the boat. It is very important when doing this dive that you don't bring your hat, glasses, or anything else that you don't want to get wet since the boat drops you and then leaves!
We all signed the liablitly release for the boat. Everyone gave me $11 towards their $10.60 boat fee. I threw in a couple of more dollars for a tip and I gave Sean $150 towards the $137.50 boat fee.
Everyone picked their spot on the boat according to the designated buddy teams and entry order. The boat was quite full. We had a total of 13 divers. Sean said that they're certified to carry 16. I haven't a clue as to where they would put 3 more divers! Bobby was already standing since there wasn't anymore sitting room.
Sean did a wonderful job, as usual, of pointing out the highlights of the river as we cruised up to the entry point. We usually get dropped at a sand bar about a mile up and then gear up in the water. This can be a real pain especially when there are a lot of divers like we had. Sean decided to take us a little farther up river and anchor in a deep spot where we could simply do giant strides off the end of the boat after gearing up.
Sean anchored and Ann and Dave where the first ones in. Lesson Learned, before stepping out to do the stride, make sure that there are no ropes laying on the platform. Dave's fin got caught in the rope and his entry was rather painfull. When Kent stepped on the platform, he too, got his fin caught. The problem was quickly corrected and the rope was placed out of the way. Not a good way to start your dive.
Ed entered and was followed by Dustin and Amanda. Next was Mel and Josh. Then Leo and I did our giant strides followed by Tip, Krissy, and Bobby.
Sean had shown us the location of a spring boil with tremendos flow just downstream from our entry point. The Smithsonean has calculated the flow would fill an Olympic sized swimming pool in just 20 minutes! Wow!
Upon entry of the water, I was greated by sunnys and blue gills. They were everywhere. There were small ones and large ones. The water was crystal clear and 72 degrees. Leo and I made our way to the first boil. It was just as Sean had described it. The flow was tremendous. I pulled myself as close as I could to the spring opening and the force of the flow made my regulator free flow! The boil area was litered with small sea shells. Sean said to keep a look-out for sharks' teeth fossils.
After exploring the boil, Leo and I made our way across the river to the next spot of interested - a deep hole. Here we hit 20 feet. There was another spring boil on this side of the river. A bit further down, we found what Sean described as a stove pipe spring. It was a very deep hole with a strong flow.
There were many pop-corn funnels (small springs blowing out small shells that look likes a pop-corn machine) and sand boils. As we made our way down the river, we encountered turtles and all kinds of fish - large mouth bass, small mouth bass, blue gills and sunnys of all sizes, as well as some unidentified species. As we crossed the river again, we swam though another deep area known as gar-hole. There we saw a very impressive aligator-gar fish. He was at least 3 foot long.
Through gar-hole and on to the cavern located on the right side of the river. This was a popular spot. Here we joined Dave and Ann and Dustin and Amanda. Mel and Josh were right behind us and Kent and Ed showed up too. As Leo and I swam over the top of the cavern, air bubbles were pouring out of the small cracks. It looked like a bubble machine. Sean described the cavern as the size of a walk in closet large enough for 2 divers. Leo and I entered the cavern as Amanda and Dustin were exiting. The water inside this cavern was crystal clear. It was like looking through air.
The water was high due to all of the rain that we've had lately. This also made for a stronger than usual current. This was felt much more in the bottleneck areas of the river like the swim from the cavern to the exit point at the park. The eel grass was gracefully dancing in the current along the roller-coaster like bottom contours. I felt like I was flying. Leo looked as though he was throughly enjoying his dive, too.
Leo ran low on air towards the end of the dive and we surfaced and finished the run on our snorkles.
Ann was waiting at the boat ramp as surface support to make sure no one missed the exit point while Dave opened the truck and got out the gear bags. We exited at the ramp and walked back to the vehicles in the parking lot. It was 3:30. It took us about 1 1/2 hours for the dive.
Bobby soon showed up with Tip and Krissy. They also had a wonderful dive. Bobby found treasure - a sea bisquit fossil about the size of a dime and a small shark's tooth!
While packing up the gear, Dave broke out the bag of tangerines that he had bought at the rest stop and Kent cut up the pineapple that he brought. There's nothing like fresh fruit after a dive.
Tip and Krissy headed to Tampa to celebrate Tip's birthday!
The rest of us loaded into the other 3 vehicles and went in search of food. We finally decided on Chinese. There are a number of eateries on SR 41 between KP Hole and SR 484.
We finished dinner around 6:00. We made our usual Turkey Lake stop on the turnpike and then home to Melbourne. We pulled in around 9:00 pm.
Costs:
Tolls ran about $10.00 per vehicle roundtrip (guestimate)
It took about 3/4 tank of gas in the van for the roundtrip
We had another wonderful day of diving and socializing!
We'll be scheduling our the Crew's Winter Diving season at out next Crew meeting on Monday, 11/19 at PDI at 7:30 pm. Keep an eye on our website for trip updates: http://VentureCrew820.5u.com
Dive Safe! Dive Often!
Emily
