pickens_46929
Contributor
Just got back from diving the Vandenberg this past weekend. It was awesome, simply awesome. Did 7 dives on it and still wanted more. Others in our group did 9 on it and wanted more.
We rented a house on Cudjoe Key via HomeAway.com -- nice place with pool, kitchen and decent amount of room for all 4 of us on this trip and extremely diver friendly (eg. plenty of places to rinse and hang gear up. Only drawback was distance. At 20 miles, it took right at 30 mins to get back and forth to the dock each day. Not impossible or completely out of the way but just not as convenient as being right in Key West.
We used Steve from Keys Mobile Diving for our charter operator. Steve is great, a retired Coastie that knows the water and very flexible. Our group was made up of pretty experienced divers, so we didn't need a guide and Steve let us do what we wanted to do for the most part. He's got a nice little twin hull 6-pack boat that could do 6 divers for a 3 tanker pretty easily. Had to bring / rent our own tanks but that wasn't a big deal since we had most of what we needed. Excellent charter operator and wouldn't hesitate to use him again at all.
We departed and got fills at Subtropic dive shop in Key West. Subtropic is another great find. Bank 32 nitrox, great staff, nice store and just a short 30 min. ride out to the Vandenberg. And reasonably priced too... air fills were $5 and nitrox fills for $10. We rented a couple tanks there including one set of doubles.
So what were the plusses and minuses of the trip? Hmmm...
1) I overpacked as usual -- glad I brought the spares kit since we went through several o-rings (different kinds too for that matter) but could have packed a wee bit less
2) I overbought on the food -- we did a night dive on the Cayman Salvager which put us back late late and I didn't get around to making my beer can chicken; no one on the trip who responded with "Yeah I drink Orange Juice actually drank it" either
3) I didn't get enough plain old white bread -- bought one loaf and it was gone like "poof"; for that matter I didn't get get to make french toast the one morning
4) Buy more bacon next trip -- enough said
5) Stay closer to the dive shop for convenience factor
6) Always, always, always check the VIP sticker on your tanks before a trip like this -- was lucky I could rent a tank quickly; good thing I didn't need a hydro
7) Need a new roller bag for doubles regulators and can light (ugh)
We rented a house on Cudjoe Key via HomeAway.com -- nice place with pool, kitchen and decent amount of room for all 4 of us on this trip and extremely diver friendly (eg. plenty of places to rinse and hang gear up. Only drawback was distance. At 20 miles, it took right at 30 mins to get back and forth to the dock each day. Not impossible or completely out of the way but just not as convenient as being right in Key West.
We used Steve from Keys Mobile Diving for our charter operator. Steve is great, a retired Coastie that knows the water and very flexible. Our group was made up of pretty experienced divers, so we didn't need a guide and Steve let us do what we wanted to do for the most part. He's got a nice little twin hull 6-pack boat that could do 6 divers for a 3 tanker pretty easily. Had to bring / rent our own tanks but that wasn't a big deal since we had most of what we needed. Excellent charter operator and wouldn't hesitate to use him again at all.
We departed and got fills at Subtropic dive shop in Key West. Subtropic is another great find. Bank 32 nitrox, great staff, nice store and just a short 30 min. ride out to the Vandenberg. And reasonably priced too... air fills were $5 and nitrox fills for $10. We rented a couple tanks there including one set of doubles.
So what were the plusses and minuses of the trip? Hmmm...
1) I overpacked as usual -- glad I brought the spares kit since we went through several o-rings (different kinds too for that matter) but could have packed a wee bit less
2) I overbought on the food -- we did a night dive on the Cayman Salvager which put us back late late and I didn't get around to making my beer can chicken; no one on the trip who responded with "Yeah I drink Orange Juice actually drank it" either
3) I didn't get enough plain old white bread -- bought one loaf and it was gone like "poof"; for that matter I didn't get get to make french toast the one morning
4) Buy more bacon next trip -- enough said
5) Stay closer to the dive shop for convenience factor
6) Always, always, always check the VIP sticker on your tanks before a trip like this -- was lucky I could rent a tank quickly; good thing I didn't need a hydro
7) Need a new roller bag for doubles regulators and can light (ugh)
