The continuation of the other
Keys Krawl Dive log. Which is why the day numbering might seem a bit odd. Reminisce and enjoy.
We drove on down to Key West with an obligatory stop at the Divers Direct (where I acquired a pair of gloves which is essential for ascending and descending a mooring line in strong current) Worry not, my hands have healed and diving bare handed teaches one very quickly to watch what they grab. (No I didn't grab coral, it was barnacles on the mooring line which educated me.)
After a great meal at the rusty anchor, we headed on over to board the Spree and received the precruise briefing which seemed predominately focused on what should and should not go into the head. (More then ten sheets of TP and the elusive ship pest "the toilet mouse." Careful observation will reveal that the complete list prominently displayed in Head 1 mentions this pest no less then 3 different times, so I assume that they are the bane of the good captain's existence.)
Day 3
We arose at a disgustingly early hour (for a vacation) for a good cause. First dive of the day back at the Spiegel. I acquainted myself with my new dive buddy Rich, we hopped in, snagged the current line, and headed for the mooring line. About half way there I noticed that Rich was floating off as fast as the current could carry him. Recalling Bruce's plan of "If one of goes on a trip to Miami, we are all going (paraphrased a bit)" from the previous Spiegel dive, I swam after him, snagged him, and made him swim back to the current line. We continued on our merry way, and suddenly Rich was floating off again. Fortunately I had my eye on him this time and snagged him before he got too far. On the surface he indicated that he had lost a fin and queried as to whether I could catch it for him. Ducking my head underwater I looked down stream and saw it floating off to wherever it is lost fins go. I replied that I could not catch it (which was probably a lie, I could have caught it, but the swim back might have been rather challenging. The shear volume of dry sarcastic wit I would have had to endure if the zodiac was sent after me convinced me to wave a fond farewell to the fin.) Forced to call the dive we headed back to the boat where Mel provided Rich with a new fin courtesy of whoever it was that had forgotten it on the boat.
Following a wonderful breakfast that involved a huge mound of Bacon, and possibly a nap, it was time for our next dive. (It can be assumed that after every dive we had a great meal, I actually ate vegetables, and anyone who knows me can tell you that I do not do that kind of thing.)
Once again Rick and I were buddies and we were all set and ready to go. (I may have been hoping that his unsymmetrical fins would cause him to swim around in circles, unfortunately for my entertainment and probably fortunately for the dive that failed to happen.) We made a normal descent and while tooling around in the lee of the ship Rich indicated he had 1700 left. (note that all numbers are guesstimates made several weeks after the vacations end.) I found this kind of odd since I knew I had high air consumption and I still had over 2k left. A couple of minutes later he indicated that he was down to 800 and we immediately swam over to the mooring line to begin our ascent. About half way up he was down to 300 and I had him switch to my air hoping that he would have enough air in his tank to avoid an out of air lecture from Mel and the captain. (I know, I should have let him run his out so that in the event of another emergency we would have had more air to work with.) We made a full safety stop, and I'll admit, it felt weird to have someone else on my air instead of the other way around.
Back on the boat I was excessively proud because I still had 1k left in the tank despite being down for almost 20 minutes and having Rich on my tank for the ascent. (An air hog takes his victories where he gets them
)
At this point was when the Captain began having difficulties with the Buoy maintenance guys, though I did not know that at the time, I just noticed that the after lunch dive didn't take place until the predinner dive.
The place that the captain found was called "The secret spot" and he was told about it by 3 different operators
The first dive there was a Navigation course with Bruce and Jen. It was kind of dull in that it involved swimming 100ft in a straight line over and over again. When we were supposed to swim a 100ft square circle I may have gotten a little lazy and the cross current leg was only 30 or 40 ft long.... Ooops. On the other hand I made it back to the starting point dead on. After that was over, I had to ascend because I was low on air. Poor Jen got to swim the square again because she accepted my 30ft estimate of 100ft instead of making me go further.
That night we dove at the same location now renamed as the slightly more descriptive "Race Track." This was the night dive course for the Advanced open water cert so I was with Bruce again. The course portion was that I would have to Navigate and get us back to the boat, ideally without having to surface to find it. I did the easy navigation technique of swimming against the current half way, then just letting the current carry me back to the boat. Along the way I found my first Sea Cucumber, and not recognizing it, got Bruce to come over to check it out. He played with it a bit, then handed it to me. Thinking it was just a really odd plastic bottle I stuffed it in my cummerbund so I could dispose of it back on the boat. OK, I jest, I didn't know what it was, so I put him back where I had found him. I also found my first Bristleworm and Bruce included a couple pics of him on the CD. Then I found a small fuzzy ball looking plant which I hadn't seen before so once again I grabbed Bruce and made him look at it. This time I had a hard time communicating to him what I was looking at, and once we swam off I found out why. The ball plant thingies were everywhere... and not very cool to look at either. For some reason Bruce neglected to include that photo on the CD
. Once I was low on air we both surfaced, then Bruce went back down for another 2 or 3 hours. Did I mention he has gills?
So ends Day 3
Day 4
Once again we rose at an ungodly hour, this time so we could dive the Duane. This would be the Deep Dive for AOW so I was with Bruce again. During the dive I got to find out that at 100ft blue is blue, yellow is yellow, and red is purple. If vis had been worse, yellow would have been green as well. We saw some huge spade fish, a large school of Barracuda, and my first Sea turtle. Bruce once again wanted a longer down time, so I was on his air for the ascent this time.
Once again the Captain had issues with the Buoy guys so we did not get in our prelunch dive. Around this time the Captain came to tell us why we were having so much difficulty finding good dive sites. During the original planning for the trip the captain had checked with the managers in charge of the Buoys where we would be diving to make sure that it was OK for him to tie his 100ft boat up to them. He got the ok from both of them so our trip had proceeded as planned. However, once we got to the northern stretch of buoys the guys who did the actual maintenance on them, looked at the boat and said, nope this boat is too big. It turns out that the guy in charge didn't know the capabilities of what he was in charge of. This meant we had to make a decision. We could continue where we were or we could pony up for some more gas then head out to the Dry Tortugas. The whole situation had the WW very upset and when the time for the vote came we unanimously voted to go gas up then head for the Tortugas. (One person held out for a little while because he misunderstood where the error originated from and was not happy about paying to fix someone else's mistake. Once he understood that he was apparently happier with the decision.) Captain Frank, if you are reading this, I look forward to hearing tales of horrible things done to the Bureaucrat's desecrated corpse.
The after lunch dive was at the Coffin Shoals. Visibility was poor, but there was very little current so Bruce and I set out to finish the Peak Performance Buoyancy test, which involves hovering for 3 minutes with finning or waving hands. We found a nice Sandy spot where I could sit without killing anything, and after a couple of minute burps to my BC I assumed the Buddha position and easily did my 3 minute hover. Afterward we tooled around for a while and saw a couple of puffer fish and a lobster... and lots of snorkelers. My overall impression of the location was that someone had taken a nice site and beaten it with a big stick. A lot the flora looked kind of sick to me though I might be mistaken. Bruce wanted me to navigate back to the boat and we had wandered kind of far so I had to surface to reorient myself. Unfortunately on the first attempt I had my compass out of level so it was stuck when I was lining up my bezel. Back underwater I immediately headed off about 90 degrees from where I should have been heading. Bruce noticed and after we swam a while he made me surface again and get a new heading. This time I nailed it.
Following the dive we steamed back to the dock to fill up on gas. The apparently numerous plans to raid nearby liquor stores was blocked and we all got to hang out on the boat while we gassed up. We then steamed for the nearest place the Crew could find for the night dive in hopes of seeing the Coral Spawn.
That night I was buddies with Jennifer at a site known as Western Samba. We meandered a goodly ways and I had to surface to relocate the boat. We saw another Sea Cucumber this one looking like he was covered in cones. I felt very lucky because as I understand it, normally when a light shines anywhere a cucumber they immediately race off and hide. Just to be clear for the non diver who will be reading this the previous sentence was loaded with as much sarcasm as I could cram into it. We also saw a huge lobster. We did not see any Coral spawning, though Kamala and her buddies did I think.
Day 5
You probably get that I am not a fan of morning by now, so from now on just assume there is a derisive comment before any of the morning dives.
The morning dive was at 8 Fathom Rock, and I was buddies with Bruce again. 8 Fathom Rock is a long Narrow Coral head and the current was lined up with it this morning. Bruce was in photographer mode again so we did a nice easy amble against the current, and then a slow drift back across the top. The current was strong enough that we had to fin against it to keep the drift back nice and slow. We saw a Spotted Moray, and I played with Christmas Tree snails for the first time.
Prelunch dive was at 8 fathom again. This time I was buddies with Mike, and someone else who's name I forget (sorry). Que was supposed to be with us as well, but she aborted prior to getting wet because she forget to get her tank refilled. The dive was pleasant, but I didn't see any knew fishes to mention in my dive log.
After lunch we arrived at "The Seaclusive Sanctuary." I was buddies with Mike and Que this time. Both were happy to learn about my frequency of sharing air with Bruce to extend downtime. A plan immediately was put into place that I would share air with both of them while we were down. Sharing air with Que was rather interesting, because rather then trying to swim side by side with her octo bridging between us, she swam above me with one hand on my tank valve. She directed me on which way to go by gentle tugs on the tank. At one point I was feeling rather like a horse, so I decided to take her for a ride. Unfortunately she though I was panicking and showed me her pressure gauge to try and calm me down. Oh well, it sounded fun at the time.
Que ended up keeping me on here air for slightly too long so I ended up not using Mike's air for very long.
Next dive I was buddies with Mike and Kamala. It was planned that I would buddy breathe with Kamala this time to give Mike more time to take pictures. For those who don' know Kamala has a longer hose on her primary regulator so that she can donate that to her buddy. As a frequent recipient of donated air I am a fan of the system. It is far easier to maneuver when a stray move does not cause the regulator to try and escape from you. While I was with Kamala she kept a fairly shallow dive profile, so I couldn't stick my head into holes to see what was there quite as much as a like. Oh well, her air means she is in charge of where we go. On the plus side it nearly doubled my normal down time.
Kamala also threw a little pop quiz my way while we were down, wanting to know if I knew where the boat was. Fortunately I had taken a heading on it when we were at the edge of visibility so I was able to take her right to it.
That night I was buddies with Rich again, and we were supposed to tag along with Pam and Que. We began our descent with me in the lead, Rich behind me, and Pam and Que somewhere behind him. Unfortunately I found that one of my ears was not clearing properly, so I signaled to Rich and we aborted the dive. (Seriously, he is not cursed, there is no such thing as a curse
) Shortly there after a worried Que showed up, and no Pam. Apparently while Rich and I were passing them Que lost track of Pam, and was unable to relocate her. Fortunately Pam latched onto another group and completed the dive safely.
Day 6
<insert morning diatribe here> Also, I think it was this morning that CP did his best pirate impression for the wake up call.
During the night Captain (or is he first Mate) Zach had taken us to our newest destination "Dante's Inferno." I was buddies was Jim and Rich. (I was not worried about Rich being cursed... honest.) The dive went well, though the current was rather strong and we had to stay in the lee of the rock. Saw a big rock that I really wanted to check out the next dive. No equipment problems or any other sort either. See, I told you Rich wasn't cursed.
Prelunch dive was Dante's inferno again. Buddies with just Rich this time. We swam over to check out the big rock, which is the well named "Flying Dutchman." It is about 20 to 30 ft tall, and 15 to 20ft diameter, with lots of undercuts and a big heavy rope wrapped around it. I could have swam around it for hours and not been satisfied. It was one of my favorite dives for the whole trip.
After lunch we were at the "Great Everytime" site. Once again I was buddies with Rich. We swam around and got thoroughly disoriented. We attempted to swim to the sound of the boat... and missed. Once we hit 1k of air we decided to go ahead and ascend so that we could find out where the boat was. Unfortunately we didn't know which way the boat was, so we just let the current carry us while we did our safety stop. Lets just say it was a long swim back to the boat, and it was asked of us "Was there something wrong with this dive site" when we returned.
Next dive, same place, buddies with Jim and Rich this time. We found the right dive site this time and stayed there. We also saw a Sting Ray hiding in the sand.
That night everyone dove the same place. I stayed topside and hoisted a couple of beers for some of the divers because I hadn't done enough nothing yet on the trip. Watching all the strobes and flashlights under the water was very enjoyable.
Day 7
We awoke and found out that we were tied off to "The Vandenburg" A ship that was relatively recently sunk for the entertainment of divers. I was buddies with Rich again. We went down and saw a big empty ship. I think that someday it will be an awesome dive site, but a large rusting ship and a couple of bait balls did little to entertain me. I would like to see the satellite dish at some point.
We had planned to do a second dive on the Vandy, but tropical storm Ann decided to kick up her heels and make life more interesting. I almost saw the water spout that she made off in the distance for us. Judging by the difficulties that some of the day boat operators had recovering their divers it was probably for the best that we canceled our last dive.
So ended the diving, now for a couple of comments about events that occurred on the boat.
Chris is a great Galley Slave... errr cook and it was great that he was willing to show his true colors to us on his and our last day on the Spree. The dress and pearls were simply stunning on him, and parrot hat offset his outfit perfectly. (Someone needs to post some pictures of him... unless of course he paid the appropriate bribes to the photographers
)
The naturalist/tank monkey (shamefully I have forgotten her name) gave some very interesting presentation on Coral and other creatures spawning habits. I also want to know if a blended sponge that had one side colored red, and the other blue would reassemble itself with red and blue sides or would it just be purple? She also needs to take my advice and put out an open invite to SingleDivers.com to come dive with her in the Boston aquarium.
Mike aka Deco aka Obama was highly entertaining for most of the trip, and also demonstrated why one should always set their computer for whatever air mix they are diving with.
Rich, sorry for contemplating thinking you were cursed.
I'll dive with you anytime
Kamala great trip even with its setbacks, thanks for putting it together.
P.S. Que get's half your desert, don't let anyone tell you differently.
Edited by ThatJoeGuy, 05 September 2009 - 06:39 PM.
I mean 
