Ginnie Springs Camping Trip 1/18,19,20/02
Crystal River Dive 2/16/02
West Palm Lobster Dive 3/16/02
Blue Grotto - Devil's Den Campout 4/13,14/02
Lauderdale-by-the-Sea Beach Dive 5/11/02
Lauderdale-by-the-Sea Night Dive 6/01/02
Lauderdale-by-the-Sea Beach Dive 7/20/02
Pepper Park Lobster Beach Dive 8/10/02
Coral Cove Beach Dive 9/14/02
Bahia Honda Keys Trip 10/4,5,6/02
Trip Report Page
Venture Crew Home Page
Ginnie Springs Camping Trip - January 18, 19, & 20, 2002
What can I say? Another great trip!
Mel and Josh (Josh is a new Crew member and Mel is his father - but both have very active with our dive group) met Bobby and me at our house at 5:00 PM on Friday. Ed is the scout master for Troop 734 and volunteered their troop trailer for the trip. Mel and Josh helped Bobby load the trailer with 28 dive tanks, dive gear, camping gear, firewood, and food. We stopped at Subway on the way out of town and hit 95 north by 8:00 PM.
The rest of the folks were planning on meeting us at Ginnie Springs in the morning. Most were carpooling. Some simply met up with us at the camp ground.
Ginnie Springs is located west of Gainsville in High Springs. We took SR 528 to the turnpike and headed north to 75. We took the High Springs exit off of 75 and headed west. Eventually, we started to see signs to the springs. We pulled into the facility around 11:30 PM. We had group reservations and had been assigned the group camping area by Dogwood Springs. This area was extremely cool. We had our own pavillion with picnic tables and electricity. There was a volleyball court with net, a very large fire ring right by the Santa Fe River, lots of private campsites with picnic tables also along the river. But best of all, we had out own private spring! There was a large wooden staging platform and steps that went right into the spring.
When we arrived, it was a bit chilly and the steam was rising off the 72 degree spring water into the 45 degree air. It was an eiry sight. We setup our tent and built a fire. It was great camping weather.
Off to bed so we could get up early and get a dive in before everyone started to show up. WRONG!!!!! We weren't up long before others started to trickle in. Paul, Bonnie, Scotty, and Nate showed up first. They had come over Friday night, too, but stayed in a local motel. I took them to the office and got them checked in. Nate is a new Open Water student and was doing dives 3 & 4 with Ann to finish out his class. We had special paperwork for him to fill out.
Don came in next with Ashely, Jackie, and Troy. Don brought his pop-up trailer. I took this group to the office to sign in. Ashely is another new Open Water student finishing out at Ginnie. So, of course, more paperwork.
While we were checking in, the rest of the Crew showed up. Everyone was doing paperwork. We had a total of 10 Crew youths. 1 Rescue Diver, 1 Jr. Rescue Diver, 1 Advanced Diver, 1 very experienced Open Water Diver, 1 newly certified Open Water Diver, 2 Open Water Students, and 3 snorklers. We had 12 adults. 3 Instructors, 1 Dive Master, 1 Diver Master Trainee, 3 Rescue Divers, 1 Open Water Diver, 2 snorklers, and 1 bubble watcher.
Bob and I never did make a morning dive. We sent Mel and Josh off to do their dive while we got everyone settled in at camp.
Ann got her class organized and into our private spring. There was a basin in the spring with a large opening that dropped down to about 18 feet. They also had all of their surface skills to complete and this was a perfect setting for it.
The rest of us grouped and headed for the spring. We split up into 3 groups with an instructor or diver master in each group as well as a rescue diver.
My group decided to dive the Little Devil's Spring, then Devil's Eye, onto Devil's Ear, and then out into the river down to the Ginnie Spring run. Up the run and to the Ginnie Springs cavern. Back out the run to the river, down the river to our 'private' Dogwood Springs run, and up the run to the exit at our campsite. We had a couple of snorklers who decided to follow along above us.
This worked very well. Ginnie Springs is built for divers. There are numerous staging areas, wooded decks, slip resistant steps, etc. Little Devil's Spring (LDS) is a 30 foot crevasse with a good flow coming from the Ginnie Springs cave system. As we entered the water at LDS, one of our divers noticed two very large snakes curled up the in roots of one of the large trees along the spring run. Nature. Gotta love it. We didn't bother them and they didn't bother us.
After diving LDS, we swam down the shallow spring run along the sand corridor lined with very thick hydrilla. This path opened to expose a deep bowl. The entrance to Devil's Eye. This has an official cave entrance and is marked with a Grim Reaper sign warning of the dangers of entering the cave system. We all checked out the entrance and then headed on down the spring run to Devil's Ear. Devil's Ear is on the edge of the Santa Fe River and is a rather large entrance to the Ginnie Springs cave system. We dropped down to about 50 feet and could see the lights of the cave divers as they passed by the ear opening. There are number of fallen trees in this hole. But this hole is so large that the trees don't seem to take up much room. There are also staged deco tanks for the cave divers in this hole.
After checking out the Ear, we entered the river and started downstream. The last time we were here, the river was very tanic with a dark orange hue. The water was much clearer this trip. We had a good 20 foot of vis. What a change from coming out of the clear spring water. In the river, we saw lots of large bass and blue gill. We saw a couple of very large alligator gar. I was most impressed by the vegetation and how it danced in the swift current. One group reported spotting a crawfish as big as a small lobster. They tried to catch it, but didn't have their tickle sticks and nets. :-)
We almost scuba'ed right past the Ginnie Springs run. But we figured it out in time and were able to enter the run and head up to the cavern. The spring run and the basin were full of open water students. I'm guessing 60! We swam past everyone and headed into the hole. Cool. We had it all to ourselves.
The Ginnie Springs cavern is a very large room with lots of nooks and crannys. In the back at the bottom of the cavern is a grate that covers yet another cave entrance. This is a large hole with a strong flow. Me and my buddy took ahold of the grate and the push of the water held us horizontal in the water. I took my reg out of my mouth and filled it with that wonderful fresh spring water. Better than Zepherhills.
We didn't spend a lot of time in the cavern since we still wanted to dive the river to the Dogwood Spring run and some of the folks in my group were getting a little chilled. We had a night dive planned for the cavern so we'd get lots of time here later. So back down the spring run and out into the river. We took our time and explored the bottom. We saw more alligator gar and bass. I also saw a school of what looked like large mullet.
We found our spring run and took the short swim up the shallow water. Once we got to the spring, Josh and I decided to explore the hole before getting out. This is a neat little spring. Best of all, it was our private spring for the weekend!
Upon exitting the water, we got the sandwich makings out and had lunch. A couple of folks decided to get another dive in after lunch and before dinner. I got the inflatable boat blown up and Jackie and I got Kent to run us up to LDS where we put the boat in the water and paddled down the river back to our campsite. It was a beautiful day and the cool air made the water feel pretty warm.
After all of the divers were back, we took a count on how many divers were planning on doing the night dive. 12 hands went up. We checked our tanks and we had plenty for the night without having to get any fills at the dive shop.
The kids took some time to explore the grounds and play a little football.
Drew took the inflatable boat out and paddled up the river to the Ginnie Spring run, up to the basin, and back to camp.
Around 5:00, Amanda got dinner started. Don brought his turkey frier and we had deep fried turkey, steamed brocolli with cheese, baked potatoes, salad, and dump cake for dessert. I don't eat this good at home!
We scheduled the night dive to be around 9 o'clock. Ann decided to stay behind and take care of camp. We loaded gear into Kent and Bobby's trucks. They drove the gear and everyone else walked down to Ginnie Springs. Stephanie was put in charge of securing light sticks to everyone's first stage. Bonnie was put in charge of taking pictures. She got some great shots. Don, Bob, and Paul added to our surface support. 4 Crew members snorkled the basin while the rest us explored the cavern.
Dave was our exit sentry. He stood guard by the cavern exit and used a very bright light so there wouldn't be any trouble finding the way out. It was awesome watching all of the divers lights cut through the clean clear water. Bobby situated himself back in behind some rocks and had a number of glow sticks with him. They made an eiry light. A couple of divers had a little difficulty with their bouyancy and the center of the cavern got a bit silted up. My buddies and I moved off to the edges and just watched everyone else for awhile. It was a site! This cavern has some pretty big holes in the ceiling, kind of like stove pipes. At one point, I noticed 3 divers up in these holes. It was pretty funny seeing just their legs sticking out of the ceiling of this cavern.
My buddy got cold after about 20 minutes so I took him to the surface and then returned to the cavern. I joined back up with Nate and Josh to finish my dive. We all exitted the cavern after 30 minutes. A few of us hung out in the basin and played with the little fish. If you blink your eyes real fast, they come right up to your mask lense.
Shortly after we exitted the water and broke down and packed up our equipment, the sky opened up! It rained and it rained hard. It didn't last long, but it sure got things wet. Some folks had already headed back to camp. We ran for the cover of the bath house. After about 20 minutes, it stopped and we headed back to camp. Drew had built the fire up just before it rained and it survived the down pour. Ann had scrambled to get everything that shouldn't get wet into the protection of the trailer. Brian's tent took the biggest hit. He decided to sleep in his car.
Bobby, me, Josh, and Scotty stayed up for awhile to tend the fire (well, actually to burn what was left of the fire wood :)
Everyone had bagels with cream cheese for breakfast. Amanda also made hash browns. Bobby had his coffee pot plugged in at the pavillion and he had fresh coffee brewing.
After breakfast, everyone gathered their camping gear and were getting ready to head out. Around 12:00, we put out the sandwich makings and had lunch. Then it was time for serious trailer packing.
I headed up to the office to square up our bill. We got a discount because we were a group. Camping is normally $15 a night (+ 7% tax). We got our spots for $12. And what an awesome spot we had! Diving is normally $25 (+ 7% tax). We got it for $22 per person plus 2 free instructor spots which averaged the per diver cost down to $20 a diver. Food was $10 for 4 meals (2 lunches, 1 breakfast, and that wonderful fried turkey dinner) This cost includes drinks, paper products, plastic ware, cups, etc. Cylums for the night dive were $2 each. And then there's the 7% sales tax.
We averaged all of the costs together and came up with $45 for divers (lights and tanks were additional) and $20 for non-divers. WOW!!!!!! And everyone had a GREAT time!!!!!!
We headed out of the park at 2:30. After a brief stop at the Okahumpka Rest Area, we were non-stop to Melbourne. We got home around 6:30.
Not only was this a fun weekend of diving, it was also very productive. We had 2 divers finish their open water certification. A Dive Master trainee is one step closer to completing his certifiection requirements. A new open water diver gained some great experience in the company of an instructor and 3 rescue divers. Many of the Crew made their first cavern dive. Only Brian, Dave, Ann, and me were on the last Crew trip to Ginnie Springs 2 years ago. Mel and Josh have been here before as well as Don. For everyone else, this was their first time to this wonderful diving and camping location.
I can't wait to go back!
Crystal River Dive - February 16, 2002
Check out Tipper's Pictures
We had 19 people on our Crystal River trip. We all met at my house in Melbourne at 7:30 AM and were on the road by 8:00. Up 95 to 528 to the turnpike. After are regular Okahumpka rest area stop, we continued up the turnpike to 75 to 484 to 44. We followed 44 through Inverness and then picked up 19 south in Crystal River. The road to Port Marina was a couple of miles down 19.
We arrived around 11:30 AM. Everyone had packed a lunch, so we ate before we started out. After lunch and a manatee briefing video, we picked up our 2 pontoon boats and figured out who was riding on which boat. We had a couple of snorklers and a couple of bubble watchers on each boat as well as a number of divers.
Group one (Dave and Ann's boat) headed to King Springs first to dive the cavern. Group two (Bobby's and my boat) headed to the 3 Sisters spring. This is a snorkle spot and usually has manatee around - but not today. We didn't see a single manatee as we made our way to the spring. All but 2 people on our boat snorkled up the spring run. We played around in the 3 spring boils and watched the mangrove snapper and fresh water bass in the large boil. Tipper and Krissy were on our boat doing their Boat Dive for their advanced certification. Tipper brought his mom, Judy, along for the ride. Judy is from Pennsylvania and was hoping to video manatee.
After playing at 3 Sisters for about an hour, we decided to head to King Springs for our dive. On our way down the canal to the main bay, we hit paydirt! There were manatees coming up the canal and manatees going down the canal. We were fortunate to find a manatee with a float marker on it. We found out that this had been a sick manatee and was just release 2 days earlier. The float was for tracking the magnificent animal. Traveling with the tagged manatee was a smaller manatee. We motored up the canal with the manatees and at one point, Bobby manuvered the boat ahead of the animals and James and I slipped into the water with our waterproof cameras. They were coming right at us! I took a lot of shots hoping that at least a few would come out. While concentrating on the 2 manatees in front of us, 2 more came up beside us from behind! We were in manatee heaven. Judy's video camera was rolling and she got the whole thing on film! Tipper and Krissy joined us in the water just as the manatees decided that it was time to move on.
We all got back in the boat and followed the animals into the bay where we lost track of them.
While heading to King Springs, I realized that I had left my dive lights in the van, so we made a quick diversion back to the dock to get the lights. You definetly need a light in the cavern. We passed Dave and Ann's boat as they headed to 3 Sisters.
After retrieving our lights, we headed to the main spring. There were lots of boats with open water classes around the spring. Bobby parked the boat right outside the spring area. The spring is surrounded by manatee sanctuary areas and we needed to be careful not to enter these areas. You get a big fine if they catch you in there.
Tipper, Krissy, Nate, James, and I did a giant stride off the front of the boat into about 8 foot of water. We snorkled the murkey green water over to the spring entrance and started our descent. I quickly found the cavern entrance and crystal clear water. We all entered the cavern and explored the cracks and crevasses. We hit a depth of 50 feet in the cavern. I then showed the group the second cavern entrance which was completely covered by a huge school of mangrove snapper. We took turns coming out of the hole and up through the fish. Then back to the other entrance, down, and back up. Tipper took some really cool fish shots with his underwater camera.
I then took the group over to the manatee statue. This is a submerged statue that is about 2 1/2 feet wide and 3 feet long. There is a small manatee on a plaque that explains the plight of the manatee. I got everyone to rub the statue for good luck.
After about 30 minutes, Nate started to run low on air so he and James made their way back to the boat. Tipper, Krissy, and I hung out at the spring for another 10 minutes and then headed back, too. The area around the spring is loaded with good size sheeps head. The water got pretty murkey as we left the spring. I'd say we only had about 10 foot of vis outside the spring area.
Once everyone was back on the boat, we decided we had a little time to play on the bay. We headed back towards 3 Sisters and met up with the other boat. Since we had to have the boats back by 4:30 and it was already close to 4:00, we turned and headed back to the marina.
I took care of the rental fees while everyone else off loaded the boats and packed up the gear. Fred at Port Marina gave us a fantastic deal. The pontoon boats are usually $65 for the first hour and $15 for each hour afterwards. Fred only charged us $65 for each boat for our 4 hours. He said he did this because we were a BSA group. Thanks, Fred. This made everyone's cost only $7 for the boat ride. Not bad for a day on Crystal River.
We headed out of Port Marina around 5:00 and stopped at the Pizza Hut on 19 in Crystal River for dinner. The ride home was uneventful. Most of the kids slept. We pulled into Melbourne around 9:00 PM.
West Palm Lobster Dive - March 16, 2002
Another Crew Dive. Another West Palm Dive. Another Open Water Class. Another great trip. All rolled into one!
This dive was calendared months ago when the Venture Crew scheduled their 'Annual March End of Lobster Season Dive'. The kids had originally planned on diving with LoggerHead Charters out of Boyton Beach, but when we took a hand count, we had more divers than that one boat could hold. I called around and only found one other boat in the same marina, Splashdown Divers. When I asked about their group rates, I was told $50 per diver for a 2 tank dive (not including the tanks). Hmmmm..... This was a bit outside of our budget so I started to make calls to other places where I could rent 2 boats.
Diving Solutions out of Riveria Beach Marina in West Palm was our solution. This operation has a 3 boats (one is currently non-operable). I rented their two other boats (Spell Bound - their Bahama's live aboard - and SeaCure). Both boats are rated for 20 divers, but we wanted to keep the numbers smaller in order to have more room per diver. However, upon taking a final count in February, I found that we had 40 divers! Oh my... With the full boats, I was going to be able to cover all costs as well as reduce the per diver cost AND include the tip. However, I was a little concerned about everyone having enough 'elbow room'.
Just 2 days before the trip I started having folks drop out. The 'elbow room' concern quickly turned into 'will we have enough to cover our costs' concern. I had a total of 25% (or 10 people) drop out between Wednesday evening and Saturday morning! Everyone had a legitamit excuse - a number of folks were called into work on Saturday, one of our fellow divers got laid off, one of our Crew members was in a car accident (not seriously hurt, but better to not dive - just in case...) We had a couple of BubbleWatchers join the trip at the last minute - this saved the credit card. We ended up not being able to reduce the cost and not being able to include the tip. However, we were able to cover our costs. Whew... We also ended up with lots of elbow room on each boat. :-)
SeaCure was used as the Crew boat and SpellBound was used for the class. I had 3 open water students (Jessica, John M, and Patrick) as well as a couple of advanced students (Kim & Bob) on the boat with me. Since we had lots of room on the Crew boat, Bobby, Krissy, and Tipper moved from SpellBound to SeaCure. This gave us a comfortable amount of folks on each boat.
We were at the dock by 7:15 AM and quickly started on the paperwork. Since we had so many divers, we had to rent some tanks from Diving Solutions. We made our typical gear/tank line and got everything loaded onto the correct boats. Captain Doug along with DMs Mary, Rick, and Chad were working our boat. The Crew boat had Captain Tracy. I did not get the names of her DM.
We left the dock and headed out of the Port of Palm Beach Inlet by 7:50 AM. The seas were a little choppy but not bad at all. I could tell from the inlet water that we were going to be diving an outgoing tide.
Both boats headed south once out of the inlet. Our first dive was at Flower Gardens. The other boat was visiting Bath & Tennis. We split our boat into 2 groups. Class folks (including parents, instructor's assistant, videographer) were in group 1. Hunters (4 divers) were in group 2.
SpellBound has a double platform - one out of the water and one about 8 inches under the water. You step backwards from one platform to the other and simple fall backwards off the boat. Everyone made a graceful entry. We grouped on the surface and then started down.
This is a 60 dive and you can normally see the bottom from the top. Not today. We started down. I buddied up with Jessica, my young 12 year old student. My other 2 students were right beside us. We got the bottom and I started to count. We were 3 short. (2 regular divers and a DM). I asked Mary what we should do and she said that the other divers were with the other DM and we should go ahead and do our skills. (all with sign language, of course :)
Amanda was my assistant for the dive. She is a PADI Rescue Diver and the president of the Crew. Amanda hung back from the group and kept a good eye on everything. We quickly got through the mask flood and clear skill and the fin pivot with oral inflation skill and then headed off to explore the reef. The other DM and divers never did join us on this dive. I found out later that the one diver decided to abort so the DM took the other diver down for a private tour. Lucky John P! (too many John's in this group)
Dave, a newly certified diver, was with our group and was trying his hand at hunting lobster. We saw a bunch of bugs on the first dive. But they were all elusive. John C brought his video camera and got some wonderful footage! We saw 2 large green moray eels down in the rocks on this dive as well as free swimming spotted morays.
The vis was about 50 feet and the water temperature was a chilly 70 degrees on the bottom. There were the typical beautiful WP coral formations, large basket sponges, schools and schools of fish, eels, and lobster. We even had a couple of very large amberjack swim by us during the dive.
After about 25 minutes, Dave hit 750 psi, so we all started our ascent. We stopped at 15 feet for our safety stop and Patrick, one of my students had problems staying down. I told him to go ahead and surface (he really didn't have any other choice) Amanda surfaced with him so he had a buddy up top.
To get on this boat, you do the famous Shamu on the deck trick. This includes grabbing the platform and waiting for a wave to push you up on your stomach like a beached whale. Then, you have to manuveur yourself around to a standing position so you can walk back to your seat. There aren't a lot of good hand hold bars so I usually just crawl on my hands and knees to my seat and then get someone to help me up.
Between dives, I found out that Teresa (Jessica's Mom) had some equipment problems and decided not to dive. John P, like I said earlier, came back down with the DM and had a private dive guide.
We all got our equipment switched over. The kids all went up to the bow of the boat. Mary cut up fresh pineapple and passed around the oreo cookies. This is a GREAT snack boat. They always have crackers, cookies, pretzels, and fruit. And, they carry name brand soda - Coke, Crush, Mountain Dew, etc. I've been on some boats where you were lucky if you got water.
I went over the tables with the class. 60 feet for 25 minutes makes us an I diver. In order to go 60 for 30 minutes, we needed to be an I diver. The class realized that they didn't have to make any surface interval before starting their second dive. But we did.
I put an additional 5 pounds intp Patrick's weight belt (one 3 lb and one 2 lb) to assue he would not be light at the end of his dive.
Jessica was having some problems, too. She was complaining of being sea-sick. There was a light chop on the ocean and waves were 1 to 3. The sun was shining and the air was warm. Mary quickly turned her attention to Jessica and talked to her about all of the famous people who live along the ocean in WP. She would point to a house and mention a famous person's name. This put Jessica's eyes on the horizon which helped the motion sickness. Jessica decided that she would do the second dive so she could finish up her certification. Mary is WONDERFUL!!!!! This is the same DM who did such a great job helping me with Catherine in February.
After an hour of up time, we started our second dive on the South Breakers Reef System. This time, I buddied Jessica with Amanda and stayed at the surface until everyone was descending. One of the divers seemed to be having trouble getting down and he was hanging about 5 foot underwater. Not a good place to be in West Palm. I swam over to him and asked if he was OK. He said yes, so I started to 'bring him down' He successfully cleared on each blow and we continued down to about 15 feet. Once at this depth, I was feeling a bit better that we wouldn't get run down by a boat. Even though we were well within the distance to our dive float, many boaters don't know what the flag means. So, whenever drift diving in a high traffic area, its best to get down to at least 15 feet as quickly as possible. Once at this depth, we slowed down our descent and safely made it to the bottom.
Once down, we explored the reef a bit. I then got with the class together and we did our mask remove and replace and our hover skills. Jessica was showing signs of extreme cold. I told her that she needed to go up. She pointed to herself and asked if she passed. I told her yes. Her eyes smiled and Rick (the other DM) took her back to the boat.
I continued on with the hover exercise. I asked Patrick to hover and he fully inflated his BC and still could not hover. Hmmm.... I guess 5 lbs was too much. I told him that I'd have him hover later. I finished with John M. With the skills over with, we continued our wonderful drift dive.
Patrick looked very heavy so I stopped him and took the 3 lb weight out his belt and put it in Amanda's pocket for safe keeping. He appeared to be able to control his bouyancy much better.
There wasn't much current and the water was more green than blue. The captain told us later that this was because the gulf stream wasn't in as close as usual. This would also explain the chilly water temperatures. And, it was the end of an outgoing tide which always deminishes the vis. But that doesn't mean it wasn't a wonderful dive!
After 28 minutes, Patrick hit 750 and the group went up. Patrick had no problem doing his 3 minute saftey stop this time. Amazing what 2 lbs can do. We surfaced, boarded the boat, and packed up our gear.
Jessica was doing fine. Her mom had gotten her out of her wetsuit and into dry cloths. The sea-sickness has completely subsided and she was having a wonderful time bouncing all over the boat. She reminded me of a little pixie. Theresa thinks that Jessica's problem had more to do with 'mom not doing the dive' than sea-sickness or cold. Whatever her problem was, she did the dives, did her skills, and got her time underwater. Jessica was a wonderful student and is now a certified PADI open water diver! Woo-Hoo!!!!
We got back to the dock a little after noon. We made a gear line and got the boat unloaded. The Crew boat came in about 10 minutes later. They were all a buzz. Three bugs caught on this boat. Bobby, Kent, and Drew each brought home a bug. I was thrilled. Drew, a new 14 year old Crew member newly certified diver doing his first ocean dive (he had ear problems on his ocean dive so I finished him up at Blue Springs) actually caught a keeper lobster! This was just too cool!!!!!
Krissy finally got to see a turtle. Both she and Tipper got some great photos of the Loggerhead. And Tipper got to pet his first nurse shark. James claims that Bobby stole his lobster. Bobby said he wasn't going to watch James miss yet another bug. Oh, the joys of buddies...
The Crew got their gear off of the boat and we got everything packed up into pickup trucks. We decided to go to the waterside cafe at the Marina. We have had lunch here before while doing student paperwork. Well, we won't have lunch here again. The poor old lady waiting the tables got totally slammed. We filled a number of large tables with our group and other folks had also come at the same time. The cook didn't have a clue. My clam chowder had turned sour. Most folks simply ordered hot dogs and fries. When they finally came out, they were cold. yuck. They actually forgot two folks' meals! The food was not good. I only heard one person say anything good about the meal. We won't be going back here again.
We got all of our paperwork done and log books signed. 3 new PADI OW divers.
We got back to Melbourne around 4:00 PM. Another wonderful dive trip!
Blue Grotto /
Devil's Den Camping Trip - April 13, 14, 2002
This was a Crew camping / diving weekend. The Crew started planning this trip in March. We originally had 10 Crew members and 8 adults sign up for the outting. The week before the trip, we had 4 Crew and 1 adult drop out. There seems to be a pattern here of about a 25% drop rate on trip committments.
The week before we left was a busy one. On Tuesday, I started to gather my own diving and camping gear. Wednesday was the grocery shopping night. Thursday was the Crew gathering at my house. The kids brought over their camping gear and picked up their dive gear. On Friday, Dave and Ann brought the small troop trailer to the house and we got all of the camping gear and spare tanks packed into the trailer. Dave volunteered to drag the trailer behind his Chevy-S10.
On Saturday, we met at my house at 7:30 AM, loaded our dive gear into the back of the Dave's and Kent's pick-up trucks, loaded the 4 vehicles with people and headed out of Melbourne by 8:00 AM.
The trip started out pretty uneventful. I had all six of the Crew kids in the van. We headed north on 95 and then took 528. I started to notice small pieces of rubber flying at the van. Nate was in the passenger seat and we started to try to figure out where the rubber was coming from. I thought that maybe it was coming off the highway. Then it stopped. I didn't think anything more of it until, about 5 miles down the road, it started flying at us again - in much bigger chunks. Hmmmm.... I decided to pull up along side of Dave (I was following Dave and the trailer) and tell him to pull over. I had a bad feeling about the trailer tire.
We all pulled over and after a quick check, discovered that the inside trailer tire was quickly disintegrating. We agreed to all pull up to the toll both were it would be safer to change the tire. I got back in the van, pulled away, payed the toll, pulled over, and waited, and waited, and waited. Hmmmm... Nate and I left the other kids in the van and walked back (about a half mile) to the rest of the caravan. Turns out, the tire went flat and they weren't able to join us on the other side of the toll booth.
Lauderdale-by-the-Sea Beach Dive - May 11, 2002
The marine report was not looking too good for this beach dive, but we decided to go ahead on down south and see if it was do-able. Worst case, we would simply spend a day at the beach.
The Melbourne folks met at my house at 6:00 AM. We loaded tanks and gear and headed for Palm Bay were we joined the rest of the Crew at the Malabar Big Lotsoff of 95 around 6:30. By 6:50, we were on the road. Adults on the trip werePaul, Bonnie, Dave, Kent, John, Bobby, and me. Crew members were Nate, James,Steph, Dustin, Jen, Amanda, Hillery, and Dylon.
We had an uneventful drive south except on 95 around West Palm where construction always makes the traffic a real pain.
We arrived in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea around 9:30. The ocean waves were about 5 feet. Not exactly good conditions for a beach dive. But we still had a fun day at the beach. We all went swimming and then had lunch on Anglin's Pier. This is probably the cheapest place to eat in LBTS and you get to sit in booths outside on the pier over the beach. Cost for lunch ran around $7.
After lunch, Bobby, Dylon, John, and Kent decided to try to do a dive. Many problems were encountered trying to get through the surf. Bobby lost an integrated weight pocket and Kent lost his mask. Everyone came back in to fix the problems. Kent found his mask still strapped to his regulator first stage:-) They made a second attempt to enter the surf. Poor John just couldn't get through the second time. He got knocked over a number of times and decided he just wasn't ready for these rough conditions.
The entry here can be a little tricky, especially at high tide, due to a trough just off the beach, then a sandbar, then a drop off. The sandbar can cause some pretty rough breakers at times.
Bobby, Dylon, and Kent made it though the surf the second time and did their dive.
There are 2 reef lines at LBTS that are accessible from the beach. The first reef line extends out to the end of the pier. This reef line is in about 15 feet of water and has a lot of large round deep holes. Lots of fish, nurse sharks, and lobster can be seen through these holes. The reef doesn't go all the way to the sand at many places giving the fish good hiding places where they can scoot from one hole to another UNDERNEATH the reef. The second reef line is about 30 yards past the first line. This line has a lot of ledges and dramatic coral and rock formations. The depth on the second reef is only about 10 feet.There is yet another reef line, but this is extremely far out and not really accessible to beach diving. I've been told that the third line is in 40 to 60 feet of water.
After an hour of down time, the guys returned and reported a whooping 10 foot ofvisibility. They said that the surge was very strong and they used this to their advantage by riding the surge both on their way out and on their way back in. To do this, you ride the surge in the direction that you're going and then plant your fingers in the sand to hold you from being pushed back the other way.
There was a short afternoon thunderstorm and we all huddled under the pavilion on Datura Ave until it passed.
We left LBTS around 3:30 and got back to Palm Bay shortly after 6:00. Even though most of us didn't attempt the dive, we still had a fun day in the sun.
Cost was minimal - lunch.
Dive Safe! Dive Often!
Lauderdale-by-the-Sea Night Beach Dive - June 1, 2002
This trip report is currently being worked on. Please check back at a later time.
Wow! Another great dive! If you haven't done a Lauderdale-by-the-Sea beach
dive yet, you are missing out on some of the best beach diving in the
country.
This was a Crew dive. We met at the Big Lots parking lot in Palm Bay at
6:30 AM. There were 5 advisors and 5 Crew members. Advisors were me and
Bobby, Kent, Nick, and John. Crew was Amanda, Dustin, Hillery, Dylan, and
Thea. We were expecting the Buck family (2 other adults and 2 other youths)
but they didn't show. We waited for them until 7:00 and then decided to
head south. Kent made a guess that we would find them on the beach when we
arrived at LBTS.
The drive was uneventful. We arrived at LBTS shortly before 10:00. And
guess what? Kent was right! The parents, Debi and Gary, were already
paddling their new sea kayaks to the mouring balls! Jessica and James were
hanging out on the beach.
The air was warm, the sky was clear, and the ocean was flat! Woo-Hoo! What
a wonderful day for a dive and what a great bunch of folks to be diving
with!
While getting our gear ready for our first dive, we were approached by a man
wanting to know information about the diving. Turns out he was from
Chicago. I told him about the Deep Blue Sea dive shop in town and that they
would probably rent him gear. I lent him one of our dive flags so he could
snorkel.
We split up into groups of 3 and each group made their dive plans. I had
John, Thea, and Jessica with me (OK, that's 4 :). We decided to head
straight for the second reef just east of the fishing pier. The ocean was
flat and it was about 2 hours from low tide. This makes the entry here very
easy. We walked into the ocean to about waist deep water and put on our
fins and masks. While others snorkeled out to the reef, we dropped right
down and swam out on the bottom.
We had about 40 foot of vis and water was a warm 84 degrees. Wonderful!
We passed over the first reef in a north/east direction. I noticed that we
also had a mild north current. We swam and swam. Hmmm.... Where's the
reef? I surfaced and checked my bearings with the beach and the pier. I
know that second reef had to be close. We swam some more and I finally
started to recognize the chunky bottom that we hit right before the second
reef. Ahhhh.... There is it!
The second reef has a lot of relief and large coral heads and sea fans. We
explored the second reef for quite awhile and when my first buddy hit 1000
PSI, we started back in.
John had some leg cramps and decided to go in on the surface. Jessica,
Thea, and I went in underwater until Jessica hit 300 PSI. At that point, we
all surfaced. Since Thea and I still had over 1000 PSI, we super-snorkeled
in on the surface with our regulators. It was hard work swimming against
that mild current at the end of the dive.
Our first dive was 57 minutes. There were lots of fish including beautiful
queen parrot fish, french angels, gray angels, amberjack, a large nurse
shark, I even saw a spanish mackerel!
We found Amanda on the beach and I asked her why she wasn't diving. She
told me that she tried but got a sinus squeeze. She was just coming off a
head cold and even though she could equalize her ears, her sinus' hadn't
completely cleared. bummer....
The guy from Chicago (his name is Bert) returned our dive flag and since
Amanda wasn't diving, I offered him gear, a tank, and a dive guide. He was
thrilled and took me up on the offer.
After everyone came back in, Kent and John walked with the kids to Burger
King while Bobby and I stayed with the gear. Jessica and James were also
hanging out on the beach and Jessica volunteered to watch the gear so Bobby
and I could go have lunch. We decided to hit the pier restaurant for a hot
dog.
After lunch, we setup for dive 2. Since Amanda couldn't dive, Hillery and
Thea decided to skip the second dive and hang out with Amanda on the beach.
Boy, did they miss some good stuff!
John, Jessica, and I headed back into the water around 1:30. We decided to
stay on the first reef and start our dive INTO the current - so we headed
south.
On our way out, we came across an octopus lear on the edge of the reef. The
octopus was inside. Too cool! While exploring the reef, we saw a
hawksbill turtle, a large green moray eel, a sea snake (my first), and
bunches of lobster.
When my first buddy hit 1500 PSI, we turned and let the current carry us
back to the exit point. It was much easier letting the current do the work.
We had over an hour of down time on this dive.
On both dives, we passed over the simulated wreck just outside of the swim
area. This includes a large anchor, a pile of ballast stones, and 3 cannons.
We got out of the water and packed up our gear. Bobby and Nick came out
shortly after us and reported that a couple of snorkels were pouching with a
Hawaiian sling. They had a bag full of small lobster (not yet season),
parrot fish (illegal to spear), small snapper (have to be at least 10
inches), and other assorted ornamental reef fish. Bobby was not too happy
about it. He went up to the pier and reported them. The guy at the pier
called the sheriff's department and within minutes, there were a bunch of
cops asking Bobby questions. We had watched the poachers jump into a boat
and headed south. Bobby gave the police this information with a description
of the boat and off they went to try to catch them.
Bert dove with Kent and was extremely appreciative. He insisted on 'tipping
the dive master' so we used the $20 he gave us to offset our meter parking.
($1 for each hour)
We were all packed up and ready to head home around 4:00. We stopped at
the Cracker Barrel in Stuart for dinner and guess what? It was MY birthday
this time. I was extremely embarrassed when the entire wait staff sang
Happy Birthday to me while presenting me with my free hot fudge brownie
sunday. My birthday is really in February - this was pay backs from Amanda
from one our previous trips when I allowed other Crew members to give Amanda
a 'pretend' birthday. :-)
We pulled into the Big Lots parking lot around 8:30 PM.
Costs were minimal:
$5 for each tank supplied by the Crew
$7 for lunch
$10 for dinner
donation to the drivers
Can't beat it!
Next scheduled Crew dive is August 10th. We're doing a beach dive at Pepper
Park for lobster!
Dive Safe! Dive Often!
The Crew had scheduled this beach dive to hunt lobster. Official season
opened on 8/6.
We met at Big Lots in Palm Bay at 7:00 AM on Saturday morning. Advisors for
this trip were Bonnie, Paul, Bobby, Nick, and myself. Crew members were
Jessica, Amanda, James, Nate, Whitney, Ashley, Michale, Dylon, and Hillery.
Jessica's brother, James, also joined us for this trip as well as Russ and
his daughter Alex.
We loaded the gear and the people into 6 vehicles and headed south. Down 95
to SR 60. Across to A1A and then south to Pepper Park. The park is just
north of the Ft. Pierce Inlet.
It was a warm breezy morning and we knew that there was a possibility that
the conditions were not going to be good for diving due to the strong east
wind that started kicking about mid-week. The kids had decided in advance
that even if they couldn't dive, they still would like to have a beach day.
Once we got to Pepper Park, it looked like it was going to be a beach day.
The waves were 4 to 5 feet high and it was pretty rough. The water looked a
bit brown all the way out to the third reef line.
Two other groups of divers that dive with us pretty regularly were already
at the park. One group had already attempted to do the dive. Of the 6 in
their group, only 3 made it out through the rough surf. The other group was
just attempting to get through the surf. Kim and Debbie aborted due to the
rough conditions but Bob and Steve continued out.
Five Crew members wanted to give it a try. As we were suiting up in the
parking lot, Bobby came up and said that he had just talked with Tipper (one
diver from the first group who had actually made it out). Tipper had told
him that the vis was zero and the surf and surge were really rough. As
Bobby told us Tipper's report, I saw Bob walking across the parking lot to
the shower. It looked like he and Steve also decided to return to dive
another day. Bobby, who is the Crew's safety officer, made the call and
cancelled the dive.
But it was a GREAT day at the beach. Tipper brought a frisbee, a football,
and a kosh paddle game. The kids headed into the ocean and were enjoying
the big waves. We should have brought our boogie-boards! While frolicking
in the warm water, the lifeguard decided that we were too far out and called
us all in. We were in about 4 foot of water but the waves made it 8 foot
when they were rolling past. We re-entered the water a short time later
only to be called in again. The lifeguard came and talked to us and told us
that it was pretty rough and he didn't want to have to drag anyone out of
the water. This miffed Amanda a bit. She is our Crew president, a
certified lifeguard who works for Brevard
County, as well as a certified Rescue Diver. Bobby is a Rescue Diver and
Dive Master and I am a Rescue Diver, Dive Master, and Scuba Instructor. One
of us was ALWAYS in the water with the other Crew members. I informed the
lifeguard of this. I then told him that we were leaving in about 45 minutes
anyway. His response to that was "GOOD!" Geez!
We packed up around 11:30 and decided to stop at The Cracker Barrel in Vero
for lunch. The place was busy and we weren't able to get a table together.
In fact, we ended up at 3 different tables in 2 different sections. I won't
go into any long details on our experience, except to say that we've had
better at other Cracker Barrels.
We arrived back at Big Lots around 2:30.
This was a very cheap day - total cost was whatever each person spent on
lunch.
Dive Safe! Dive Often!
This is the first Crew trip that I missed. But with the hectic schedule
that I had for September, I needed a day of down time. This is a recap of
the Crew's report of the trip.
Crew members Dustin, Dylon, Hillery, Jackie, and James joined adults Ann,
Dave, Bobby, Kent, Paul, Bonnie, and Don on a scheduled beach dive at Coral
Cove Beach on A1A 1 mile north of the Jupiter Inlet. There was an afternoon
high tide so there wasn't any rush to leave early. (due to the inlet being
so close, it is necessary to plan this dive during an incoming tide) The
group met at the Big Lots parking on Malabar Road in Palm Bay at 10:00 AM.
They loaded up the truck with gear and the cars with people and headed south.
The wind had been blowing pretty hard out of the east all week which doesn't
do any good for beach diving conditions. They arrived at Coral Cove and
assessed the situation. They talked with the lifeguard on duty who told
them that this is a really good dive spot and there is usually good vis.
However, today was not one of those days. The surf was rough and the vis
was nil. The group decided to go farther south to Phil Foster Park on Blue
Heron Blvd in West Palm.
They arrived at Phil Foster with plenty of time to get ready for the dive.
This is a dive that can only be done at high slack tide. Dustin and Dylon
buddied up. Jackie isn't certified yet so Hillery decided to snorkel with
her and James. Bobby, Kent, and Don hit the water. Dave and Ann had the
opportunity to dive as buddies (something that doesn't happen very often :)
They had really good vis and the divers enjoyed the shoot (an area between a
solid bridge pilon wall and the wooden wall that marks the channel). The pilon wall is covered
with orange sponges. Lots of juvenile fish can get found here. They also
enjoyed the little reef that is under the fishing pier. Bobby said that
there were hogfish the size of your thumbnail! This is a very popular
collection area.
They had over an hour in the water. Towards the end of their dive, Ann
popped up and told the rest of the group that she and Dave had spotted a
rather large lobster in a pipe north of the pier. Bobby went into hunt
mode. He grabbed Kent's stick and net and headed back into the water. The
tide had already turned, so Bobby went upcurrent of the spot and entered the
water from the north side of the pier. Ann showed him where Larry was hiding
(Dave's name for the bug) That was one in the bag! It was a nice size
bug - about 2 1/2 pounds! Bobby gave him to Ann to take home.
After about 3 hours at the park, the Crew headed north. They stopped at the
Cracker Barrel for dinner. This time, it was Paul and Ann's birthdays. The
kids enjoy embarrassing the adults with their 'birthday' claims. It used to
always be Amanda's birthday - but somehow it got shifted to the adults.
Bobby didn't get home to Melbourne until after 9:00 PM. It was a long day -
but everyone had a GREAT time. I'm sorry now that I missed it.
Dive Safe! Dive Often!
Plans for the Keys trip started in August. September was the original date
set for the trip, but scheduling conflicts caused the trip to be moved to
October 4, 5, & 6.
We had 21 sign up for the trip. Adults were Dave, Ann, Kent, Don, Sherry,
Paul, Bonnie, Ed, Bobby, and me. Crew were Amanda, Hillery, Ashly,
Michael, Patrick, Dustin, Dylan, Jen, James, and Jessica. Sherry brought
her 6 year old, Cody, along for the weekend.
Amanda, Ed, and I went shopping for the weekend on Wednesday. On Thursday,
all of the kids brought their cloths, camp gear, and dive gear to our house.
Ed brought the trailer up around 8:00 PM. Bobby, Amanda, Dylan, and Ed
loaded the trailer.
Bobby and I met up with Don, Sherry, Cody, Ed, and Dylan at 8:00 AM Friday
morning and headed south on 95. Don was pulling a pop-up camper and Bobby
was pulling the trailer.
The ride was uneventful. We hit Florida City by noon. Wow! That was great
timing. Once into the Keys, we stopped at Mrs. Mac's on US 1 south for
lunch. This is a great locals place. But don't bring your credit card.
They only take cash!
After lunch, we headed south and stopped briefly at the Sandal Outlet. Then
south again. Seven mile bridge was as spectacular as always. By around
4:00 PM, we were rolling into Bahia Honda State Park - Mile Marker 37.
I registered our group and we headed to our campsites. We had folks
planning on arriving at all different times. We unpacked the trailer and
got the tents and dining area and kitchen setup. I have to give the park an
A+ for their campground. But their reservation system needs some help.
They don't know diddly about the campgrounds (they are located in
California). And they charge your credit card as soon as you make the
reservation - not when you go camping. But the campgrounds are very nice.
There are many sites right on the water. Check them out at
bahiahondapark.com
Bobby noticed that it was slack tide so Dylan, Bobby, Ed, Don, and I decided
to dive under the bridge in search of lobster. But by the time we got our
gear gathered and into the water, the tide had turned. The current was
moving out pretty good. We gave it a try, but it was just too late. So we
loaded the gear into the truck and all headed to Horseshoe for a twilight
dive. The Horseshoe is an odd place - a deep coral pit with high walls that
are exposed at low tide but covered at high tide. There is all kinds of
life on the walls of the pit. Lobster, snapper, crabs, flame scallops,
grouper, parrotfish, etc.
We dove for about an hour and then loaded our gear back into the truck and
headed back to camp.
Next to arrive at camp were Ashly and Michael. Ashly and Michael, Don,
Sherry, and Cody, Dylan, and Ed went to No Name Key for pizza. Bobby and I
stayed behind so we could open the gate for our folks as they arrived.
Bonnie, Paul, James, and Jessica showed up next followed by Dave and Ann.
The pizza group found their way back to camp. Finally, Amanda, Patrick,
Hillery, Dustin, and Jen rolled into camp. We were only waiting on Kent
now. We found that our cell phones didn't work real well in the park. But
he finally got through to us to let us know that he was running late and
should be at camp by the morning.
It was pretty late when we all hit the hay and it was going to be an early
morning. We were meeting the boat at Looe Key Dive Center at 9 AM at Mile
Marker 25.
I was first up (amazing...) at 6:00 AM. Folks slowly got up and started
moving about. We had planned a quick breakfast of bananas and bagels with
cream cheese. Kent still wasn't with us, but had called from Key Largo at
7:30. We told him to meet us at the dive shop. I had to take the folks
who drove in late to the office to register at 8:00 AM. We loaded up the
trucks with dive gear and headed out of camp. We stopped at the office and
it was taking sooooo long, that we only registered one vehicle. I told the
ranger that we had to catch a dive boat and we'd register AFTER the dive.
We arrived at the dive shop at 8:45 AM. We had filled out our liability
releases in advance, only to be told that we forgot to fill out the front
side of the form. So everyone had to get their releases back and complete
them. That took a little time. Kent showed up around 9:00. The gangs all
here!
Shortly after 9:00 AM, we loaded the boat with our gear. The boat is a
large pontoon boat that holds 30 divers and 15 snorklers. It was called the
Kokomo Cat. Captain Bill and DM Taylor were great crew. We shared the boat
with another group of 5 and 2 other groups of 2 making a total of 30 on the
boat.
The dive profile for the day was a deep dive on the Adolphus Busch wreck
Check it out here followed
by 2 dives at Looe Key. The plan was for Ann to work with Jessica on her deep
dive for advanced and for Dave and I to work with Hillery and Jen for their
advanced deep dive.
We setup our first set of gear and checked it before we left the dock. Some
divers noticed that their tanks (rentals) were low on air - 2500 psi. This
is not good - especially for a deep dive.
We checked the other tanks and found a few others were low. We had Taylor
replace them.
Captain Bill pulled away from the dock at 9:45. He had to slickly maneuver
his way through the canal and out the narrow (extremely narrow) channel. He
told us all to sit very still and not move while he preformed this dramatic
feat!
It was a beautiful day. The sun was bright and the seas were calm. With
all of the hurricanes spinning around us, I was expecting a little rougher
conditions. I was pleasantly surprise. But, we were still inside the
reef. The wreck sits outside the reef and the conditions there are usually
rougher. In about 20 minutes, we were at the dive site. We hooked up to
another boat that was on the beam mooring ball. Taylor gave us a dive
briefing and we got into our buddy teams.
To prepare for our deep dive experience, we had the students solve a problem
on the boat while we timed them. This exercise would be repeated on the
bottom.
Dave went down first to get ready for me, Hillery, and Jen. Ann took
Jessica down to start her deep skills. Bobby buddied up with Patrick and
Amanda and Dustin tagged along while Dylan (with video camera in hand)
buddied with Don. Ashly and Michael were buddies while Kent and Ed dove
together. Sherry and Cody, Paul, Bonnie, and James all stayed on the boat
for the first dive.
Hillery, Jen, and I made our way down the mooring rope. The vis was not as
good as usual for the Keys. (those darn hurricanes) At about 50 feet, the
shadow of the ship came into view. We continued down the line to the deck
where Dave was waiting for us. Part of the deep class is to try to get the
student narc'ed so she can experience the feeling, recognize it, and react
appropriately to it. So once the student is on the bottom, we give her the
problem to solve and time her again. Both Hillery and Jen did well on their
problem. I don't think that either of them actually got narc'ed.
After the problem solving exercise, we compared our depth gauges. Our
gauges were all within a couple of feet of each other. Then Hillery and I
buddie up and went to explore the ship. We first went to the bottom. My
gauge read 108 feet. Whoops. Let's go up. We entered the cargo hold at 85
feet and swam though the hole in the bulkhead. We went up to the bow and
looked over the side of the ship. What an awesome view. This is a good
size ship. We swam to the wheel house and into a large open room. This is
a very diver friendly wreck and has holes in all the right places to make it
a very safe dive. The thing you have to watch here is your depth and your
time.
As we swam pasted Dylan, he gave me a funny look and pointed at the camera.
I would later find out that he was trying to tell me that there was a
problem with the camera - that the camera was saying the tape was full.
Odd.
Hillery and I chased a large snook around in a large room and then exited to
see a HUGE school of grunts filling the next room. It was too cool. After
20 minutes, it was time to go back to the surface. We made our way back to
the line and started up. We had to stop at 45 feet because the line was
full from everyone else doing their safety stops. Hillery and I let go of
the line and surfaced to 15 feet. We headed into the light current and did
an easy kick to stay in one place. 3 minutes later, we surfaced and drifted
to the boat.
Taylor met us at the ladder and took Hillery's fins. She climbed the ladder
and made her way to her seat. My turn. This was too easy.
I found out when I got on board that Ashly had some equalization problems
and didn't make it down on the dive. Michael was a good buddy and got back
onboard with her.
We got our tanks switched over for our next dive. Once everyone was
onboard, Taylor did a diver check and then we were off to Looe Key. It was
about 11:30. I broke out the lunchmeat that we had brought and started
slapping sandwiches together. I also opened up the fruit. The grapes went
quickly.
It was only a 5 minute ride to Looe Key. As soon as we were moored, Captain
Bill announced, "You have one hour here. Be back on board in one hour!"
Huh? What about up time? What about off-gassing? What about DSC?
Hmmmm..... My computer said that I was fine. But not all of the divers
were diving with computers. I said something to Taylor about it, but he
assured me that the depth was so shallow (20 feet), that there wasn't any
danger and they do this all the time. Well heck, then, let's go diving!
Actually, we were up longer than it felt. My computer shows 40 minutes
between dives 1 & 2.
Dylan replaced the tape in the camera and prepared it for the Looe Key dive.
Jessica buddied with Ann to do her Peak Performance Buoyancy advanced dive.
Hillery, Jen, and I buddied up for this dive. Looe was blue. The water was
beautiful and clear. Looe Key is a marine sanctuary that is all underwater.
There is no hunting, no touching, just looking. And the critters here know
it. We saw great big grouper - blacks and gags and reds. Big hog fish and
green moray eels. Looe Key is a mass of finger corals.
Check out Looe Key here. We dove up one finger and then over to the next and
down. Then up the other side, etc, etc. Jen and Hillery looked so comfortable
in the water. Their buoyancy was perfect.
We passed under James and Bonnie who were snorkeling. James dove down and
waved at us.
We spooked a 6 foot barracuda by coming across the top of one of the
fingers. That was a little bit of a surprise.
After an hour, we made our way back to the boat. Taylor was making hot
dogs. The boat sells hot dogs and sodas for $1 each. We got our tanks
changed over and I started making sandwiches again. The Captain moved down
a few mooring balls. A couple of Crew folks got hot dogs and as soon as
they were served, the Captain announced that we had to be back on the boat
in one hour. Huh? Geez! I sure felt rushed. The kids fondly nicknamed
Bill "Captain Dive Nazi". Dive, Dive, Dive!!!!!!!! I checked my watch - it
was 1:30.
Bobby and I decided to buddy for dive 3. Amanda, Patrick, Jen, Hillery, and
Dustin all decided to hang out together. Jen had the video camera for
another advanced dive. All she needs now is her nav dive!
Bobby and I enjoyed our hour together. I saw my first black tip shark as it
quickly swam away from us. The fish life and the corals here are
phenomenal. This is truly a beautiful place to dive.
At 2:30, we were waiting to board the boat. The kids were having a blast
jumping off the boat, climbing back on, and jumping off again. The
snorklers all said that they had a great time.
Once everyone was back onboard, Taylor did a diver check and we headed back
to the dock. It was a lovely ride but I hated to leave. Taylor smiled
when we tipped him $100 - $5 for each person. I cut up the pineapple and
passed it around during the ride in. It was a sweet one!
It was a little after 3:00 when we got back to the dock. We unloaded our
gear from the boat and loaded it up into the trucks. Then we headed back to
camp.
The plan from here was to take the advanced students to the Horseshoe to do
their Navigation dive to complete their Advanced Certification. The group
included Dylan, Patrick (who only had to do a square), Hillery, Jen, and
Jessica. Dave volunteered to assist me with this task. The rest of the
group's job was to prepare dinner at camp.
The kids wanted a short break to rest (wimps) so at 5:00 PM we loaded our
gear into the truck and headed for the Horseshoe.
I got the nav lines set so each student could count the 100 foot kick cycles
and then time themselves swimming 100 feet. After the 100 foot swim, each
student uses natural navigation to swim out and back 100 feet. Then, the
student uses a compass to swim out and back 100 feet. The final task is to
swim a 100 foot square.
Dylan and Jessica buddied up and Hillery and Jen buddied up. Everyone had a
compass. The count exercise went well. Jen did well on the natural
navigation. She used the sunlight coming in the side of her mask as a
guide. The others didn't do so well. However, in defense of the students,
there isn't much to use for natural navigation in the Horseshoe. If you're
on the bottom and you aren't on the wall, you're in nasty silt. Not much to
navigate naturally with. Then we started the compass navigation. Dylan's
bezel wouldn't spin. Neither would Jen's. Hillery had a hard time holding
her compass straight (it was a spernickity compass - I must say) so everyone
wanted to use Jessica's compass. This made doing the compass exercise take
4 times as long since we couldn't have buddy teams doing it simultaneously.
By 7:00, everyone was done except Patrick. He still had to do his square.
He had been patiently floating for 2 hours just waiting for the compass to
do his square.
I asked Dave to supervise Patrick's square so Jen, Hillery, and I could try
to find the car that Jessica and Dylan found while doing Jessica's square.
Guess what? We found it. It was LOADED with fish! We continued the dive
along the wall and checked out the flame scallops and parrotfish in the rock
cracks.
When we surfaced, Dave said that a local had stopped by and told him that
the Horseshoe was a borrow pit from when they built the bridges. It also
doubled as a safe harbor for the barges that where used to build the bridges
in case of bad weather. We always wondered what this place was. Now we
know.
By 7:30, we were back at camp and very hungry. Grilled beef and chicken
shish-ka-bobs with onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, and green peppers were on
the menu along with salad and potatoes. Yummy.
The cooks also cleaned up. The breakfast duty was going to go to the
Advance Students. By the way, after our nav dive, we had 4 new Advanced
Divers in the Crew. Congratulations Patrick, Jen, Dylan, and Jessica.
Hillery still has one elective dive to do to complete her Advanced. These
kids sure are working hard.
We found that the mosquitoes are pretty bad right after sundown, but
subsided within an hour or so. It was also a little warm, but there was a
nice breeze coming in off of the water that cooled things off a little.
Don, Sherry, and Cody went to Key West for the evening. The Crew played
cards, hung around the fire, and took walks. The old Bahia Honda Bridge is
awesome to walk out on and just look at the stars. The Milky Way is
astounding in the dark Keys sky.
Everyone hit the hay around midnight. It had been a long day and I was
ready to sleep.
Up at 7:00 and breakfast was already being worked prepared. Eggs, pancakes,
and sausage. After breakfast, we cleaned up and started to tear down camp.
By 11:00 AM, we were ready to head north. We stopped at the office and
checked out and then headed for home. This, like everything else in this
office, took longer than it should have. We stopped at Divers Direct in Key
Largo to regroup and caravan home. It's always so hard to leave the Keys.
We stopped in Delray Beach for dinner around 4:00 PM. We found an all you
can eat Chinese buffet. Dinner!
After a wonderful meal, we were back on the road. We made a brief stop at
the Stuart rest area and then we were on the home stretch. We pulled into
Melbourne around 8:00 PM and unpacked the trailer.
We reviewed the videos that the kids made after everyone left. We laughed
when we realized the reason the tape was full was because the camera was on
for the entire ride to the wreck and Dylan got wonderful footage of the
bottom of the camera rinse tank - all 30 minutes of it! However, his Looe
Key footage was spectacular. Jen got some great shots of the other Crew
members during her dive.
It was a wonderful weekend. We had great weather, great diving, and great
fellowship. I love these kids!
Cost Breakdown:
Camp: 13
Food: 11
Trans: 16
Diving: 60 or Snorkeling: 30
Total
Diver $100
Snorkeler: $70
Dive Safe! Dive Often!
Swim to the Venture Crew Home Page
Coral Cove Beach Dive September 14, 2002
Bahia Honda Key's Trip October 4,5,6 2002
