Jenny,, Where did you park?
We had 4 awesome dives. (well, 3 were awesome..) Too bad we did not hook up. I was looking for other divers but saw none.
The 4 of us got to Lauderdale about 1 pm Saturday and went straight to some place call Erojacks in John U LLoyd Park.. Having never been there,, we did not find anything or have any clue as to where the reef was except for the driving directiond posted by Jenny. Oh well.. Vis sucked anyway..
Next, we went and checked in at the Villas by the Sea motel right next to the beach. Our room overlooked the parking lot and shower area. Great place to dive from.
We geared up and walked to the beach and did a 100 minute dive. Vis sucked but we had fun. We took 2 Tyger Ray scooters made by "Cayman Dive Gear" out of Naples FL.
www.caymandivegear.com) and had a blast with them. We scooted alongside a very large turtle and he was not scared of them at all. For some reason, draft? the Tyger Ray attracts fish that swim on top of the scooter right infront of you. We each had one little 'dunnowhats' ride along with us so close you your face you could almost bite them.! You could not shake the lil buggers unless you stopped.. But once you start back up, there they were again, right in your face leading the way! It was WAY cool. The scooter only lasts about 50 minutes with gear on, but hey float at the surface so we just tied them to the flag rope when they died and continued our dive.. Worked out sweet!
Sunday, we did not get going until 10am... I was up and ready to go at 7:30 though. I looked for divers from my patio but saw none. I wanted to do a dive while the others slept.. The rest of my crew did not get in until 5am that moring.. They were not too happy when I opened an air tank valve in their bed to wake them.. But it worked and it serves them right! A few power bars and gatorades later, we were off.
1st dive (93 min), we saw a nurse shark (large) and lots of strangers like 3 large bristle worms and 1 seasnake. I almost cut a boaters anchor off but did not feel like wasting the air. The jackhole cruised his boat right up to our flag. I came up and yelled at him and he was suprised there was a diver.. He said.."I was wondering what a dive flag was doing out here... Whats under there?" I told him to "GET THE F*** AWAY FROM THE FLAG AND GET YOUR F***ING ANCHOR OFF OF THE CORAL YOU (*&^*&%&^$&^$&%*&*&%&^*&^(&(*^*&%&% HOLE!"
Then I gave him the finger the whole time I descended...
The second dive (107 min) was AWESOME because a giant school of bait fish completely surrounded us and circled us for about 15 minutes. I was hanging upside down while they passed though us. It was absolutely magical.. One of my top memories in diving...
Maybe one of these dives we will meet some of you although it was hard enough to keep up with the 4 of us in such low vis. I got my pontoon boat running so I might make some low vis gulf dives this weekend just for the heck of it with my local crew. I wonder just how many tanks and guys does it take to sink a 25' Pontoon boat? I have had up to 12 people, coolers, grill etc.. but never with dive gear (and it was like driving a dock...). I will be back in Lauderdale for a buddies cert dive on the 30th of Aug til Labor day. We will do 2 boat days Sat and Sunday with Lighthouse and a shore day on Monday.
Justin
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>< )))'> J G <'(((><
