Drove down to Key Largo friday night and setup the tent at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park for a weekend of diving w/ the friendly folks at Conch Republic Divers.
The mosquitos ate me alive and it was hot & humid - I'm going to have to rethink some amenities since all the campsites have power... Last time I camped here - Marco brought a window mounted A/C unit - sure it looked funny - but it kept the tent ice cold!
Saturday Morning:
US Coast Guard Cutter Bibb
US Coast Guard Cutter Duane
While hanging out on deco, a massive jellyfish came by...
Saturday Afternoon:
The Eagle
The second dive was on "Little Conch Reef". I packed my lobster gear and spend the hour trying to find dinner... I ran across three lobsters, 1 short allowed himself to be caught. The other two wanted nothing to do with me, they were backed into their holes and wern't budging.
Sunday Morning:
The Spiegel Grove
Fortunately we were moored onto the superstructure amidship, I dropped down and then instantaneously forgot where I was going. Took me a few minutes to get oriented and find the machine shop, one of my favorite rooms a little off the beaten path... I then made my way forward and down a level where I found a nice stainless steel knife laying in the stairwell. I thought I was down below the main deck - when I came across a huge cutout and then noticed one of the thick lines running down the hallway... so much for penetration. I followed it around and then out onto the bow where I toured the chain locker - my second favorite place on the wreck.
I made my way back to the superstructure, the video really eats up the memory card, so I switched it off to save a few minutes for later. Ended up taking a wrong turn at one point and had to doubleback as I ran into a dead-end. Finally got my bearings again and lined up to get a good shot of Snoopy...
Monday, September 11, 2006
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Cave Diving - Trip Report
Ok, so we finished the NAUI Cave 1 program at the end of July. I got a PM over on the DecoStop from Dave Berman (whom I took DIR-F with), that he, Bob and Penny would be heading down to The Dive Outpost for a week around Labor Day. Seeing an opportunity to tack on a few vacation days and make use of the holiday, I set plans in motion to join. A quick email off to Raphael and it was set.
To help extend the dive times, I had put together a new set of Worthington 108's. No more dissimilar tank calculations due to me diving HP100's...! And I also had a chance to really break-in the new Salvo lighthead on my Sandho can. Some folks I dive with have a serious case of light envy going on now.
Half way up the Turnpike - I realized I had forgotten the TTL cable for my strobe & my wide angle lens - oh well - no pictures for this trip.
Cathy really went overboard and prepared a feast for everyone Sunday... You never leave the Outpost hungry.
8/31 15:10 60min Peacock 1 - Pothole - ~1000'
8/31 19:39 66min Telford - ~1200' - Posturepedic Passage
9/1 10:07 35min Peacock 1 - Pothole - Olsen - ~1464'
9/1 11:00 37min Peacock 1 - Olsen - Pothole - ~1464' return trip.
9/1 16:20 42min Little River - Main Line ~410' - Big Arrow
9/2 10:00 52min Madison Blue - Main Line - ~844' - half-hitch restriction
9/2 12:11 49min Madison Blue - Main Line - ~844' - half-hitch restriction
9/2 15:55 63min Peacock 1 - Nicholson Tunnel - ~1325' - End of line.
9/3 8:58 56min Madison Blue - Main Line - ~700' - Past Godzilla Room
9/3 11:52 63min Peacock 1 - Peanut Tunnel - 1500'
9/3 15:31 78min Orange Grove - ~1600', ~200' from Challenge Sink.
9/4 9:34 77min Peacock 1 - Pothole - Cisteen - ~1600' - near the Wishbone.
Being our first real trip outside of class - our goal was to see how far we could push on the main lines, get a good sense of gas consumption, learn and get more familiar with the caves. Two dives we turned on thirds, most were turned because we had gotten to the end of a line and were close to thirds, hadn't previously discussed jumps & T's, or honestly expected to get that far... I'd say one dive - Teford was turned on comfort. We think we entered Posturpedic Passage - a massive bedding plane, probably 30-40' wide, and all of 1.5-2' tall, and what felt like a few hundred feet long... it just kept going, and going, and going, and getting smaller, and smaller... I decided I had enough and called it. We'll go back and tackle it again when it gets a little cooler. We're armed with maps of all the systems now and we'll set goals for each trip.
4 nights @ Dive Outpost..... $100.00
933 cuft Nitrox 32%......... $74.62
Book: Taming of the Slough.. $28.00
Not having to multiply 100s of PSI x 5.6 = Priceless
To help extend the dive times, I had put together a new set of Worthington 108's. No more dissimilar tank calculations due to me diving HP100's...! And I also had a chance to really break-in the new Salvo lighthead on my Sandho can. Some folks I dive with have a serious case of light envy going on now.
Half way up the Turnpike - I realized I had forgotten the TTL cable for my strobe & my wide angle lens - oh well - no pictures for this trip.
Cathy really went overboard and prepared a feast for everyone Sunday... You never leave the Outpost hungry.
8/31 15:10 60min Peacock 1 - Pothole - ~1000'
8/31 19:39 66min Telford - ~1200' - Posturepedic Passage
9/1 10:07 35min Peacock 1 - Pothole - Olsen - ~1464'
9/1 11:00 37min Peacock 1 - Olsen - Pothole - ~1464' return trip.
9/1 16:20 42min Little River - Main Line ~410' - Big Arrow
9/2 10:00 52min Madison Blue - Main Line - ~844' - half-hitch restriction
9/2 12:11 49min Madison Blue - Main Line - ~844' - half-hitch restriction
9/2 15:55 63min Peacock 1 - Nicholson Tunnel - ~1325' - End of line.
9/3 8:58 56min Madison Blue - Main Line - ~700' - Past Godzilla Room
9/3 11:52 63min Peacock 1 - Peanut Tunnel - 1500'
9/3 15:31 78min Orange Grove - ~1600', ~200' from Challenge Sink.
9/4 9:34 77min Peacock 1 - Pothole - Cisteen - ~1600' - near the Wishbone.
Being our first real trip outside of class - our goal was to see how far we could push on the main lines, get a good sense of gas consumption, learn and get more familiar with the caves. Two dives we turned on thirds, most were turned because we had gotten to the end of a line and were close to thirds, hadn't previously discussed jumps & T's, or honestly expected to get that far... I'd say one dive - Teford was turned on comfort. We think we entered Posturpedic Passage - a massive bedding plane, probably 30-40' wide, and all of 1.5-2' tall, and what felt like a few hundred feet long... it just kept going, and going, and going, and getting smaller, and smaller... I decided I had enough and called it. We'll go back and tackle it again when it gets a little cooler. We're armed with maps of all the systems now and we'll set goals for each trip.
4 nights @ Dive Outpost..... $100.00
933 cuft Nitrox 32%......... $74.62
Book: Taming of the Slough.. $28.00
Not having to multiply 100s of PSI x 5.6 = Priceless
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