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Richard Pyle did a great job of covering most options, I'll just elaborate on what we do for drift diving the deep Jupiter ledge. The top is around 180, with a wall like ledge dropping to around 230-240. Gulf Stream intrusion is maximal here, and this causes some major changes to normal tech diving. We have to be weighted heavy. We have to carry ALL our gases with us. There is no guarantee the boat will be directly overhead when we want it to be. The captain has to lead us inshore and far upcurrent, as the water collumn does not paralell the reef until you get right on it. On the way down its blowing us out at about 45 degrees to the direction the reef trends. A two hundred foot per minute descent is about what you need to get down with no chance of missing the reef. Once on the ledge, the current does all the work for you , like a big scooter, and often you can cover a mile or more. Since this is typically a spearfishing dive, I can't say we all stay together. Each diver has a float on a reel they send up at their 50 foot stop. Usually we go up in twos or threes, but it is common to get separated when we run in to a big school of grouper or a bunch of big hog snappers. Warsaw grouper well over 100 pounds are also common here. The gun of choice is the 60 inch double barrle Ultimate, with Pat Frain's 9mm disposable powerheads for no muss or fuss. His 444 Marlin version of same, takes care of unwanted visitors who refuse to leave... this will take a 25 foot Great White like "Jaws", and turn him into a "charred smoking remnant of what he once was". The reality is this might happen in one dive of 30---usually they are easily persuaded to leave without incident. The boat follows the ledge profile and the bubbles( if its a calm day). A normal surface float can not be used. It would: A)pull you out into deep water far offshore;B.) Cause far to much exertion to be safe for anyone to use, and C), Sometimes there is a direction change in the currents on the way down--when this happens you are swimming down fast one moment, and the next you think you just hooked a speed boat and you are getting dragged upwards and back; So we never pull a float down with us, and we dont put one up until the current we are in is definitely the same one the float is in. When our planned bottom time is up (usually around 25 minutes) we fully inflate BC's (blow and go) and reach 100 feet very fast! We dump at 100, wait 3 minutes, and do a normal ascent to 50 feet, where we deploy a float. Every one has there own, but if we are in a group, of course only one float goes up. We use to send fish up like this, but tired of this habit after losing them to sharks and cudas too frequently. When we keep them with us the deco is less boring anyway. By the time we finish our last O2 stop at ten feet, the boat is frequently near by, unless someone else drifted along way off and came up sooner. We generally don't have to wait more than a few minutes on the surface to get picked up. Regards, Dan Dan Volker 407-683-3592
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