AKR surface interval?

[ThatsAmore]

My husband and I are headed to Anthony‘s Key in August, and I’m at the point where I start planning and envisioning how things will go so I can anticipate possible problems and make things easier, being the Type A personality that I am. I understand that the dive sites are so close by that they return to the resort to do the surface interval. I’m trying to imagine how that works logistically. Do you pull back in at the dock and get off the boat? Or do they pull up to the dock and you stay on the boat? Both options seem awkward compared to just motoring to, and mooring at, the second dive site directly. I know this will seem like a dumb question to some, but I’ve found that I enjoy my vacations more when I know what to expect. Thanks in advance…

 

[OMyMyOHellYes]

They go back and fully dock. You get off and go do something and come back. Or hang on the boat if you wish for a half hour or so. It serves two purposes: it builds in a surface interval under the guise of doing something and it allows folks that slept in or were hung over to get in on a morning dive they otherwise miss. The sites are so close, it makes sense. (CCV seems lazy by the practice of taking you out, holding you on the boat for a hour, going back to the resort and throwing you off the boat in front of the resort and calling it a "second dive" then expecting you to make your way back in...)

Also, as AKR chooses to choose the longest breakfast service imaginable, unless you're in the chow hall early, if you miss it waiting on a cook-to-order breakfast behind everybody else that got there first. meal service and the new fancy chow hall is one reason I've probably made my last trip there and am actively searching out other options. how hard is it to put out a continental self-serve breakfast? Or a fancier Hampton Inn style breakfast - pick up what you want and go eat it and get on with the day.

 

[happy-diver]

And take plenty of this

 

[Kimela]

@ThatsAmore , when we were there in February of 2020 they required us to do the mask removal/replace skill at the dock before they’d take us out to dive on the first day. I’m not sure if that was just OUR dive guide or if they all do that. Maybe others know. Either way, you might want to practice that one. Every time I’ve done the skill I did it with my eyes open - then someone told me I didn’t have to keep my eyes open.

 

[GreggS]

@ThatsAmore , when we were there in February of 2020 they required us to do the mask removal/replace skill at the dock before they’d take us out to dive on the first day. I’m not sure if that was just OUR dive guide or if they all do that. Maybe others know. Either way, you might want to practice that one. Every time I’ve done the skill I did it with my eyes open - then someone told me I didn’t have to keep my eyes open.

I've been to AKR twice, in 2021 and 2023, and have never had to do any type of mask removal/replace or any other drill before being allowed to dive.

 

[OMyMyOHellYes]

I've been to AKR twice, in 2021 and 2023, and have never had to do any type of mask removal/replace or any other drill before being allowed to dive.

Multiple trips to AKR. Never got in the water at AKR outside of jumping off the back of the boat on a mooring or unless the capn chopped the motor so we could drop in on a bait ball or a pod of dolphins running past us. Well, there was that one night "shore dive"...

Didn't even think you could get in the water at the dock as it's so shallow.

 

[ThatsAmore]

And take plenty of this

I sing it with these lyrics:

When an eel bites your thigh and you bleed out and die, that’s a moray

When it skulks on a reef and has two sets of teeth, that’s a moray

When an eel bites your hand and that’s not what you planned, that’s a moray

Put your hand in a crack and you don’t get it back, that’s a moray

When an eel has a maw with a pharyngeal jaw, that’s a moray!