Trip Report Key Largo, Feb 2021 Trip

[Oldbear]

Wouldn’t setting your PO2 affect the MOD and bottom time as well? I use nitrox, and change the mix in my computer, but I don’t change the PO2. ( trying to learn is why I’m asking)

First...the internet is NOT the place to learn the ins & outs of how EAN (nitrox). Please see a reputable instructor.

When planning the use of Nitrox we use ‘Dalton’ Triangle’. This video should answer your initial questions.

 

[edoralive]

First...the internet is NOT the place to learn the ins & outs of how EAN (nitrox). Please see a reputable instructor.

When planning the use of Nitrox we use ‘Dalton’ Triangle’. This video should answer your initial questions.

Cool! We didn't learn this is my enriched air course. Thanks!

 

[sabbe]

For me, the bonine did the trick - two tabs at night and one in the morning and I was good to go, but after the first day the seas were also more gentle. I did fine on the ride out, but as soon as the boat stopped, it was game over.

I saw a few divers with the behind-the-ear patch, but for now the bonine seems to do the trick.

Felt like an “expensive” lesson to learn, but I won’t forget it.

If you ever do a live aboard I highly recommend the behind the ear patch prescription otherwise it could be a very expensive lesson. After seeing it work for my wife diving the choppy English Channel I now get it just in case.

 

[sabbe]

Wouldn’t setting your PO2 affect the MOD and bottom time as well? I use nitrox, and change the mix in my computer, but I don’t change the PO2. ( trying to learn is why I’m asking)

Changing the max PO2 changes the MOD. Changing the mix you are diving changes the NDL.

What gammon is saying is set your alarm to something slightly higher than your max PO2 so if you’re swimming around at exactly your MOD it isn’t beeping an alarm the entire dive. Especially as a new diver you want those alarms to help you. You want to know as soon as you’ve exceeded the limit. The difference between 1.4 and 1.6 can be huge, for example using 28% that’s the difference between 132 and 156’. I’d suggest setting your alarm as close to 1.4 as you can, such as 1.41.

 

[gamon]

Wouldn’t setting your PO2 affect the MOD and bottom time as well? I use nitrox, and change the mix in my computer, but I don’t change the PO2. ( trying to learn is why I’m asking)

Changing the P02 setting simply changes when the computer's alarm will be triggered. The more aggressive setting of P02 1.6 will allow you to dive deeper and possibly shorten your bottom time due to the no deco limits and also run up the 02 clock faster which could be a factor if you're doing a lot of Nitrox dives in a short period of time.

 

[jf3193]

Changing the P02 setting simply changes when the computer's alarm will be triggered. The more aggressive setting of P02 1.6 will allow you to dive deeper and possibly shorten your bottom time due to the no deco limits and also run up the 02 clock faster which could be a factor if you're doing a lot of Nitrox dives in a short period of time.

That’s how I always understood it.

 

[Skeptic14]

But Key Largo rocks, and I hope to go back. The one thing that'd impact it as a family destination for my little crew...it wasn't a big sandy beach place.

Same here... supposedly there's 1 or 2 real beaches on marathon but not sure how they'd compare to 7MB, the couple I found nearer to Tavernier weren't really beaches. But for me on solo dive trip that's fine, in fact just booked a follow up trip to Key Largo for this year.

Not sure if you've every tried the FL panhandle with your family, the beaches are some of the best white/powdery beaches you can find, the water if you miss a bad june grass season can be pretty good (25-40' vis) and the diving while not as good as the keys is very fishy/sharky and has some pretty good diversity.

 

[drrich2]

Not sure if you've every tried the FL panhandle with your family, the beaches are some of the best white/powdery beaches you can find, the water if you miss a bad june grass season can be pretty good (25-40' vis) and the diving while not as good as the keys is very fishy/sharky and has some pretty good diversity.

I've never dove there. I was born in Pensacola (while Dad was in the Navy; that Vietnam thing), and my wife and her friend like to do short 'girls' trips' to Panama City Beach (they did San Destin one year); an Invertebrate Zoology summer class field trip from my college days was somewhere down there. My high school class trip was to Ft. Walton Beach. One of my bucket list hopes is to someday dive the Oriskany (since it's associated with Pensacola, my birthplace; I could only do the control tower - I have no technical diving training).

And yet...I have never dove the Emerald Coast. From reading on the forum I've come to associate it with long boat rides to dive sites, lower viz. on average and spear fishing (compared to the 'Cobalt Coast' (southeast Florida - where people also spear fish). And I associate Jupiter on the eastern coast as the 'sharky' place. Have I gotten the wrong impression of the Emerald Coast?

There is hope. When our daughter figures out she's being left out of Florida trips, those girls' trips might turn into family trips. Time will tell.

 

[Skeptic14]

I've never dove there. I was born in Pensacola (while Dad was in the Navy; that Vietnam thing), and my wife and her friend like to do short 'girls' trips' to Panama City Beach (they did San Destin one year); an Invertebrate Zoology summer class field trip from my college days was somewhere down there. My high school class trip was to Ft. Walton Beach. One of my bucket list hopes is to someday dive the Oriskany (since it's associated with Pensacola, my birthplace; I could only do the control tower - I have no technical diving training).

I lived there for 12 years until 3 years ago, kinda miss the local diving...

I've never dived the Oriskany, it's a haul, 20-25miles which depending on the boat and conditions could be a few hours each way.

And yet...I have never dove the Emerald Coast. From reading on the forum I've come to associate it with long boat rides to dive sites, lower viz. on average and spear fishing (compared to the 'Cobalt Coast' (southeast Florida - where people also spear fish). And I associate Jupiter on the eastern coast as the 'sharky' place. Have I gotten the wrong impression of the Emerald Coast?

So long boat rides maybe out of Pcola due to it's large bay and marina locations I suppose. But out of Destin and PCB the boat rides aren't bad. My favorite spots out of Destin were to go with Scubatech and hit Whitehill and the liberty ship, maybe 20-30 minute boat ride. Whitehill is a limestone reef, a 4-5 foot ledge that runs along the sandy bottom and is pretty covered in fish with incredible diversity, you can check out my flickr or IG for some photos from panhandle diving. I've never not seen at least a sandbar shark cruising along it when I've done that site and loggerhead and nurse shark aren't uncommon and every year or so whale shark are spotted there, in fact last year a lucky group had an incredible encounter. Most dives on the liberty ship a few bulls have observed and occasionally come in for close looks. All that said, the South East coast of FL is definitely sharkier, however, I've seen far more sharks diving the panhandle than in the caribbean and hawaii. Also, almost forgot, the last few years the goliath have dramatically increased in abundance in the area. They'd become pretty common on most sites, again probably not quite as abundant as SE FL, but a high probability of a nice encounter.

The visibility can be pretty meh (15-20 and green) to 40-60 bluish when the current's are working in the area's favor.

If it's local diving, it's more than good enough. If it's a dive trip there's definitely better diving in FL, but if you want to see batfish, toadfish, frogfish, scorpionfish and other odd ball fish with near certainty it's probably on par with BHB.

If it's a beach trip, don't forget to dive too!