I finally got back to a computer after a week and a half. I was greeted by a new home page and a message asking me to post, so here it goes.
Last week I was in central Florida for a family vacation. It was different this time because we drove the Cherokee down. We have always flown in the past. After a 2247 mile round trip, I actually brought home all the kids I left with, my 16 yo son, 12 yo daughter and 11 yo niece. I actually towed a Jet ski down for my sister in law. We spent the night in a hotel rather than try to push through, it wasn't at all as bad as I had pictured (think National Lampoon's Vacation).
We arrived in time to spend Halloween at Universal Studios, which was pretty neat. The highlight of my trip, however was diving at Epcot, in the Living Seas. There are a couple of really good write ups on the board that if you Search for Epcot, you will find them. I noticed a couple of things about the dive, the equipment and the participants:
1) The bcs were all set up with weight...a lot of it. We only used 3 mil shorties, and the divemaster said I probably had 22 pounds of lead, plus the 63 cu ft tank. I dive 26 pounds in fresh water in a 2 pc 7 mil suit. We didn't have the opportunity to remove weight, only add if anyone needed it.
2) The mask kind of sucked. I didn't want to haul my mask all the way down there, but in hindsight, should have. The mask they provided had a pressure point on my forehead. Oh well.
3) The vis was great, there was almost too many fish! The cool thing was the larger of the new sharks started to come over to see what was going on, then retreated to a corner of the tank. One of the safety divers was watching it, not the divers.
4) Out of 10 divers, three of us were cold water divers, myself from PA, a guy from Michigan, a newer diver from the UK, I think the rest were warm water divers. For some reason, when I invited them to come up north to dive, they said "nahhhh". (the water there was a balmy 78* F)
5) All the different fish was neat, but I think I had more fun interacting with the kids looking in.
6) It was my first salt water dive! Woo Hoo!
Now, I can't wait until my cruise in May, more warm water diving, but with my own gear. I also gotta see if I can get back to Dutch Springs this sunday morning!
Last week I was in central Florida for a family vacation. It was different this time because we drove the Cherokee down. We have always flown in the past. After a 2247 mile round trip, I actually brought home all the kids I left with, my 16 yo son, 12 yo daughter and 11 yo niece. I actually towed a Jet ski down for my sister in law. We spent the night in a hotel rather than try to push through, it wasn't at all as bad as I had pictured (think National Lampoon's Vacation).
We arrived in time to spend Halloween at Universal Studios, which was pretty neat. The highlight of my trip, however was diving at Epcot, in the Living Seas. There are a couple of really good write ups on the board that if you Search for Epcot, you will find them. I noticed a couple of things about the dive, the equipment and the participants:
1) The bcs were all set up with weight...a lot of it. We only used 3 mil shorties, and the divemaster said I probably had 22 pounds of lead, plus the 63 cu ft tank. I dive 26 pounds in fresh water in a 2 pc 7 mil suit. We didn't have the opportunity to remove weight, only add if anyone needed it.
2) The mask kind of sucked. I didn't want to haul my mask all the way down there, but in hindsight, should have. The mask they provided had a pressure point on my forehead. Oh well.
3) The vis was great, there was almost too many fish! The cool thing was the larger of the new sharks started to come over to see what was going on, then retreated to a corner of the tank. One of the safety divers was watching it, not the divers.
4) Out of 10 divers, three of us were cold water divers, myself from PA, a guy from Michigan, a newer diver from the UK, I think the rest were warm water divers. For some reason, when I invited them to come up north to dive, they said "nahhhh". (the water there was a balmy 78* F)
5) All the different fish was neat, but I think I had more fun interacting with the kids looking in.
6) It was my first salt water dive! Woo Hoo!
Now, I can't wait until my cruise in May, more warm water diving, but with my own gear. I also gotta see if I can get back to Dutch Springs this sunday morning!
