I've been doing a lot of teaching lately so I haven't been bringing my camera along on my dives. It was time for a change.
On Friday, my daughter and I drove down to West Palm for some rebreather diving aboard Jim Abernethy's Deep Obsession (Bahamas & Palm Beach, Florida Scuba Diving :: Jim Abernethy's Scuba Adventures). Due to her college schedule we had not been diving together in quite awhile and it was great to have her as my buddy again. While the viz in West Palm wasn't great, you couldn't beat the weather sunny, 90 degrees, flat seas, and 80 degree water. We were on a recreational boat so we limited ourselves to two dives, each a little over an hour. As there were some junior divers aboard we stayed shallow and did Flower Garden and then Breakers Reef (4th window to turtle mound). There were the usual cast of characters tons of tropical fish, eels, loggerhead and green turtles, etc. However, one small green turtle at the Turtle Mound was mesmerized by my dome port and wouldn't leave us alone. We hung out with him for about 10 minutes near the end of our second dive.
Then on Saturday, we drove down to Boca to dive the Hydro Atlantic with Captain Oliver of Avid Diver Charters (www.aviddivercharters.com). The Hydro Atlantic sits perfectly upright facing south into the prevailing Gulf stream current in about 170 fsw.
She is a real wreck that went down in 1987 while being towed to a salvage yard.
Again, conditions were perfect with warm sunny skies, flat calm seas, and 79 degree water. However, the viz was also spectacular down in Boca. As we got to the site, it was apparent that the current was running around 1.5 knots and it was elected to do a hot drop on the wreck. Capt. Oliver set us up and at the command of "Dive,Dive,Dive" our group of six (five rebreather divers and one lone open circuit diver) dropped in. The drop was absolutely perfect. I swam down through the beautiful blue water and at about 140 fsw landed directly on top of the point of the bow. You can't get a better drop than that!
We spent about 35-40 minutes on the wreck and then about 45-50 minutes of drifting decompression.
The only "problem" was that my daughter developed a significant diluent leak through her BOV during the dive. At first, she simply turned off the diluent and used her bottom mix of bailout to inflate her BC and for set point maintenance. Then the leak got significantly worse near the end of the dive and she decided to abort to open circuit bailout with a 45 minute deco obligation. This is why you plan for these things. We stayed together and she very calmly performed her deco while drifting in the Gulf Stream using first her 30 cu ft bottle of EAN 26 and then her 30 cu ft. bottle of EAN 80, venting the counterlungs as needed. In fact, it went so well that, after boarding the boat, one of the other divers asked if we were practicing skills. He didn'y realize at first that we'd had a problem. Kudos to my daughter for a job well done. There is no substitute for dive planning, drills, and practice, practice, practice. I was proud of her as her father, her buddy, and her CCR instructor. But, I was clearly in "Dad mode" holding her hand through the entire 45 minutes of deco with my open circuit bailout reg in hand to give her at a moment's notice!!!!
Wreck of the Hydro Atlantic
Our lone open circuit diver
Other photos are here:
debersole.com
Safe diving everyone!
Doug
On Friday, my daughter and I drove down to West Palm for some rebreather diving aboard Jim Abernethy's Deep Obsession (Bahamas & Palm Beach, Florida Scuba Diving :: Jim Abernethy's Scuba Adventures). Due to her college schedule we had not been diving together in quite awhile and it was great to have her as my buddy again. While the viz in West Palm wasn't great, you couldn't beat the weather sunny, 90 degrees, flat seas, and 80 degree water. We were on a recreational boat so we limited ourselves to two dives, each a little over an hour. As there were some junior divers aboard we stayed shallow and did Flower Garden and then Breakers Reef (4th window to turtle mound). There were the usual cast of characters tons of tropical fish, eels, loggerhead and green turtles, etc. However, one small green turtle at the Turtle Mound was mesmerized by my dome port and wouldn't leave us alone. We hung out with him for about 10 minutes near the end of our second dive.
Then on Saturday, we drove down to Boca to dive the Hydro Atlantic with Captain Oliver of Avid Diver Charters (www.aviddivercharters.com). The Hydro Atlantic sits perfectly upright facing south into the prevailing Gulf stream current in about 170 fsw.
She is a real wreck that went down in 1987 while being towed to a salvage yard.
Again, conditions were perfect with warm sunny skies, flat calm seas, and 79 degree water. However, the viz was also spectacular down in Boca. As we got to the site, it was apparent that the current was running around 1.5 knots and it was elected to do a hot drop on the wreck. Capt. Oliver set us up and at the command of "Dive,Dive,Dive" our group of six (five rebreather divers and one lone open circuit diver) dropped in. The drop was absolutely perfect. I swam down through the beautiful blue water and at about 140 fsw landed directly on top of the point of the bow. You can't get a better drop than that!
We spent about 35-40 minutes on the wreck and then about 45-50 minutes of drifting decompression.
The only "problem" was that my daughter developed a significant diluent leak through her BOV during the dive. At first, she simply turned off the diluent and used her bottom mix of bailout to inflate her BC and for set point maintenance. Then the leak got significantly worse near the end of the dive and she decided to abort to open circuit bailout with a 45 minute deco obligation. This is why you plan for these things. We stayed together and she very calmly performed her deco while drifting in the Gulf Stream using first her 30 cu ft bottle of EAN 26 and then her 30 cu ft. bottle of EAN 80, venting the counterlungs as needed. In fact, it went so well that, after boarding the boat, one of the other divers asked if we were practicing skills. He didn'y realize at first that we'd had a problem. Kudos to my daughter for a job well done. There is no substitute for dive planning, drills, and practice, practice, practice. I was proud of her as her father, her buddy, and her CCR instructor. But, I was clearly in "Dad mode" holding her hand through the entire 45 minutes of deco with my open circuit bailout reg in hand to give her at a moment's notice!!!!
Wreck of the Hydro Atlantic
Our lone open circuit diver
Other photos are here:
debersole.com
Safe diving everyone!
Doug
