A frustrating few days on many levels. After watching the forecast get grimmer by the hour, Spirit decided to break three or four planes, putting doubt as to if and when I'd even get to FLL. Ended up about three hours late. Could've been worse.
Showed up at Underwater Explorers / Kev's boat Saturday, 10/23, AM to windy conditions. Wil was there and announced they were cancelling the trip due to conditions. She found me and the three other customers another charter, Dolphin Sun, in Lantana. She also supplied my N2 tanks, essentially on trust, and said we'd settle up later. I thought she went above and beyond with her help. My thanks to her.
The Saturday trips were essentially good despite 3-5's and occasional 4-6's. Viz was great and wildlife abundant. Dolphin Sun runs a good safe op while recognizing experience. Nice people. There's a restaurant conveniently just a few feet from the boat that makes good chow for lunch between the AM and PM trips. I recommend both Dolphin Sun and the restaurant.
Sunday brought 4-6's with occasional 3-5's. Jupiter Dive Center took both boats out in the AM and combined PM divers to make just one boat. There were hunters and non-hunters on both trips. Seems JDC's protocol is to launch the hunters first then the non-hunters, while providing a guide, although some of the guided divers also hunted. The briefing consisted of telling the divers how much bottom time they had; providing different times for air vs. N2 users, as well as what stuff we might encounter, how to know when to begin your ascent based on remaining gas, etc. I got a distinct feeling that this op might be a better choice for the divers who need more attention. I had to swap boats for the PM dive and there was no time to buy lunch. The boat-provided animal crackers and pretzels got less appetizing as the day wore on. It was obvious that several of the folks had good breakfasts and lunches although they were mostly unrecognizable when I saw them.
Upon departing the area Monday morning I saw the forecast called for improving marine conditions. Big wow. I did have some consolation when learning this weekend's conditions are forecast to be worse than last weekend's - nothing personal.
