I want to start off by saying THANK YOU to all of the readers that were following my previous post
[1st Time to 100' - A little nervous] and to all those who gave advice, feedback, and general comments. I gained alot of insight and valuable information from those who have been there and I appreciate it. That said, here is how everything went:
It was a planned 2 dive trip on a charter off the coast of Miami Lakes, FL. We took a few extra minutes going over our dive plan and some geographical markers of the site [since I had never been there before] so we got there about 10 minutes late. There were about 35 divers on the trip so we had a full house [which I really dont like but another topic another day lol]. After checkins were done and announcements were made we got under way. Went over safety precautions with my buddy along the way to the site, checked each others equipment (including weight releases and safety equipment each of us had - and verified proper usage], and went over potential separation situations [never know]. We verified air, verified gauges [again], verified BC inflation, verified each others gauges, and were ready to go. We waited for the DM to return from setting the anchor, received the Captain's speech, and headed into the water. I was using EAN28 with MAX Depth 130. Time was approximately 1900 local time and in Miami there was still partial daylight, but not much. Waves were very choppy as it had stormed all day and current was brutal. But in we went :
Dive 1:
Hit the water and took an immediate compass heading of where the boat was and made my way over to my buddy. Swam to the down line, which was lighted, made a mental note of PSI, and began our descent. A little rough going initially with the currents but below 18 feet all smoothed out. Continued to descent slowly along the line, clearing as needed as I went. My buddy [Dive Master] was below me and checked on me during the whole descent. Continued to descend with no problems. Air was needed to maintain buoyancy as we got deeper but no problems. Finally saw the railing on the wreck and noticed that my buddy had stopped descending. I was good to go. Released the line and swam over to him. Checked gauges and was surprised to see that we were at 93'. Practiced hovering there for a few minutes and then swam over to the wreck. It was a really cool wreck; lots of aquatic life and lots of life down there. I checked gauges again and we were now at 101'. Hung out on the wreck a bit then did some neat things. Did the egg crack, the sponge, and the empty water bottle tricks. ALL really neat. Did not feel narced out, but was a little slow doing the simple math. Competent but slower lol. Checked gauges again and it was already time to go Began our swim to the line and began our ascent. Went up as appropriate and cleared as needed. Stopped at 50' for 3 minutes and continued our ascent. Made a safety stop at 15' for 3 minutes then surfaced. Swam back to the boat and climbed aboard.
Total Bottom Time: 24 minutes
Couple of things:
During the time in the water I began to tingle all over. It really made me stop and think about what was going on. I initially thought it was something that I was going through, and maybe I was going to have to end my dive. Because I was prepared, these were the thoughts going through my mind. As I was checking things out I noticed a few "jelly fish" in the area. Thats when I realized that I had been "jellied," either stung or come in contact with their tentacles. We continued on and as we got closer to the surface I began to get the feeling MORE and MORE; like EVERYWHERE. I even got stung on my LIP. When I got back to the boat I was covered in stings, literally. I was sprayed with vinegar to help with the stings. As we looked into the water we saw that they were EVERYWHERE in the water. Almost EVERY diver in the water got stung; However, I was the ONLY one WITHOUT a wetsuit lol. I was certain the water was going to be warm, so I didnt bring one. MISTAKE lol. And it was warm, until the thermocline at 88' when it dropped to 68 degrees lol. I was fine with the water temp but man them jellies got me. I was VERY uncomfortable for about a half hour afterwards, but I managed haha.
ALL in ALL, things went well on the DEEP dive, my 1st; minus the stings I NOW have ALL OVER my body.
1st time to the DEEP and all went well.
2nd Dive:
Just a regular night dive to a 50' reef. Nothing major to go over. Practiced some navigation and hovering, looked at the fish, fought with a crab , saw a lion fish, and had a good dive. There were virtually NO jellyfish at the 2nd site, but as we began our ascent they reappeared. Dodged a few on the way back to the boat but managed THAT dive to NOT get stung lol.
Overall, the dives were a success. Thanks again to ALL for following along and the input.
[1st Time to 100' - A little nervous] and to all those who gave advice, feedback, and general comments. I gained alot of insight and valuable information from those who have been there and I appreciate it. That said, here is how everything went:
It was a planned 2 dive trip on a charter off the coast of Miami Lakes, FL. We took a few extra minutes going over our dive plan and some geographical markers of the site [since I had never been there before] so we got there about 10 minutes late. There were about 35 divers on the trip so we had a full house [which I really dont like but another topic another day lol]. After checkins were done and announcements were made we got under way. Went over safety precautions with my buddy along the way to the site, checked each others equipment (including weight releases and safety equipment each of us had - and verified proper usage], and went over potential separation situations [never know]. We verified air, verified gauges [again], verified BC inflation, verified each others gauges, and were ready to go. We waited for the DM to return from setting the anchor, received the Captain's speech, and headed into the water. I was using EAN28 with MAX Depth 130. Time was approximately 1900 local time and in Miami there was still partial daylight, but not much. Waves were very choppy as it had stormed all day and current was brutal. But in we went :
Dive 1:
Hit the water and took an immediate compass heading of where the boat was and made my way over to my buddy. Swam to the down line, which was lighted, made a mental note of PSI, and began our descent. A little rough going initially with the currents but below 18 feet all smoothed out. Continued to descent slowly along the line, clearing as needed as I went. My buddy [Dive Master] was below me and checked on me during the whole descent. Continued to descend with no problems. Air was needed to maintain buoyancy as we got deeper but no problems. Finally saw the railing on the wreck and noticed that my buddy had stopped descending. I was good to go. Released the line and swam over to him. Checked gauges and was surprised to see that we were at 93'. Practiced hovering there for a few minutes and then swam over to the wreck. It was a really cool wreck; lots of aquatic life and lots of life down there. I checked gauges again and we were now at 101'. Hung out on the wreck a bit then did some neat things. Did the egg crack, the sponge, and the empty water bottle tricks. ALL really neat. Did not feel narced out, but was a little slow doing the simple math. Competent but slower lol. Checked gauges again and it was already time to go Began our swim to the line and began our ascent. Went up as appropriate and cleared as needed. Stopped at 50' for 3 minutes and continued our ascent. Made a safety stop at 15' for 3 minutes then surfaced. Swam back to the boat and climbed aboard.
Total Bottom Time: 24 minutes
Couple of things:
During the time in the water I began to tingle all over. It really made me stop and think about what was going on. I initially thought it was something that I was going through, and maybe I was going to have to end my dive. Because I was prepared, these were the thoughts going through my mind. As I was checking things out I noticed a few "jelly fish" in the area. Thats when I realized that I had been "jellied," either stung or come in contact with their tentacles. We continued on and as we got closer to the surface I began to get the feeling MORE and MORE; like EVERYWHERE. I even got stung on my LIP. When I got back to the boat I was covered in stings, literally. I was sprayed with vinegar to help with the stings. As we looked into the water we saw that they were EVERYWHERE in the water. Almost EVERY diver in the water got stung; However, I was the ONLY one WITHOUT a wetsuit lol. I was certain the water was going to be warm, so I didnt bring one. MISTAKE lol. And it was warm, until the thermocline at 88' when it dropped to 68 degrees lol. I was fine with the water temp but man them jellies got me. I was VERY uncomfortable for about a half hour afterwards, but I managed haha.
ALL in ALL, things went well on the DEEP dive, my 1st; minus the stings I NOW have ALL OVER my body.
1st time to the DEEP and all went well.
2nd Dive:
Just a regular night dive to a 50' reef. Nothing major to go over. Practiced some navigation and hovering, looked at the fish, fought with a crab , saw a lion fish, and had a good dive. There were virtually NO jellyfish at the 2nd site, but as we began our ascent they reappeared. Dodged a few on the way back to the boat but managed THAT dive to NOT get stung lol.
Overall, the dives were a success. Thanks again to ALL for following along and the input.