Drift Dives
We started Friday with bagels and some excellent flavored cream cheese that Dave made. Well, technically he didn't make the cream cheese, but he did add all the flavoring. There was a good blueberry cream cheese as well as a scallion cream cheese. I ended up having two bagels, one of each cream cheese. This worked out well as we were so busy that we never got around to eating lunch.
After breakfast we packed all our gear up to head down to the dive shop for two drift dives. The dives were done at Pro Dive, located right on the water in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Dave, Susan, and I made it to Pro Dive at about 11:45, fifteen minutes early. We bought a couple odds and ends and then went to wait by the boat which wasn't scheduled to leave until about 12:30. We hadn't realized that departure was 30 minutes after we had to be there but it was nice since we had felt a little rushed to make it by noon. We had a bit of time to hang out on the dock before getting on the boat.
When the boat was ready to board, we checked in with one of the dive masters who checked our name off the list and told us which seat we were assigned. Behind each assigned seat there were two tanks, prefilled. I pulled out my regulator and checked the pressure on both tanks to be sure they were full and that I could get a good seal. Both my tanks were fine; however, Susan had one that only registered at 2100 lbs. The crew quickly swapped that one out and all was good.
Before leaving the dock we setup our scuba units. This went fairly well although after having done it once I think I'll change the pack order of my bag a little bit. The only real problem is that I had a brain fart and managed to put my tank on backwards... but corrected it after having a short debate with Susan who pointed out that I was, in fact, crazy. About that time, the boat was ready to go and Captain Stew took us out. Our first dive briefing indicated a drift dive. I was in the second team to go down along with Dave, Susan, and several others. The boat has a very narrow drop point for the dive which makes getting off the boat at exactly the right time important. Unfortunately this added a fair bit to the stress that we were all feeling for our first boat dive ever. Even worse, it was planned as a negatively buoyant entry. We were supposed to hit the water without air in our BCDs and immediately descend. Unfortunately, Dave and one other person were underweighted (despite Dave having pointed out to the guy on the boat that he had previously used more weight than they gave him). As a result, Dave had to wait on the surface while the boat came around for another pass with more weight. The funniest part is that rather than afix the weight to his equipment, the divemaster dumped a four pound lead weight down the front of Dave's wetsuit.
Once we all made it down the dive was decent but not outstanding. There was minimal fish activity but there was some nice coral. When the group started to get low on air we surfaced and beboarded the boat. Reboarding the boat is a difficult process as you need to haul yourself and your wet (read heavy) equipment out of the water so that you can stagger over to your spot on the boat. Since Dave was having some sinus problems he decided to sit the second dive out.
For the second dive, Susan and I buddied up and struck out on our own on Barracuda Reef. We didn't see any barracudas; however, the marine life was plentiful. We saw many sea fans, tube corals, damselfish, and some fish that was all black with the exception of the tips of its fins which were electric blue. The second dive was far more relaxing, had much better stuff to look at, and was generally much more enjoyable.
Overall the diving was good but it was unfortunatel that Dave had to sit out the second dive. I think he would have enjoyed that one far more than the first one. If we had done that dive first I think the stress level would have been lower as well since we didn't have to do a negative entry. Still, it was a good time and helped to assuage some of the concerns about the class dives the next day.
After breakfast we packed all our gear up to head down to the dive shop for two drift dives. The dives were done at Pro Dive, located right on the water in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Dave, Susan, and I made it to Pro Dive at about 11:45, fifteen minutes early. We bought a couple odds and ends and then went to wait by the boat which wasn't scheduled to leave until about 12:30. We hadn't realized that departure was 30 minutes after we had to be there but it was nice since we had felt a little rushed to make it by noon. We had a bit of time to hang out on the dock before getting on the boat.
When the boat was ready to board, we checked in with one of the dive masters who checked our name off the list and told us which seat we were assigned. Behind each assigned seat there were two tanks, prefilled. I pulled out my regulator and checked the pressure on both tanks to be sure they were full and that I could get a good seal. Both my tanks were fine; however, Susan had one that only registered at 2100 lbs. The crew quickly swapped that one out and all was good.
Before leaving the dock we setup our scuba units. This went fairly well although after having done it once I think I'll change the pack order of my bag a little bit. The only real problem is that I had a brain fart and managed to put my tank on backwards... but corrected it after having a short debate with Susan who pointed out that I was, in fact, crazy. About that time, the boat was ready to go and Captain Stew took us out. Our first dive briefing indicated a drift dive. I was in the second team to go down along with Dave, Susan, and several others. The boat has a very narrow drop point for the dive which makes getting off the boat at exactly the right time important. Unfortunately this added a fair bit to the stress that we were all feeling for our first boat dive ever. Even worse, it was planned as a negatively buoyant entry. We were supposed to hit the water without air in our BCDs and immediately descend. Unfortunately, Dave and one other person were underweighted (despite Dave having pointed out to the guy on the boat that he had previously used more weight than they gave him). As a result, Dave had to wait on the surface while the boat came around for another pass with more weight. The funniest part is that rather than afix the weight to his equipment, the divemaster dumped a four pound lead weight down the front of Dave's wetsuit.
Once we all made it down the dive was decent but not outstanding. There was minimal fish activity but there was some nice coral. When the group started to get low on air we surfaced and beboarded the boat. Reboarding the boat is a difficult process as you need to haul yourself and your wet (read heavy) equipment out of the water so that you can stagger over to your spot on the boat. Since Dave was having some sinus problems he decided to sit the second dive out.
For the second dive, Susan and I buddied up and struck out on our own on Barracuda Reef. We didn't see any barracudas; however, the marine life was plentiful. We saw many sea fans, tube corals, damselfish, and some fish that was all black with the exception of the tips of its fins which were electric blue. The second dive was far more relaxing, had much better stuff to look at, and was generally much more enjoyable.
Overall the diving was good but it was unfortunatel that Dave had to sit out the second dive. I think he would have enjoyed that one far more than the first one. If we had done that dive first I think the stress level would have been lower as well since we didn't have to do a negative entry. Still, it was a good time and helped to assuage some of the concerns about the class dives the next day.
posted by KzooJason at 7:27 AM
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