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Florida, West Palm Beach, 1999
Diving Solutions, Inc.
On a typical day in Orlando, I dropped into Diver's Outlet on I-drive to see what charter lists they had available. They had a whole binder of course, but a small flyer got my attention, something about drift diving. Hmmmm. I have done that before, but not on purpose. Nothing like a 70 yard surface swim to drive hard the meaning of a learning experience. Now I would use my entire inflatable dinghy as a float. Problem solved.
The company is Diving Solutions Inc. So far so good. I never saw a more flexible pricing schedule. 36 bucks for hacks like myself who have everything including tanks. (complete package for those whose luggage ended up in Anchorage: 75 bucks). Better: three dive times, 7:45AM, 12:45PM, and 5:00PM. That's great, those few who know me will tell you that any dive occuring inside of "sleep it off" hours will have me puking after the first dive and DURING the second (my buddy would rather drown than share a regulator). They have two slots on the 12:45PM trip. Good. The guy on the phone says "be there at 12:15". What? No anal-retentive measures to probe your existence to make sure you are there? Just: "be there". I like this already.
So on Sunday Morning I roll out of bed, push-start my car, and head down 192 to I95 and onto WPB. This trip takes 2 hours. I understand that some of you poor deprived divers have to board a plane for this kind of trip. I feel for you. (chuckle) So I was a little early. So by the time the boats got back from the morning run, I was half into my full wetsuit with booties and my knife strapped onto my leg (Seahunt style, on the inside). Things got a little hectic at the dock because the people coming off the boats bump into the people anxious to get on. How the crews keep track of this is beyond my limited scope. So, some waiver signing, the crews prep the boats. Stuff like that. I ended up in someone's vacation photo "the strange guy with the knife." Oh well.
They have two boats, actually, the Seacure and the Spot. Which one do I get to dive from? Being a straggler (not with a group), that would be the last thing to find out. This sort of thing never bothers me. In the Air Force, I have been one of the last to get on the transport planes, dumping my beer out on the runway as I climb the ladder..... So they put me on the Seacure. I liked this boat: big and clean and very reminiscent of the "Orca" from Jaws. I found myself humming "Farewell and Adeu" and thinking of toasting to swimming with bow-legged women. Unlike some future reefs that I have dived from, this boat was very well kept and notably uncluttered. Clutter is important: the more a boat has, the harder it is to gear up in a rolling sea. The Seacure has a neat system of using bungie cords to hold tanks upright against the side rails. When returning from dives, the divemaster would sit the diver down on the bench, and put the cord over the tank valve, the tank was then rock-solid in place and removing the BC was like getting out of a seat belt. Having had many a gear-up/gear-down wipe out on small "hard-hulled day boats", this was a luxury.
Before I get to the diving, I must write about the crew. I have a bias against anybody who is not me (hey, it's an attitude problem, but just a little one.), so I expected an "I am more elite than thou" crew. I was surprised at how professional these guys were and at the same time, they did not have that "kiss the tourists' ass" attitude that always makes people seem condescending. I actually liked them. And for me to like anybody is extremely rare.
Ok, here is the dive report. Drift diving at sixty feet in roughly 40-50 feet visibility and a temp roughly where a full wetsuit is comfortable. 2 tanks. The current was not as strong as usual this day, but strong enough. Ahhh, I remember the many time I tried to compass-navigate in current like this, looking for the anchor line in flat sand..... The eels were shy. Some spotted eels and a big (really big) Moray. The Moray was visible only by it's tail and it would not budge. A local diver (says he dives every weekend) says that this particular eel might have been in a bad mood. Wierd still was this strange little white fish that hovered vertically and, as I approached, it swam backwards down into a hole in the sand. Never expected that one. What was that? The reefs on this dive were some of the best I have seen. A divine art gallery. Most of the fish were of the kind I remember from watching the educational channels. Nothing big and no Cudas. What was big were the lobsters. This is bothersome. Weeks before mini-season and I am finding some really huge lobster without even looking for them! Everywhere I looked, there was an antenna. But go back there when mini-season starts and they will be gone. I swear, THEY KNOW! I suspect that somewhere off the shore of southeast Florida, there is a little Stonhenge, perhaps a "Lobsterhenge", that those bugs use to know the date. I will prove this theory someday.
The crew provided much to drink and snack on, and they even cut up some pineapples. There was no reason to be dehydrated or hungry on this boat. Although it, like most large dive boats, is a cattle boat, the atmosphere was more like a party. The crew has a way of generating a positive attitude that makes you want to "just hit it". No rush, it's not necessary. I liked the water entry procedure for this boat: kind of like a combination between a roll-off and a flying leap. You gotta try this.
They have a rather conservative profile. 30 minutes or until you hit 750 lbs. I think they were less strict for computer users. How funny that I was the only RDP user on the boat and I even forgot to bring the damn card! Funnier: being the biggest air-piggy-vacum on the Eastern seaboard, guess who was the first to hit the air limit on both dives. Yep. Ok, the first dive ran 34 minutes and the tank was down to 400 lbs before the guide noticed. He kept track of who was who and I was me. So I surfaced at 750 lbs on the second dive just to show that I can follow a simple instruction.
Afterwards, a boat full of empty tanks and some satisfied divers, the party resumed and we headed back for port.
Anyone with specific questions call the charter company themselves. Here is the phone
number if you need it:
1-800-797-7771. They also have a website (who doesn't?): www.DivingSolutions.com
The End.
