Well I am sad to report I am home,
. We enjoyed 7 days of diving out of 9 scheduled, not bad for FEB. in fla. We dove with Pompano Dive Center and can not say enough about the quality and proffesionalism of that operation, when supporting techdiving. We started on the rodeo 25 at 130 to the sand, moved onto a steady diet of the hydro atlantic, followed by the miller lite, the lowrance, and the sucre. This trip will have maybe earned me my trimix card, have to wait and see what my instructor has to say, it has been a 2 year apprenticeship so far, with alot of dives. The lowrance and the sucre marked the biggest dives I have done to date and proved to be learning experiances as well as going off without a hitch. Run times averaged out to about 90-100 minutes on 25/20 and 18/45.
The only glitch occured on the hydro. The current cranked up to what is considered smoking, toward the end of the dive. I was 4th on the line for ascent and at my first stop I watched as the rebreather guys piled on the line at the tie off. I guessed that for every breather that got on the line, we lost 10'. Bythe time breater number 4 got on the line I was allready making a plan. I had been letting the line slip past me as I watched the show, and i decided to ditch the line and shoot a bag. No sooner had I made that choice, then I saw the mooring ball go past me headed to the bottom. I shot my bag and life was good drifting in the current to finish my time.
Back on the boat the stories started. Turns out the breather team saw the ball comeing and ditched the line. 1 doubles diver crashed back onto the deck, earning the nick name " lawn dart " for the remainder of the trip. The breather diver tasked to be last and pull the chain, followed the ball to the sand, and got it headed to the surface again and pulled the chain. The breather guys and the " lawn dart " got back on the line and drifted out the rest of their time, uneventfull. All is well that ends well, and it was a great trip.
I highly recomend PDC for any shennanigans in Pompano. The shop is where the boat ties up and they bank 21/35, 18/45, 32,36, and 50%. They also boost, so you only get charged for the gas needed to fill what is left, not start over.
Eric
