No audio visuals for this update....
Wednesday I headed down to South Beach for some night diving w/ RJ Diving
Dives were on the Proteus and The Patricia.
Saturday the gang got together for a tech dive on The Clinton. Brian and Matt splashed first, followed by Scott and Eric (who ended up doing a sand dive), and Vince and I were team #3. There was a nice current (Brian estimates 1 knot - did you know a knot is 1.6'/sec? I did knot.. ;)
Captain Oliver on the Avid Diver dropped a hook and float ball on the wreck and had us dive bomb the wreck. I'm not terriably negative in my AL80's so swimming down 160' of water takes a little time. We hit the far side of the wreck, if we were a minute later, I imagine we would have beenout of sight of the wreck (60 seconds * 1.6 = 100' away!) Viz wasn't spectacular.... The wreck is nice, with lots of interesting machinery on the deck, some massive cranes, and monofiliment strewned about. A few passageways scattered about the ship made for some limited penetration opportunities. This was my first dive carrying two stages, so I didn't want to push my luck getting into any tight spaces... One goliath grouper inhabited the wreck and quickly hid out of view when approached. Vince and I planned on 30 minutes on the wreck and a runtime of ~67 minutes using 50% and O2 for deco.
We left the wreck on time and I shot the bag to let Captain Oliver track us from the surface as we drifted. I felt the bag hit the surface and we settled in for a nice slow ascent to our first deco stop. Then wham! Next thing I realize we've been pulled up 20-30' in the span of a few seconds as my computer is flashing a big hand indicating "slow yer ass down", thinking my bouyancy is out I start dumping air to re-stabalize. We're off the wreck and in a sea of blue - nothing but our guages to tell us if we're going up or down. I feel my reel taught and loosen up the screw and the reel continues spinning letting off line - I'm wondering WTF....! Realizing we're going to be out of line soon - I reach for my knife and cut the line.
I look over to Vince and give him the signal to blow his bag.... He shoots it to the surface and we settle in for deco on contingency tables as if we were on the wreck for 40 minutes. My VR3's deco schedule came within a minute of his schedule, and we surfaced after a total runtime of 90 minutes in the water.
We get on the boat and find Eric and Scott out of their drysuits and Brian tells us how he and Matt were deco'ing out and they run across a line at a low angle cutting through the water wodnering if there is a diver attached to the other end... Captain Oliver had picked up my bag which was floating at the surface with ~300' of line spooled out.
Sunday I spent the day on the Lady Go Diver with the typical Pompano rereational fare. The morning treated us to a leisurely dive on the Sea Emporer followed by a kick butt tag team lobster hunt w/ Heather, another regular on the boat; together we managed to snare 8 bugs.
In the afternoon we hit the Rodeo 25 and another reef. For all our good fortune in the morning - we came up blank in the afternoon. Oh well, we each left with enough for two meals each.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Friday, October 20, 2006
Cave Weekend
So, after the North Carolina trip, I drove 5 hours west to Winston-Salem as I began to re-realize the "seasons" we just don't experience down in South Florida. Fortunately I have a virtual office job, so I camped out at a client office with some friends for the week, burned up a few Marriott points, and enjoyed some southern hospitality. This sidestep also helped break up the tedious 13 hour drive back home, as I was meeting up w/ Lesley, Chris and Erin for some cave diving on the return trip.
We rented one of the mobile homes Cave Excursions has available, well hidden off the beaten path just north of Lauraville. Compared to previous trips - this was care-free no stress diving. I mean - we were downright lazy, we managed to squeeze in two dives a day...
Saturday we dove at Madison Blue. Since the summer is officially over, there were no swimmers, occasionally another dive team would show up, or a family doing some sight-seeing - nothing compared to labor day...!
Erin is cavern certified, so Lesley and Chris alternated buddying up for cavern dives
Lesley and I teamed up first and followed the main line out past the half-hitch restriction (864'), I don't recall exaclty how far we got, but I want to say 12-1300' and 40 minutes, definately before the Mount Offshoot @ 1347'. On the return trip through the cavern zone Lesley decided to slow down and take a scenic tour and check things out. Unfortuately for me, I had a few cups of coffe w/ breakfast and a liter of soda on the drive out, so nature had been calling since shortly after we turned - I've been lazy and don't have a p-valve in my drysuit, nor do I go the diaper route. I gave her the signal for 'I gotta pee!' and we high-tailed it out. With these larger tanks, we've been seeing 70-80' dive times easily - this was a scene repeated often during the weekend.
For the next dive, Chris and I headed down the main line and turned just past the half-hitch restriction, probably ~900'. I had two sets of doubles for the trip, however Chris was using the same set he did the cavern dive w/, so thats why it was somewhat shorter...
Lesley and I made the drive back to CE for fills while Erin and Chris went on an expedition to locate a birthday cake for Lesley. We had intentions to do a night dive, Cow or Telford, but after a big dinner at Two Sisters BBQ and cake, we settled in for watching "The Cave" on my laptop - I made it about 20 minutes then crashed.
We woke around 8am, and SLOWLY got moving. I think we made it to Peacock around 10am for our first dives. The brown muck from our previous trip was gone as Chris and I explored the mainline in an attempt to get to Olsen sink, we were a few hundred feet short as we called thirds.
Headed back to CE for fills, and this time we talked Chris into shooting HD video..., the plan was to head down the pothole line, make a jump off to the Nicholson tunnel, then jump onto the line heading to Cisteen sink. Chris had the camera, so I got to model and do all the work - nice huh? We managed to get back in there, and despite having plenty of gas - we got to that point in the back of your head where you start saying "man - we are WAY back in here"... I don't believe we got to the wishbone, so we were a few hundred feet from Cisteen before we turned.
Hopefully the video comes out nice... I'll post a link here when available...
We rented one of the mobile homes Cave Excursions has available, well hidden off the beaten path just north of Lauraville. Compared to previous trips - this was care-free no stress diving. I mean - we were downright lazy, we managed to squeeze in two dives a day...
Saturday we dove at Madison Blue. Since the summer is officially over, there were no swimmers, occasionally another dive team would show up, or a family doing some sight-seeing - nothing compared to labor day...!
Erin is cavern certified, so Lesley and Chris alternated buddying up for cavern dives
Lesley and I teamed up first and followed the main line out past the half-hitch restriction (864'), I don't recall exaclty how far we got, but I want to say 12-1300' and 40 minutes, definately before the Mount Offshoot @ 1347'. On the return trip through the cavern zone Lesley decided to slow down and take a scenic tour and check things out. Unfortuately for me, I had a few cups of coffe w/ breakfast and a liter of soda on the drive out, so nature had been calling since shortly after we turned - I've been lazy and don't have a p-valve in my drysuit, nor do I go the diaper route. I gave her the signal for 'I gotta pee!' and we high-tailed it out. With these larger tanks, we've been seeing 70-80' dive times easily - this was a scene repeated often during the weekend.
For the next dive, Chris and I headed down the main line and turned just past the half-hitch restriction, probably ~900'. I had two sets of doubles for the trip, however Chris was using the same set he did the cavern dive w/, so thats why it was somewhat shorter...
Lesley and I made the drive back to CE for fills while Erin and Chris went on an expedition to locate a birthday cake for Lesley. We had intentions to do a night dive, Cow or Telford, but after a big dinner at Two Sisters BBQ and cake, we settled in for watching "The Cave" on my laptop - I made it about 20 minutes then crashed.
We woke around 8am, and SLOWLY got moving. I think we made it to Peacock around 10am for our first dives. The brown muck from our previous trip was gone as Chris and I explored the mainline in an attempt to get to Olsen sink, we were a few hundred feet short as we called thirds.
Headed back to CE for fills, and this time we talked Chris into shooting HD video..., the plan was to head down the pothole line, make a jump off to the Nicholson tunnel, then jump onto the line heading to Cisteen sink. Chris had the camera, so I got to model and do all the work - nice huh? We managed to get back in there, and despite having plenty of gas - we got to that point in the back of your head where you start saying "man - we are WAY back in here"... I don't believe we got to the wishbone, so we were a few hundred feet from Cisteen before we turned.
Hopefully the video comes out nice... I'll post a link here when available...
North Carolina - October 2006
Made the long drive from South Florida to North Carolina. I started the drive on the 5th. The plan was for three days of diving from October 6,7,8. Each day we faced the uncertainty of a rough ride, but it was relatively painless once we arrived on site.
Friday - Dive 1 - the Schurz
We tied up to the site, and the current was challenging. The sun was out and conditions above water were perfect. Below, the currents were pretty strong, the crew estimated 2 knots. The safety rigging under the boat was due for a good workout. The wreck is more debris field than shipwreck, the reel is a must-use for this dive.
Friday - Dive 2 - The U-352
Check out this page for its history... I'll let the video speak for the dives...
Saturday - Dive 1 - The Indra
Weather conditions called for 3-5' seas, and the crowd was expecting the worst from the weather. Unfortunately enough, the calls for "sunny and warm" fell on deaf ears for the first half of the day as overcast clouds and a cool breeze fell upon the area... The Indra is an artificial reef that has been down for a number of years, as represented by the amount of coral growth. The main deck is non-remarkable, as the gems of this wreck lie in the decks below. Large cut-outs have been prepared for divers to easily penetrate swim-throughs through most of the wreck.
Saturday - Dive 2 - The W.E. Hutton (possibly the Ario?) The weather gods must have heard the calling as the sun decided to peak out and make its presence known. The wind was still blowing, but the 3-5' seas never materialized in-shore as anticipated as we experienced calm 1-2' conditions for the day...
We loaded up the boat Sunday morning and made our way to the fill station at Olympus to pick up tanks. The captain then made the call that it was going to be too rough to run that day. When we got to the dock, the rain was coming down - hard, and the tide was still coming in. The gangplank was easily nearing a 50 degree angle... It was a challenge unloading people and gear, I decided to leave my doubles on the boat until after it settled down some and we headed back to the Fisherman's Inn for a few hours sleep and a VERY lazy day.
This was my first group trip with the folks from SingleDivers.com, a wayward home for single and married but buddyless divers. The boat was the "Good Ship Mutiny (aka the Diver Down II).
Friday - Dive 1 - the Schurz
We tied up to the site, and the current was challenging. The sun was out and conditions above water were perfect. Below, the currents were pretty strong, the crew estimated 2 knots. The safety rigging under the boat was due for a good workout. The wreck is more debris field than shipwreck, the reel is a must-use for this dive.
Friday - Dive 2 - The U-352
Check out this page for its history... I'll let the video speak for the dives...
Saturday - Dive 1 - The Indra
Weather conditions called for 3-5' seas, and the crowd was expecting the worst from the weather. Unfortunately enough, the calls for "sunny and warm" fell on deaf ears for the first half of the day as overcast clouds and a cool breeze fell upon the area... The Indra is an artificial reef that has been down for a number of years, as represented by the amount of coral growth. The main deck is non-remarkable, as the gems of this wreck lie in the decks below. Large cut-outs have been prepared for divers to easily penetrate swim-throughs through most of the wreck.
Saturday - Dive 2 - The W.E. Hutton (possibly the Ario?) The weather gods must have heard the calling as the sun decided to peak out and make its presence known. The wind was still blowing, but the 3-5' seas never materialized in-shore as anticipated as we experienced calm 1-2' conditions for the day...
We loaded up the boat Sunday morning and made our way to the fill station at Olympus to pick up tanks. The captain then made the call that it was going to be too rough to run that day. When we got to the dock, the rain was coming down - hard, and the tide was still coming in. The gangplank was easily nearing a 50 degree angle... It was a challenge unloading people and gear, I decided to leave my doubles on the boat until after it settled down some and we headed back to the Fisherman's Inn for a few hours sleep and a VERY lazy day.
This was my first group trip with the folks from SingleDivers.com, a wayward home for single and married but buddyless divers. The boat was the "Good Ship Mutiny (aka the Diver Down II).
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