Trip Report The Road to Becoming a Better Diver - Key Largo Trip Report Part 1

[boulderjohn]

Lady Luck?

yes

 

[Tigerpaw]

Nice you still like diving. Don't focus on the amount of dives, I prefer also a lot of dives, but the quality must be good.
Go diving as much as possible and really, enjoy, don't forget to enjoy.

Thank you,...yes I was obsessed with training and buoyancy but my Divemaster told me to loosen up and relax. We compromised, I would train for half the dive and the other half I would relax, sightsee and have fun.

 

[Tigerpaw]

Hi @Tigerpaw , you got your OW in Dec 2021, and then went to dive the Spiegel on March 2022? Did you work on your AOW in between these dates ?

Yes, I started working on certs with the ideal I'd have the proper training to do certain dives. After my Open Water, I earned Nitrox and AOW. After AOW I went on to earn Deep and Wreck.

 

[TravelGas]

Lady Luck? I've had that exact same experience on both the LL and the Castor in Boynton.

How deep is the Castor and which dive boats go there?

 

[Divin'Papaw]

How deep is the Castor and which dive boats go there?

100-110 to the sand, top of the wreck starts around 70-80ish (going from memory). The Boynton Beach boats are the ones that run to the wreck typically. Loggerhead & Starfish are both excellent charters that do the Castor, especially during the Goliath Grouper aggregation in later summer/early fall.

Here is a video I did of diving the Castor during the GG aggregation on a rare no current day.


Info on the wreck:

Force-E Scuba Centers - M/V Castor Wreck Dive Site

The M/V Castor was sunk on December 14, 2001. It measures 258 feet long by 37 feet wide by 50 feet tall rising to within 60 feet of the surface.

www.force-e.com

 

[Divin'Papaw]

A bit more on the Castor. This video is very unusual. There is more commonly a strong to ripping current. The boats don't hot drop the wreck (for whatever reason), rather they send a DM down to attach a mooring ball and chain. They then drop you up current and you drift into the mooring ball. The boat isn't moored to the wreck but you dive it like a moored wreck dive regardless. At the end of the dive you come up the line, do your safety stop, come up at the mooring ball and the boat comes to you. They have you let go of the mooring ball when they are positioned, and you drift to the boat.

I've dived this wreck in current so strong (1) the mooring ball was almost fully underwater, (2) half the boat could not pull themselves down to the wreck due to the strong current and (3) I lost a fin when the current ripped it off because I did not have the heal guard pulled high enough up the back of my bootie. Those conditions are honestly more common than what you see in my video above.