Report - Key Largo

[Mark Y]

Been in Florida for the last few days. Had an opportunity to dive Key Largo. Did the Spiegel Grove & Frence Reef (the Sand Bowl). Well, since I had absolutely no plans to dive, I didn't bring any equipment (my fishing buddies neglected to tell me that today was an 'off' fishing day). Anyway, I booked two dives and made the three hour drive to dive Key Largo.

The weather was beautiful today - 86 degrees & low humidity. Water temp. was 82 with 1-2 ft. seas at worst. Arrived early to check my rental equip. out. Looked in acceptable condition. Sat around at the dock & caught up on 'Shadow Divers' (anyone else read that?).

Finally we shipped out. Fourteen divers, not too bad. For anyone not familiar with the 'Spiegel Grove', it is an 510 ft. artificial reef. Occassioned by strong current and with depths that max recreational diving limits, it is considered an advanced dive and thus most dive operators ask that you have the equivilant certification or higher.

On a side, I didn't bring any of my c-cards along and the dive shop was kind enough to look up my PADI credintials. The staff member came over with the PADI fax, looking a bit perplexed: "What does 'I'..., 'C'..., 'E'..., stand for? Is it an instructor rating?" He look at me. Oh, what could I say!?!?! While holding my laughter back, I said, "ICE..., Ice Diver." No, I'm not joking... ;D

So I'm buddied up with two guys, native Floridians. We made a dive plan - and jumped. Dropped to the bouy-tie off and made for the bottom. We went against the light current with plans to drift back. I hate rental equipment: the depth gauge read 20 ft. too deep (I know I wasn't at 150 ft. and my mosquito dive computer verified it) and the octo. kept free flowing (not badly, mind you). The fins I had may well have been palm tree leaves. Oh, I forgot. I didn't use my snorkel, which I thought was gonna cause problems as I received 'the eye' from the capt. & divemasters.

All in all, a nice dive. On the way back to the line, the current switched, so we where now fighting a slightly stronger current. I think this tired out one of my buddies and he found an upline and started to ascend. There are six or eight bouys on the Spiegel and he wasn't on the right one, for starters. I could tell from the boat tied to it. It was single hull, while out boat was a catamaran. Well, he didn't understand my gesters and our other dive buddy seemed content to ascend as well. Signaled, 'are you low on air?', but I wasnt clear enough so he didn't understand and kept going up. Well, I don't like to desert a buddy, even if I don't know him, so I made my ascent with the group. Soon 1/2 of the other divers where following us as well. When we surfaced, it was obvious it wasn't our boat sitting there. No, ours was the next one down the line. The three of use went down to 15 ft. and fought the current back to the boat. Oh well.

The next dive, an unimpressive reef, was a max 35 ft. The sealife was small but colorful and a large sting ray entertained us stiring up food. I think my buddies got bored after 50 minutes and wanted to ascend. It was precious doing a 5 minute safety stop when most of the dive was conducted around 20 ft. Ah, the pleasures of diving.

Back on the boat, I don't remember ever having such dry-mouth! I was so thirsty. Can wait to get back to the cool, refreshing waters of Minnesota and my darned rebreather!

Sorry this got to long. It's getting late here and I'm a tad bored . . . so I thought I'd bore you as well!!!