scububa
July 9th, 2006, 11:13 AM
Had an awesome set of dives last week in the Keys. Interesting trip, full of lots of interesting events.
Was initially suppose to meet a guy to dive for three days. He called the day before departure and said he was too sick to make it. I was able to scramble and get my daughter a flight and changed things to make it 4 days. It took a while, but got my ticket changed, a ticket for Kristin, two hotels changed, the dive boat realigned and a rent car. So, that was the begining.
Rearranging the flights got us a connection thru Ft. Myers. 3 of our 4 bags did not make it to Miami. Initially they told us they would be there that evening (coming in on a 6:30 flt.) and they would deliver. Well, come 10:00pm we weren't sure they knew if they were in StL, Ft Myers, or Miami. Late trip to grocery to get tooth brushes, etc. Next morning since I have my equipment, we decide I might dive and Kristin go for a boat ride or change our dives to the afternoon. We head to the boat a little early to figure things out. I had left message the night before with them.
My phone rings and it is the delivery guy with our bags. We arrange for me to drive 15 miles up to Key Largo and meet him to get them the quickest. I call the boat and talk to them. They will wait for us as it won't set them back too much. We get the bags and go to the boat. When we get there, they say a slight change of plans and will go directly to the Spiegel Grove. 5 other divers. Great folks.
We dove with Travernier. Really a nice outfit. Mike and Wendy were great to be around. All week long, the divers (three different groups) were good divers and lots of fun to hang with. First group were New York divers with NJ wreck diving experience diving singles with one slung stage. (They did more serious penetrations on the wreck.) The second group was a couple that were cave divers and just trained on rebreathers and were checking them out. The last group were doing doubles tech training. So, lots of different flavors. All pretty good divers, even though we saw several problems.
First dive on the Grove was very nice. Little to no current. Great 80' vis. Dropped in on the superstructure, down to the well deck and general orientation. Could hardly have been better conditions. Seas were resaonable, weather, mostly sunny with some clouds. Only issue was my computer had gotten put into the conservative mode and I got some crazy hang times that I honored to not lock it up. The wreck guys were hanging in the area anyway. (I set it properly during the SI and things were fine.)
During our surface interval, a 20' private boat came over with a guy on the floor doubled over. They said they had been to 120' for 20 minutes. He had come up too fast and maybe slowed down, b ut really didn't do a proper safety stop. One of our divers had 56% in his hand and gave it over. Mike called the Coast Guard after being sure that is what they wanted. He then got his O2 kit out and passed it over. I told the people on the boat to start writing down times as soon as we gave them the 56%. I also suggested that they start writing down as much as they knew about entry time, depth, BT, etc. When symptoms started, etc. They guy was having chest pain, numb tingly extremities, nausea and vomiting. Finally, Mike relays the small boats cell numbers to the CG and they direct the small boat to head in to meet them on their way out.
They were 14 miles from port, no radio, no contact numbers in their phones (cell coverage was alway excellent, who'd a thunk?). They had no DAN or dive insurance, no O2. Tied up to a mooring ball that went to an anchor inthe sand (not a tie in to the wreck). This guy hadn't dove in 2 years. They had been partying the night before. There was no shade on their boat. They were not diving computers and had no dive tables on the boat. ( And, no, I did not see a film crew from Jackass around.) Anyway, an pretty interesting SI.
Second dive on Spiegel. Current had picked up noticeably. Wasn't too stupid, but it was stronger. Second dive for us was spent checking the superstructure and staying shallower. Another great dive. And a good boat ride back with a mature and juvenile dolphin surfing our wake. The haste of the morning left the camera in the car.
Day two was on the Duane. The first dive was pretty nice. Roamed up on side and down the other. We swam a few short swim thrus. We dropped into one hatch and there was a guide rope. Kristin started down it, but I stopped her. The opening was not in short sight and we are not rigged for problems in that environment. We came back out the hatch and limited our wandering to poking our heads into spots or to very short, obvious swim thrus. The second dive was the least favorite in some ways, but interesting in others. The current had picked up to stupid hard. When we got to the wreck it was very hard to maintain a shallow depth since there was no where to be out of the current. So, our depth was a little deeper than we wanted and this made the dive shorter. We went back to the up line and got shallower and hung and watched. Many were back shortly after we got there. The interesting part was diving in a strong current and hanging on the line like a flag.
Was initially suppose to meet a guy to dive for three days. He called the day before departure and said he was too sick to make it. I was able to scramble and get my daughter a flight and changed things to make it 4 days. It took a while, but got my ticket changed, a ticket for Kristin, two hotels changed, the dive boat realigned and a rent car. So, that was the begining.
Rearranging the flights got us a connection thru Ft. Myers. 3 of our 4 bags did not make it to Miami. Initially they told us they would be there that evening (coming in on a 6:30 flt.) and they would deliver. Well, come 10:00pm we weren't sure they knew if they were in StL, Ft Myers, or Miami. Late trip to grocery to get tooth brushes, etc. Next morning since I have my equipment, we decide I might dive and Kristin go for a boat ride or change our dives to the afternoon. We head to the boat a little early to figure things out. I had left message the night before with them.
My phone rings and it is the delivery guy with our bags. We arrange for me to drive 15 miles up to Key Largo and meet him to get them the quickest. I call the boat and talk to them. They will wait for us as it won't set them back too much. We get the bags and go to the boat. When we get there, they say a slight change of plans and will go directly to the Spiegel Grove. 5 other divers. Great folks.
We dove with Travernier. Really a nice outfit. Mike and Wendy were great to be around. All week long, the divers (three different groups) were good divers and lots of fun to hang with. First group were New York divers with NJ wreck diving experience diving singles with one slung stage. (They did more serious penetrations on the wreck.) The second group was a couple that were cave divers and just trained on rebreathers and were checking them out. The last group were doing doubles tech training. So, lots of different flavors. All pretty good divers, even though we saw several problems.
First dive on the Grove was very nice. Little to no current. Great 80' vis. Dropped in on the superstructure, down to the well deck and general orientation. Could hardly have been better conditions. Seas were resaonable, weather, mostly sunny with some clouds. Only issue was my computer had gotten put into the conservative mode and I got some crazy hang times that I honored to not lock it up. The wreck guys were hanging in the area anyway. (I set it properly during the SI and things were fine.)
During our surface interval, a 20' private boat came over with a guy on the floor doubled over. They said they had been to 120' for 20 minutes. He had come up too fast and maybe slowed down, b ut really didn't do a proper safety stop. One of our divers had 56% in his hand and gave it over. Mike called the Coast Guard after being sure that is what they wanted. He then got his O2 kit out and passed it over. I told the people on the boat to start writing down times as soon as we gave them the 56%. I also suggested that they start writing down as much as they knew about entry time, depth, BT, etc. When symptoms started, etc. They guy was having chest pain, numb tingly extremities, nausea and vomiting. Finally, Mike relays the small boats cell numbers to the CG and they direct the small boat to head in to meet them on their way out.
They were 14 miles from port, no radio, no contact numbers in their phones (cell coverage was alway excellent, who'd a thunk?). They had no DAN or dive insurance, no O2. Tied up to a mooring ball that went to an anchor inthe sand (not a tie in to the wreck). This guy hadn't dove in 2 years. They had been partying the night before. There was no shade on their boat. They were not diving computers and had no dive tables on the boat. ( And, no, I did not see a film crew from Jackass around.) Anyway, an pretty interesting SI.
Second dive on Spiegel. Current had picked up noticeably. Wasn't too stupid, but it was stronger. Second dive for us was spent checking the superstructure and staying shallower. Another great dive. And a good boat ride back with a mature and juvenile dolphin surfing our wake. The haste of the morning left the camera in the car.
Day two was on the Duane. The first dive was pretty nice. Roamed up on side and down the other. We swam a few short swim thrus. We dropped into one hatch and there was a guide rope. Kristin started down it, but I stopped her. The opening was not in short sight and we are not rigged for problems in that environment. We came back out the hatch and limited our wandering to poking our heads into spots or to very short, obvious swim thrus. The second dive was the least favorite in some ways, but interesting in others. The current had picked up to stupid hard. When we got to the wreck it was very hard to maintain a shallow depth since there was no where to be out of the current. So, our depth was a little deeper than we wanted and this made the dive shorter. We went back to the up line and got shallower and hung and watched. Many were back shortly after we got there. The interesting part was diving in a strong current and hanging on the line like a flag.