), and we hauled everything into the room and prepared our gear for an early call at the boat on Saturday. The Dive Gods were with us all weekend.....we had calm seas & sunny skies. Oh, wait, that was all Bruce's doing! He's our Lucky Leprechaun, and has earned our eternal thanks & a permanent job coordinating Keys Krawls!
The hotel was reasonable and adequate, and Rainbow Reef was a fantastic dive op.On Saturday morning, there were 7 of us SDers on the boat - Barb, Patty, Sanja, Cass, Bruce, Brad and me, and we dived the Spiegel Grove first. Bruce took Sanja and Cass as his buddies, since they are not AOW certified yet. Entry was a bit taxing, but the current at depth was reasonable and I enjoyed scouting around the wreck. It will take several more visits to see everything I'd like to see on this site. Lots of quite large barracuda hang out there, and though Barb & Patty spotted a big moray, my pic turned out blurry.....maybe someone else caught a good pic of it and will post it. After a quick boat ride & 47 minute surface interval, we dived the Benwood wreck, which is a shallow site and she's broken up & scattered, but it was an easy, relaxing dive with minimal current. We found tiny purple cleaner shrimp, a baby lobster, a spotted moray, and the usual reef denizens. Went back to the dock for lunch & surface interval, and met up with others who were arriving. Que had set out food for us on the picnic table. Our next 2 dives on Saturday were both shallow reef dives -- Fire Coral Cave, and another site on Molasses Reef, which I missed because of my typical malady. Peeps continued to arrive throughout the day on Saturday. By the time we docked after the afternoon dives, most everyone had arrived and met in the parking lot to discuss dinner plans.
Can't remember the name of the restaurant we invaded, but we had everybody at one long table Saturday night....all 24 of us! 2 waitresses tried to deal with the large crowd, but they were not quite up to the task. But, we got to know those who were sitting nearby, and the live music was far enough away to allow us to talk, laugh, eat & have fun. Barb, I noticed the fingers behind Zach's head in the pic I got of your end of the table! But, your wonderful cookies made up for your mischief. Not wanting to waste any of your cookies, I always waited until the end of the day to sample.....
Most made it an early night on Saturday, and we gathered at the dock on Sunday morning. I don't know how the dive op managed to squeeze more peeps on the boat, but maybe we have a couple more converts! Sandy was seated right next to some foreign tourists in speedos......Oh, the irony!
We dived the Duane on Sunday morning, which I thought was slightly deeper than the Spiegel Grove to get to "the good stuff". Current was present, but not troublesome. Cass got to 104 feet for the first time ever, and she was thrilled, and grateful to Bruce for giving her the opportunity to dive the wrecks. Our second dive was Fire Coral Cave again, which had some stout current on Sunday. After lunch back at shore and a surface interval, we went back out for 2 more dives -- the first at Winch Hole (I think that's the name) and the second was on French Reef. Winch Hole had some current & surging, which meant that I had to sit out the 4th dive again! Sigh.I don't remember which dives or sites we spotted them on, but we also saw 4 spotted eagle rays at the edge of visibility, a turtle, a couple of nurse sharks, a giant grouper, a huge crab, and I'll let others mention what else was spotted over the weekend. We had a small group of bottlenose dolphin riding our wake on one trip.
Back at the hotel at the end of the dive day, we decided to do dinner in smaller groups, and The Three Amigos set up coolers with drinks at the pool, as a franchise of Chez Neal (Bonaire trippers will appreciate that!). Not everybody came to the pool party, but those that did had a good time. Rum punch, beer & butter shots abounded, with some music and lots of laughter and good-natured fun.
Monday morning, Cass & I went to the dock and saw everybody else take off for 2 more dives. Since I was not diving, I'll let someone else describe the events when they tried to dive the Spiegel Grove on Monday! Cass & I were flying home that evening, so we stayed at the hotel & packed up, sat in the sun, and relaxed. Checkout was at 11:00, and most of those diving either tossed their stuff into the rental cars before diving, or into one of the 2 rooms we got a late checkout on. We had lunch stuff set out in Bruce's room, and many stopped by to munch, clean up, and socialize after their dives.
Those going on the Spree coral spawning SD trip headed to Key West, and Brad got Cass & I back to Ft. Lauderdale in time to catch our flight - despite the traffic that tried it's best to keep us in Florida! Brad drove all night to get back home. Brad, thanks for the shuttle service and the cabana boy services! I don't care what Cass says, you're all right in my book!
I had so much fun on this Keys Krawl! We'll have to try to make it an annual event. I enjoyed diving with those I knew, and meeting all the new friends, and I look forward to continuing the friendships that were started!
I will post some pics in the Gallery, once Admin sets one up for us.
