ktkt
Contributor
Sorry for the length, I like to hear myself talk!
Summary: I spent about 9 mostly full days diving, mostly with Ocean Divers or Silent World, occasionally shuffled over to Amoray. I was extremely pleased with boat staff, content but not thrilled with the diving, and very disappointed with booking/sales aspects. I stayed at the Pelican; nearby I found the highlight of my trip, tons of dwarf seahorses and some other critters. I got to meet Pete and Elena for dinner, and they sent me off dreaming of upside down jellies, with my pockets full of SB stickers
Very happy with mates Max and Lindsay (Lizzie?) at Ocean Divers, Capt. Todd with Silent World, and Capt. Mike at Amoray (total character).
First the ugly. This report is rather overdue, largely because I find it uncomfortable to give bad reviews, but I had some really unpleasant experiences to share.
I did not book in advance for the beginning of my trip, but the afternoon I arrived, I stopped by Ocean Divers essentially because their schedule sounded good to me and they were super close to my hotel. This turned out to be a good choice as other boats did not seem to be going out when I arrived. Somewhat rough seas, but still fine with me, except one day, which you'll hear about later. Based on their schedule, I expected to be able to spend 8-9 trips before my friend arrived in town, so I went ahead with their 10 punch card instead of the 5 punch ($65 per trip vs $70).
In retrospect, I wish I hadn't done that, as I was only able to spend 5 trips after they cancelled several trips (one due to boat trouble, and then other people didn't sign up to night dive). I am mostly to blame for this decision, but they did reassure me before I bought my punch card that cancellations were super rare, so I was really not pleased about this. I should have asked them to give me a refund so that I only paid for 5 trips, but a) I didn't think of it at the time, and b) who knows if they'd have gone along with this anyway.
I am even more frustrated with Silent World. I emailed Silent World to ask about booking after they seemed helpful on my SB post asking how far in advance to book. I very clearly stated that my buddy was essentially a newly certified diver and that we wanted to do all shallow reef trips and asked if that was possible with what they had scheduled. They said sure, they could do that, but we should book quickly, as spots were filling up. This was complete bull**** -- it turns out they had wreck double dips scheduled for several of the trip slots we asked about (one of which was nearly full), but the rest of the time, at most one other pair was booked on their 12-pack boat. I even double checked on our booking the day before it was supposed to start to make sure everything was in order, and they were not upfront at this point either. I came in to the office to fill out paperwork and confirm all was good to go, and they asked, "You guys can go shallow or deep, right?" I replied "What, no!" and reminded them that my buddy had no previous ocean dives whatsoever, as I had mentioned in my email, and as she had discussed with them over the phone. We didn't find out that the wreck trips were scheduled until the day before the first one.
We would have been perfectly fine if the original answer had been "Well, we can get some of those trips out to the reefs, but not all. We have a couple nearly full wreck trips scheduled, but otherwise things are pretty wide open." Furthermore, when we wrapped things up at the end of our trip, some mysterious hidden/wrong fees materialized. I did end up doing the wrecks without my OW buddy, and there was an extra charge for each of these (while using their punch card). It was something fair given their far north location, like $5, but it is not disclosed on the website, and no staff member informed me about it before the trips. Second, I was wildly overcharged for my nitrox tanks. The day before wreck diving, I requested big tanks. The captain told me they'd be $10 each for air or $14 each for Nitrox. When we were wrapping things up at the shop before leaving town, I was charged $25 each. We needed to get to the airport, so I just paid it to get out of there, but I need to call and settle this still.
(I should note that we showed some bad judgement and actually considered doing the wrecks with my new buddy. Didn't end up doing it, but we were kind of waffly. Instead we should have stayed firm and reminded them what we had already agreed to, only shallow dives.)
All they needed to do was be honest, and we would have been very satisfied customers. As is, while I loved the boat and captain, I'm left with a very bad feeling about the shady business practices.
Next time I go to Key Largo (and I pretty much have to, as I have dives I've already paid for), I will make any new bookings with another of the shops people recommend, rather than spending more money at Ocean Divers or Silent World. Furthermore, I won't bother with advance bookings in the off season at all.
On to the diving:
I mostly enjoyed my dives, but there was not a lot of wow factor. I did see some great stuff, but that felt like the exception, not the rule. There was not as much life on the wrecks as I expected (due to the relative youth of the wrecks, maybe, which I didn't really think of), and I never did luck into great vis on my trip. There was tons of soft coral at the various reef sites, which was nice but they all seemed incredibly similar to me.
New to me critters/experiences: goliath groupers, hogfish, descending right into the middle of a big school of barracuda (great time to be leading the dive, eh?), comb jellies, bristleworms. Also, the first time I've spotted anemone shrimp and arrow crabs on my own, rather than with a guide's help. I was also treated to an excellent tour of the City of Washington by a huge freeswimming moray.
Day 1 (OD) in which the trip does not start off on the right foot:
Originally, I had planned to do a shallow reef trip first, since it had been a month since my last dive, and I always have to spend my first dive of a trip remembering how to breathe. However, they only had a boat going out to one of the wrecks, so I decided to go for it anyway. No luck, my first morning there, there is boat trouble. They thought they might get it fixed and just leave late, so we waited around a bit, but then OD just cancelled the morning boat. They expected the afternoon to go out; great, I'll start with a reef after all.
I show up again in the afternoon. All other divers have cancelled. Crap. I ask if they will call the couple that was supposed to be on the morning boat with me (though they only do wreck trips). The equipment room guy comps my Nitrox after all the hassle, which is a nice gesture that I appreciate after waking up at 7am for no reason. That works out and we head to the Duane. The couple I'm diving with has done the local wrecks approximately a billion times each, so they know it very well. We have a nice dive with some excellent swimthroughs and a shark camped out on deck. It's a little short due to my remembering how to breathe.
Second dive at Molasses. We spot a juvenile drumfish and a tiny filefish.
Day 2 (OD):
I luck into an excellent for me buddy for the morning. We head out to the Spiegel, and I get to lead the dive. Buddy is happy with my slow pace and uses air at almost exactly the same rate as me. We do some nice swimthroughs, including a beautiful long one all the way across the deck. On the second dive at French Reef, my buddy sees an octopus that I scared, but of course I totally miss it. The octopus inks and all.
The afternoon reef boat heads to Molasses. Maybe 15 divers on the boat vs 3-6 on the wreck boats. I end up with two other singles. One was an excellent buddy; the other kept effing swimming off and disappearing on us. The one who stuck with me was pretty new, and I sort of got to play tour guide for him. We did a nice swimthrough on one dive, and I found a nice big crab and a moray being cleaned on the other.
Day 3 (OD):
Worst diving day of my life. About as miserable as I can be without an actual disaster/emergency. See "growing experiences" below.
Day 4 (OD):
Another dive on the Duane with the first couple I dove with, followed by Molasses. I take the afternoon off to meet my friend arriving in town.
Day 5 (OD/SW): Friend is scheduled to sleep off jetlag in the morning, while I head off to my last planned wreck dive. Booked with Silent World. However, I'm the only one, so they let me head over to Ocean Divers again, which I request, since at least I know some of the other divers on the boat by now. Back to the Spiegel, and I dive with the same couple that's been giving me good tours so far. This time it goes bad -- they head into a real penetration, clearly not a swimthrough. (This is forbidden by the boat, by the way.) As I am the third one through on our swimthroughs, they are both in before I get to the entrance and fail to see the exit. I use my light to get their attention and let them know that I am not going into the dark tunnel. They proceed through while I wait outside, and then they come around to fetch me. Not ideal, but it only took a minute, and I did know exactly where I was on the wreck and how to get back to our mooring line if they didn't come back quickly. I was pretty grumpy at this point, and very glad I had no more trips on the same boat with them. (For those who know the wreck, the entrance is a little forward of the port crane, maybe around 90ft. It goes by a handful of cutouts on the port side before heading into the dark and coming out I have no idea where, since I didn't go.)
Second dive is the Benwood, which I rather liked, but buddies kept swimming too fast.
In the afternoon, I finally got to dive with my friend, out with Silent World. We head to the City of Washington. She has a minor freakout before we descend. I put my rescue training to use, calm her down, and inflate her BCD while she's flailing a bit, getting tossed around by the little waves. We sit on the boat for a few minutes to regain composure, and then she's ready to try again. I splash in first this time (which I should have done the first time), and everything goes fine. I think it was her first free descent; I keep a smaller buddy distance than usual, staying within touching distance for reassurance. We meet our first goliath grouper, and he's HUGE. He's also basically snuggling right up next to us.
We spent a little time trying to get a decent hover, while over the sand, and then poked around the wreck a little. Friend is in love! You can just see the "OMG! Look at that fish, and that fish, and that fish!" in her eyes. The dive is super short after all the initial stress, but just making that first boat dive is a big accomplishment
Capt. Todd is totally cool with me snorkeling while we wait for the other pair on the boat, and I spot a little shark and a school of very cool fish that are kind of like needlefish, but more like sausages with a spike on the nose.
Second dive (Mike's Wreck) is much better, and we spot many more firsts for my friend.
Day 6 (Amoray/SW):
We head to the SW docks bright and early. We learn that we are the only ones booked, so we are getting handed off to dive with Amoray. Phone call would have been nice. We head over to Amoray. Friend hasn't yet learned to keep her cert card with her gear, but Amoray is able to look her up, so on the boat we go. One of their captains, Mike, is mate for the day, and he's a riot. First dive at the Christ statue, and we dropped in pretty much right on top of it. Friend is still getting the hang of things and has a tendency to scull a lot. I demonstrate clasping my hands together in an attempt to get her to calm those hands down. She gives me a weird look but eventually tries it. Later I learn she first thought I was telling her to pray. Second dive at North Dry Rocks. The dives are nice, and she even spots some critters I miss, like a little spotted moray.
I mostly like the Amoray boat (except some seats have no space under them), but I rather dislike the long ride from bayside to oceanside, so I probably would not book with them on purpose.
In the afternoon, we head to Carysfort, first north, then south. I lost track of navigation and had to gopher for the boat, but then I made a perfect leisurely beeline back using my compass, and my sense of distance covered was pretty spot on.
We... hit some rocks while moving over to the second site. Captain thought a buoy had been moved. He did some mysterious captain-like stuff, and we made it off just fine without having to call for help. The prop apparently sustained some damage, but the boat was good to go again the next morning.
Friend starts feeling congested that night and decides to take the next day off to be on the safe side.
Day 7 (Amoray/SW):
A cold front had rolled in the previous night, so it was super chilly this morning. SW sent me and one more diver over to Amoray again. Got an inexperienced buddy again, so I was playing tour guide again. First dive was at Horseshoe, and I royally screwed up the nav and got back a little late (I did surface to signal the boat, so they knew we were on the way). Felt horrible about holding everyone up in the chill. However, I found my most awesome finds on this dive. Some nice big anemones, one with anemone shrimp and one with an arrow crab, plus a few extra arrow crabs (with blue claws, whee!) in some little hidey holes. Buddy had to get extra weight from the staff to get down, but so did half the people on the boat. He was a great buddy after getting all that sorted out. Highlight of our second dive, at North North Dry Rocks, was cruising with a friendly turtle for a while.
I took the afternoon off to hang with my friend.
Day 8 (SW):
Friend is still not feeling well, so I have the same buddy as yesterday morning. Back on the SW boat, we hit the City of Washington and Mike's Wreck. I actually requested these again, since I barely saw them with my friend the other day. Sharks on both dives, and my favorite part was a trio of lobsters all sharing a little ledge.
Afternoon is a double dip on the Spiegel. A dive shop from further north in FL has a large group taking up most the boat, and then there are a couple tech divers. The tech divers do a single deco dive together; I nab the two divers from the big group who are not in a class. They are rather inexperienced and haven't been to the Spiegel, so I agree to lead. We have a short but nice tour of the cranes on the first dive and then a bunch of swimthroughs on the superstructure on the second. One of them is not so great on air (and is very focused on his camera, especially as the big grouper cruises by), and did not really stick to our agreed pressure for being on the line. (I got us in view of the line in time for him to do so, but he was sort of screwing around.) I came up with about half the air in my big tank I paid too much for. I felt a bit silly about having paid the extra (not that I knew how much extra it would be yet), but then again, I guess the situation in which your not so experienced buddy is a relative air hog is exactly when you want plenty of extra air, just in case.
Day 9 (SW):
Friend is still congested, so no diving. She does decide to come along and snorkel on the afternoon boat. Morning is the 2x Spiegel again. I buddy up with my morning buddy from the last two days again (he has time with the wife in the afternoons), and one of the tech/doubles divers from yesterday joins us for our first dive (then stays down when we're done). I pretty much have my beginner tour down by now. Buddy enjoys it a lot, and spots a lionfish that we see on both dives. I found comb jellies near the surface after our safety stop, which was totally awesome.
Afternoon dives are back at Dry Rocks and Horseshoe. I buddy up with the doubles guy from yesterday (his girlfriend is on the boat doing OW training). I tried my best to find some more anemones, but had no luck. We did find a nice big moray hiding out.
There are things besides diving:
+ The snorkeling/swimming near the Pelican was by far my favorite part of the trip. I think I found around 10 different seahorses, the biggest one about an inch tall, and sometimes they were hanging out in pairs or trios. I also found a couple gorgeous nudis around the docks, a couple little pipefish, lots of weird "sea bugs" I couldn't name, amazing lime green shrimp, and probably more I'm forgetting.
+ I would definitely stay at the Pelican again. Rooms weren't fancy, but the beds were comfortable, staff was helpful, and the seahorses can't be beat! It was also the best deal I found with a quick search.
+ We had a scheduled non-diving day. We spent most of it taking naps, not going to the Everglades as we originally imagined. But we did drag ourselves down to the fossil reef park in Windley Key, where I saw the coolest spider I have ever seen, a black/white/red spiny orb weaver. Whoa. And the fossils were pretty nice as well.
"Growing experiences":
+ One of my trips out to the Duane was on a day with 5-8ft seas, according to the OD captain. I had an incredibly rough time on the line trying to get to the mooring ball and used way more air than I should have. At the ball, I was not feeling good about continuing on the dive, so I signaled to the other divers that I would return to the boat. (I was in a team of 3, and the other two came together, so they just went on with the dive.) I fell off the ladder on my first attempt getting back on the boat (didn't help that forearms were totally cramped up from holding onto the rope for dear life). Hooray for always keeping my reg in until I'm basically back at my seat on the boat.
I spent the next hour getting sicker and sicker. Though OD doesn't usually do double dips, the captain decided to do one after consulting the two couples diving. I was feeling so horrible that I didn't even attempt the second dive. I just sat focusing on the horizon, eventually fed the surface fish, and waited for it all to be over.
I know sometimes you just have a bad boat trip, but boy is it painful to realize you just spent $65 for the joy of riding out to sea to be seasick for a couple hours. Still, I don't regret calling that dive; it was clearly the right move for me.
+ Declining the penetration, sheesh.
+ Suck it up and get some Bonine, just in case.
+ When you decide to practice air sharing on your safety stop, do not be lazy and just spit your own reg out before popping in the spare. You could very well get a freeflow right in your face knocking your mask around, which makes the whole drill much harder. Doh.
+ Logbook gets better info if you fill it out right away. A month later, you don't remember quite as much.
+ Trying to take photographs in surge is not so fun. Don't be afraid to leave the camera on board.
Summary: I spent about 9 mostly full days diving, mostly with Ocean Divers or Silent World, occasionally shuffled over to Amoray. I was extremely pleased with boat staff, content but not thrilled with the diving, and very disappointed with booking/sales aspects. I stayed at the Pelican; nearby I found the highlight of my trip, tons of dwarf seahorses and some other critters. I got to meet Pete and Elena for dinner, and they sent me off dreaming of upside down jellies, with my pockets full of SB stickers
Very happy with mates Max and Lindsay (Lizzie?) at Ocean Divers, Capt. Todd with Silent World, and Capt. Mike at Amoray (total character).
First the ugly. This report is rather overdue, largely because I find it uncomfortable to give bad reviews, but I had some really unpleasant experiences to share.
I did not book in advance for the beginning of my trip, but the afternoon I arrived, I stopped by Ocean Divers essentially because their schedule sounded good to me and they were super close to my hotel. This turned out to be a good choice as other boats did not seem to be going out when I arrived. Somewhat rough seas, but still fine with me, except one day, which you'll hear about later. Based on their schedule, I expected to be able to spend 8-9 trips before my friend arrived in town, so I went ahead with their 10 punch card instead of the 5 punch ($65 per trip vs $70).
In retrospect, I wish I hadn't done that, as I was only able to spend 5 trips after they cancelled several trips (one due to boat trouble, and then other people didn't sign up to night dive). I am mostly to blame for this decision, but they did reassure me before I bought my punch card that cancellations were super rare, so I was really not pleased about this. I should have asked them to give me a refund so that I only paid for 5 trips, but a) I didn't think of it at the time, and b) who knows if they'd have gone along with this anyway.
I am even more frustrated with Silent World. I emailed Silent World to ask about booking after they seemed helpful on my SB post asking how far in advance to book. I very clearly stated that my buddy was essentially a newly certified diver and that we wanted to do all shallow reef trips and asked if that was possible with what they had scheduled. They said sure, they could do that, but we should book quickly, as spots were filling up. This was complete bull**** -- it turns out they had wreck double dips scheduled for several of the trip slots we asked about (one of which was nearly full), but the rest of the time, at most one other pair was booked on their 12-pack boat. I even double checked on our booking the day before it was supposed to start to make sure everything was in order, and they were not upfront at this point either. I came in to the office to fill out paperwork and confirm all was good to go, and they asked, "You guys can go shallow or deep, right?" I replied "What, no!" and reminded them that my buddy had no previous ocean dives whatsoever, as I had mentioned in my email, and as she had discussed with them over the phone. We didn't find out that the wreck trips were scheduled until the day before the first one.
We would have been perfectly fine if the original answer had been "Well, we can get some of those trips out to the reefs, but not all. We have a couple nearly full wreck trips scheduled, but otherwise things are pretty wide open." Furthermore, when we wrapped things up at the end of our trip, some mysterious hidden/wrong fees materialized. I did end up doing the wrecks without my OW buddy, and there was an extra charge for each of these (while using their punch card). It was something fair given their far north location, like $5, but it is not disclosed on the website, and no staff member informed me about it before the trips. Second, I was wildly overcharged for my nitrox tanks. The day before wreck diving, I requested big tanks. The captain told me they'd be $10 each for air or $14 each for Nitrox. When we were wrapping things up at the shop before leaving town, I was charged $25 each. We needed to get to the airport, so I just paid it to get out of there, but I need to call and settle this still.
(I should note that we showed some bad judgement and actually considered doing the wrecks with my new buddy. Didn't end up doing it, but we were kind of waffly. Instead we should have stayed firm and reminded them what we had already agreed to, only shallow dives.)
All they needed to do was be honest, and we would have been very satisfied customers. As is, while I loved the boat and captain, I'm left with a very bad feeling about the shady business practices.
Next time I go to Key Largo (and I pretty much have to, as I have dives I've already paid for), I will make any new bookings with another of the shops people recommend, rather than spending more money at Ocean Divers or Silent World. Furthermore, I won't bother with advance bookings in the off season at all.
On to the diving:
I mostly enjoyed my dives, but there was not a lot of wow factor. I did see some great stuff, but that felt like the exception, not the rule. There was not as much life on the wrecks as I expected (due to the relative youth of the wrecks, maybe, which I didn't really think of), and I never did luck into great vis on my trip. There was tons of soft coral at the various reef sites, which was nice but they all seemed incredibly similar to me.
New to me critters/experiences: goliath groupers, hogfish, descending right into the middle of a big school of barracuda (great time to be leading the dive, eh?), comb jellies, bristleworms. Also, the first time I've spotted anemone shrimp and arrow crabs on my own, rather than with a guide's help. I was also treated to an excellent tour of the City of Washington by a huge freeswimming moray.
Day 1 (OD) in which the trip does not start off on the right foot:
Originally, I had planned to do a shallow reef trip first, since it had been a month since my last dive, and I always have to spend my first dive of a trip remembering how to breathe. However, they only had a boat going out to one of the wrecks, so I decided to go for it anyway. No luck, my first morning there, there is boat trouble. They thought they might get it fixed and just leave late, so we waited around a bit, but then OD just cancelled the morning boat. They expected the afternoon to go out; great, I'll start with a reef after all.
I show up again in the afternoon. All other divers have cancelled. Crap. I ask if they will call the couple that was supposed to be on the morning boat with me (though they only do wreck trips). The equipment room guy comps my Nitrox after all the hassle, which is a nice gesture that I appreciate after waking up at 7am for no reason. That works out and we head to the Duane. The couple I'm diving with has done the local wrecks approximately a billion times each, so they know it very well. We have a nice dive with some excellent swimthroughs and a shark camped out on deck. It's a little short due to my remembering how to breathe.
Second dive at Molasses. We spot a juvenile drumfish and a tiny filefish.
Day 2 (OD):
I luck into an excellent for me buddy for the morning. We head out to the Spiegel, and I get to lead the dive. Buddy is happy with my slow pace and uses air at almost exactly the same rate as me. We do some nice swimthroughs, including a beautiful long one all the way across the deck. On the second dive at French Reef, my buddy sees an octopus that I scared, but of course I totally miss it. The octopus inks and all.
The afternoon reef boat heads to Molasses. Maybe 15 divers on the boat vs 3-6 on the wreck boats. I end up with two other singles. One was an excellent buddy; the other kept effing swimming off and disappearing on us. The one who stuck with me was pretty new, and I sort of got to play tour guide for him. We did a nice swimthrough on one dive, and I found a nice big crab and a moray being cleaned on the other.
Day 3 (OD):
Worst diving day of my life. About as miserable as I can be without an actual disaster/emergency. See "growing experiences" below.
Day 4 (OD):
Another dive on the Duane with the first couple I dove with, followed by Molasses. I take the afternoon off to meet my friend arriving in town.
Day 5 (OD/SW): Friend is scheduled to sleep off jetlag in the morning, while I head off to my last planned wreck dive. Booked with Silent World. However, I'm the only one, so they let me head over to Ocean Divers again, which I request, since at least I know some of the other divers on the boat by now. Back to the Spiegel, and I dive with the same couple that's been giving me good tours so far. This time it goes bad -- they head into a real penetration, clearly not a swimthrough. (This is forbidden by the boat, by the way.) As I am the third one through on our swimthroughs, they are both in before I get to the entrance and fail to see the exit. I use my light to get their attention and let them know that I am not going into the dark tunnel. They proceed through while I wait outside, and then they come around to fetch me. Not ideal, but it only took a minute, and I did know exactly where I was on the wreck and how to get back to our mooring line if they didn't come back quickly. I was pretty grumpy at this point, and very glad I had no more trips on the same boat with them. (For those who know the wreck, the entrance is a little forward of the port crane, maybe around 90ft. It goes by a handful of cutouts on the port side before heading into the dark and coming out I have no idea where, since I didn't go.)
Second dive is the Benwood, which I rather liked, but buddies kept swimming too fast.
In the afternoon, I finally got to dive with my friend, out with Silent World. We head to the City of Washington. She has a minor freakout before we descend. I put my rescue training to use, calm her down, and inflate her BCD while she's flailing a bit, getting tossed around by the little waves. We sit on the boat for a few minutes to regain composure, and then she's ready to try again. I splash in first this time (which I should have done the first time), and everything goes fine. I think it was her first free descent; I keep a smaller buddy distance than usual, staying within touching distance for reassurance. We meet our first goliath grouper, and he's HUGE. He's also basically snuggling right up next to us.
We spent a little time trying to get a decent hover, while over the sand, and then poked around the wreck a little. Friend is in love! You can just see the "OMG! Look at that fish, and that fish, and that fish!" in her eyes. The dive is super short after all the initial stress, but just making that first boat dive is a big accomplishment
Capt. Todd is totally cool with me snorkeling while we wait for the other pair on the boat, and I spot a little shark and a school of very cool fish that are kind of like needlefish, but more like sausages with a spike on the nose.
Second dive (Mike's Wreck) is much better, and we spot many more firsts for my friend.
Day 6 (Amoray/SW):
We head to the SW docks bright and early. We learn that we are the only ones booked, so we are getting handed off to dive with Amoray. Phone call would have been nice. We head over to Amoray. Friend hasn't yet learned to keep her cert card with her gear, but Amoray is able to look her up, so on the boat we go. One of their captains, Mike, is mate for the day, and he's a riot. First dive at the Christ statue, and we dropped in pretty much right on top of it. Friend is still getting the hang of things and has a tendency to scull a lot. I demonstrate clasping my hands together in an attempt to get her to calm those hands down. She gives me a weird look but eventually tries it. Later I learn she first thought I was telling her to pray. Second dive at North Dry Rocks. The dives are nice, and she even spots some critters I miss, like a little spotted moray.
I mostly like the Amoray boat (except some seats have no space under them), but I rather dislike the long ride from bayside to oceanside, so I probably would not book with them on purpose.
In the afternoon, we head to Carysfort, first north, then south. I lost track of navigation and had to gopher for the boat, but then I made a perfect leisurely beeline back using my compass, and my sense of distance covered was pretty spot on.
We... hit some rocks while moving over to the second site. Captain thought a buoy had been moved. He did some mysterious captain-like stuff, and we made it off just fine without having to call for help. The prop apparently sustained some damage, but the boat was good to go again the next morning.
Friend starts feeling congested that night and decides to take the next day off to be on the safe side.
Day 7 (Amoray/SW):
A cold front had rolled in the previous night, so it was super chilly this morning. SW sent me and one more diver over to Amoray again. Got an inexperienced buddy again, so I was playing tour guide again. First dive was at Horseshoe, and I royally screwed up the nav and got back a little late (I did surface to signal the boat, so they knew we were on the way). Felt horrible about holding everyone up in the chill. However, I found my most awesome finds on this dive. Some nice big anemones, one with anemone shrimp and one with an arrow crab, plus a few extra arrow crabs (with blue claws, whee!) in some little hidey holes. Buddy had to get extra weight from the staff to get down, but so did half the people on the boat. He was a great buddy after getting all that sorted out. Highlight of our second dive, at North North Dry Rocks, was cruising with a friendly turtle for a while.
I took the afternoon off to hang with my friend.
Day 8 (SW):
Friend is still not feeling well, so I have the same buddy as yesterday morning. Back on the SW boat, we hit the City of Washington and Mike's Wreck. I actually requested these again, since I barely saw them with my friend the other day. Sharks on both dives, and my favorite part was a trio of lobsters all sharing a little ledge.
Afternoon is a double dip on the Spiegel. A dive shop from further north in FL has a large group taking up most the boat, and then there are a couple tech divers. The tech divers do a single deco dive together; I nab the two divers from the big group who are not in a class. They are rather inexperienced and haven't been to the Spiegel, so I agree to lead. We have a short but nice tour of the cranes on the first dive and then a bunch of swimthroughs on the superstructure on the second. One of them is not so great on air (and is very focused on his camera, especially as the big grouper cruises by), and did not really stick to our agreed pressure for being on the line. (I got us in view of the line in time for him to do so, but he was sort of screwing around.) I came up with about half the air in my big tank I paid too much for. I felt a bit silly about having paid the extra (not that I knew how much extra it would be yet), but then again, I guess the situation in which your not so experienced buddy is a relative air hog is exactly when you want plenty of extra air, just in case.
Day 9 (SW):
Friend is still congested, so no diving. She does decide to come along and snorkel on the afternoon boat. Morning is the 2x Spiegel again. I buddy up with my morning buddy from the last two days again (he has time with the wife in the afternoons), and one of the tech/doubles divers from yesterday joins us for our first dive (then stays down when we're done). I pretty much have my beginner tour down by now. Buddy enjoys it a lot, and spots a lionfish that we see on both dives. I found comb jellies near the surface after our safety stop, which was totally awesome.
Afternoon dives are back at Dry Rocks and Horseshoe. I buddy up with the doubles guy from yesterday (his girlfriend is on the boat doing OW training). I tried my best to find some more anemones, but had no luck. We did find a nice big moray hiding out.
There are things besides diving:
+ The snorkeling/swimming near the Pelican was by far my favorite part of the trip. I think I found around 10 different seahorses, the biggest one about an inch tall, and sometimes they were hanging out in pairs or trios. I also found a couple gorgeous nudis around the docks, a couple little pipefish, lots of weird "sea bugs" I couldn't name, amazing lime green shrimp, and probably more I'm forgetting.
+ I would definitely stay at the Pelican again. Rooms weren't fancy, but the beds were comfortable, staff was helpful, and the seahorses can't be beat! It was also the best deal I found with a quick search.
+ We had a scheduled non-diving day. We spent most of it taking naps, not going to the Everglades as we originally imagined. But we did drag ourselves down to the fossil reef park in Windley Key, where I saw the coolest spider I have ever seen, a black/white/red spiny orb weaver. Whoa. And the fossils were pretty nice as well.
"Growing experiences":
+ One of my trips out to the Duane was on a day with 5-8ft seas, according to the OD captain. I had an incredibly rough time on the line trying to get to the mooring ball and used way more air than I should have. At the ball, I was not feeling good about continuing on the dive, so I signaled to the other divers that I would return to the boat. (I was in a team of 3, and the other two came together, so they just went on with the dive.) I fell off the ladder on my first attempt getting back on the boat (didn't help that forearms were totally cramped up from holding onto the rope for dear life). Hooray for always keeping my reg in until I'm basically back at my seat on the boat.
I spent the next hour getting sicker and sicker. Though OD doesn't usually do double dips, the captain decided to do one after consulting the two couples diving. I was feeling so horrible that I didn't even attempt the second dive. I just sat focusing on the horizon, eventually fed the surface fish, and waited for it all to be over.
I know sometimes you just have a bad boat trip, but boy is it painful to realize you just spent $65 for the joy of riding out to sea to be seasick for a couple hours. Still, I don't regret calling that dive; it was clearly the right move for me.
+ Declining the penetration, sheesh.
+ Suck it up and get some Bonine, just in case.
+ When you decide to practice air sharing on your safety stop, do not be lazy and just spit your own reg out before popping in the spare. You could very well get a freeflow right in your face knocking your mask around, which makes the whole drill much harder. Doh.
+ Logbook gets better info if you fill it out right away. A month later, you don't remember quite as much.
+ Trying to take photographs in surge is not so fun. Don't be afraid to leave the camera on board.
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