I am here and Scubaboard was down

Well, I got here to Fort Lauderdale from Seattle as advertised on Friday evening. Logged onto my hotel's wireless network to check in at Scubaboard to coordinate getting together with you nice folks who volunteered to show me around town only to find this site down.

Now, I know it is my fault for not getting contact info before I got here, but, who would have thunk that scubaboard would be down for so long.

I was optomistic that it would be back up soon and so I rented my tanks for a week at Fill Express (more on that story at a later date) thinking that I would get a bunch of shore diving in....

Well, after getting in 2 dives with SFDHQ on Saturday morning, and then having the night dive canceled after 6 (yes 6) of the 9 signed up decided not to show. Went out Sunday morning for 2 more dives with SFDHQ and waited for the scubaboard site to come back so I could do my shore dives.

Now that it is Thursday, I tried to do a night dive on a charter, but, there weren't enough signed up, so, I guess tomorrow afternoon will be my last dives in Florida as I am scheduled to be in the last day of my conference in the morning and diving on a charter in the afternoon. I suppose I could maybe squeeze in a couple of night shore dives if any of you are game. I don't fly out until Saturday night at about 7, so, Saturday diving is out of the question.

Diver Debby, Scuba Jenny, OBX Guy, or anyone else out there, want to show a Cold water diver some of the local favorite spots?

Tim

Bummer! Sorry about your stroke of bad luck. Unfortunately, many of us local conchs are packing up our cars, getting ready to Invade the Keys tomorrow. Why not extend your stay and come join the fun?

I am so sorry to hear of the troubles and not being able to get together. I wish I could join ya on a dive or few. Like Joyce, Debby and a bunch others, I am on my way to the Keys tomorrow to dive. Can you possibly extend your stay a bit and join us? BIG party Saturday night!

Tim, ARGH, I saw your recent post sometime Thursday and was typing a reply to you when SB crashed again so you never go it. DARN IT. Note to self: in the future when planning dives with people get their e-mail addy and cell phone number. Will you be coming back to SoFla anytime soon?

I enjoyed my time here, both topside and underwater, so, I imagine I will be returning at some point. Not sure when. Maybe, sometime during the school year, I might just have to be sick on a Monday and Tuesday and make my way down for a loooonnnnnggg weekend.

I actually got 2 more dives in on Friday afternoon. Went out on a charter to the Pompano Drop-off and then to the Wreck of the Copenhagen. I didn't think I was going to enjoy my time since they are both really shallow (less than 30 feet and we had mostly snorkelers on board) but both dives were great. I got to see the resident nurse sharks on the Drop-Off. They weren't very cooperative with my picture taking pursuits, but I got some decent video of them. I also saw a Flamingo Tongue Nudibranch. That was way coool. I am a bit of a Nudie fan, so, that was great to see my first warm water nudie.

Then on the Copenhagen, I got to see a nice Goldentail Moray. It was very happy to pose for the camera. That wreck is HUGE. I had about 45 minutes of bottom time (they wouldn't let me stay longer, I did both dives 55 and 45 on my one rented HP119 and still had enough air for a 3rd dive) and didn't even see the whole thing. I could have spent another 45 minutes on her. So cool to have a wreck so shallow.

All in all, a great trip. Now I have to hope that my gear dried out enough that it won't be over the weight limit at the airport.

I will be back, and next time, I will get phone numbers and email addresses before I leave home.

Tim

Tim, I'm glad you had a good time! I hope to SEA you on a SoFla reef one day!

Glad to hear you had a good time despite not being able to hook up. Sorry you couldn't make it down for the INVASION night dive, it was sweet.
Do you have the Caribbean Reef ID books? Is the flamingo tongue really a nudi? I thought it was a snail of some sort.

Snail or nudibranch, doesn't matter to me, it was awfully cool looking. I do have the Humann books, but they are in a box somewhere between Fort Lauderdale and Seattle being shipped MediaMail so I wouldn't be over the luggage weight limits.

Tim

I finally got around to posting my trip pictures, videos and dive site reviews from my trip. All can be found at TimRenz.com.

For you locals, you can laugh at my attempts at warm water photoing and at my lack of understanding where in the world I was on the water.

Can't wait to come back and dive more of the wrecks.

Tim

Nice trip reports and pics, Tim!!!

Say...you wouldn't happen to have the GPS coordinates for that big lobster, would you?