Did my first ocean dives this past Saturday with Coastal Scuba.
I think the staff was very nice and helpful (never on a charter boat so I can't compare). We had a group of students so only 4 divers (I think) were doing the dive. 2 stayed on board due to sickness - at least one of them was feeding fish fairly often, glad it wasn't me!
My buddy was on air and I was on EAN36, however it was on purpose. I can tell you that my quarry dives on lower visibility helped! My buddy was used to clear sea FL dives and was stressed out and was about to quit on a second dive. The general profile was 30-40-30 for air and two of us did just about that 28-40-28 (according to my computer).
Storm weather the night before did cut the visibility big time. And only part where the Barracuda Alley had good visibility it was full of fish all around us and one couldn't see a thing for the fish!
Lost my buddy once on each dive in that area as he got disoriented. However I ascended slightly above the fish and spotted his bubbles and located him quickly. From the barge towards APCs one could hardly see the rope so we decided to abandon that attempt. No sense to go where one can't even see the rope.
I am glad however that I have my first ocean dive(s) behind me and now am looking forward to do my deep/wreck dive specialties second weekend in August.
Thanks Coastal Scuba!
I think the staff was very nice and helpful (never on a charter boat so I can't compare). We had a group of students so only 4 divers (I think) were doing the dive. 2 stayed on board due to sickness - at least one of them was feeding fish fairly often, glad it wasn't me!
My buddy was on air and I was on EAN36, however it was on purpose. I can tell you that my quarry dives on lower visibility helped! My buddy was used to clear sea FL dives and was stressed out and was about to quit on a second dive. The general profile was 30-40-30 for air and two of us did just about that 28-40-28 (according to my computer).
Storm weather the night before did cut the visibility big time. And only part where the Barracuda Alley had good visibility it was full of fish all around us and one couldn't see a thing for the fish!
Lost my buddy once on each dive in that area as he got disoriented. However I ascended slightly above the fish and spotted his bubbles and located him quickly. From the barge towards APCs one could hardly see the rope so we decided to abandon that attempt. No sense to go where one can't even see the rope.
I am glad however that I have my first ocean dive(s) behind me and now am looking forward to do my deep/wreck dive specialties second weekend in August.
Thanks Coastal Scuba!