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Photos:
http://www.tiswango.com/photos/0309mplakeland/
Team 1: Buck, Jody, and Gwyn
Team 2: Matt, Andrea
Team 1: Lakeland
The calm seas made for a nice boat ride out
on a sunny Saturday morning. I got a good reading on the sounder
so the first team started to gear up. The planned for a 150ft
dive though the deck was at 120. A 20 minutes bottom time on
21/35 and 19 minutes of deco switching to 50% at 70ft and
shooting a marker as they drift off the wreck made for a 30
minutes run time. Everyone geared up and starting running
through the checks.
At the end of the valve drill Gwyn reached
back and pulled the rubber knob clean off her left post. The
metal insert was still in place but the rubber had come off
clean. Hum, those factory recalls really need to be noticed.
Buck had a back up knob and I had the knowledge to replace
thanks to Mark at Fill Express making fix my mistakes. I grabbed
the tool kit and went to work. Before losing the screw that
holds the knob in place I asked Jody to lean forward so any
projectiles holding back 3300 PSI would have a clear shot to the
ocean. I replaced the valve in 5 minutes and they were back up
and running. There was no current so I set them up right over
the wreck and they splashed.
The dive went perfectly. During the debrief
Buck added an extra minutes or two of deco and Jody was a little
late shooting the bag at 70ft after the gas switch.
Team 2: East Cape Reef
Looking for some new reef to explore. Jody
pulled out the map and found the numbers for East Cape Reef.
Andrea and I planned for a 60 minute dive, fish count, and some
mask drills at the end.
- Seas: 1-3 (calm in the morning and built up through the
day)
- Temp: 84 degrees
- Visibility: 75ft, nice blue water top to bottom
- Bottom Time: 55 minutes
- Ascent: 6 minutes
- Depth: 44 ft
- Current: .03 knots
We jumped in and headed down. The vis
was great the current carried us along. We had to swim
slightly into the current to stay on the reefs edge. I
didn't know this reef and didn't want to get blown off into
a sand dive. The sandy patchy reef was ideal conditions for
hogfish. There were a few nice ones, but mostly babies.
Andrea had to fight off up to six gray triggerfish at a
time. They were quite annoying and fortunately they liked
her more than me!
Andrea got to play with the camera while
I took a fish count. When ever we could find a coral
structure, there would be a lot of fish around it. Andrea
lost her spool again. I think this makes four times now. I'm
glad her coldwater suit has pockets!
At 45 minutes we decided to work on our
drills. Andrea practiced taking off her mask and maintaining
buoyancy. She did much better, but still floated up a
little. I realized this is a major skill for Tech 1 I hadn't
been working on, so I whipped off my mask. I passed it to
Andrea and got out my back up. By the time I was done I was
about 8 ft higher then when I started. Errrrr.... Game
Over... Thank you for playing. I need to work on this on
every dive until I get my breathing back to automatic.
Team 2 Second Dive: Paraisio Drift
Since the current was still moving out
of the South. I dropped the other team on the Paraisio. When
they left the boat with a 20 min bottom time, they shot a
bag and continued to drift.
I wanted Andrea to get some practice
driving the boat. I explained how to get a heading from the
GPS and then transfer it to the compass and get the boat
going in that direction. The trick with a large boat is the
steer it using the transmission and not the steering wheel.
We were heading back to the wreck and while I was teaching
her I noticed a sportfish pass close by. I looked and saw
them on coarse for the lift bag. We ended the drill and I
spunt he boat around and gave chase.
There was a woman on the tower with her
feet on the controls and a group of people in the stern
looking at the fishing poles. I gave chase and got my boat
between them and the sausage while honking my horn. The guys
on the back of the boat where holding up their arms in the
"What do you want buddy?" position. I guess they didn't
notice the 24" Alpha and Diver Down flags flying clearly
above the boat. After 30 seconds, one of them figured it
out, went up to the bridge and changed course. The ocean is
so big, but let your guard down for a moment and it gets
very small.
When the divers came up they had a big
smile on their faces. The current was just right and they
drifted over the Paraisio. They then drifted over some tanks
and concrete wreckage, followed by the Princess Brittany,
followed by the South Seas, 727 airplane wreck, what Jody
thinks was the Houseboat Barge, then the two barges east of
the Belcher barge, and finally the Belzona III. Not bad for
not having scooters or an underwater map to follow.
We returned to the dock at 2 PM from a
great day out on the ocean!
–Matt |
