DiverAmy
Prism2 CCR Diver
This was my husband’s and my first trip on the Spree and my 8th liveaboard trip. We drove about 4 hours down to Stock Island on Monday afternoon from Lake Worth, Florida where we live. We dined at the Rooftop Café in Key West, as we arrived about 2 hours early for the 7:45 pm preboarding briefing. The dinner was lovely, romantic, and the food was pretty good, but the weather was iffy - very cloudy and rainy out. In fact, it had been raining at home all week, so we checked the marine forecast about a day before heading out and we were not happy with what we saw, but we hoped for the best.
We were welcomed aboard at the marina by Melanie (Wookie’s better half), who stated that we were the last to arrive, although we were about 25 minutes early. Everyone else (the crew and other 6 passengers) had dined together. We were extremely surprised to learn that there were only 8 passengers. We got settled in, set up our dive gear, filled out waivers and other paperwork, and then headed below to select bunks. We were lucky to find one of the small rooms of 4 bunks (2 sets of bunk-beds cordoned off with a curtain from the main sleeping area) empty and available. We were lucky to enjoy the room to ourselves. We managed to sleep together in one bunk most every night. It was cozy!
The weather went from bad to worse over the week. I would say the seas started out at 2-3, went to 3-5, and averaged at about 3-4 for most of the week. The wind blew almost constantly. We barely ever saw the sun in 5 days of diving.
The food was ample and satisfactory. I have a pretty unique diet, but was able to find enough to eat. I was especially grateful for the daily morning oatmeal and fresh fruit. Other meals were a little tougher for me, as I don’t eat beef, pork, poultry, fish, flour, white rice, or white potatoes. Kevin seemed to enjoy most of his more conventional meals and especially enjoyed the desserts and treats.
The diving was a mixed bag. Inside the park, where the sea was calmer, the visibility was awful. I experienced the lowest viz dive (10ish feet) ever. You could tell that the site would have been very pretty, in better weather. Outside the park, in the reserve, the viz was much better, but the sea was much rougher. On most of the reserve dives there was a thermocline, so I alternated between a 3 mm full and 5 mm full, both with hooded 3/5 vest. The extent of the marine life was vast in both locations. On my most exciting dive I saw a squid, but Kevin and I missed the mooring pin and essentially the dive site, went too far north and came out about 100 yards from the boat. They crew threw out the very long tag line for us, and we were grateful to pull ourselves to the boat, rather than swim. We didn’t make a mistake like that again. Apparently some other divers went even further off course and required a dingy ride home. Dingy rides became a theme over the next few days. Divers were not finding their way back to the boat under their own power and we were scolded as a group several times. Also, in dive briefings we were told that certain parts of the site were basically off limits (so we wouldn’t get lost). In all fairness, one or two divers seemed to consistently require assistance on each dive. But, this aspect of the diving seemed a bit more shaming than was necessary. I opted out of one dive a day, so I ended up doing a total of 16/21 dives, because I was tired and the diving was a little more challenging than I had hoped for. The crew called one night dive because of conditions.
Highlights: squid encounter; tweaking my new gear; clean, stable, very well run/maintained boat; personable/safety conscious crew, funny conversations; I could see how this could be an amazing trip in better weather.
The worst moments: getting up the ladder in rough seas; dingy lectures; vomiting into a garbage bag on the dive deck.
We were welcomed aboard at the marina by Melanie (Wookie’s better half), who stated that we were the last to arrive, although we were about 25 minutes early. Everyone else (the crew and other 6 passengers) had dined together. We were extremely surprised to learn that there were only 8 passengers. We got settled in, set up our dive gear, filled out waivers and other paperwork, and then headed below to select bunks. We were lucky to find one of the small rooms of 4 bunks (2 sets of bunk-beds cordoned off with a curtain from the main sleeping area) empty and available. We were lucky to enjoy the room to ourselves. We managed to sleep together in one bunk most every night. It was cozy!
The weather went from bad to worse over the week. I would say the seas started out at 2-3, went to 3-5, and averaged at about 3-4 for most of the week. The wind blew almost constantly. We barely ever saw the sun in 5 days of diving.
The food was ample and satisfactory. I have a pretty unique diet, but was able to find enough to eat. I was especially grateful for the daily morning oatmeal and fresh fruit. Other meals were a little tougher for me, as I don’t eat beef, pork, poultry, fish, flour, white rice, or white potatoes. Kevin seemed to enjoy most of his more conventional meals and especially enjoyed the desserts and treats.
The diving was a mixed bag. Inside the park, where the sea was calmer, the visibility was awful. I experienced the lowest viz dive (10ish feet) ever. You could tell that the site would have been very pretty, in better weather. Outside the park, in the reserve, the viz was much better, but the sea was much rougher. On most of the reserve dives there was a thermocline, so I alternated between a 3 mm full and 5 mm full, both with hooded 3/5 vest. The extent of the marine life was vast in both locations. On my most exciting dive I saw a squid, but Kevin and I missed the mooring pin and essentially the dive site, went too far north and came out about 100 yards from the boat. They crew threw out the very long tag line for us, and we were grateful to pull ourselves to the boat, rather than swim. We didn’t make a mistake like that again. Apparently some other divers went even further off course and required a dingy ride home. Dingy rides became a theme over the next few days. Divers were not finding their way back to the boat under their own power and we were scolded as a group several times. Also, in dive briefings we were told that certain parts of the site were basically off limits (so we wouldn’t get lost). In all fairness, one or two divers seemed to consistently require assistance on each dive. But, this aspect of the diving seemed a bit more shaming than was necessary. I opted out of one dive a day, so I ended up doing a total of 16/21 dives, because I was tired and the diving was a little more challenging than I had hoped for. The crew called one night dive because of conditions.
Highlights: squid encounter; tweaking my new gear; clean, stable, very well run/maintained boat; personable/safety conscious crew, funny conversations; I could see how this could be an amazing trip in better weather.
The worst moments: getting up the ladder in rough seas; dingy lectures; vomiting into a garbage bag on the dive deck.
Last edited:
