My So-Called Dive Life

6/20/2006 - Dive Report, The Budweiser, June 17,2006

Location:  Budweiser, Boynton Beach Buddy:  Dave Depth: 89 feet Bottom time:  43 minutes Water temp: 71 degrees Viz: 20 feet and DARK Wave height: flat to 1 foot. Well today we did a very nice wreck off of the coast of San Deigo called the Yukon...er wait...wrong coast!!!  It was ACTUALLY the Budweiser off of Boynton Beach, but with the cooler waters and the GREEN GREEN conditions with current, you'd never know it.   It was GREEN!!!!!  I haven't experienced a dive quite like that in Florida, and I did think several times how much it resembled the Yukon.  Viz was about 20 feet but VERY murky.   And before you Californians call me a WWW...it was even green by CA standards!  I've done night dives with more light.  I went with my friend Dave on a 2 tank trip on Pelican Dive Charters for a wreck/reef combo.  Rich and Peg of Pelican rock!  They made sure the day was enjoyable for the 6 divers aboard.  I experienced a TRULY dumba#% moment as I was gearing up....Ummm...where's my wetsuit???  Hanging up in my bathroom drying.  Holy cow.  But...I had paid...I had air...I was diving!!!  Nothing like doing a 90 foot wreck in 72 degree water in a swimsuit!!!  The last dive I did without a wetsuit was....hmmmm....Dive #100!!!  I splashed down with my friend Dave and we went straight down to snag and to tie off on the wreck.  I wanted to see if I could descend that fast and manage the multi-tasking of tieing off.  I managed to get down and keep up with him, at least.  Now sure how much the rope would have slowed me down, though.   We dropped to the sand at 88 feet about 50 yards downcurrent in a 1.5 knot current or so.  Dave was flying back against the current to get the wreck.  At first all I saw was sand, but soon the wreck loomed into view.  Even tho it was sunk as an artificial reef, it's still impressive and even a bit spooky to see it towering ahead.  It makes me wonder at the awe that must be felt when one descends on a wreck with history, such as the U-Who or U-352 or the Doria.  It's eerily impressive, and as one is already dwarfed by the vastness of the ocean that surrounds us, the hulking steel frame of a sunken ship serves to complete my feeling of complete insignificance.  It's truly awe inspiring.  We got up to the stern and Dave tied off the line, and we waited for the other divers to descend.  And waited.  And waited. (ok so I lie...we actually snuck around the aft portion of the ship, returning every couple of minutes to the line to see if the divers had landed.  Dave thought I should penetrate so he could take my picture in a porthole.  I gave him my best "Hello are you INSANE??!" look (as best as you can manage at 80 feet with a mask on) and pointed to my BARE legs.  He laughed and nodded...guess he figured it out.    15 minutes into the dive, they arrived.  Or 3 of 4 arrived.  We asked the one where his buddy was and he just signalled ok.  So we began to explore the wreck.  As the viz was truly not conducive to any sort of "big stuff" picture taking today, I decided to make this Christmas Tree worm day.  So I busied myself looking at the hull looking for miniature photo ops.  Dave and the others began their tour, and I lagged behind to take pictures.  As the level of experience of today's divers was a little less, it was easy to find them when I wanted them.  Bubbles were not visible but I just followed the trail of silt.    I found them up by the bow, dropped over the side in the sand.  When I peeked over and saw them congregating, they were nodding and and "talking" looking pretty excited, so I knew they'd spotted something.  Just my luck to be taking pictures of worms when the 600 pound goliath grouper shows up.  Oh well....here are the fruit of my labors... As we were headed back towards the stern and the line, one of the divers signalled that he was down to 500 psi.  At 80+ feet!  Sheesh.  So they hurried back to the line.....only to find....wayward diver #4 looking very lonely hanging on the line.  APPARENTLY...she had decided to come back down after she went up, but the viz was poor  and she didn't see us so she hung on the line.  I felt so bad for her...it was definitely a dive worth seeing, even in poor viz.  But she seemed to have pretty good spirits about it.  I still felt bad tho.  I probably only missed her by a minute, since I hung out on the stern alone.  OH WELL.  But we headed back up the line, I did my 3 minutes at 15 feet and surfaced to totally flat seas.  I truly LOVED this dive.  It was cold and green (and colder since I was in a suit) and had current and it just ROCKED!  i've had such easy braindead dives lately, it was great to have something that resembled a challenge.  Having to think and plan...where is the line, what direction is the currant, etc, was just great!  The other divers' previous dive experience was Caribbean only, so I was actually worried they wouldn't enjoy it.  But after seeing a big grouper...I think they are realizing that there is more to diving that perfect viz...and how awesome FL diving can be.

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