After having two kids I finally got to come South again for my first ocean dives in three years. It was my whole gang, plus brother and his family, so we rented a house in LBTS. To set the stage, it was repeatedly explained that unlike previous trips I wouldn't be spending all my time diving while my wife and SIL watched our one and three year olds. So I figured we'd do one, maybe two shore dives a day and maybe a charter or two. Schedule worked out that we could do morning charters on Wed and Sat, shore diving the other days.
So, we gave it a go for a shore dive Tues afternoon south of the Commercial Blvd pier. After battling through the surf out to the buoy, only to find the vis on the bottom was still pretty bad, we decided to head back in. Wasn't too concerned at this point, having a morning trip scheduled the next day.
Or not - got a call from the captain at 6:30 a.m. that it was too windy and they were cancelling. I don't want to disclose the name of the op because 1)They have a good reputation on SB, 2)I have used this op on previous occassions and been very happy, 3)it is his responsibility to do what he deems necessary to ensure the safety of those on the boat, and I respect that. Scheduled again on Sat a.m. trip, this time he called Fri evening that they were cancelling. I was astonished that anyone would cancel a weekend trip for anything less than a hurricane.
The silver lining to the lousy ocean conitions was that we finally made our way up to Blue Heron. Did a night dive organized by Force-E on Wed night and a.m. dives thurs and Fri. WOW! That is one spectacular dive site. You have more to see on a pile of shopping carts than we have in entire quarries.
Now, the underlying question is:
was the op we tried to use being overly cautious, or was it really that bad out there. BTW, my wife and I did our discover scuba dives in 2004 in the week between hurricanes Frances and Ivan, so there was some baptism-by-fire.
So, we gave it a go for a shore dive Tues afternoon south of the Commercial Blvd pier. After battling through the surf out to the buoy, only to find the vis on the bottom was still pretty bad, we decided to head back in. Wasn't too concerned at this point, having a morning trip scheduled the next day.
Or not - got a call from the captain at 6:30 a.m. that it was too windy and they were cancelling. I don't want to disclose the name of the op because 1)They have a good reputation on SB, 2)I have used this op on previous occassions and been very happy, 3)it is his responsibility to do what he deems necessary to ensure the safety of those on the boat, and I respect that. Scheduled again on Sat a.m. trip, this time he called Fri evening that they were cancelling. I was astonished that anyone would cancel a weekend trip for anything less than a hurricane.
The silver lining to the lousy ocean conitions was that we finally made our way up to Blue Heron. Did a night dive organized by Force-E on Wed night and a.m. dives thurs and Fri. WOW! That is one spectacular dive site. You have more to see on a pile of shopping carts than we have in entire quarries.
Now, the underlying question is:
was the op we tried to use being overly cautious, or was it really that bad out there. BTW, my wife and I did our discover scuba dives in 2004 in the week between hurricanes Frances and Ivan, so there was some baptism-by-fire.
