Key Largo 2006
September 1st through 5th, 2006

Pre-trip - Dirk and I had been discussing doing a dive trip together for a while and we just started putting the final touches on a plan. We were going to stay at his parent’s condo in Boca Raton, FL. Of all the potential dive spots we could have gone too, this looked the most attractive simply because Nicole, who is not a diver, would have no problem finding fun stuff to do in the Boca, Ft Lauderdale, or Miami areas while we were busy blowing bubbles. Justin contacted us about joining him on a dive trip at just about the same time in Key Largo. My first thought was that I wasn’t interested in going to Key Largo. I remember the time I spent there as a kid and, outside of snorkeling around, I remember the island being very devoid of fun stuff to do. So, we planned on making a drive down and just joining Justin for 1 day of diving. As it turns out, Justin was able to talk an old friend of ours into joining him in Key Largo, which completely changed the game. Now, no matter how boring the island is, Nicole would have Walter to keep her constantly entertained. So, we changed our plans and booked a room in the same hotel Justin had: Ocean Point Suites.

In the weeks leading up to the trip, Erik and I made some capital purchases to enhance our scuba diving. Up until this point, we were only owning our own wetsuits, masks, snorkels, fins, dive knives, and flashlights. I decided that it was time to buy a computer, so I could get the most out of each dive. I went with the Oceanic VT Pro, which can handle Nitrox and includes a hoseless transmitter for air pressure. I got it for $100 under the manufacturer’s already reduced retail price at LeisurePro. Erik opted for the Mares Airlab computer. It’s a much bulkier console, especially compared to my wrist-mounted option, but it handles all the same features mine does plus a few more. His computer, for example, displays his consumption rate based upon the volume of his tank. He did get a great deal on it from our favorite local dive shop, Scuba Toys. We both went with the exact same 1st stage, 2nd stage, and octo (all from Scuba Toys). Our first stage is the Aeris Atmos, which is environmentally sealed (I am probably not eXtreme enough for this option yet) and has a nice swivel for the second stage connector. The second stage is the Aeris Atmos Pro, which has a nice adjustable breathing effort and a venturi assist switch. Our octo is the Viper Octo, whose main benefit is the side-exhaust so that you don’t have to hand it to your buddy in a specific orientation.

The weekend before the dive trip, Erik and I took all of our new gear out to Clear Springs Scuba Park to test it out. I wanted to make sure we had all the equipment under control before we got on the dive boat in the keys. The only issue I encountered was that my 2nd stage’s adjustable breathing effort knob is properly stored in the “full open” position. Which is fine except that when I tried to purge it, I got an insane amount of freeflow and wasted a bunch of air. I have to remind myself to tighten that knob all the way down before my first purge.

There was some worry about Hurricane/Tropical Storm Ernesto ruining our plans, but luckily he was out of wind when he hit the keys. Though they asked tourists to evacuate earlier in the week, they were quickly invited back.

I am so crazy!
Day 1 - Nicole, Erik, and I grabbed the same flight out of DFW into Ft Lauderdale airport. We arrived about 7pm and were cajoled by Dirk into heading North out of the airport (the opposite direction of the Keys) to one of his favorite area seafood restaurants. I think it must have some kind of sentimental value for Dirk because I really didn’t think the food was that great. We left the restaurant a little after 10 and made it down to the hotel a little after midnight. So, far, just Dirk, Nicole, Erik, and myself were there. We were joined shortly by Justin, Walter, Mary Beth (Walter’s sweetheart), and several of Justin’s friends: Bryan, Brandon, Jeff, John, and Alex. We had an early day scheduled for the morning, so we tried to get to bed early. It didn’t quite happen that way, since we were having so much fun hanging out.

Day 2 - Got up at an ungodly hour to grab a mediocre continental breakfast before heading off to Horizon Diver’s. We woke up to an amazingly strong thunderstorm, but it cleared up rather quickly just before time to depart. Just the scuba divers (no snorkelers) headed over first thing in the morning since we were all taking a class. Justin was signing up for the the Spiegel Grove Research Diver and Bryan was taking his Advanced Open Water class. Dirk,Erik, and I took an Enriched Air Nitrox class. Before we started our classes, I gave Justin a good ribbing about his stack of cards he carries around like his trusted Pokemon deck. In particular, his Peak Performance Buoyancy card, which certifies that he knows how to float. I understand that’s how PADI does things and I’m sure the PADI organization thinks it’s awesome that some people get very defensive about their collection of very expensive cards, but Justin couldn’t see the humor in it. Not that I could be too critical, since I was plunking down a lot of dough for my own shiny new card to add to my deck (Enriched Air Nitrox). Some of them make sense from the PADI business perspective and for my own safety. I mean, PADI could’ve taught us about Nitrox in the Open Water or Advanced Open Water classes, but it’s nice to keep it separate so that they can both charge us a little more for it and we can pick our level of scuba information overload. But other cards, like PADI’s Underwater Photography class, have no safety benefit and they charge a couple hundred dollars to show people how to adjust their white balance on their camera.

For the EAN course, our instructor, Everett, was a great guy. Very friendly and knowledgable, so it was an enjoyable class. All 3 of us scored 100% on our final exam. We all earned a new shiny, expensive card to add to our PADI deck. There was a lot of math to do in this course, mostly just simple arithmetic but with a lot of numbers to keep in your head. I’ll stick to using my dive computer to plan my dive, but it’s definitely good that I know how to plan my dive without it.

After we completed our course, we snarfed down a couple of sandwiches that Justin was kind enough to pick up for us then hopped onto the boat. Since we were doing shallow dives, we decided not to use nitrox for today’s diving. We were joined on the boat by the rest of our vacation group, most of whom are snorkelers for this dive. And man… Was it ever nice not to have to lug our own air tanks around. The guys working the dive boat were great. Lots of personality and charm.

Our first dive spot was the French Reef. It’s a relatively deep coral reef dive, compared to the rest of the coral reefs in the area. I jumped in the water first and waited for my dive buddies (Erik and Dirk). When Nicole jumped in the water with her snorkeling gear I detected the unmistakable signs of the panicked diver. She did exactly as the PADI diver manual described a panicked diver would do. She pulled her mask off her face, spit her snorkel out of her mouth, and kicked her feet to keep her head above the water. I swam over and grabbed her and tried to keep us both afloat with my BC. I got her to calm down and put her mask on. I tried to convince her that she needed to get her snorkel in her mouth and relax her kicking, but it was a hard sell. I guess I was so used to snorkeling myself, it didn’t occur to me how weird of a feeling it is to relax in the ocean with your face submerged. She did gradually calm down and, I believe, started to enjoy herself.

I am so crazy!
My dive buddies and I submerged and started enjoying the sites. We were extremely lucky that Dirk had an underwater housing for his digital camera. He got some amazing photos of the whole experience. Some of the unique things we saw in this dive were a gigantic grouper and a small tunnel underneath the coral reef. We saw a few divers swim through, coming toward us, and we decided to swim back through the way they came. After I was fully inside the tunnel, there was some concern about fitting through the other side. It was a very narrow and long tunnel; my first sort of micro-cave dive. There wasn’t much natrual light in the tunnel, but we could see light at the other end. It was a pretty cool experience. Unfortunately, Dirk looks like he had a Parkinson’s fit when he tried to snap a picture of Erik and I was we reached the end of the tunnel.

When we got back to the boat, the only person not on it was Justin and his random dive buddy. They ended their dive too far away from the boat and had to catch a lift from another nearby boat. Justin’s dive buddy (Mike) said he was too tired to swim back. Apparently, Justin offered to give him a tow back but that just frustrated the guy. When ribbing Justin later, we compared the event to Superman taking a stroll with a guy right off a building then trying to flex his skills by saving the guy’s life. Since Justin led this guy so far away from the boat, I can understand why he was a little frustrated. Lucky for us, Erik took a boat bearing when we got close to the time to return to the boat. So, we were able to take a leisurely swim back to the boat on the bottom.

The second dive was a much more shallow reef called Molasses reef. There were lots of pieces of railroad parts strewn about here. Made for some very interesting artificial reefs. Unfortunately, our dive buddy Dirk abandoned us to chase a nurse shark as soon as we started the dive. I had trouble equalizing and had to surface a couple of times before I could make it to the bottom. Erik waited on me, but Dirk was nowhere to be found. We followed the path we last saw him on, but we couldn’t find him. We surfaced a couple of times and asked snorkelers to keep an eye out for him before we finally gave up and finished our dive. When we got back to the boat this time, Dirk was the only one not on the boat. I told the captain what had happened and the boat switched to “lost diver search” mode. After about 15-20 minutes of looking for him, he finally surfaced and swam back to the boat.

On the way back to the dive shop, the hydraulics on the boat went out so we were stuck without steering. We ended up having to hoof it back to our cars. Before leaving, all the scuba divers had some course related work to do. Erik, Dirk, and I had to practice testing our nitrox tanks to ensure they had the right air mix. That night, everyone in our room (Walt, Mary Beth, Erik, Dirk, Nicole, and myself) agreed that we wanted to take it easy. We decided to throw back some beer and eat Papa Johns pizza. We had a great time just hanging out and getting to know Walter’s girlfriend Mary Beth. Justin and Bryan went on a night dive with the Horizon Divers (which we were invited on but promptly uninvited when the boat shrank).

I am so crazy!
Day 3 - We slept in a little longer this morning, but still had time to partake in the mediocre continental breakfast. We met up with Justin’s friends outside the hotel lobby area. Most of the non-divers left that morning on a drive to Key West. Nicole, Walt, and Mary Beth stayed around Key Largo for ice cream and great conversation. Justin, Bryan, Dirk, Erik, and I headed down to the dive shop for some more diving. It was just us on the boat, plus 4 tec divers. The tec divers had a lot of very cool toys… Scooters, double-tank rigs, etc. They talked to us a little about DIR (Do it Right) diving. I took a look at their own website, Dirty Diving, and read a little about what they do. I discovered that my favorit local dive shop sells DIR gear and I got a lot of info off the GUE website. I definitely like the hardline philosophy they take and will probably absorb some of those elements into my own diving. I don’t know if I’m ready for the overhaul of the gear though. Especially since you won’t get much benefit out of it until you start doing more dangerous diving (wreck or cave diving). But the mindset they promote is definitely applicable to simple recreational dives.

We got to see an amazing wreck on our dives today, the USS Spiegel Grove. The worlds largest artificial reef. Sunk, with a lot of drama, a few years ago. Apparently, the sinking was botched pretty bad and the boat was left upside down sticking up out of the water. They used tugboats to set her on her side, but luckily Hurricane Dennis set her upright recently.

The current was pretty strong for our entry. We had to dive in and simultaneously grab a rope that we could use to pull ourselves down. The current kept us horizontal the whole day down as kelp and jellyfish shot past us pretty rapidly. We made it down to the crane arm of the Spiegel and started our exploration at about 90 ft down. Dirk and I tried to register a little more depth by going over the side of the ship and checking out the portholes. I got down to 113 ft and Dirk went a little over 120 ft. There was lots of really cool tubular growth on the ship, but not a lot of wildlife. Not as much as on the coral reef, anyways. Unfortunately, I had a very frutstrating dive because my weight belt wouldn’t stay on. I couldn’t cinch it up tonight enough with my knife on the strap. I spent a lot of the dive (and wasted a lot of my gas) struggling to keep my weight belt on for dear life (literally). It actually wasn’t a problem until the pressure at depth squeezed my wet suit enough to let it slip. Once I reached my turnaround pressure, Dirk volunteered some of his air so we could explore a little more. The tank sure doesn’t last very long with two mouths sucking on it though. We headed up the line and ran into some tec divers (again, literally) on the way up. I started my safety stop just under them and waited for a couple of minutes before I realized my computer wasn’t giving me credit for the safety stop. I swam around the tec divers and tried again. Unfortunately, this caused me to get pretty low on air (close to 400 psi) but I still had enough to finish my safety stop and get back onto the boat with some air to spare.

Although, I got my weight belt properly adjusted (minus the dive knife) for the next dive, I failed on another important piece of equipment. When we got down to the ship, at about 75 ft, and after I explored it for about 1 minute, my dive computer started beeping at me to tell me that I exceeded my limits for partial pressure of oxygen (the new factor you have to monitor when using Enriched Air Nitrox). I knew that my computer was incorrect and there was no way that I was anywhere near the limit, but I had already made the decision before I got in the water that I was going to dive using the computer. I didn’t feel comfortable second-guessing it and replanning my dive when I was already at depth. I alerted my dive buddies and began my ascent without them. My dive computer stopped alarming when I ascended, so I attempted another descent to try and gauge what it was telling me. It immediately started alarming again with the same message. So, I did my safety stop and got back on the boat. One of the tec divers who has the same computer as me knew exactly what the problem was. When you do a repetitive dive on Nitrox, the dive computer takes the ultra-safe route and forces you to re-tell it what oxygen mix you are using for each dive. It just so happens both of my dives were on 30% oxygen, but since I failed to tell the computer for the second dive it went ahead and defaulted to the most deadliest mix: 50% oxygen. Of course I hit my partial pressure of oxygen limit immediately with this mix. And you can’t change the setting once you’ve begun your dive. I wasted a tank of air and missed out on some more wreck exploration, but, as our nitrox instructor told me, there are much harder lessons to learn in scuba.

The main lessons I learned is that having a slippery weight belt sucks and is very scary. I need to quadruple check my computer between each dive. Also, I think I decided that I need to buy my own BCD before my next dive. Having a jacket which fits and has an integrated weight system is going to make the dives so much more comfortable.

That night, everyone but the Key West-ers went out to eat at Sharky’s (or the restaurant above Sharky’s if it’s different). Nicole wasn’t feeling well, but still managed to have some fun with us. I tried oysters for the second time and found them much more enjoyable than the first time I tried them. I still don’t really see the point, but they weren’t bad. After dinner, we went over to the Coffee House, which was experimenting with turning the place into a nightclub just for the night. The DJ was not very good, but we all still managed to have fun. We got to kind of own the dance floor. Justin handled himself well dancing with my wife (very appropriately), but he looked like he failed pretty miserably when he tried the bump and grind with the waitress. =) I couldn’t figure out what happened to the rhythm there. We all danced until we couldn’t dance no more then headed back to the hotel.

Day 4 - A rather uneventful day. Slept in past time for the mediocre continental breakfast this morning. We had a little debate on the days activities. Bryan and the Key West-ers (who were back from Key West) wanted to charter a private boat. I’d felt kind of like I spent enough time on boats the last couple days and, without any kind of extracurricular activities planned for the boat, I was in the anti-boat camp. We checked to see if we could pull water skis or an inner tube behind the boat, but we weren’t allowed since the boat was in a state park with specific rules. We ended up opting for parasailing instead of boating, but the weather did not agree. Walt was ever-diligent on the phone with the parasailing guy, but we couldn’t get a confirmed appointment since the weather was pretty sporadic. We ended up having a very long lunch at DJ’s Diner. Mary Beth started a discussion about gun control which inspired Dirk to share his emotions about how bad violence is and how unjust a CEO’s pay can be… We argued pretty strongly for a while before finally heading over to the state park. We visited the indoor aquarium and watched a film about the wildlife around Key Largo’s reefs. We also took a strong through the mangroves, but it was kind of a waste of time. Company was good though.

Day 5 - Time to head home. We got up pretty early, grabbed a quick breakfast at Waffle House (with Erik, Justin, Walter, and Mary Beth). Unfortunately, the weather was still pretty bad and traffic was worse than I predicted it would be. We still made it to the airport with enought time to grab a snack.

Got home safely… And… immediately began planning the next dive. =)