My So-Called Dive Life

12/14/2006 - Key Largo Diving, Dec 11, 2006

Dive #1  Location:  The Eagle, Key Largo (Islamorada) FL Buddy: Dick from NY Gas: 30% enriched air Max depth: 112 feet Dive time:  43 minutes Ocean conditions:  3-5 foot swells, heavy surge, chop, minimal current, with 50 foot viz.  Water temp 75 degrees more or less. Dive #2 Location:  A reef in the Keys. :) Buddy:  Dick from NY Gas: 33% enriched air Max depth: 43 feet Dive time: 48 minutes Ocean conditions: 3-5 foot swells, moderate surge,  chop,  no current,  50-60 foot viz. 76 degrees Well after a bit of a hiatus from diving, Ed and I made it down to Key Largo for some diving with Conch Republic Divers.  He got his advanced open water and Nitrox done, I just went along for the ride...er...dive....whatever. Conditions Monday were ROUGH (Ok rough for Florida...I'm a WWW now) with 5 foot seas on the crossing over to the Eagle.  Half the boat was sick, but we splashed down for a lovely dive on this very quaint Key's artificial reef.  Intentionally scuttled in 1985, she is a freighter that lies in 115 feet.  The bow and stern are seperated in a gash down the middle, with the bow and stern sections resting to port on a sandy bottom.  While not my favorite Keys site, it's in the top 5 and I always enjoy a trip out there.  I was buddied up with Dick, a diver on his first Keys trip who was visiting from cold Buffalo, NY. With the conditions being what they were, and knowing how surge can be, I told him I'd meet him at the bottom.  I descended first down the line, and awaited the others.  When they didn't show up and I didn't see them coming down, I took my own little tour of the ship, swimming thru some of the corridors close by the bow mooring line.  I returned to the line and saw them descending about 8 minutes into the dive. I guess a surface gear issue had caused a delay.  So no solo dive on the Eagle, darnit. I took Dick around on a tour of the boat, heading first where the big Goliath grouper likes to hang out.  He wasn't to be found today, so we toured the stern section, then back up to the bow, through some cargo holds  and along the structure of the boat.  We  made our way back to the bow and swam around til our bottom time was dwindling.  As I made it to the mooring line, one of the smaller Goliath groupers (200 lbs or so) had decided to make an appearance.  I got Dick's attention, as I knew he wanted to see one.  He was able to snap a few pictures before we had to ascend.  A very nice dive.  On the surface, the seas quickly got the best of half of the boat, even the instructor was ill.  As is the norm, I was fine.  We made it over to the second dive, a reef.  I should remember the name but I don't. :) I can't be bothered with little details like the NAME of divesites!   It was your typical reef.  I tried to show Dick some of the interesting marine life...like a moray eel and a spotted drum.  But everytime I looked around he had disappeared.  I didn't mind much, I'm not the most attentive buddy anyway and he obviously was competent, had loads more experience than me.  We did find each other throughout the dive, and managed to surface (both of us a long ways from the boat.)  I let them come and get me this time, but in hindsight I should have swam because trying to get on a free-floating boat in surge and 5 foot seas isn't very fun.  Since the boat was sick, we bagged the afternoon dives.  Bummer because it was scheduled as a twofer on the Speigal Grove.  But seas were not cooperating, everyone was sick ( well not me ) and I knew it wasn't the best for Ed to try and do 3 deep dives as much as he was feeding the fish.  So he went back to do his classroom work...and I took a nap. :) Tuesday morning we did three dives, the Duane, Pickles Reef, and Conch wall. I'll post a report on those later...it's my naptime.  Happy Bubbles!!!

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