Tractor Tom
Contributor
Hiya kids!
Well, I just got home to Okeechobee after making a couple Keys dives with my 'old' dive buddy, GTXL1200 (Ted Bristol).
I left our place in Okeechobee about 7am on Saturday morning and made the four hour drive to Key Largo in light traffic and nice weather. Ted and I met at the wharf in Key Largo, unloaded our gear and waited for the boat. My usual ride is with Brent Hillard of Blue Water Divers, but his boat is on the hard this month for a refit, so we found a ride with Mark at Scuba-do!.
I feel this is a first rate operation. The boat is large, well layed out and fast for a single screw. With the flybridge pilot station, the whole deck is set aside for the divers, and with a maximum of 10 divers on board, there is plenty of room to spread out. SOP on the boat is the diver rigs his gear initially, then a time to dive, you move to the transom seat, put on fins and mask, and Mark or his mate Scott hauls your tank to you, and helps you get it on. Then a step of the platform and you are diving. After the dive, this is reversed. Hand up your fins, sit on the table, and someone helps you doff your gear. Then the tank gets magically changed to a fresh one, while you wipe the snot from your face and get hydrated on provided ice water.
Like I said a first class op!
First two dives were on Molassas Reef. First at the Winch Hole, with swim throughs and lots of nice life to look at. Air temp was near 90 and water temp (through the entire water column) was right at 85 degrees. Depth was around 40 fsw max, and vis had to be close to 100 feet, with bright sunny skys. GOOD DIVING. We ended the dive a bit early at 45 min, as Ted was having trouble with his mask. I wear the same mask and have a love/hate relationship with mine as well.
Second dive was a short move over to the 'Mounds' where we wend over to the third mound, looking but not finding a Mammoth Grouper that is supposed to live over there. After 40 minutes or so, Ted eased to the surface to get a direction to the boat, and realized that we were about half way to Cuba! We had strayed some 200 yards or so from the mooring, and what followed was a 'survival swim' that would have made Diver Brian proud, against the light current, but still quite a distance on the bottom third of a tank.
I got to stay in the 'bunkhouse' with Ted and his wife Deb that night. We checked me in as a guest to the campground for $3, and after beers and a nice fish dinner at Craigs in Islamorada and a stop at Divers Direct to exchange an inflator hose I had purchased for one that would actually work, Ted broke out the air bed, and we cleared the decks for sleeping. The huge queen sized air bed, about 14" thick, filled the floor of his living room in the trailer, and made for good sleeping.
This morning I was awake about 6am, and we were up and around for coffee by 6:30 or so. Stopped over at "Docs" in Key Largo for breakfast, and then met Ted at the wharf again. We loaded on the boat along with four other divers and made our first dive of the day on the Spiegle Grove after a 30 minute boat ride. It was a little bumpy out there, and the current was ripping! We worked down the line to the Bow of the ship and ducked into the shadow of the ship and out of the current. We poked around at the bridge and superstructure and all too soon were at the 1200lb turn point and made our way back to the line with a max depth of 92 feet. The one minute stop at 45 feet was not too bad, but a 3 minute stop at 15 feet had me feeling like laundry on the line on a windy day. Three minutes seemed like a very long time, waving in the current like a flag.
Back on the boat we had a 45 minute surface interval and a short trip over to the much shallower wreck of the Bentwood where we enjoyed about 40 feet of visability and a maximum of 40 feet for 55 minutes. Always a nice dive, we made several laps around the wreck, with Ted snapping away with his camera at the sea life.
The ride in was uneventful, and after a quick goodbye at the pier, I was in the car and back to Okeechobee, some 3 1/2 hours away.
Seems that old Ted is off the rest of the month, and will not be heading back until early in October. Nice to work for a car company where you draw nearly full pay during a lay-off and can come to Florida and dive. Wish I could find a gig like that.
Well, that's all from Okeechobee. Ted was live and well when I left him, and having a good time in Key Largo.
Later!
Tractor Tom
Well, I just got home to Okeechobee after making a couple Keys dives with my 'old' dive buddy, GTXL1200 (Ted Bristol).
I left our place in Okeechobee about 7am on Saturday morning and made the four hour drive to Key Largo in light traffic and nice weather. Ted and I met at the wharf in Key Largo, unloaded our gear and waited for the boat. My usual ride is with Brent Hillard of Blue Water Divers, but his boat is on the hard this month for a refit, so we found a ride with Mark at Scuba-do!.
I feel this is a first rate operation. The boat is large, well layed out and fast for a single screw. With the flybridge pilot station, the whole deck is set aside for the divers, and with a maximum of 10 divers on board, there is plenty of room to spread out. SOP on the boat is the diver rigs his gear initially, then a time to dive, you move to the transom seat, put on fins and mask, and Mark or his mate Scott hauls your tank to you, and helps you get it on. Then a step of the platform and you are diving. After the dive, this is reversed. Hand up your fins, sit on the table, and someone helps you doff your gear. Then the tank gets magically changed to a fresh one, while you wipe the snot from your face and get hydrated on provided ice water.
Like I said a first class op!
First two dives were on Molassas Reef. First at the Winch Hole, with swim throughs and lots of nice life to look at. Air temp was near 90 and water temp (through the entire water column) was right at 85 degrees. Depth was around 40 fsw max, and vis had to be close to 100 feet, with bright sunny skys. GOOD DIVING. We ended the dive a bit early at 45 min, as Ted was having trouble with his mask. I wear the same mask and have a love/hate relationship with mine as well.
Second dive was a short move over to the 'Mounds' where we wend over to the third mound, looking but not finding a Mammoth Grouper that is supposed to live over there. After 40 minutes or so, Ted eased to the surface to get a direction to the boat, and realized that we were about half way to Cuba! We had strayed some 200 yards or so from the mooring, and what followed was a 'survival swim' that would have made Diver Brian proud, against the light current, but still quite a distance on the bottom third of a tank.
I got to stay in the 'bunkhouse' with Ted and his wife Deb that night. We checked me in as a guest to the campground for $3, and after beers and a nice fish dinner at Craigs in Islamorada and a stop at Divers Direct to exchange an inflator hose I had purchased for one that would actually work, Ted broke out the air bed, and we cleared the decks for sleeping. The huge queen sized air bed, about 14" thick, filled the floor of his living room in the trailer, and made for good sleeping.
This morning I was awake about 6am, and we were up and around for coffee by 6:30 or so. Stopped over at "Docs" in Key Largo for breakfast, and then met Ted at the wharf again. We loaded on the boat along with four other divers and made our first dive of the day on the Spiegle Grove after a 30 minute boat ride. It was a little bumpy out there, and the current was ripping! We worked down the line to the Bow of the ship and ducked into the shadow of the ship and out of the current. We poked around at the bridge and superstructure and all too soon were at the 1200lb turn point and made our way back to the line with a max depth of 92 feet. The one minute stop at 45 feet was not too bad, but a 3 minute stop at 15 feet had me feeling like laundry on the line on a windy day. Three minutes seemed like a very long time, waving in the current like a flag.
Back on the boat we had a 45 minute surface interval and a short trip over to the much shallower wreck of the Bentwood where we enjoyed about 40 feet of visability and a maximum of 40 feet for 55 minutes. Always a nice dive, we made several laps around the wreck, with Ted snapping away with his camera at the sea life.
The ride in was uneventful, and after a quick goodbye at the pier, I was in the car and back to Okeechobee, some 3 1/2 hours away.
Seems that old Ted is off the rest of the month, and will not be heading back until early in October. Nice to work for a car company where you draw nearly full pay during a lay-off and can come to Florida and dive. Wish I could find a gig like that.
Well, that's all from Okeechobee. Ted was live and well when I left him, and having a good time in Key Largo.
Later!
Tractor Tom
