Mailing List Archive

Mailing List: techdiver

Message Display

A bunch of us Virginia Beach tech divers headed south on a trip
master-minded by Capt.  JT Barker. JT got the boats and hotel rooms all
lined up and Rick Atkins provided the logistical support with his "diveshop
on wheels" providing 02 and He fills to both us and FL divers.
Me, JT, Rick, Ike, Dave, Bill and Brad did a overnight non-stop road trip to
Boynton Beach and departed on the Deeper with our doubles, stages and 7
scooters. Capt. Leo Sands was at the helm with the Little Deeper following
in support. We did a dive on the Sky Cliff and we all got introduced to Fl
style diving. Allen Pelstring was there to go diving with us, thanks Alan
for your support and I enjoyed talking with you, see you when you come up.

This involves being dropped upstream from the wreck and then head to the
bottom with your scooter wide open and your ass is on fire and hope the
current did not whip you past the wreck. Ike and I were a bit too
enthusiastic on our decent and wound up on the sand at 200', but we headed
downstream and the Sky Cliff loomed out at us. FL wrecks are pretty sterile
as most are artificial reefs but at least they are more or less in one piece
and are fun to explore.

After we were done we unhooked an upline and did a drifting deco. As we did
not pull the anchor off the bottom we wound up deploying the jon lines
anyway. I was done with my deco first and it was weird feeling to come to
the surface and see no boat in sight. Soon the Little Deeper found us and we
got out.

The next dive was a wild drift dive along the "Hole in the wall". The
current was doing maybe 2 knots or so and we whistled along at 140' next to
this ridge. There were dozens of lobsters in every nook and cranney, morays,
sharks and other cool stuff. Dan Volker was with us and let me tell you guys
he really can out-swim a scooter. He's also a really nice guy and we enjoyed
diving with him.

For this dive one person shot his bag and the rest of us attempted to keep
our buoyancy during our deco, floating with the one person. Well it did not
take more than this dive for us to realize that this pretty much sucks. So
on the Budvar and subsequent dives we used our own bags.
Next we tried Jim Abernathy's boats and did the "Lucerne" (I think) a very
large bulk freighter again at 200'. This time we were with The Man himself,
George, and got to dive with him and Dan on this big wreck. I will attest
that George dives his cave rig on the wrecks just like he says. Heck we were
all in drysuits using steel tanks and aluminum stages.

It was good to meet George in person for the first time, he really does not
have horns on his head, a forked tail or hobnailed boots. George is a nice
guy and we all went out to a pub to have some chow after the dive.

So it is possible to tech dive properly in South Florida. The Dive Shop II
gassed us up and did not hassle us at all for topping our mixes. They really
provided great service and I recommend them and Capt. Sands if you want to
do some serious diving in Boynton Beach.

Thanks again to all the hard work and planning of JT and Rick, thanks to the
hospitality of Alan, Dan & George and the rest of the FL gang. We look
forward to diving with the FL gang up in the Great White North East, where
the water is murky and the pizza is hot.

   Jim




--
Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'.
Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.

Navigate by Author: [Previous] [Next] [Author Search Index]
Navigate by Subject: [Previous] [Next] [Subject Search Index]

[Send Reply] [Send Message with New Topic]

[Search Selection] [Mailing List Home] [Home]