Second Day – First Dive
We woke up at 7:00 AM and I passed on breakfast and the first dive. (I’m not a morning person unless the seas are flat). I pulled my bunk curtain shut and went back to sleep. The boat was not moored but was drifting and had turned beam to the wind. I was being rolled back and forth in my bunk. I decided to get up and go topside. It was rolly. The Crew told me that the group was doing a drift dive with a drop at a shoal tower. They said that the current should drift them right passed the tower.
I helped watch from the bow for safety sausages. It was at this point that the importance of for these devises became extremely apparent. The divers were scattered all over the place. The current was going the opposite way of the wind drift, causing the group to be dropped on the ‘wrong’ side of the tower. Some worked to stay in the general area of the tower. Others did a true drift dive and went with the current. One group was at least 2 miles from the tower. We would have never seen them without the sausages! That’s a lot of stress on the Crew trying to keep track of 18 divers and make sure they all come back safely. This Crew did a wonderful job. Lori told me that they usually don’t do drift dives. My buddy who dove with them in July said that they only did one drift dive. I’ve got to tell you, Captain Rick worked real hard to find us places that were protected enough for us to dive.
I was told by a couple of divers that this was not a good hunting spot. There was no relief. It was pretty much a rubble patch. Others said the area around the tower was really cool. It was a photographer’s dream. The water was crystal clear with 70 foot of vis and there were lots of tropicals. Water temp was 76 degress. A couple of divers came up with bugs.
Jay presented the divers with a wonderful fruit plate between dives. After an hour of uptime and all of the tanks refilled, we hit the water for our second dive, including me.
Second Day – Second Dive
Again, filled with anticipation, I hit the water. Bobby and I hung together. There were divers everywhere and no current. You could swim anywhere you wanted. The terrain was like a slopping hill with plateaus. There really weren’t any bug holes. It was pretty. Good vis, warm water, 45 fsw, pretty stuff – but damn it, I wanted some bugs!!!!! No bugs. I did see some small hogfish and a couple of small black grouper. Linda reported that she saw an octopus out free swimming on this dive.
Second Day - Lunch
Lunch was Chicken Pot Pie. A bunch of us got heart burn from it. But it tasted really good.
Second Day – Third Dive
I was so bummed out with the last dive that I asked the Captain if there were any ledges in the area or structure or relieve or if it was just rolly bottom. He said it was pretty much just rolly.
I decided to pass on the next dive. It was just so hard to get back on the boat and there wasn’t anything to hunt! Wa! Rick told me that I’d be sorry. Humpf! Well, he was right. Everyone came back on board with ohs and ahs of the dive site. Folks caught bugs. Folks shot fish – nothing big, but legal hogfish. Bobby told me that it was a drop like one we dive in Key West that starts at 40 fsw and drops to 110 fsw. AUGHHHH!!! I told Rick he was right. He told me that he’d do another drop in the same area. Thank you, Captain Rick.
Jay gave us a nice snack of cheese sticks with marinara sauce and pizza rolls.
Second Day – Forth Dive
I was expecting my best dive of the trip. It was 6:00 PM when we entered the water. Bobby and I dropped to 70 feet. There was awesome terrain. I pulled up on a hogfish and shot low. My spear tip embedded into a rock. I worked on it for awhile. Bobby waited patiently for me to get my tip back. I was half tempted to leave it since I carry extras on my dives but I finally wiggled it free and we were off to find bugs!
Bobby put some air in his BC and then noticed his inflator button had come apart. Oh no!!!! His BC was leaking. He disconnected his low pressure hose, but that didn’t help – the leak wasn’t at the hose. We decided to abort the dive and surfaced. We had only been down about 10 minutes. The boat spotted us after about 10 minutes on the surface with Bobby having a leaky BC. As long as he kept his finger over the hole he stayed buoyant. As soon as he let it go, air would escape. We both fought our way back on board in choppy 4’ seas. Bobby was done for the day. I unclipped my stringer and decided to just go for bugs. I had the Captain redrop me and down I went.
I hit the bottom and checked my air and depth. I was looking good. I swam about 15 feet and noticed something on the reef – a spear gun! MY SPEAR GUN!!!!! Geez, in my concern for Bobby, I dropped my gun at the surface and didn’t even realize that I didn’t have it when I fought my way back on board. So I figured that this was a sign. I was supposed to band it and be ready. So I did and I was. I wish I could say that a big black grouper swam by, but I can’t because it didn’t. After 23 minutes, I surfaced, inflated my sausage, and waited for the boat to pick me up.
Second Day – Dinner
Dinner was lasagna, salad, garlic bread, baklava, chocolate ice cream
After dinner, the Captain told us that we may not be able to dive Sunday due to the high winds.
We had a wonderful time socializing and chatting about the weekends’ dives. By 10:30, most of us had hit the bunks.
We woke in the morning and the boat was still running. Not a good sign. The Captain decided to call the trip due to high winds and take us back to Ft. Myers. I passed on breakfast again and stayed in my bunk. Bobby woke me up shortly before 9:00 to get ready to go.
I packed up the bedding and cloths. Bobby took care of the dive gear. By 9:20 AM we were pulling into the dock – 8 hours early. :shakehead
Captain Rick did a great job of docking the boat at low tide. It looked pretty tricky to me.
We got our stuff off of the boat and packed up the truck.
Al and Matt cleaned bugs and fish at dock. They make it look easy.
I tipped the Crew 15% - a little higher than the recommended 10%, but I think they earned the extra amount! The service was wonderful, the food was great, our bunks were super, the deck help was outstanding. Captain Rick did everything he could with the conditions that Mother Nature threw at him this weekend.
Richard took a couple of group pictures, but, unfortunately, about a half dozen folks had already left.
We got our tail and filets and bought some t-shirts and headed home around 10:00 AM. We were about 5 miles down the road when I realized that we had left my poll spear on the boat. Sigh… We picked it up and headed out again. We were back in Melbourne by 2:00 PM.
Some things I’ll never forget about this trip:
Linda’s intense relationship with fish
Jan’s quietness – she listens
Tim was my bench buddy
Steve has dove with UG 7 time – he’s a regular
Suki and Gina are tough cookies. They fought sea sickness all weekend.
Ron’s blue dry suit, doubles, and blinding dive light
Dave’s monster bugs
Stuart’s Shrek Dive Cap
Richard’s toys
Kristy’s cool dive T-Shirt. I believe I liked #11 on the list?
Robert’s (ZenDiver) underwater experience with a she-bug!
Fedor is from Russia
Sonny’s a marine mechanic
Nate is one dive away from a Master Scuba Diver rating
Bob G is hard core and wants to kill things
Stevo out-shot and out-bugged me!
Bobby is my hubby – everything’s memorable. :10:
Matt cooked yummy lobster for the Texas group
Lori disappearing in Bobby’s parka
Rick makes sh#t up
Al’s got a really cool pony-tail and keeps the boat running
Chuck’s a great help on the platform and quite the gentleman
Jay can cook and plays chess by himself
I would love to do this trip with all hunters during between March and August. Nothing personal to the non-hunters – you were all great and I would love to dive with you all again. But I was really hoping to fill the freezer with tails and filets and I think this boat can help to do that under the right conditions. We ended up with one triggerfish, one hogfish, and two tails (Steve gave us one of his). Stevo was the master of this trip. He took home six tails and five hogfish. The Texas Group had their bugs cooked up and shared it with the rest of us as an appetizer. Thanks, guys!
The Crew let us dive our own dives. We weren't treated like newbies. We didn't have a guide in the water with us. We monitored our own computers. I liked that about this boat.
We made some really good friends on this trip and I’m sure we’ll be diving with them again.
Lesson Learned: Antivert worked for me!
We woke up at 7:00 AM and I passed on breakfast and the first dive. (I’m not a morning person unless the seas are flat). I pulled my bunk curtain shut and went back to sleep. The boat was not moored but was drifting and had turned beam to the wind. I was being rolled back and forth in my bunk. I decided to get up and go topside. It was rolly. The Crew told me that the group was doing a drift dive with a drop at a shoal tower. They said that the current should drift them right passed the tower.
I helped watch from the bow for safety sausages. It was at this point that the importance of for these devises became extremely apparent. The divers were scattered all over the place. The current was going the opposite way of the wind drift, causing the group to be dropped on the ‘wrong’ side of the tower. Some worked to stay in the general area of the tower. Others did a true drift dive and went with the current. One group was at least 2 miles from the tower. We would have never seen them without the sausages! That’s a lot of stress on the Crew trying to keep track of 18 divers and make sure they all come back safely. This Crew did a wonderful job. Lori told me that they usually don’t do drift dives. My buddy who dove with them in July said that they only did one drift dive. I’ve got to tell you, Captain Rick worked real hard to find us places that were protected enough for us to dive.
I was told by a couple of divers that this was not a good hunting spot. There was no relief. It was pretty much a rubble patch. Others said the area around the tower was really cool. It was a photographer’s dream. The water was crystal clear with 70 foot of vis and there were lots of tropicals. Water temp was 76 degress. A couple of divers came up with bugs.
Jay presented the divers with a wonderful fruit plate between dives. After an hour of uptime and all of the tanks refilled, we hit the water for our second dive, including me.
Second Day – Second Dive
Again, filled with anticipation, I hit the water. Bobby and I hung together. There were divers everywhere and no current. You could swim anywhere you wanted. The terrain was like a slopping hill with plateaus. There really weren’t any bug holes. It was pretty. Good vis, warm water, 45 fsw, pretty stuff – but damn it, I wanted some bugs!!!!! No bugs. I did see some small hogfish and a couple of small black grouper. Linda reported that she saw an octopus out free swimming on this dive.
Second Day - Lunch
Lunch was Chicken Pot Pie. A bunch of us got heart burn from it. But it tasted really good.
Second Day – Third Dive
I was so bummed out with the last dive that I asked the Captain if there were any ledges in the area or structure or relieve or if it was just rolly bottom. He said it was pretty much just rolly.
I decided to pass on the next dive. It was just so hard to get back on the boat and there wasn’t anything to hunt! Wa! Rick told me that I’d be sorry. Humpf! Well, he was right. Everyone came back on board with ohs and ahs of the dive site. Folks caught bugs. Folks shot fish – nothing big, but legal hogfish. Bobby told me that it was a drop like one we dive in Key West that starts at 40 fsw and drops to 110 fsw. AUGHHHH!!! I told Rick he was right. He told me that he’d do another drop in the same area. Thank you, Captain Rick.Jay gave us a nice snack of cheese sticks with marinara sauce and pizza rolls.
Second Day – Forth Dive
I was expecting my best dive of the trip. It was 6:00 PM when we entered the water. Bobby and I dropped to 70 feet. There was awesome terrain. I pulled up on a hogfish and shot low. My spear tip embedded into a rock. I worked on it for awhile. Bobby waited patiently for me to get my tip back. I was half tempted to leave it since I carry extras on my dives but I finally wiggled it free and we were off to find bugs!
Bobby put some air in his BC and then noticed his inflator button had come apart. Oh no!!!! His BC was leaking. He disconnected his low pressure hose, but that didn’t help – the leak wasn’t at the hose. We decided to abort the dive and surfaced. We had only been down about 10 minutes. The boat spotted us after about 10 minutes on the surface with Bobby having a leaky BC. As long as he kept his finger over the hole he stayed buoyant. As soon as he let it go, air would escape. We both fought our way back on board in choppy 4’ seas. Bobby was done for the day. I unclipped my stringer and decided to just go for bugs. I had the Captain redrop me and down I went.
I hit the bottom and checked my air and depth. I was looking good. I swam about 15 feet and noticed something on the reef – a spear gun! MY SPEAR GUN!!!!! Geez, in my concern for Bobby, I dropped my gun at the surface and didn’t even realize that I didn’t have it when I fought my way back on board. So I figured that this was a sign. I was supposed to band it and be ready. So I did and I was. I wish I could say that a big black grouper swam by, but I can’t because it didn’t. After 23 minutes, I surfaced, inflated my sausage, and waited for the boat to pick me up.
Second Day – Dinner
Dinner was lasagna, salad, garlic bread, baklava, chocolate ice cream
After dinner, the Captain told us that we may not be able to dive Sunday due to the high winds.
We had a wonderful time socializing and chatting about the weekends’ dives. By 10:30, most of us had hit the bunks.
We woke in the morning and the boat was still running. Not a good sign. The Captain decided to call the trip due to high winds and take us back to Ft. Myers. I passed on breakfast again and stayed in my bunk. Bobby woke me up shortly before 9:00 to get ready to go.
I packed up the bedding and cloths. Bobby took care of the dive gear. By 9:20 AM we were pulling into the dock – 8 hours early. :shakehead
Captain Rick did a great job of docking the boat at low tide. It looked pretty tricky to me.
We got our stuff off of the boat and packed up the truck.
Al and Matt cleaned bugs and fish at dock. They make it look easy.
I tipped the Crew 15% - a little higher than the recommended 10%, but I think they earned the extra amount! The service was wonderful, the food was great, our bunks were super, the deck help was outstanding. Captain Rick did everything he could with the conditions that Mother Nature threw at him this weekend.
Richard took a couple of group pictures, but, unfortunately, about a half dozen folks had already left.
We got our tail and filets and bought some t-shirts and headed home around 10:00 AM. We were about 5 miles down the road when I realized that we had left my poll spear on the boat. Sigh… We picked it up and headed out again. We were back in Melbourne by 2:00 PM.
Some things I’ll never forget about this trip:
Linda’s intense relationship with fish
Jan’s quietness – she listens
Tim was my bench buddy
Steve has dove with UG 7 time – he’s a regular
Suki and Gina are tough cookies. They fought sea sickness all weekend.
Ron’s blue dry suit, doubles, and blinding dive light
Dave’s monster bugs
Stuart’s Shrek Dive Cap
Richard’s toys
Kristy’s cool dive T-Shirt. I believe I liked #11 on the list?
Robert’s (ZenDiver) underwater experience with a she-bug!
Fedor is from Russia
Sonny’s a marine mechanic
Nate is one dive away from a Master Scuba Diver rating
Bob G is hard core and wants to kill things
Stevo out-shot and out-bugged me!
Bobby is my hubby – everything’s memorable. :10:
Matt cooked yummy lobster for the Texas group
Lori disappearing in Bobby’s parka
Rick makes sh#t up
Al’s got a really cool pony-tail and keeps the boat running
Chuck’s a great help on the platform and quite the gentleman
Jay can cook and plays chess by himself
I would love to do this trip with all hunters during between March and August. Nothing personal to the non-hunters – you were all great and I would love to dive with you all again. But I was really hoping to fill the freezer with tails and filets and I think this boat can help to do that under the right conditions. We ended up with one triggerfish, one hogfish, and two tails (Steve gave us one of his). Stevo was the master of this trip. He took home six tails and five hogfish. The Texas Group had their bugs cooked up and shared it with the rest of us as an appetizer. Thanks, guys!
The Crew let us dive our own dives. We weren't treated like newbies. We didn't have a guide in the water with us. We monitored our own computers. I liked that about this boat.
We made some really good friends on this trip and I’m sure we’ll be diving with them again.
Lesson Learned: Antivert worked for me!
