Monday, February 18, 2008

Florida diving


My parents have a place in Florida, near Ft. Lauderdale that is their “winter“ home. A break from the cold, miserable winters of New York. My Mom stays there for a few months during the winter, and my Dad, who’s still working, spends his vacations down there.

I decided to get a break myself, and booked a small mini-holiday to head on down South. At first I didn’t even think of working in some dives, because I was going to visit my Mom. But then she kept talking about how she played golf one morning, or just got back from tennis, so I thought that perhaps I could go diving in the morning, while she did her own thing. She thought it was a good idea too.

I began to look up different dive operations in the South Florida area, but my friend Sarah suggested one company (South Florida Dive Headquarters) that she had gone diving with one time, and how they were very nice, and very professional. I looked up their website, and was pleasantly surprised to find that I could fit the dives into my plans, AND that I could actually do a wreck dive!! Being that I just was certified last November, there are lots of things that I am finding “new” and “exciting”. And wreck diving was one of those new, exciting experiences! I booked 4 dives in total, two on the first morning after I arrived, and two more on the next morning, my first dive being the wreck.

I spent the next few weeks getting myself ready. I purchased my new wetsuit (a Henderson Titanium Hyperstretch 5mm full suit), which I LOVE!! It fits me like a second skin!! No more rental suits that bulge in places! And I bought a beanie, to help me stay warm. I also dug out my old Olympus camera that has the underwater housing. I hadn’t used it in a while, because it had some electrical issue in the past, where it would just decide to shut down on its own. But, perhaps the rest that it had did it good (yeah, I know, inanimate object … doesn’t need “rest”). Whatever it was, the camera seemed to be working well enough. But I was going to bring my new Reefmaster Mini as well, just in case.
So, I arrived in Florida on Thursday night rather late, my Mom waiting to pick me up. By the time I got my luggage and we drove back from the airport, I ended up getting to bed around midnight. I was up the next morning by 7 a.m., borrowed my Mom’s car (it’s a boat, itself!!!) and headed out to the marina. There was the Friday morning commuter traffic to deal with and I also ended up getting stuck at not one, but TWO railroad crossings! The second one had a freight train going past, which literally took a full 5 minutes to pass!!! I was getting nervous, because I didn’t know how far the marina was, and I knew I had one more “crossing” to deal with (the Intercoastal) but I did get there in time, paid and got all my extra rental gear (I needed to rent a BCD, a regulator and weight belt/weights)

We were on a small boat, with only 7 of us diving. I think the boat accommodates 10 people, though. Plus, we had 2 dive masters onboard as well, Ed and Ari (who was also Captain of the boat). Both were very nice!! As a matter of fact, all the people on the boat were super nice!
I found a buddy (Kevin) to dive with as soon as I got on the boat. And then the dive master put a third person with us (Jim). Which was fine. Both “my guys” were very nice. Kevin was more experience than both myself and Jim (who had also recently been certified). Kevin was also planning to take photos, so that was good, because then we would be going at a similar pace. And Jim was still a bit nervous underwater, so he fit in well too. I even loaned Jim my second camera, and told him if he wanted to use it, great. If not, just let it hang off his BCD and don’t even worry about it. He ended up trying to take a few photos, but must have hit the video mode, and recorded video by accident. It wouldn’t have been bad, but most of his video was of the ocean floor (just sand), since he thought the photo was taken with the first click, and the video ended when he thought he was taking a second photo. I had to laugh!

Anyway, we got to the first site, the wreck, within 15 minutes. The wreck is the Sea Emperor (also known as the Aqua Zoo). It is a 171’ barge, which had to be donated as part of a fine levied on a dredging company that destroyed some reef. Before they sunk the barge, to create an artificial reef, they piled large concrete culverts on top, forming a pyramid. But when she sunk, she tipped over, scattering the culverts all over the sandy bottom.
We descended on the anchor line, and at approximately 45 feet down, came to the top of the wreck. The sand below was at 70 feet. Immediately you notice the plethora of sea life! I was being checked out by a very pretty Gray Angelfish as I got to the wreck’s top (which is it’s bottom, actually)







Back in the late 1990’s divers would bring food to the site (now that’s illegal) and interact with the sea life. So there are lots of fish, who are very much “in your face”. But the “star” attractions were the two large stingrays, one moray eel who wasn’t the typical “I’m going to hide in this crevice type” but rather liked to come out and swim around the divers, and two HUGE…. and I mean HUUUUUUUGE goliath groupers!! And there was lots of variety of sponges and coral as well.

For approximately the next 40 minutes (less a couple) we swam around and over the wreck a few times. Passed by the other divers. I like how when you pass other dive buddy groups, everyone kinda “smiles” through their regulators and gives the “OK” sign. It’s very social, even underwater. I took LOTS of great photos, and the dive was very exciting and relaxing at the same time! But alas, we needed to ascend. It was very difficult to say goodbye to all the wonderful new “friends” I made, but I know I will definitely go back to that same site on my next trip to Florida!

We met up again with two of the divers on our boat, Tony and Dave, at the safety stop. They had gotten there only a minute before us, so we got to all hang out together. I did feel that the 10 pound weight was just a teeny bit light, but with the anchor line, it wasn’t a big deal. But when I got back up on the boat, I was sure to add 2 more pounds.


Dive Stats:
Dive #7 - February 8, 2008 - Sea Emperor (Aqua Zoo) - Pompano Beach, Florida. Anchored boat wreck dive. Buddies - Kevin Wheeler and Jim Berger. Max depth 70 feet, bottom time 38 minutes (no residual time, 800 psi remaining). Water temp 73°, visibility good (40-50 feet), although some scatter. Weight - 10 pound (need 2 more pounds if not using anchor line). Saw Angelfish, butterfly fish, surgeonfish, pork fish, yellowtail snapper, parrotfish, filefish, moray eel (named Baby), two very large stingrays, 2 even bigger goliath groupers, split crown feather dusters, tube sponges, sea plumes, and lots of types of coral!

Back up on the boat, we had some snacks, some fluids, and some conversation of our experiences. I like that part of diving almost as much as I like diving. It’s nice meeting new people! And like I said, everyone was really nice!!

After a 45 minute surface interval, we headed back into the water for the second dive of the day. This was a drift reef dive (meaning, for those who don’t know, the boat doesn’t anchor, but instead each buddy group brings down a line with them that is attached to a float at the surface. The boat then follows along, and when you resurface, it picks you up where you are. Talk about being a pampered diver!!)

This dive was a lot less interactive, but I was able to focus more closely on some of the tinier creatures that I would not necessarily have seen at the first site. Again, lots of great sea life! We were in the water for approximately 30 minutes, because of our residual nitrogen and of course I was getting a bit chilly. But in those thirty minutes, I took what I think is such an AMAZING photo of a Christmas Tree Worm! I am definitely going to get a print of that one!!! It is so difficult to get these cute little buggers to stay put! If they sense any strange vibrations, they quickly disappear into the coral they are using as their homes!

As I sit at my computer, looking at a fish identification site online (http://reefguide.org/) I see that I am probably missing a lot more than I’m seeing! I think if I “study” these pages, I’ll be able to get more out of my dives, because I’ll know what to look for! And possibly some great photos!!

Since I was chilly, I signaled to Kevin that I would go up, and thought that he and Jim could stay down. But it turned out that they were also ready to come up (at least Jim was). So we all ascended, and did our safety stop at 15 feet. I am getting better at that. I keep my depth gauge in front of me, and watch my second-hand on my watch! It’s a good feeling to know I can do it without relying on my buddy’s dive computer! (I am thinking of getting one, but not sure yet. But I do want to get at least a compass.)
Dive Stats:
Dive #8 - February 8, 2008 - The Sanctuary - Pompano Beach, Florida. Drift boat reef dive. Buddies - Kevin Wheeler and Jim Berger. Max depth 60 feet, bottom time 30 minutes (25 minutes residual time, 1600 psi remaining). Water temp 73°, visibility fairly good (25-30 feet), although somewhat murky. Weight - 12 pound (perfect!). Saw Blue Chromis, Bluehead wrasses, Yellowhead Wrasse, Spanish grunt, Spotfin Butterflyfish, Stoplight Parrotfish, Blue Tang surgeonfish, Bluestriped Grunt, French Angelfish, split crown feather dusters, tube sponges, sea plumes, and lots of types of coral!

That was the last dive of the day. I exchanged email addresses with all the people on the boat! I hope we keep in touch! I’ve already heard from Kevin, and when he’s had time to download his photos, he’ll be sharing them with me. Meanwhile, I headed back to my Mom. We had a lovely afternoon, and I slept like a baby that night!


The next day … two more dives.

I woke up even earlier on day two, since the boat was leaving at 8 a.m. Luckily this time I did not get stopped at any railroad crossings or opened bridges! In Florida you have to contend for that possibility! It was another gorgeous day in South Florida!! Sun was shining and the forecast was for low to mid 80’s! Ahh, what I would do to be able to live in that climate year-round!!!!

This time I was on a bigger boat for my dives. I think the boat fits around 30 people. But it was not full (only around 11 of us). Ed, the dive master from the prior day, was also on this boat. I again found my buddy (Jay) soon after getting on the boat. Then Ed asked if we could also buddy up with 2 other guys (Mark and Jason), because Mark would probably surface earlier than the rest of us, and this way Jason could stay down longer with us. That actually benefited me in the end. Jay ended up not paying attention to where the rest of us were, and we ended up surfacing without him on the second dive. We did try to find him, and did catch a glimpse of him, but he was moving fast away from us! I spoke to Ed when I got back up on the boat, because I found that upsetting. He said that Jay dives with them a lot, and that he does that often. So I don’t feel like it’s my fault, but still, I wonder how I can make sure I don’t have a buddy like that in the future?!? Luckily, it was Jason who was holding the float line. I don’t want to ever have to surface without a marker. My luck, I’d be run over by some drunk jerk in some speedboat!

I got some more good photos from the first of the two dives that day. But I had a problem with my camera housing when I had first gotten on the boat. For some reason, the O-ring didn’t seem to be sitting properly. After placing the camera in the bucket of water, I quickly noticed bubbles! So I grabbed the camera out of the bucket and opened it back up. Luckily the camera hadn’t gotten any water on or in it. I dried everything out, re-greased the O-ring, and put the camera back in, locked it up and placed it in the water bucket! No issues this time. EXCEPT…. I had forgotten to place the little moisture muncher packet into the housing. So, on the second dive, the entire housing fogged up, and I couldn’t take any photos. At least the camera didn’t get effected by it all. And it was a good lesson to learn!

Anyway, the drift reef dives are very relaxing. You don’t have to worry about where you’re going other than to make sure you’re not too deep or too shallow. But where you end up popping up on the surface is where the boat will pick you up!!

After we had all gotten back up on the boat after the second dive, the skies opened up like it hadn’t rained in months!!! BUCKETS pouring down!! But wait…. we were already wet, so who cares?!?!


I drove home after the second day of diving, exhausted, relaxed, exhilarated, giddy, and just plain old HAPPY!!

Dive stats:
Dive #9 - February 9, 2008 - Lighthouse Ledge - Pompano Beach, Florida. Drift reef dive. Buddies - Jay Moorie, Mark Holowesko, Jason Holowesko. Max depth 50 feet, bottom time 41 minutes (no residual time, 1300 psi remaining). Water temp 73°, visibility good (25 feet). Weight - 12 pound. Saw Honeycomb Cowfish, Bluestriped Grunts, Blackbar Soldierfish, Rock Beauty, Moray eel, Foureye Butterflyfish, Spotted Drum, Scrawled Cowfish, Spotfin Butterflyfish, Blue Chromis, Smooth Flower Coral, Bluehead wrasses, Yellowhead Wrasse, Stoplight Parrotfish, Blue Tang surgeonfish, split crown feather dusters, tube sponges, pink lumpy sponge, sea plumes, and lots of types of coral!


Dive stats:
Dive #10 - February 9, 2008 - Abbey Too - Pompano Beach, Florida. Drift reef dive. Buddies - Jay Moorie, Mark Holowesko, Jason Holowesko. Max depth 70 feet (only for about 1 minute before we realized how deep we were. Then rest of the time between 50 and 60 feet), bottom time 35 minutes (15 minutes residual time, 1300 psi remaining). Water temp 73°, visibility fair (15 to 20 feet). Weight - 12 pound. Saw Yellow Stingray (and was so pissed my camera was fogged!!!) Bluestriped Grunts, Rock Beauty, Foureye Butterflyfish, Blue Chromis, Smooth Flower Coral, Bluehead wrasses, Yellowhead Wrasse, Stoplight Parrotfish, split crown feather dusters, tube sponges, pink lumpy sponge, sea plumes, Wide-Mesh Sea Fan and lots of types of coral!

Next planned dives are for April, when I return to Club Med in Turks and Caicos. I’ll be going for my Advanced Open Water certification while I’m there. So that means … night diving!!! But when I’m in “class” for certification, I’m not allowed to carry a camera. So that will be the phooey part of it!!

Until then, I'll just have to look at my photos and remember my time underwater.