D-w-G 2 report

After 186 emails, not counting "pings", a few dozen phone calls and much
wondering about it, the "Dive with Greg II" finally got under way.

My weekend started with a dinner with my family before heading south
around 7 PM on Sat. Able to reach "Bonefish" in time to catch most still
eating, and remove the offending limbs from our honored guest before he saw
me coming. Pleasure to add Ronnie, Janna and Andy to the have-met list
before heading out to my room.

In the morning, loaded my gear into Lee's truck for the ride, then
breakfast (only one) with Lee, Rick & Limey before heading south. Due to
the local knowledge to take the Turnpike instead of I-95 & US #1 to Florida
City, we were well ahead of the early starter, who managed to catch & pass
us just in time to miss the turn into the dive shop. After my bad
navigation last Feb, was glad to relinquish the title.

As we started loading up on the boat and setting up gear, realized I had
forgotten my "V" weight. Turns out I had stored it at home rather than tote
it all over Florida, hadn't been in the ocean since last September. In
fresh water, my light canister eliminates any need for it, probably should
have brought it from Lee's, but figured I didn't need it. Damn.
Ended up after some fast figuring least offensive options with a drop
weight, started it out on the tow ring, out of the way, or so I thought.
Figured out that wasn't gonna be comfortable on the first descent, so spent
a few minutes over the deck yanking it out of places it wasn't meant to be
and ended up moving it to my scooter ring. Worked ok there, other than the
appearance of a set of lead boys dangling, reminding me of that silly
Red-Neck fad from the hitch of the 4 x 4. Hopefully no pictures
pending.....
Anyways, other than dealing with a big dangly on my otherwise clean
harness, enjoyed two great if short dives, getting to see about everyone
underwater at least once.

Since Greg already ratted us out, figure might as well mention we
decided to make the second dive a traverse, coming up what seemed like an
adjacent line but realizing we were a tad farther away than we thought. Not
having enough time to do the return traverse we decided to give AJ some
practice at skippering drift divers, as he released the mooring ball we
released ours. He scored a 9.99 in coming up so we drifted into him and we
were able to load up much quicker than the other 8 who passed the PADI
Underwater Navigation Specialty.

Evening outing for most of us was some place down in Islamorada, where
the non-beer drinker did get to enjoy too loud but not bad music, a
fantastic sunset and company of the highest quality. Yeah, I did inhale a
Double Whopper on the way home, not on a diet, just figured the fried snack
foods were not gorilla fare.

Loaded my gear back into my truck that night before retiring, or should
I say passing out, ready for a long drive home with a minor detour to
decontaminate my gear. Caught up with Andy, on his way home also, to try a
cavern excursion.

Arrived in the early PM near Ocala to find Andy, his tanks getting
slowly filled for the dives. Seems the boosters had broken down, and the
fill station was only doing a few CFM. Creativity once again, rather than
waiting for mine to fill I pulled out a spare stage harness and accepted one
of his stack of full AL80s, figuring I could dive a stage and use my
remaining back gas in reserve. Worked out overall very well, two very
pleasant dives with a guy who can call me anytime he wants to go cavern
diving again.

Toss out question, what do you use a snorkel for while scootering in a
small cavern? Anything like catfish whiskers?

Home again, and this weekend will be breaking down 3 sets of dubs for
VIP, 2 manifold overhauls, and getting my new stage bottle ready, Father's
Day is coming.

Curtis

"Magilla" wrote:
> Since Greg already ratted us out, figure might as well mention we
> decided to make the second dive a traverse, coming up what seemed like an
> adjacent line but realizing we were a tad farther away than we thought. Not
> having enough time to do the return traverse we decided to give AJ some
> practice at skippering drift divers, as he released the mooring ball we
> released ours. He scored a 9.99 in coming up so we drifted into him and we
> were able to load up much quicker than the other 8 who passed the PADI
> Underwater Navigation Specialty.

Next time we'll run a string for you to follow. That's about all you
see in Manatee, right? Last time I went there, all I saw was yellow
string and Cindy's ass.

Thanks for organizing this Curtis, we appreciate the work that went
into it.

"Al Wells" wrote

> Next time we'll run a string for you to follow. That's about all you
> see in Manatee, right? Last time I went there, all I saw was yellow
> string and Cindy's ass.

I'll hold comment on the ass bit, except I bet you had your fingers on
the line.

Hmmm, gold line between mooring balls, arrows with the ball's numbers, a
cookie on our up line.......we'd be fine, but the others would get lost for
sure.

> Thanks for organizing this Curtis, we appreciate the work that went
> into it.

Very welcome, was fun, just hope I covered most of the bases.

Curtis