MgicTwnger
December 18th, 2007, 06:09 AM
First of all, I have just gotten back from a week in the Keys to the ice box known as the Midwest. IT SUCKS!!!!
Tavernier is just south of Key Largo, primo diving territory. My dive op for the third consecutive year was Conch Republic divers, a fine shop that is one of the few that does well with more advanced divers.
The weather was in the high 70's to low 80's with almost no rain. The problem was the wind: it produced 6 -8 foot seas every day. I managed three good penetration wreck dives:
The Spiegel Grove is a the 510' amphibious troop transport ship and was intentionally sunk May 12, 2002 six miles off Key Largo to form the backbone of a coral-reef ecosystem. Life around the reef range from algae, sponges, and coral, not to mention the legions of tiny tropical fish to large barracuda and jacks. I saw a large manta ray.
The Eagle is a freighter sitting on its side in about 105' of water. The blast holes in the bottom give an interesting perspective on the rest of the ocean.
The Duane sits upright in about 120' of water and is one of the most dove wrecks in the world. It is an advanced dive and is often visited by strong currents. A large hawkbill turtle made an appearance.
On top of the rough seas, the current was strong all week. My last dive was on the Bibb. The current was so bad that the captain decided to drop my buddy and me up current of the line tied to the wreck's bow and let us drift into it. We would then go with the flow to the stern and ascend the second line. My buddy was dropped right on target and descended the line, while I was dropped and retrieved twice about ten feet off to the side and could not get to the downline. That was enough for me, and I called my dive. My buddy followed the dive plan and was retrieved after 15 minutes looking as green as a golf course.
We were the only dive boat out that day (8+ foot seas) and the captain said that he would not have gone out at all except for the fact that he knows my buddy and myself quite well, and figured we could handle it.
I think I set some kind of record for tossing my cookies.http://www.divingtalk.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif
Tavernier is just south of Key Largo, primo diving territory. My dive op for the third consecutive year was Conch Republic divers, a fine shop that is one of the few that does well with more advanced divers.
The weather was in the high 70's to low 80's with almost no rain. The problem was the wind: it produced 6 -8 foot seas every day. I managed three good penetration wreck dives:
The Spiegel Grove is a the 510' amphibious troop transport ship and was intentionally sunk May 12, 2002 six miles off Key Largo to form the backbone of a coral-reef ecosystem. Life around the reef range from algae, sponges, and coral, not to mention the legions of tiny tropical fish to large barracuda and jacks. I saw a large manta ray.
The Eagle is a freighter sitting on its side in about 105' of water. The blast holes in the bottom give an interesting perspective on the rest of the ocean.
The Duane sits upright in about 120' of water and is one of the most dove wrecks in the world. It is an advanced dive and is often visited by strong currents. A large hawkbill turtle made an appearance.
On top of the rough seas, the current was strong all week. My last dive was on the Bibb. The current was so bad that the captain decided to drop my buddy and me up current of the line tied to the wreck's bow and let us drift into it. We would then go with the flow to the stern and ascend the second line. My buddy was dropped right on target and descended the line, while I was dropped and retrieved twice about ten feet off to the side and could not get to the downline. That was enough for me, and I called my dive. My buddy followed the dive plan and was retrieved after 15 minutes looking as green as a golf course.
We were the only dive boat out that day (8+ foot seas) and the captain said that he would not have gone out at all except for the fact that he knows my buddy and myself quite well, and figured we could handle it.
I think I set some kind of record for tossing my cookies.http://www.divingtalk.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif