AM Dives with Splashdown Divers, March 19

[BIGSAGE136]

We did the Captain Tony for our 1st dive. I dropped with Jeff, Krista , and Scott, with Lee and ScubaCat behind us. The Captain Tony is 87fsw to the sand, and serves as an artificial reef. The life on it is really taking off. 2 Huge Jew fish, lots of coral, and a couple of turtles.

Dive time was 45 minutes, 27 on the bottom. Temp was 72 degrees. Current was kind.
Viz was 30 to 40 feet. Surface calm with 2 to 3 feet swells. Beautiful day.

 

[BIGSAGE136]

 

[Hoya97]

Wonderful dive! Great folks! And a California Diver (Kelp Mermaid) to add to the fun! WHEW! Vicki and Eric really missed 'a goodie' when they wimped out! Will post my pics when I get them developed.

Least anyone laugh too hard at me about going in to the water with an empty cylinder. I checked it again when I got home. Yup - an empty cylinder. Only had 2,700 lbs of pressure in it. I think my computer needs to be looked at. Showing 118 when I had many times that amount suggests a problem.

Krista and I are already plotting (planning?) for our next adventure. Will keep ya'll advised. Also, for Kelp Mermaid - I'll give you plenty of warning when I'm next planning on going to California - This way, they'll be able to make adequate preparations.

Finally - do you remember the old abbreviation for California? It was "Calif" You can still see it on older documents and the like, but unfortunately, they had to change it. Apparently, "Calif" was coined by an undercover agent. When the natives discovered it was an acronym for 'Come And Live In Florida' they about blew a gasket!

Cheers

Lee

 

[DriftDiver]

Hi Everyone.

I certainly enjoyed diving with y'all again!

Here's a first attempt to show some of the photos I shot...

 

[simbrooks]

Sounds like you had a fun dive, did you only do one? Wish i could have been out there with you, but i was kind of up to my eyeballs in mannequins getting my basic life support instructor stuff done - no sun or water for me this weekend

 

[JustJoe]

I want to jump on the "me too" bandwagon and say that I had a fantastic time. I couldn't of had better dive buddies with James and Kelp Mermaid (still anonymous!). They were awesome and after 2 minutes on the first dive with them I felt entirely comfortable.

During the night dive James pointed out some truly cool things that I would have just swam past. The worms eating the tunicates (?, if you look this photo from BigSage , they are the blue things). I have always enjoyed looking at the fish but James turned me on to the smaller critters of the reef (wreck). Awesome!

Some things that really were cool for me diving wise. Fire worms, the little crabs and some killer little shrimp, two turtles (on Kevin's payroll), greater amberjack in the distance and the gazebo. Great dives.

Thanks to Krista for putting it together and Kevin for being a great DM.

Joe

 

[KBeck]

OK, guys, I am sufficiently recovered from the weekend to finally post a proper report!
Saturday started a little tiny bit chilly; after arrival at the marina and lots of finagling for parking, we boarded and got set for diving. After a vote, we agreed to go ahead and do the Capt. Tony followed by a reef dive (thanks very much to Kevin and Capt. Lynn for giving us the opportunity to do so!).
We posed for some group pics, some which Sage and James have kindly posted already; (my boring old print photos will be ready tomorrow) and then headed out.
Flat seas were the order of the day, and for once my Scop patch was not a necessary piece of equipment!
Hopping in on the Capt. Tony, my buddy Scott and I descended to peer into the enclosed areas to the bow of the ship. Not familiar with the layout, we chose to hold off on attempting any extended swim throughs.
Exploring the rest of the ship was enjoyable; I love how the life growing on wrecks is often much different than that on the reefs; the blue tunicates were just beautiful, and several other species of coral/sponge got a good looking over as well; thanks to my patient buddy for hanging out while I inspected everything! I did not spot any of the reported jewfish, but several times the large amberjack came in close enough that I think we were inspecting each other!

Second dive was a reef (I never seem to remember to ask the names), buddy group Hoya and scubacat, Sage, Scott, DiverDoh and myself. After some brief decision making to determine the direction of the current, we headed south along the reefline. After making some directional adjustments, we were able to find the middle reef as advised by DM Kevin. Great fish life, and Sage and I had a little fun chasing a big porcupine fish swimming out in the open in order to get a picture or two.
I was cold (Imagine that) and scubacat was getting low on air, so we ascended together, with the rest of the group soon to follow.

We followed the dives with a great lunch at TwoGeorges with kelpmermaid, Scott, DriftDiver, Hoya and Scubacat, JustJoe, and myself. As always, stories, rumors and other such gossip abounded or was created!

Thanks to BigSage for getting us started on this Dive Plan--as always, a great day out diving with great buddies!!!

 

[JustJoe]

Lunch was awesome! Both of them.

Joe

 

[Scubakevdm]

Least anyone laugh too hard at me about going in to the water with an empty cylinder. I checked it again when I got home. Yup - an empty cylinder. Only had 2,700 lbs of pressure in it. I think my computer needs to be looked at. Showing 118 when I had many times that amount suggests a problem.

Lee, its all starting to make sense... an inaccurate measure of tank psi on the first dive would have had the thing telling you that it was time to go up, as it did. Sounds like a pressure transducer problem. ScubaPro is excellent with their warranty stuff, I'm sure they'll square it away for you in short order. I just sent mine in for battery replacement and they sent me a whole new computer.

 

[KBeck]

Ok, let's see if I can get some pictures up for everyone:









Such a handsome group! (Nope, no underwater photos)