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[Walter]

KBScarlett and I joined 3 other friends on Saturday afternoon for a couple dives off Captain Tony's Diversity. Tony and Divemaster Katie are always competent, helpful and fun! It's always fun being on their boat. This is the same operator we used for the singles trip in October. Our group missed meeting Katie due to a serious knee injury.

I arrived early and awaited my companions. Sandy & Brian were the first to arrive. Sandy recently had a baby, so it's been almost a year since she dived. KBScarlett arrived soon after and we loaded our gear aboard with Katie's assistance. As usual, I was regulated to the back of the boat, so I loaded my doubles after everyone was on board to keep them out of the way. Grier was the last to arrive. We had 3 other companions who weren't part of our group. I'd never met Grier before, but I enjoyed his company.

Our first dive was on the United Caribbean, originally called the Golden Venture, a 147 ft steel cargo ship used to smuggle illegal aliens into the US during the early 1990's.

As usual, Katie tied off on the wreck on the first drop. She returned to report a moderate to mild current and fair visibility.

Sandy and Brian were first in the water and were quickly out of sight. KBScarlett was next with Grier right behind and me bringing up the rear. KBScarlett always eager to explore, started down the line. Grier had a little difficulty equalizing his ears. I stayed with Grier while keeping an eye on KBScarlett who was signaling there was something to see just below her (it was a large Jewfish). I showed Grier how to massage his Eustachian tube and soon we were on the wreck (alas, too late to see the Jewfish).

We enjoyed our tour of the wreck and did spot a small Jewfish as it ducked inside the bilge.

Our second dive was on Boca Artificial Ledge, a dive we made with the group in October. This was a float dive (often incorrectly called a drift dive) with Eustachian tube and me sharing the flag duties. On this dive, our group of 5 stayed together. We headed north with a very mild current. We saw a medium Green Moray sticking a foot or so out of his hole and a very large Spotted Moray looking out of the top of the ledge. Along the way, we saw a Cuban Hogfish, which appears black, but is actually red and two very rare Shy Hamlets. The Shy Hamlets along made the dive worthwhile. They are incredibly beautiful!

United Caribbean 71 feet for 38 minutes 30 feet of visibility EAN 36

Boca Artificial 65 feet for 41 minutes 40 feet of visibility EAN 36 (had to be the same mix, I used the same tanks)

This morning, I forgot about the time change and headed to Venice to join Sharon for a fossile dive. I planned to have one dive complete before she arrived since she was planning to arrive at 9:30. Since I forgot about the time change, she arrived ahead of me.

She arrived with her parents, her nephew (age 8) and two nieces (ages 5 & 4). The breakers were a bit large for a first time beach diver, so we opted to play with the children and look for fossils with a screen box in the surf zone. They all went home with shark teeth.

Walter