Johnoly
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For our readers that haven't been there, Blue Grotto is a well-known scuba and diving cavern located just outside of Ocala in the middle of Florida. It's year-round 72° water, very clear and can get as deep as 100 ft for technical dives. There are four platforms at different depths to make training and testing easy. It's a favorite training spot for CCR, side mount, AOW, and even free divers.
I've been going there for 25 years to do equipment testing/evaluations and Virgil, the snapping turtle resident has been there that long. There were probably 20 divers using the platforms for training today. Virgil was going from diver to diver and literally just poking them in the face, mask and hands. Usually he'll greet you in the morning for the very first dive and then go back to his hiding spot to sleep. But not today. He was just a pain in the butt all day. I felt sorry for the CCR and the side mount divers doing checkouts today and trying to hold a perfect horizontal trim position above the platform, until Virgil would attack. The instructor then would make the student do the skill over and over and over again. I think I could have made a fortune in the parking lot by selling Campbell Soup hats today for divers to wear underwater and maybe Virgil would get the hint.
Most of the rest of Blue Grotto hasn't changed since last fall with the exception of they are doubling their Tesla battery packs to give them even more capacity for campers staying overnight. The facility has been 100% off grid for a couple of years now but this will make it even better. They're expecting a full holiday weekend coming up on Friday.
I've been going there for 25 years to do equipment testing/evaluations and Virgil, the snapping turtle resident has been there that long. There were probably 20 divers using the platforms for training today. Virgil was going from diver to diver and literally just poking them in the face, mask and hands. Usually he'll greet you in the morning for the very first dive and then go back to his hiding spot to sleep. But not today. He was just a pain in the butt all day. I felt sorry for the CCR and the side mount divers doing checkouts today and trying to hold a perfect horizontal trim position above the platform, until Virgil would attack. The instructor then would make the student do the skill over and over and over again. I think I could have made a fortune in the parking lot by selling Campbell Soup hats today for divers to wear underwater and maybe Virgil would get the hint.
Most of the rest of Blue Grotto hasn't changed since last fall with the exception of they are doubling their Tesla battery packs to give them even more capacity for campers staying overnight. The facility has been 100% off grid for a couple of years now but this will make it even better. They're expecting a full holiday weekend coming up on Friday.
