knightdiver
12-07-2010, 10:37 AM
I had the bestest time, although short! I arrived late (after seeing UCF win the Conference Championship Game) and joined everyone at the Fish House Saturday night for some chowder. It was conch, if you need to ask. I was expecting Spiegel Grove and a reef, but I was informed over chowder that plans had changed to USCGC Duane and Spiegel Grove. What a great surprise! I only was there for one boat trip and I got in two wrecks.
Special thanks to Peter for putting it all together, and to Patty and Ed who pulled out the closet linen for the sofa, and let me make a sandwich in the morning for the boat. Oh yeah, Patty for giving hell to the rowdies in the condo below who wouldn't shut up. That did the trick! Sleep ensued. Ed, your sandwich was great. I hope you didn't mind my turkey sandwich.
The boat crew from Conch Republic Divers were super. Even though I had just joined the group for this one trip out, the whole crew refered to me by name - even the ones I hadn't met yet. Hmmm? What also impressed me, and something I haven’t seen with other operators, is that I was given a choice between aluminum and steel and between yoke and DIN. Also, the last two operators I used in the Keys only offered EAN 30 and tanks were on the boat before I got to see them. At CRD, they banked 40 and mixed to order, and took me into the mixing room to see both the psi and O2 analysis before I signed and they loaded up. The ride out in the morning was cool (light windbreaker worked fine).
Dives on the two wrecks went flawlessly. Vis was pretty good (60’ ish), and my 3mm was fine, but I’m still saving for a BARE 5mm. Good marine life at both sites, with more barracuda on the Duane and more variety on the Spiegel Grove IMO. I’m still hoping to see sharks on one of these dives but no luck this time. SG had several schools of Jack and I thought more reef fish. SG also had more swim-throughs. My max on Duane was 108’ and on SG was 91’.
I glanced through my photos and they’re all pretty crappy. Sorry. Hopefully others will have some good pics to post.
Total trip - 28 hours. Driving - 10 hours. Good times - priceless.
Thanks to all.
Some pics taken on the Duane by Tim Grollimund
http://www.scubadiver.cc/forums/gallery/files/2/timg2.jpg
http://www.scubadiver.cc/forums/gallery/files/2/timg1.jpg
Special thanks to Peter for putting it all together, and to Patty and Ed who pulled out the closet linen for the sofa, and let me make a sandwich in the morning for the boat. Oh yeah, Patty for giving hell to the rowdies in the condo below who wouldn't shut up. That did the trick! Sleep ensued. Ed, your sandwich was great. I hope you didn't mind my turkey sandwich.
The boat crew from Conch Republic Divers were super. Even though I had just joined the group for this one trip out, the whole crew refered to me by name - even the ones I hadn't met yet. Hmmm? What also impressed me, and something I haven’t seen with other operators, is that I was given a choice between aluminum and steel and between yoke and DIN. Also, the last two operators I used in the Keys only offered EAN 30 and tanks were on the boat before I got to see them. At CRD, they banked 40 and mixed to order, and took me into the mixing room to see both the psi and O2 analysis before I signed and they loaded up. The ride out in the morning was cool (light windbreaker worked fine).
Dives on the two wrecks went flawlessly. Vis was pretty good (60’ ish), and my 3mm was fine, but I’m still saving for a BARE 5mm. Good marine life at both sites, with more barracuda on the Duane and more variety on the Spiegel Grove IMO. I’m still hoping to see sharks on one of these dives but no luck this time. SG had several schools of Jack and I thought more reef fish. SG also had more swim-throughs. My max on Duane was 108’ and on SG was 91’.
I glanced through my photos and they’re all pretty crappy. Sorry. Hopefully others will have some good pics to post.
Total trip - 28 hours. Driving - 10 hours. Good times - priceless.
Thanks to all.
Some pics taken on the Duane by Tim Grollimund
http://www.scubadiver.cc/forums/gallery/files/2/timg2.jpg
http://www.scubadiver.cc/forums/gallery/files/2/timg1.jpg