I'll start off with the first trip. We left Rochester, NY @ 6:30pm Friday May 17th and arrived in Ft Lauderdale @ 12am. We then hitched a ride with the Alamo bus at the airport to take us to their main location off site. We rented an economy car which was a brand new Hyundai something or another with only 12 miles on it. The car seemed comfortable at first till we had to make the 2 hour trek down to Tavernier Key. We arrived around 2am and decided it wouldnt be worth it to rent a hotel room for 5 hours because we were suppose to be on the boat with Conch Republic Divers at @ 8am.
Well 3:30am rolls around and some fisherman had just got back to the marina and were more then likely a little tipsy because they were awful loud. 7am rolls around and now I really feel like dung from no sleep. I got up and got my gear ready for the trip since we were suppose to be on the boat at 8am. We checked in with the dive shop and confirmed our plans that we were going to be on a small boat with 2 other people and were to dive the Duane first and then a shallow reef dive. As we were sitting there waiting for our boat to arrive they were loading up 2 other boats and we laughed at how crowded they were. Telling each other arent we glad were not on those cattle boats. Then low and behold the dive shop lady comes out and tells us are boats not coming and we had to get on the already over booked boat. Man I was pissed. I said you joking right. She said unfortunately not. It was terrible worse experience I have ever had diving in my life. It was so packed even the captain had no room to move he actually stepped on me and my buddies equipment. There was no way I was tipping now. Well the dive was ok, vis about 50ft and currents werent bad till you came up to do your safety stop then it was like you were a flag on the line. I'm not much into wrecks that have been purposely sunk. The reef dive was really nice and relaxing with lots to see but nothing special. Meaning I didnt see anything like a Manta or a Stingray. I have heard good things on this board about Conch Republic but I have nothing but bad things to say. I think their terrible. Later on that day we drove down to I believe Islamorada to do a night dive with Lady Cyana's which was a very nice experience.
2nd day we were down there we went out with Capt. Banny's never enough charters in Marathon Key. We met up with him in the morning and the skies didnt look good but we all figured we take a chance. Well we got all the way out to Samantha's reef and were told by coast guard warnings to return to base. So we did. We then decided to go back to the hotel and take a nap since we were both still exhausted from the day before. Around 2pm we ended up hooking back up with Capt. Banny and 2 terrific dives back out at Samantha's Reef. For those who want to know Capt. Banny is one of the most hospitable human beings there is. He has a small boat that only carries 4 which makes it really nice. On top of that his little boat is kind of fast so it gets you to the dive site and back in not much time at all. Great experience.
3rd day we went down to Big Pine Key knowing we were going to be going with a cattle boat. We arrived at Looe Key Dive Resort in the morning and boarded about 9am. Heres the good part the Catamaran holds like 40 divers, there was only 10 divers going. What a treat that was to have the whole boat to ourselves pretty much. The diving was awesome. Looe key is for the people who know what they like in a reef. I am big into corals and macro size species of fish and they had it all. It also had the healthiest reefs out of all the reefs I dove that week. We saw lots of different kinds of LPS and SPS and 2 Black Tip Reef Sharks. It was great.
The fourth day consisted of heading back up to through the Keys and back to Ft. Lauderdale which we mad enough time to visit the beach up there. This was nice. Heres some pics.
http://www.fortunecity.com/greenfield/healing/57/id20.htm
Now I'm back in Rochester for 3 days of work and have to start getting ready for some Wreck diving off the Coast of Long Island. May 23rd which was a Thursday night I stayed up till 2 am cleaning gear and refiguring regulators back to double tank diving. So by the time I was ready to leave Friday night I was exhausted. We left Rochester @ 430pm and arrived at the Wahoo around 1130pm. 7 hours worth of driving after just coming off the Keys trip and going back to work killed me. We immediately set are alarm clocks for 5am and tried to fall asleep on the boat. Unfortunately that wasnt going to be so easy since the bunks are right in line with the water line and you could hear the small waves crashing against the boat very clearly. Then when I finally fell asleep someone else was getting there and decided to load their gear on. So what seemed like only minutes later the alarm clock went off and I got right up and started loading my gear because the boat was leaving right at 6am. It took about 1 and a half to 2 hour s to get out to the USS San Diego which gave me plenty of time to get to know some people. Some serious wreck dive that boat. People that have dived the Doria up and over 50 times. This impressed me. I was like a kid meeting a rock star. I was so happy to be on board that boat with people that I have only read about in books like the Last Dive and Deep Descent. We finally got to the site and the Seas were calm only like 1 to 2 footers. Sun was shinning and so was I.
Unfortunately my friend and buddy didnt seem to be doing as well as me. I noticed the whole ride out there he was very quiet which is not like him. I tried to talk to him to see if there was anything wrong and he said there wasnt. Well here we are on one of the most popular wrecks on the East Cost gearing up.
I jumped in first and told my buddy I would meet him at the 15ft mark and he said Ok. I proceeded to the 15ft mark and then watched him as he entered the water. Immediately after he jumped in I noticed that he was having a problem sinking. Next thing I know he's pulling himself down the line head first now I know that he must have under weighted himself. I asked him if he was ok and he gave me the ok sign back. We continued down the descent line till we reached the wreck. We looked around the outside wreck for a place to penetrate and found a nice size hole on the port side about mid ship. I went to enter and next thing I know he's grabbing my fin so I turned around to a bug eyed buddy who was defiantly stressed out. He signaled to me that he wanted to go up that he was under weighted. I decide I would go back up with him. When we got back on the boat he seemed really scared and actually expressed that he freaked out down there and that he was done for the weekend. I was like oh no dude get back on the horse and ride it again but he said he was done. I asked him if he minded if I went and did the second dive without him, he was ok with that.
The second dive was freaking awesome. I had no one to worry about except for myself. I immediately went for the hole we had found on the first dive and ended up pulling out about a 150ft line into the ship. I found some old bullets and some other stuff that I couldnt tell what it was. Just for those who dont know the USS San Diego is now a protected wreck and nothing can be taken off of it so I decided to obey the law and leave everything alone. It was still a great dive with an hour bottom time and 20 min deco.
Unfortunately I didnt get to dive the Oregon which I really wanted to on the next day because my buddy wanted to go home. I had a great time and was very satisfied with my second dive and I'm starting to make plans to go back down there.
Well 3:30am rolls around and some fisherman had just got back to the marina and were more then likely a little tipsy because they were awful loud. 7am rolls around and now I really feel like dung from no sleep. I got up and got my gear ready for the trip since we were suppose to be on the boat at 8am. We checked in with the dive shop and confirmed our plans that we were going to be on a small boat with 2 other people and were to dive the Duane first and then a shallow reef dive. As we were sitting there waiting for our boat to arrive they were loading up 2 other boats and we laughed at how crowded they were. Telling each other arent we glad were not on those cattle boats. Then low and behold the dive shop lady comes out and tells us are boats not coming and we had to get on the already over booked boat. Man I was pissed. I said you joking right. She said unfortunately not. It was terrible worse experience I have ever had diving in my life. It was so packed even the captain had no room to move he actually stepped on me and my buddies equipment. There was no way I was tipping now. Well the dive was ok, vis about 50ft and currents werent bad till you came up to do your safety stop then it was like you were a flag on the line. I'm not much into wrecks that have been purposely sunk. The reef dive was really nice and relaxing with lots to see but nothing special. Meaning I didnt see anything like a Manta or a Stingray. I have heard good things on this board about Conch Republic but I have nothing but bad things to say. I think their terrible. Later on that day we drove down to I believe Islamorada to do a night dive with Lady Cyana's which was a very nice experience.
2nd day we were down there we went out with Capt. Banny's never enough charters in Marathon Key. We met up with him in the morning and the skies didnt look good but we all figured we take a chance. Well we got all the way out to Samantha's reef and were told by coast guard warnings to return to base. So we did. We then decided to go back to the hotel and take a nap since we were both still exhausted from the day before. Around 2pm we ended up hooking back up with Capt. Banny and 2 terrific dives back out at Samantha's Reef. For those who want to know Capt. Banny is one of the most hospitable human beings there is. He has a small boat that only carries 4 which makes it really nice. On top of that his little boat is kind of fast so it gets you to the dive site and back in not much time at all. Great experience.
3rd day we went down to Big Pine Key knowing we were going to be going with a cattle boat. We arrived at Looe Key Dive Resort in the morning and boarded about 9am. Heres the good part the Catamaran holds like 40 divers, there was only 10 divers going. What a treat that was to have the whole boat to ourselves pretty much. The diving was awesome. Looe key is for the people who know what they like in a reef. I am big into corals and macro size species of fish and they had it all. It also had the healthiest reefs out of all the reefs I dove that week. We saw lots of different kinds of LPS and SPS and 2 Black Tip Reef Sharks. It was great.
The fourth day consisted of heading back up to through the Keys and back to Ft. Lauderdale which we mad enough time to visit the beach up there. This was nice. Heres some pics.
http://www.fortunecity.com/greenfield/healing/57/id20.htm
Now I'm back in Rochester for 3 days of work and have to start getting ready for some Wreck diving off the Coast of Long Island. May 23rd which was a Thursday night I stayed up till 2 am cleaning gear and refiguring regulators back to double tank diving. So by the time I was ready to leave Friday night I was exhausted. We left Rochester @ 430pm and arrived at the Wahoo around 1130pm. 7 hours worth of driving after just coming off the Keys trip and going back to work killed me. We immediately set are alarm clocks for 5am and tried to fall asleep on the boat. Unfortunately that wasnt going to be so easy since the bunks are right in line with the water line and you could hear the small waves crashing against the boat very clearly. Then when I finally fell asleep someone else was getting there and decided to load their gear on. So what seemed like only minutes later the alarm clock went off and I got right up and started loading my gear because the boat was leaving right at 6am. It took about 1 and a half to 2 hour s to get out to the USS San Diego which gave me plenty of time to get to know some people. Some serious wreck dive that boat. People that have dived the Doria up and over 50 times. This impressed me. I was like a kid meeting a rock star. I was so happy to be on board that boat with people that I have only read about in books like the Last Dive and Deep Descent. We finally got to the site and the Seas were calm only like 1 to 2 footers. Sun was shinning and so was I.
Unfortunately my friend and buddy didnt seem to be doing as well as me. I noticed the whole ride out there he was very quiet which is not like him. I tried to talk to him to see if there was anything wrong and he said there wasnt. Well here we are on one of the most popular wrecks on the East Cost gearing up.
I jumped in first and told my buddy I would meet him at the 15ft mark and he said Ok. I proceeded to the 15ft mark and then watched him as he entered the water. Immediately after he jumped in I noticed that he was having a problem sinking. Next thing I know he's pulling himself down the line head first now I know that he must have under weighted himself. I asked him if he was ok and he gave me the ok sign back. We continued down the descent line till we reached the wreck. We looked around the outside wreck for a place to penetrate and found a nice size hole on the port side about mid ship. I went to enter and next thing I know he's grabbing my fin so I turned around to a bug eyed buddy who was defiantly stressed out. He signaled to me that he wanted to go up that he was under weighted. I decide I would go back up with him. When we got back on the boat he seemed really scared and actually expressed that he freaked out down there and that he was done for the weekend. I was like oh no dude get back on the horse and ride it again but he said he was done. I asked him if he minded if I went and did the second dive without him, he was ok with that.
The second dive was freaking awesome. I had no one to worry about except for myself. I immediately went for the hole we had found on the first dive and ended up pulling out about a 150ft line into the ship. I found some old bullets and some other stuff that I couldnt tell what it was. Just for those who dont know the USS San Diego is now a protected wreck and nothing can be taken off of it so I decided to obey the law and leave everything alone. It was still a great dive with an hour bottom time and 20 min deco.
Unfortunately I didnt get to dive the Oregon which I really wanted to on the next day because my buddy wanted to go home. I had a great time and was very satisfied with my second dive and I'm starting to make plans to go back down there.
