Oct
23
2009
In the afternoon, we did our third dive of the day on a place called Captain Tom’s Ledge. This was a bit of a deeper dive at 59 feet max, so the top of the surface was a beautiful 86 degrees, while the bottom was a relatively frigid 70 degrees. There is actually a layer of water that you pass through where you can immediately feel the difference in temperature. This is called a thermocline. After coming up from below the thermocline, the water feels like hot tub water. It’s really refreshing since you can start to get chilled wearing such thin layers. The total bottom time was 52 minutes.
Scott worked to get Juanca finished up on his scuba certification while Ana, Laszlo and I explored the ledge. The reef stands along a ledge that drops of to several hundred feet into the abyss. On the other side is a flat sandy surface nearly devoid of life. We stopped to get a photo shoot of ourselves as you can see from the photos below.
Laszlo had to surface due to constant condensation in his mask. But when we got back down, we were treated to a lot of Caribean lobster, moray eels and fish all over the place. We didn’t quite make it to the ledge because the reef was so wide. No bother though, not much to see but black ocean below you.
Ana and me in front of the reef near the sandy bottom of the ocean.
Ana sees something interesting
Maybe it was this Caribbean lobster
An eel poking his head out to see what was going on
Lobsters were everywhere on this reef. Wish they were in season!
Looks like this was taken in a fish tank.
no comments | tags: dive, diver, divers, diving, eels, fish, florida, keys, ledge, lobster, photos, reef, scuba, water | posted in personal, photos, scuba
Oct
22
2009
On our fourth dive of the day, Laszlo and I performed our underwater navigation tests for our Advanced Open Water Certification (AOW). This was Juanca’s first dive as a certified diver, so he, Elena and Ana went off with my camera and took some pictures of themselves. We met back up after the test so some of the latter photos are mine as well.
If you are curious, it takes me 18 kick cycles to travel 50 feet underwater. We stayed under water for 45 minutes and even though we were only 24 feet deep at the max, we used a lot of our air performing the AOW tests, down from 3000 PSI to 850 PSI in the end.
Check out the photos below:
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no comments | tags: advanced open water, AOW, dive, diver, divers, diving, fish, florida, keys, photos, reef, scuba, water | posted in goals, personal, photos, scuba
Oct
21
2009
After our deep dive on the USCGC Bibb, we used our second tank of nitrox (31% oxygen) for this very shallow dive to a max depth of 34 feet on Molasses Reef. The nitrox helped with fatigue and with a strong current. The current during our stay, we were told, was very unusual for Florida. Even so, it was a beautiful dive amongst beautiful animals and other ocean life.
Even though this was a pleasure dive, Laszlo and I practiced kick cycles and compass navigation in anticipation of our navigation dive for our Advanced Open Water certification.
Total bottom time was 52 minutes and I went from 3400 PSI in my tank to only 1800 PSI. Breathing nitrox definitely helped us consume less air, though the shallow depth also helps.
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no comments | tags: AOW, bibb, boat, current, diver, diving, fish, florida, keys, life, navigation, nitrox, photography, photos, reef, scuba, shark, swim, underwater, water | posted in personal, photos, scuba
Aug
12
2009
This was our second dive of the day and was on a reef called Pleasure Reef. It was a shallow dive to abou 26 feet and as a result we stayed down for 41 minutes. I messed around with my new DiveRite compass from K2Scuba. The only complaint I had about the compass was that the wrist strap was way too large. Next time I’ll swap it out for the bungees that it also came with. Towards the end of the dive we started to hear a roaring sound and looked up to see it raining. It only rained for about 5 minutes and stopped. I never even saw a dark cloud the whole day.
One of my favorite fish: French Angel Fish
Ever see it rain under water?
no comments | tags: bibb, blacksburg, center, dive, florida, keys, orion, scuba, ship wreck | posted in photos, scuba
Jul
31
2009
The diver in the photo below just cracked me up when I saw him. At first I only noticed his backup regulator hanging down and for the fact that he was almost literally walking on the sea floor. So, I took this snap shot and only later noticed that his tank strap is not secured either.
The first thing you will notice about really bad scuba divers is loose gear flopping about. Not only does it look ridiculous, it’s also dangerous when they need to reach for their backup regulator and realize it’s floating behind them somewhere. Also, the back up regulator is suppose to be attached somewhere on the divers chest, so that if the dive buddy requires help, they can find and grab the other diver’s backup, unless of course it’s floating behind your dive buddy somewhere. In other words, don’t be this guy’s dive buddy.
Finally, don’t walk on the ocean floor. Not only is it bad style, it’s destructive and just plain stupid.
no comments | tags: blacksburg, diver, florida, keys, nrv, photo, scuba, virginia | posted in advice, photos, scuba
