Wreckmania II Key Largo Trip Report

[seaangel]

Ok, I am going to start this off, but everyone else has to add their part of the stories.

Friday, 5/30/03 I made the drive from Augusta, Ga to WPB with my best friend Pat. We spent the late afternoon and night at Singer Island. I showed her around, took her out to the Marina to see the boats we dive from when there. Walked on the beach found lots of shells and turtle nests. We went to dinner at Panama Hatties, that was really great. We ate outside on the dockside, watched the fish and crabs in the water. Saw a small barracuda there too. Went back to the hotel to get ready for Saturday.

Sat. 05/31/03 up at 6am, did my 2mi walk first, ate breakfast and by 9am was off too Key Largo. We drove down I-95, missed the exit for Sawgrass extension had to turn around go back and find it. Did the drive to Key Largo in about 3 hours. We were in slow traffic once we got out of Homestead. We checked in to the Holiday Inn at 12:30. Unpacked and went to SeaDwellers to find out they were closed, were still out on the morning dive. So, we went on to get lunch. As our directions were to check in with SeaDwellers immediately on arrival, knew we had pizza plans at the pool at 5pm and were to find Walter. This was a bit vague, since we, or most of us did not know where, when or how to find Walter so we just wandered around. I went down to the dock, the boat was still out but saw a likely Wreckmaniac and went over to introduce and question him. It was, Darryl (Kosh) we decided walk to SeaDwellers as they were to be back by 2pm. When there we met Dennis and Bob as they finished signing their waivers and were leaving. Back at the hotel we went out to the pool area to see if we could find Walter, or anyone that knew whent and where we would find him. Still, no Walter. Then along came Dennis, he went to see if he could find Walter. After, standing around the pool for a while Pete, and Walter did show up. In a bit more Jeff, Chad and Kris came along. It was melting hot outside by this time, and we decided to give up go to our room and cool off since no one seemed to know exactly when and what we were doing. Still were trying to wait arrival of rest of the Wreckmaniacs. We met at the pool at about 5pm with Natasha, and Marci. They moved us over to the covered patio which turned out to be a part of the restaurant and the Manager moved us down, made a lot of noise about we were not supposed to be there. Then when the pizza came he came through again, grumbling about us not supposed to be there again. Natasha and he went off for a chat. Guess that was that, hmm. ..no we were not to get in the pool for our finning class until after 10pm! We went to our rooms after got ready met in Walter's room for our class. Promptly after class session we met at the pool, in the dark I might add the pool only had one light in it and all the drunks at the Tiki Bar had a great time commenting on our entry with masks, snorkles, and fins to the pool. Glad it was that dark. Well, I watched Walter demonstrate, watched as those with jet fins did a return demo as I dreaded my demo. Why, I hate to swim underwater without my tank and regulator. I hate it because I am so bouyant I can't stay under usually and my butt will come up first. I also, have Twin Jets and until now I had never been able to to a frog kick or sculling finning technique.
That said I took my turn, felt like a total geek, yeah the guys didn't have anything on being a geek that night. Anyway, I survived it I guess. After doing the sculling attempt it turned out to be more of the frog kick. Whatever, I kept practicing it cause it finally felt more comfortable. Oh, yeah forgot about the reel practice, I buddied with Dennis, found our reels, mine in particular don't work right. We also did this in the midst of the palm trees and garden off from the pool. Bet the manager loved us for real then.

Sunday, 06/01/03 Met at the dock to go on first dive, Benwood. We got the boat loaded, set up our gear and off we went. The day was really a pretty one. Water was very calm, maybe a one foot sea if that. At the site Walter set us up in buddy teams, I was with Cindy B. Our instructions were to use the frog and or scull kicks the entire dive. We went down the mooring line and headed off to the wreck. The wreck is spread out over a large area and offers a lot of marine life on it. We circled it atleast 3 times and went over ever square inch that many times. I kept doing the frog kick fairly consistent. Of course when I least expected it Walter would disappear from in front of us to behind me and catch me flutter kicking again. On one pass over an open area of the wreck I spotted a brittle worm, wish I had brought my camera. But, I needed to use these dives to get comfortable with the diving.

After our surface interval and boat ride over to the next site we made the second dive which was the Molassess Reef. This was a very good reef to dive, again wished I had my camera. On this dive Walter changed our buddies, this dive I was buddied with Darryl. I enjoyed our dive going in and around all the coral heads and over, through and between the coral breaks. Continuing the practice finning of course. At close to the end Walter told us to go play. Mostly though we watched Walter and Pete snag rides that was fun to watch.

Dinner was at the Largo Cafe, awesome meal great company. Natasha and Marci set up for us in a room in the back. We had one huge table that we kept extending as divers arrived. Before dinner we had a Trivia contest, the three top winners won the Wreck Bears. My friend Pat actually won one of the bears, Chad won the second one and I can't remember the third. Help me guys. When we got back to the hotel Pat gave me the bear, she said I deserved it for making this trip. I love my Wreckmanina Bear too!

Monday, June 1, 2003 met at the dock 8am and we were off to the Duane for our first dive. Walter gave us the briefing on the wreck and what to expect. He set up our line up for doing our reel practice. Darryl and I were teamed up for the remainder of the dives and we were #3, we doubted we would be able to demonstrate due to the depth of 100ft and bottom time needs. We used the pull rope to the mooring line and descended, I must say that I thought that was really cool. I liked pulling myself and not kicking, it felt awesome. Once I saw the deck in view under me I really thought WOW, vis was really pretty good too. At about 90 feet I floated off the line and obtained my bouyancy waited on Darryl and followed Walter to the area for our reel drills. We desended to the 100ft to wait and watch as Jeff was in the first team to do the drill. After floating there for what seemed an eternity I signaled to Darryl to swim around and explore a bit while we waited. I tried to stay up at that time to 90 to 80 feet, help to conserve the bottom time. Before long Walter signaled to turn and go back up. I really enjoyed that dive, but wish could have explored a bit more. Maybe next time.

Second dive, Benwood again. Darryl and I and Cindy, B. and Bill, B had to do our reel drills there. Again the wreck is open and spread out so it was not inside, but was possible to get some sort of practice in. I was feeling much like a geek again, did everything wrong that I could . Too much tension on the line with Darryl, no tension when removing the tied off sections, then on my return back I was turning reel backwards, finning (probably a flutter kick at that!) Walter kept pulling my fin, what a doofus I just kept going too. Finally, he stopped me. I was sure I was failing things.

Written test was given later that evening. I passed! yeah! I think we all passed it first time too.

Day three, last day. Earlier start as we had to go further. Water was a bit more choppy. Headed out to the Eagle. Got a briefing on the wreck from Walter. Same type of descent, vis was expected to be not too good. Actually, it was decent most all of us have been in much worse. I know I have at our lake been in worse. We went down to by my computer 99ft. This wreck had some air pockets Walter let us come up and see them. That was cool. I was taking pictures this time and got a few there. The one of Pete I took on the way back to go up. There was some current in the shallower waters, and some surge, it kind of made me feel dizzy on ascent and return. I saw a shark on this dive down below me, some tarpon, angel fish, butterfly fish and a large grouper.

Last dive, Hens and Chickens reef. Shallow dive, 13-25ft is what I recorded. Visibility was ok, but would have liked to been there if clearer, due to the choppy water and all the snorklers things were silted up a bit. Oh, well I did get some pictures and Darryl and I did find the wreck. Some of the other wreckmaniacs didn't. We navigated back around and found our boat, Darryl called the dive as his mask wouldn't quit flooding. But, I think we spent enough time there, I was not feeling the greatest the surge was getting to me. Back on the boat I began packing up, felt really bad then, I knew the inevitable was coming. Yep, I got a mild case of seasickness. One quit urp and I felt terrific the rest of the way home. Everyone was really great too, I appreciate those who checked on me to see if I was ok. I recovered quick. Not one of those lasting green moments thank goodness.


Well, we returned back to the dock, had a great time. Several of us went together to lunch. I enjoyed the company. After lunch Pat and I headed down to Key West for the rest of the day.

Early Wednesday morning we packed up, saw Dave, Darryl, Jeff, Chad and Kris before we left. Glad we got to say good-bye. I really had a terrific trip. Can't wait until next year.

Hope plans get posted soon. I definetly want to include another Wreckmania in my dive plans.

 

[BILLB]

I had the pleasure of writing back and forth with Seaangel (Scubacindy) via email before the big event. Her passion for diving is exceeded only by mine! She was also a great new friend and hope to see and dive with her in the future.

Cindy drove down from Augusta, Ga. and stayed over in WPB. My Wife (named Cindy too) and I had a free ride on Delta but the only Florida airport open to us was WPB. Because in was on frequent flyer we rose at 3:00 AM for our Philly to Cincinnati to WPB odessy. We arrived around 11:00 AM in WPB. Since we drive to the Keys at least once a year the trip to the Keys was routine for us. We arrived at the Key Largo Holiday Inn around 3:30 PM. Immediately ran into Walter and introduced him to my Cindy. Walter being a Ft. Myers native and Cindy had a lot in common. Cindy loves seashells and collects them (my entire house is nothing but a seashell motif). A general understanding was gained that Walter would escort Cindy later this summer to some offshore mecca of shell diving in Ft. Myers.

Since neither of us had eaten anything ( slept all the way down on the airplane) we went to the local Publix and stocked up for the next five days. Apparently the first meeting was announced and we were very late in arriving to meet all the other wreckmaniacs. The two Cindy's hit it off right away (both are RN's). Some how I was never really introduced to the group (my fault) to explain a little bit about what I am. It would have been boring anyway!

Later that evening the first and only classroom instruction was performed by Walter. Walter was well organized and made a coherent presentation of what wreck diving is about. Since many of us already do wreck dives we had many good ideas and suggestions thrown in from the class. The bottom line is wreck diving uses diving techniques that we only glossed over in initial training. Our main purpose there was to achieve the basic skills to conduct a wreck dive in a safe and logical manner.

As Scubacindy said in her report, we then practiced our frog and sculling kicks in the pool. Walter is an not a split fin fan. Except for maybe 1 or 2 othe divers we all had em! I had just purchased mine and had only one cold drysuit dive with them up to now. I volunteered to demonstrate first. The problem with the split is that it moves you too fast!

The morning dive to the Benwood (my first dive on this wreck) was perfect for working out the kinks using the frog and sculling kicks with splits. In addition, I was video taping the action too. In short I found that my control and buoyancy control with splits was at least as good as with paddle fins. The difference is the fatigue that sets in on my aged body was much less.

The remaining dives for the week were all familiar to me. My Cindy and I had dove the Duane and Eagle and the reefs before. Key Largo is nice and the reefs are OK but they are junk yards when compared with Sombereo and Looe Key near Marathon Key.

The highlight of this trip was a hastily arranged night dive on the Duane. Both of us had our portable Light Cannons, but no back up lights. A quick trip across the street to the fabulous World Water Sports solved that (we now have quaduple back up lights counting all the lights we left at home). The surface current was ripping and if you did not hold the anchor line (tied off at the stern) you would be doing a drift dive on the surface. Cindy being of shorter stature manage to loose hold and was swept toward the bow but a line was immediately thrown to her and she recovered.

At around 30 feet down, the current was nothing. This awsome dive lead us to see many morarys, sharks, giant stone crabs, turtles and much more. We maxed out our down time (into required decompression) and made a slow and safe ascent. The shop we used, Diver City was the first shop I had ran across (in Largo) that rented steel tanks. This was important because both Cindy and I were using our own tanks (HP100 and HP120 and were still being refilled) and knew that a 100 foot dive an AL80 would be all too short. We were outfitted with steel 95's with a bit of overfilling.

Diver City is practically a hole in the wall shop but the people there were friendly, insisted on carring your gear to and off the spacious boat. BTW, the boat used by Sea Dwellers was similar to other large cattle boats. It is in need of repairs, rotten wood everywhere and the head was awful. The motors worked well and the crew was OK. Since Walter was running the show I guess they stayed out of the way. On a good note, they had a rinse tank for cameras and a large rinse tank on the dock (in need of a change of water).

Thanks to Pete Murray (NetDoc) for helping me get my steel tanks to this events. I owe Pete much and his high side humor and disposition was enjoyable. Thanks to Natash for putting on this enjoyable event. Despite the lack of opportunities due to the depth of the dives for training, I love the Florida Keys and as JB says in Tin Cup Chalice, "I just want to be there".

 

[BILLB]

As usual I have been prone to errors. After reviewing my computer for the night dive on the Duane, I was only into the caution zone (which is equivalent to the max on the Dive Tables) not into required decompression. Since we did the newly recommended 50% stops as recommedned by Bruce Wienke and several more stops as recommended by Walter we practically offgassed everything.

Next, the Sea Dweller boat took an unkind hit from me but my better half reminded that the boat was clean and functional. Yes, I admit that the boat appeared to be seaworthy and functioned well. It is in need of repairs and has several visable repairs form the past (metal insert to support roof that had a crack across the entire beam of the boat). One day it rained and the roof leaked around this crack.

The boat had those PVC tubes for holding AL80 tanks but since I was diving steel tanks I had to tie my tanks up in the front of the boat and place one under the bench. A minor inconvience but because the dry box and cooler was also located there it was usually crowded.

For the squemish: Don't drink the drinking water provided. The cooler nozzle was 100% black on the inside with patches of black on the outside. They could have painted it but I doubt it.