Diving/Vacation report

NinerPilot · 02-23-2005, 5:26 PM

Bad news is that it is over, good news is that unless Im in the academy next month, Ill be back around the 18th.

We left Thursday morning and headed to Ft. Lauderdale. Jonny Van Zant of Lynard Skynard sat in front of me going home to Jacksonville. We chatted a bit and he is a really cool guy. The funny part was that a bunch of the guys around him were ordering cocktails and beer on the 0930 flight, and he and another band member were having diet coke...

Got to Lauderdale, rented a van and headed south. We had a late lunch at a little shack that has become tradition, then on towards the campsite where we got set up.

Friday morning I started calling Dive shops getting rates and dive sites, when I saw a neighbor carrying a scuba rig from the car to the table. I went ovr and talked to them and they gave us the info of the charter that they were using. We ended up going out with them and there were only the 4 of us plus the Capt on the boat. Me, my Sis, and the young couple.

We got out there and got suited up and into the water. Water Temp was about 76* and the air temp was about 80*. Did 2 dives with this trip and saw quite a bit of wildlife and awesome coral. Spent the rest of the day by the pool soaking up the sun.

The next day I wanted to do a night dive, and called a few places with no one offering a night dive that evening. Then I got one that said they had a 3-tank dive going out in 30 min including a deep wreck, shallow wreck, and a night reef dive. Needless to say I hi-tailed it out of there and got to the boat. Found out that the other divers on the boat were students working on their advanced overhead rating with their instructor. 5 of us total including the instructor. The first dive was a deep wreck reef, but they had to knock out some skills before they could explore. For you non divers, the first rule in diving is to never hold your breath followed by never dive alone, so I couldnt go explore the reef while they worked on their nav skills. I buddied up with one of the students and we went off to do the box drill where one diver watches the compass, while the other counts kicks. Object is to end up where you started without looking at references. We went second and got back to see that the first group hasnt returned, so we spent the rest of that dive waiting on them and it turned out that they went too far on a couple of legs and ended up about 100 yds behind the boat while we were at the anchor. When surfacing (from 65ft), my buddy starts pulling hand over fist on the anchor line rapidly accending. I grab his fin and yank him back down, but this failed to install any confidence in me. When we surfaced, the first group was on the boat and had their gear off. Once aboard we ribbed them a bit and continued to the next site.

The second dive was a sunken freighter that sank in 1935, so it had some nice growth on it. This one, we were allowed to swim around and check it out. There was so much life on this wreck with all kinds of swim throughs, that it was probably my favorite dive yet. On this dive alone I saw several Barracuda, a ~8ft Nurse shark, a nice big morey eel, a few puffers as well as several schools of tropical fish. The instructor was trying to entice the moray out of its hole by wiggling her finger in the opening

. Not for me thanks....

The next dive was the night dive and the one I had been waiting for. We watched a spectacular sunset on the boat then got geared up. On a side note: the instructor wanted to get in the water as soon as possible because she was cold. She was wearing a 5mm full wetsuit as well as a 3mm shorty over it and a 2mm full hood which covered her torso. She had 10mm of neoprene on and was complaining that it was cold. I told her that she was nuts, and the only reason that I had a wetsuit on at all was because it was included in the dive price. Red Rider and you other northern divers know even moreso how crazy this sounds. Anyway, we get down and dive Sombrero Reef for about an hour and the coolest thing I saw was the largest puffer that I have ever seen. It had to be at least the size of a basketball and it was un-puffed!

. Also saw a bunch of Queen Conch as well as a few big lobsters. Luckily for them, Sombrero Reef is a marine sanctuary and I didnt have a FL fishing license

. I spent the rest of the time in FL working on the old tan and drinking frozen drinks with umbrellas.... Not really with umbrellas but you get the picture.

When we were almost to the airport we got stopped in traffic for a wreck and I saw 2 FHP Z28's go by.... Man I gotta talk to my chief about those since I seem to find myself in pursuits quite frequently these days. Made to to the airport on time and our plane was late getting in and even later leaving. We got pulled off of it since they knew that we couldnt make our connection in Orlando so they gave us $100 travel voucher, then sent us through Baltimore to get back to TN. Once in Baltimore, we were given $40 for food vouchers, and preboarded on to the plane so we could get any seats we wanted. (Southwest's Ninja-Boarding System).

Got home at about 9pm, and our luggage was still in Orlando since planes were stuck there due to weather. I had court at 0800 on Tuesday so I picked up the luggage on the way back.

Now since Im even more hooked on this diving thing, Im off to get a BG and Setup. Ill post on that when I get back.
Chris

Red Rider · 02-23-2005, 5:34 PM

Sounds like a great trip...I'm jealous as hell, especially as I look out at all the snow around here! I've never done a night dive, hope to some day, but I have dived on numerous wrecks (the Great Lakes are full of them). The water must've felt like a bathtub to you!

Did you take any pics?

NinerPilot · 02-23-2005, 5:43 PM

My sis took a few on the boat, but no underwater ones....
Chris

HondaGalToo · 02-23-2005, 6:16 PM

That sounds awesome! I've never dived, but I think it's something I'd enjoy, along with skydiving. They're on the list...

sheepofblue · 02-23-2005, 6:23 PM

Go again and leave the roads and dry land more open for me

Kidder · 02-23-2005, 7:44 PM

That sounds great. What was the visibility? I hope you spoke to that student about ascending too quickly.

I hope to dive Florida sometime. My wife is still a newbie so we like going to Cozumel. In fact, we're going in December.

I'd highly recommend you get your own reg and BC setup plus a computer. You'll become much more familiar with your own gear and you'll really like having your own. Plus, you know when/where it's been serviced. I hate using rental gear since my reg breathes so smoothly and my BC fits well (it's a low profile/back inflate). And, I'm always paranoid about if rental gear has been checked out properly.

How many dives do you have under your belt?

I'm a PADI Divemaster and I've only got 120.

Thanks for the report.

NinerPilot · 02-23-2005, 8:55 PM

I just got in from looking at gear. I have known what I wanted for a while, just now getting motivated to buy it as in the past few times I have borrowed my buddy's gear. I picked out a Zeagle Ranger LTD BC w/Octo + alternate air, the Zeagle Flathead Regulator, and standard Zegal Gauges. Ill get a computer this summer after I get over the initial plunge settles. Having used Zeagle as well as other brands of gear, they have sold themselves well, plus I am getting a deep discount from my buddy who owns a shop.

I have around 25 openwater dives so far. This summer I hope to get my overhead and maybe divemaster certs.

Oh and vis was between 25-50 feet depending on the dive site.

Chris

Red Rider · 02-23-2005, 9:00 PM

How deep did you get?

NinerPilot · 02-23-2005, 9:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Red Rider

How deep did you get?

65ft on the first dive where the one group got lost... Ive been to 120, but much prefer ~25ft or so.
Chris

Chain · 02-23-2005, 9:26 PM

Bikes and now diving. You can't seem to pick a cheap hobby, can ya Niner?

Nice account of what was a fun trip, I'm sure. Thanks for sharing!

DEPO · 02-23-2005, 9:32 PM

In the years that I have gone diving, I can honetly say there is not much past 85 ft that makes a normal single tank dive worth the short bottom time.

Especially if you use the extremly conservative PADI dive tables

I did a cliff dive that was awesome..... bottom of 118 ft we had a time of 47 minutes that put us in like Q land on the chart.... came up. Told the Instructor. Told us to throw another tank on and we hit the same cliff again.

These guys are in the water 8 times a day doing dives of 40 ft shallow to 120ft..... Glad I have my DAN card ....

If you do not mind me asking what do you carry on the weight belt Niner....?

NinerPilot · 02-23-2005, 9:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DEPO

In the years that I have gone diving, I can honetly say there is not much past 85 ft that makes a normal single tank dive worth the short bottom time.

Especially if you use the extremly conservative PADI dive tables

I did a cliff dive that was awesome..... bottom of 118 ft we had a time of 47 minutes that put us in like Q land on the chart.... came up. Told the Instructor. Told us to throw another tank on and we hit the same cliff again.

These guys are in the water 8 times a day doing dives of 40 ft shallow to 120ft..... Glad I have my DAN card ....

If you do not mind me asking what do you carry on the weight belt Niner....?

With a full 3mm suit on it took 29lbs to get me under the salt. I was a bit heavy, but I prefer to be on the heavy side, then add a bit of air.... I hate being light...

NinerPilot · 02-23-2005, 9:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chain

Bikes and now diving. You can't seem to pick a cheap hobby, can ya Niner?

Nice account of what was a fun trip, I'm sure. Thanks for sharing!

Hehe, Have I shown you my pilot's license? That per/hr is the most expensive hobby I have. It started off as a career until 9-11

terrorists... But being a cop is as good if not mo-better 'cept for the pay...
Chris

Red Rider · 02-23-2005, 9:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DEPO

In the years that I have gone diving, I can honetly say there is not much past 85 ft that makes a normal single tank dive worth the short bottom time.

Especially if you use the extremly conservative PADI dive tables

I did a cliff dive that was awesome..... bottom of 118 ft we had a time of 47 minutes that put us in like Q land on the chart.... came up. Told the Instructor. Told us to throw another tank on and we hit the same cliff again.

These guys are in the water 8 times a day doing dives of 40 ft shallow to 120ft..... Glad I have my DAN card ....

If you do not mind me asking what do you carry on the weight belt Niner....?

So true. My deepest was 177 ft. on a cliff dive down in the BVI's. Not much to see or do at that depth but to watch your time and gauges for a second before ascending. The temptation to keep going deeper was real strong though. Depending on where you're diving, below about 50ft the light really starts to diminish.

DEPO · 02-23-2005, 10:08 PM

It is neat my whole family dives...

Mom, Dad, Sister and her Husband, My brother and his wife, Myself and My Wife.

My mom, dad, and I have our Dive Masters, My Sister and her husband, brother have their rescue diver, and the rest have their advanced... so we get to do some wild dives.

We did a wall dive in Cozumel......

We wound up hitting a drift on this dive...... awesome ride.... but my brother in law and I hear a ping.... it is the Dive Master telling us to look at our gauges... we were at about 150 ft.... at an 85 ft table.....

That same day... I go to get geared up..... Hook Up the Tank.... Hissssssssss

No O-Rings, no Spare Tank......... Dive Master tells me to dive it anyway.... go in with 2200 lbs in the tank...

40 minutes or so in to the dive..... 800 lbs.... signal the master.... give the ok sign, tells me five minutes left in the dive. Ten Minutes go by and I am hitting the pressure difference where there is nothing left..... Get to the top.... 150 psi in the tank.... Thank goodness for dive buddies.

Niner I go real heavy 32 lbs... that is so I never fight neutral balance.... I for my size also do not use a lot of air because with me being so heavy down below, I do not struggle with the balance issue.

nhfirefighter13 · 02-23-2005, 11:53 PM

10mils in Florida?

When I was on the search and rescue SCUBA team we had 7mm suits with 3mm hood. The water up here is about 45-50* at around 30' in mid summer.

I found that out the hard way when I decided to not wear the hood (it was a good 90* outside) one time...yup, I nearly froze after passing through that thermal layer.

MedTechRR · 02-24-2005, 9:02 AM

who you kidding NH?? Around here you practically need a dry suit to hit the water. Maybe june, july, august it's bearable w/ wet suit. I've been meaning to get a dry suit but have too many other things on my list of things to buy.

The best dive I've ever gone on was in Gloucester. Checked out a couple of wrecks and then went lobster hunting. Nothing better than a fun day full of diving and then eating all the free lobster ya can!!

colryn · 02-24-2005, 9:30 AM

Glad you enjoyed your trip to the sunshine state. As for the Z28 FHP, those are the old cars. They are now issuing new V8 Mustangs as the interceptor cars.

nhfirefighter13 · 02-24-2005, 9:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MedTechRR

who you kidding NH?? Around here you practically need a dry suit to hit the water. Maybe june, july, august it's bearable w/ wet suit. I've been meaning to get a dry suit but have too many other things on my list of things to buy.

The best dive I've ever gone on was in Gloucester. Checked out a couple of wrecks and then went lobster hunting. Nothing better than a fun day full of diving and then eating all the free lobster ya can!!

Before being trained in a dry suit I dove from June to November in a wet suit.

It's not THAT bad once you hop in. The first plunge is a little breathtaking though.