Amazz
Contributor
Must read for anybody planning to dive the Vandenberg. Plan was to do two dunks on the Sp. Grove Friday with a non D2D friend. I said hey Chuck let's go to Key West earlier and do the Vandy since I had never done it. I had to act quick and discovered it was difficult to find an operator going there on Thursday. Two of Johnoly 's reliable suggestions were unavailable. So that left me with Southpoint Divers. It's a nice large Newton and there was another couple for a total of only 4 divers. They had been on the boat all week and got their AOW recently, had nitrox and computers. Then came the briefing. The boat sits in 140 ft of water. Your maximum depth will be no deeper than 100', you will start your ascent at 20 minutes, and be on the surface no later than 28 minutes. After 28 minutes, if you are not on the surface we will assume you are lost and start search and rescue. I was incredulous. Not wanting to be benched for dive two, C and I were mostly obedient on only violated depth and time by a little bit. Needless to say, we had plenty of gas and no deco time on both dives before we were robbed of our time on the wreck. On the second dive we passed 3 navy divers with rebreathers and multiple cylinders. I automatically thought, geez, why couldn't we be on their boat. We feel completely ripped off by the experience. I don't regret doing it, only using this shop. I liked the wreck but didn't get the chance to see much of it in two 20 minute dives. What do those idiots think dive computers are for? Next time I'll plan more in advance and find an appropriate charter. Vis was a poor 30 ft, water was warm, some coral growth, holds very little fishlife. Gosh I hope Horizon Divers is better in KL tomorrow. BTW: Captain's Corner said they were doing reefs with wounded warriors. Change of plans as we saw them out there. I wonder if they are better.