Just returned from our almost bi-annual trip to the Florida Keys. As usual we stayed at the Bahia Honda State Park just south of the Seven Mile bridge. We have a 36 foot fifth wheel RV we travel with. Parked right on the Bahia Honda harbor.
The ocean this year had problems. The temepratures in south Florida got really warm early in the spring and the ocean temps are now at 88-89 degrees. This has resulted in a plankton bloom in the middle keys. But if you are used to NJ diving, the 10-15 foot viz on the Thundebolt and Busch wrecks will make you feel at home. Although, the fish life especially the Goliath groupers were numerous as well as many barracudas.
We did our first dives on the recently sunk wreck of the Vandeburg. It lies about seven miles south of Key West with the super structure at 40 feet and the bottom around 140 feet. This now makes Key West a real diving destination. I spoke with several locals before we did this dive and the conditions have been reported; "Can see the deck at 100 feet from the surface" to "No viz at all''. And this week, the currents have been stiff but with 50 foot Viz.
The shop we chose has the corny name of the Captain's Corner and the boat is the Sea Eagle. Don't let the name and operation fool you. The boat is an all aluminum trawler outfitted for diving. And plenty of room even for double tanks (mine). We called to reserve a spot and they would not even take a credit card to hold the spot. So while in Key West the day before the dive, we visited the "shop", a Kiosh next to the Conch Republic Seafood (the best in Key West in my opinon) on the Old Conch Harbor. A British accented fellow confirmed that we were on the list but still would not take our money. Just show up around 9:00 AM (a very decent hour for me) and the boat leaves at 10:00AM. You can drive right up to the Kiosh and drop off your gear. Parking is plentiful both free on-street and several near by for pay lots.
We first dove with this outfit over 10 years ago, and I like the attutide they have with no problem with technical gear and dives. They also have the sole concession on dives to the Atocha wreck site. But you better bring a fat wallet to get in on that trip. Our cost for two divers was $118.00! The boat is outfitted with an inventory of rental dive gear including wet suits and Nitrox 108 tanks. The gear is located in the spacious below deck storage which is kept very tidy.
The ride out is about 40 minutes and once on site there are five mooring balls available. This day there were several private boats hogging the balls and since this is a rather large boat we could not tie off behind one. After a 20 minute wait we were on the stearn mooring.
The crew set up a modified Carolina line (no weights on line) due to the current. You enter off the either side of the boat (similar to NC diving) and re-board on the stearn. Once in the water you grab the line and pull your self to the stearn tag line and also they will hand you your camera. The surface current was ripping, and since the line is not weighted, you simply blow all the air our of you wing and decend and pull, pull, pull until you reach the mooring ball where an emergency tank is located. The down line is a 1 inch cable and after around 50 FSW the currents lessen a bit. Once on the stearn the current was still over 1 knot so Cindy and I immediate dropped into the stearn sterring access hatch. This is a big boat at 565 feet. And it has a wide beam too. But there have been holes cut in both sides of the ship and at every level we explored there was an opening not far away to the blue ocean. We made it down to 120 feet and took in the steering stuff and several "autographs" from the workers on the ship. We managed a total time of 42 minutes on our first dive with stops.
Since the boat was late in getting moored, the SIT was only 40 minute because we had to be back at the dock at a certain time. We planned on this being a decompression dive without stages using back gas. And we did not take or cameras due to the ripping currents. This allowed us to get down much faster and once we navigated to the center upper deck of the ship in the current's shadow, we were able to make it almost to the bow before we encounted the current again. The current was on a 45 degree path starboard to port. we saw the gigantic tracking antennas and so much other stuff that it will require many more dives to take it all in.
Once out of the current shadow, we both had to drop to the deck and drag ourselves along the deck to the mooring line. We had a 48 minute profile with a max depth of 102 feet (at the stearn while dragging ourselves to the line).
If you are ever in Key West, forget diving anywhere else because it is a waste of money, even for novice divers. The Sea Eagle is the only outfit I know In Key West that does two dives on the wreck. The rest of the outfits take out to Sand Key (a rubble pile) or to Joe's Tug (once a beautiful 60 wreck of a tug, but now rubble pile too).
On another note, we had an interesting medical situation that all serious divers should know about. We invited a client and his wife to dive with us on the LOOE Key reef. This couple had not been diving for three years. The wife of my client had not dived since her certification in Jamaica.
Looe Key reef is 25 foot max if you dig a hole in the sand. This would be a good way to refresh their skills and have fun too. Lots of fish and maybe the viz would be OK. The Viz was 40 feet but the condition of the coral was appalling. It was so sad to see so much dead coral. And this is a marine sancturary!
The dives were uneventuful, but my client's wife had a bad case of vertigo after the dives. There were no neurological signs of DCS and we ruled out air embolism too. By the time she was back on dry land she could not walk unaided. We put her on 100% O2 but it did nothing to relieve the problem. To make a long story short, she had to do two chamber rides in Tavinier and all symptoms were resolved.
The diagnosis was a PFO. She had a history of migranes and land based vertigo too. Apparently, she either had an exiting PFO or it was re-opened by the changes in pressure. Cindy looked up on the Internet PFO's and found that many with PFO's have migraines and vertigo and once repaired, these problems have ceased. So much for her medical analysis by her Jamaican instructor.
And, bottom temps on the Vandeburg were 84 degrees. And 50 foot viz. Why do I ever want to dive NJ again?
The ocean this year had problems. The temepratures in south Florida got really warm early in the spring and the ocean temps are now at 88-89 degrees. This has resulted in a plankton bloom in the middle keys. But if you are used to NJ diving, the 10-15 foot viz on the Thundebolt and Busch wrecks will make you feel at home. Although, the fish life especially the Goliath groupers were numerous as well as many barracudas.
We did our first dives on the recently sunk wreck of the Vandeburg. It lies about seven miles south of Key West with the super structure at 40 feet and the bottom around 140 feet. This now makes Key West a real diving destination. I spoke with several locals before we did this dive and the conditions have been reported; "Can see the deck at 100 feet from the surface" to "No viz at all''. And this week, the currents have been stiff but with 50 foot Viz.
The shop we chose has the corny name of the Captain's Corner and the boat is the Sea Eagle. Don't let the name and operation fool you. The boat is an all aluminum trawler outfitted for diving. And plenty of room even for double tanks (mine). We called to reserve a spot and they would not even take a credit card to hold the spot. So while in Key West the day before the dive, we visited the "shop", a Kiosh next to the Conch Republic Seafood (the best in Key West in my opinon) on the Old Conch Harbor. A British accented fellow confirmed that we were on the list but still would not take our money. Just show up around 9:00 AM (a very decent hour for me) and the boat leaves at 10:00AM. You can drive right up to the Kiosh and drop off your gear. Parking is plentiful both free on-street and several near by for pay lots.
We first dove with this outfit over 10 years ago, and I like the attutide they have with no problem with technical gear and dives. They also have the sole concession on dives to the Atocha wreck site. But you better bring a fat wallet to get in on that trip. Our cost for two divers was $118.00! The boat is outfitted with an inventory of rental dive gear including wet suits and Nitrox 108 tanks. The gear is located in the spacious below deck storage which is kept very tidy.
The ride out is about 40 minutes and once on site there are five mooring balls available. This day there were several private boats hogging the balls and since this is a rather large boat we could not tie off behind one. After a 20 minute wait we were on the stearn mooring.
The crew set up a modified Carolina line (no weights on line) due to the current. You enter off the either side of the boat (similar to NC diving) and re-board on the stearn. Once in the water you grab the line and pull your self to the stearn tag line and also they will hand you your camera. The surface current was ripping, and since the line is not weighted, you simply blow all the air our of you wing and decend and pull, pull, pull until you reach the mooring ball where an emergency tank is located. The down line is a 1 inch cable and after around 50 FSW the currents lessen a bit. Once on the stearn the current was still over 1 knot so Cindy and I immediate dropped into the stearn sterring access hatch. This is a big boat at 565 feet. And it has a wide beam too. But there have been holes cut in both sides of the ship and at every level we explored there was an opening not far away to the blue ocean. We made it down to 120 feet and took in the steering stuff and several "autographs" from the workers on the ship. We managed a total time of 42 minutes on our first dive with stops.
Since the boat was late in getting moored, the SIT was only 40 minute because we had to be back at the dock at a certain time. We planned on this being a decompression dive without stages using back gas. And we did not take or cameras due to the ripping currents. This allowed us to get down much faster and once we navigated to the center upper deck of the ship in the current's shadow, we were able to make it almost to the bow before we encounted the current again. The current was on a 45 degree path starboard to port. we saw the gigantic tracking antennas and so much other stuff that it will require many more dives to take it all in.
Once out of the current shadow, we both had to drop to the deck and drag ourselves along the deck to the mooring line. We had a 48 minute profile with a max depth of 102 feet (at the stearn while dragging ourselves to the line).
If you are ever in Key West, forget diving anywhere else because it is a waste of money, even for novice divers. The Sea Eagle is the only outfit I know In Key West that does two dives on the wreck. The rest of the outfits take out to Sand Key (a rubble pile) or to Joe's Tug (once a beautiful 60 wreck of a tug, but now rubble pile too).
On another note, we had an interesting medical situation that all serious divers should know about. We invited a client and his wife to dive with us on the LOOE Key reef. This couple had not been diving for three years. The wife of my client had not dived since her certification in Jamaica.
Looe Key reef is 25 foot max if you dig a hole in the sand. This would be a good way to refresh their skills and have fun too. Lots of fish and maybe the viz would be OK. The Viz was 40 feet but the condition of the coral was appalling. It was so sad to see so much dead coral. And this is a marine sancturary!
The dives were uneventuful, but my client's wife had a bad case of vertigo after the dives. There were no neurological signs of DCS and we ruled out air embolism too. By the time she was back on dry land she could not walk unaided. We put her on 100% O2 but it did nothing to relieve the problem. To make a long story short, she had to do two chamber rides in Tavinier and all symptoms were resolved.
The diagnosis was a PFO. She had a history of migranes and land based vertigo too. Apparently, she either had an exiting PFO or it was re-opened by the changes in pressure. Cindy looked up on the Internet PFO's and found that many with PFO's have migraines and vertigo and once repaired, these problems have ceased. So much for her medical analysis by her Jamaican instructor.
And, bottom temps on the Vandeburg were 84 degrees. And 50 foot viz. Why do I ever want to dive NJ again?
