Florida May 2006

I went to Florida in May with the family unit, for a quick trip to see my folks. Wife demonstrated and perpetuated her Good Wifeliness by encouraging me to dive, so I packed up the Sport Kiss and had a ball. You know you've got it good when the only non-diving day is because YOU wanted to spend it with the family!

I had asked on rebreatherworld for an rb-friendly Ft. Lauderdale boat to tech dive off, and was told Oliver Paoli's Avid Diver is the boat to be on. Sure enough he had one spot on the Friday charter to the Hydroatlantic, and with Fill Express along the way (and banking 10/50) I was loaded for bear. The Avid Diver is a six pack, fast and clean, and the run time out was only about 20 minutes. I had a nice time chatting with Captain Oliver, he's good people and it winds up we know a lot of the same folks (don't make enemies in the rb community, there is scarcely one degree of separation between us all.) I went in with Ron who was doing the tie-in, and we dropped 145' down through clear 70-something water to the wreck. The Hydroatlantic is a 320' cable-layer that sank in 1987, and is 170' to the bottom. For some great pictures and video go to hydroatlantic.com, but they don't do it justice. Approaching the wreck is breathtaking, it is so intact, with so many places to explore. Cranes, winches, piping, and masts crowd the deck, and offer safe haven to a wealth of corals and fish large and small. Waving goodbye to Ron, I let the current ease me down the port side, spooking an enormous Goliath Grouper along the way. As I usually do, I went down to check out the props, but they had been salvaged. The ship is cracked in all sorts of places, which makes for easy penetration. My canister light decided to fail on me on its first dive back from the factory, but I still had enough backup lights to go in (I'm getting used to gear failures.) Shining my light into a body-width crack, I was confronted by 7' and 400#s of disgruntled grouper, just hovering and staring at me. I love jewfish, they are just such big puppies. He scattered when my light touched him, and I wiggled in to explore the aft rooms, and then down a ladder into the engine room. Despite the comparative weakness of my light, there was still plenty to see, and ambient light poured through various breaches in the hull. The machinery is just as impressive inside as top side, and is in a remarkable state of preservation. I'm not sure if it is the laws or the ethics, but there were artifacts everywhere, and it made for a much richer experience than you usually get here in the northeast. Exiting through a rend in the starboard stern, I swam along the hull in the lee of the current, and ascended up the keel at the bow. Capt. Oliver had asked me to keep my runtime to about 70 minutes, but I still had time to swim down the length of the ship again, this time skimming along the deck, before returning to the tie-in at the bow at 36 minutes. The Avid Diver uses a checklist, and as I was the last one on the wreck I pulled the chain and ascended for a smooth and comfortable drifting deco.

The next day I went out with Jupiter Dive Center for some drift diving on Captain Mike's Reef and Scarface Reef. I've been diving with these guys for 5 years now, and they make a real effort to please. I especially appreciated them letting me do one hour runtimes, since they had a lot of divers to keep track of. In fact, the boat was kind of a madhouse, with 28 divers on board. English was definitely the second language onboard, which was pretty cool (my Spanish is pitiful, but I still like to listen.) Early on a nurse shark swam past me, followed immediately by a reef shark. Later there were also several loggerhead and green turtles, as well as an 8' green moray snoozing under a coral head. My favorite moment was when a group of divers spooked a turtle. It took off like a bullet and swam straight to me, its face the epitome of "Hey man can you give a brother a hand?" I also saw a turtle feeding, which I had never seen before. Very cool. It was my first time diving the new Shearwater computer for the Kiss units, and I was impressed with its simplicity and ease of use.

Monday morning it was back on down to the Hydroatlantic, to go see what the forward quarters look like. I volunteered to set the hook, which despite a rather fierce current went well. I just pointed straight down, kicked like hell, and sucked off the dil tank the whole way. Good thing too, as I had figured I would bust my ass down to 150' and then drift onto the wreck, but instead came down straight onto the bow. Just to be safe I flushed the loop, but there really wasn't much CO2 to worry about, and I felt great. Getting onto the wreck first was a big advantage, as a school of 4' tuna made several close passes to see what I was all about. After circum-swimming the superstructure again I explored another area of the engine room, working my way down long lines of valves and gauges deep inside. Backtracking a bit I found the galley, quarters, and a storage area with ship lockers and shelving in the bow. Its amazing that this ship went down nearly two decades ago, the shelves are still stocked with equipment, and everything feels fresh and recent. At 37 minutes it was time to go, so as not to abuse Oliver's patience (otherwise these would be 2.5 hour dives!) The other divers had in the meantime come and gone, so I again pulled the chain. I had a moment of concern, as the current had the boat hard on the chain, but it slackened enough for me to undo the carabiner and pull it loose. Wheee what a ride, good thing my first deco stop wasn't until 110 because that chain was going!

Tuesday morning was a two-tanker off Jupiter. Dive one was Scarface again, nothing exceptional but a nice relaxing dive. Dive two I expected more of the same, but instead had one of my best dives down there. We went to the Tunnels, which is a series of fairly tight swim-throughs. The mate, Ham, gave an absolutely brilliant briefing, complete with pictures of which fish to look out for. I kept laughing underwater, because everything he said would happen did, like he had choreographed it with the fish. We dropped to the first set of swim-throughs, right on cue the reef sharks did a curious pass on us and vanished. Several divers thanked me later on the boat for going into the first tunnel, as they said the other side exploded with a half dozen enormous Goliath Grouper, which are always a thrill. I had no idea I was so intimidating, it certainly feels the other way around in a tight tunnel. I hung back for a while to let the bubble-blowers clear out, then cruised down the reef at a leisurely pace. Several turtles finned past, eyeing me curiously, and the fish at the cleaning stations tried to figure out what to do with me. Coming over a rise I found two large, one small, and one gigantic GG, which swam at a wary distance. I decided to test their curiosity, so I settled down on the bottom and kept very still. Within a minute or so they were making passes at 8', checking me out with their surprisingly small eyes. Ham had told me about a donut shaped hole where the sharks hang out, so I reluctantly headed off after five minutes to find it. Along the way I encountered the biggest sting ray I have seen in my life, a monster at least 7' across in wingspan. It was just swimming down the reef about 4' above it, carefree and looking for crustaceans. Right at the end of my dive I found the donut hole, and like clockwork two reef sharks whipped past me, I shot a bag and up I went. On the surface the captain was yelling something and pointing next to me. I cocked an ear out of the water enough to hear "Turtle!" and turned to see one that looked like it wanted a piggy back ride. I guess I was putting off a turtle vibe of some sort this trip, though according to Ham it looked like it just wanted to mount me. Yipes! Just before docking in the inter-coastal we came across a herd of manatee, including a calf. The captain obligingly cut the engine, and for 10 minutes they dove and surfaced all around us, rolling over and sticking their bewhiskered faces out of the water.

So that was Florida. For years now I've been meaning to go do some of the tech dives, and I'm glad to have finally dipped my toe in those waters. Winter is lemon shark mating season, with up to 100 10-footers crowded right off Jupiter. Perhaps Grandma Vee and Pop-Pop Joe would like to see the kids then?