Keys Trip Report 1/7 - 1/15

diverreb

I left Dover, DE bright & early on Friday morning with a carload of gear. Made it to Titusville, FL by 11:00 PM and grabbed a room. Saturday I headed down to Boynton Beach to hook up with a friend and hit a few of the local dive shops. Sunday we chilled and I worked on the O2ptima. This was to be my first extended dive trip and warm water experience with the unit.

We stayed at Ocean Point Suites at mm 92.5. Great place to stay. $180.00 a night for a spacious two bedroom Condo. (Total, including taxes.) Washer Dryer, full size Frige, microwave, stove/oven, two TV's etc. Two of us split the cost.

Only negative ...... Don't loose a Key there.... It cost $64.00 to replace as they change the lock with every lost key. My buddy found that out.

My dives were set up with Conch Republic Divers in Tavernier during the week and with Silent Diving and the SCRUBS rebreather group on the weekend.

We got to the Keys Monday in the afternoon after talking with Brenda the day before and being blown out the first day of diving. Not a great start to the Trip. I had been warned by friends about the weather in the Keys in January. Fortunately their prognostications were dead wrong. We went out every day after that.

Topside weather was sunny & 82 or so everyday but the last day with an occasional shower.

Conch Republic & Silent Diving were both super operations to dive with.

They both had no problems with rebreathers and also let us drop gear lines so we could hook our bail outs on and off in the water.

All the week day dives consisted of a deeper dive, either reef or wreck followed by a shallow reef dive. Conditions varied from flat calm to a little bumpy, but not uncomfortable. Water temps were between 73 & 75. Vis was good. Marine life, especially on the reefs was very prolific. Both dives on the Duane had a ripping current & I wimped out on those. We dove the Spiegel Grove, Eagle, Conch Wall, and an assortment of shallow reefs. With the exception of the Duane dives the currents were mild to nonexistent. The boats are not crowded during the week this time of year and Conch Republic will run as long as there are two divers willing to go. We ran with three up to seven divers. Gary, Brenda, Dean, Jim and the whole staff couldn't have been more helpful and as a group are extremely customer service oriented.

The O2ptima performed admirably. Not a single issue in 8 days of diving. For the most part I just rinsed the unit every day & broke it down for a full fresh water rinse every other day. Disinfected the unit in the middle of the trip. I changed batteries & cartridges every other day, except on the Rebreather weekend, where I changed them daily, as the dives were a little longer.

I brought down three sets of AL 20's for the Breather & two 120 cf HP tanks with O2 filled to 3800 psi and two 100 cf HP tanks with my dil (20/45) filled to 3800 psi for fills. I also brought the mini booster & shop compressor, which was a waste, as I had plenty of gas to trans-fill the whole time. I also use a six cf tank attached to my backplate to fill my wings which I topped off daily.

We cooked in some and went out the other nights. Food was excellent.... Gotta love those Jumbo Stone Crabs...

Tuesday a cold front came through and the winds kicked up. We opted out of the dive and I packed & hit the road by noon. I stopped at DR Express on the way up to drop off my regs for overhauls and pick up a few other goodies. Mark was in the house and we chatted a bit. Then I hit the road and stopped off for the night in Walterboro, SC. Left there at 9:00 AM the next morning & was home in Dover by 7:00 PM.

What a great trip.... Eight days of wonderful warm water diving. So good in fact that I'll be heading back in April for a few weeks..... Ted Green is doing a KISS class from April 15th - 20th and a few other Rebreather divers are coming down to dive at the same time. We'll be looking for some people to join in on the dives and as soon as I get the details I'll post them.

Super way to spend some time in early January. I highly recommend it!

This was the scene from my back yard the day after I got home.... I was tempted to pack up & head South again!

Richie

Attached Images

IMG_0517.JPG (151.1 KB, 65 views)

Dsix36

Nice report. I am glad that the weather cooperated for you. It was a pleasure to finally meet and dive with you.

If I had seen that in my back yard, I would already be back in florida!!!! Yes I am a cold weather wimp.

__________________
THE MORE THAT I LEARN, THE MORE THAT I STILL NEED TO LEARN!!!!!!

eanxdiver

Enjoyed the rebreather dives with you on the weekend group trip. Glad all else went well.

mempilot

Richie,

Great meeting and diving with you! Glad you had an enjoyable trip. I'm looking forward to making it up that way when the weather is errr warmer!

Eric

__________________
MEM "Da Pilot"

Black holes are where God divided by zero.

"If at first you don't succeed, don't dive silent."

"Would you mind not shooting at the thermo-nuclear weapons." ~ Vic Deakins

"Donkey's kill more people annually than plane crashes."