Thursday, March 22, 2007
I started the trip off appropriately with a Jack & Coke in AC at 5am. A majority of us took the morning flight out of AC, so we got together to chat before boarding. I naturally got stuck sitting next to a bulky muscle guy, and I don’t want to talk about it. After arriving in Fort Lauderdale, my carpool group and I took the long route to the car rentals, and then got lost getting to the turnpike. Shortly after some navigation, we got back on the turnpike in time for the monsoon and drawbridge. We arrived mid-day at the hotel, I think. The weather was overcast, but somewhat warm. It looked bad.Everyone took some time to inspect the pool, which because of the wind was quite chilly the entire trip. The hotel wasn’t too shabby. The girls had a nice suite with a living room and kitchen, so dubbed “the hang out.” After roaming around, we broke off in groups to shop for random food and supplies for the weekend. I got water, beer, and fruit… which worked out perfectly.I can’t remember when we did stuff for dinners, so I’m assuming the first night we got seafood. I got the Caesar salad with chicken. It was good.
Friday, March 23, 2007
Friday we arrived at the dive boat at 9am. We met our enthusiastic divemaster Nick, and boarded. The first reef was relatively boring, as there wasn’t too much going on. I didn’t bring my camera, but it was fun picking photo subjects out for Pete. Did I mention a lot of people were either throwing up or nauseous?The boat was fairly spacious and the crew was great. Despite the bad weather, morale was high… in part due to our group’s high spirits and Nick’s over-enthusiasm, haha.The second dive was to a finger reef, I think. I’m sure this is all wrong. It all happened at some point though during the trip though, I swear. The dive was very shallow so we were able to stay down an hour. The high coral bluffs sheltered a ton of sea life, and it turned out to be a great dive.Shortly after arriving back at the hotel, a bunch of people wandered around the pool or played with Adam’s dingy. The afternoon consisted of drinking, sunbathing, swimming, snacking, etc.I think this night we went to some local restaurant that I guess was famous. I think a guy named “rocketman” or something was singing. It was NOT my thing. Food, again, was awesome. I got the coconut shrimp/fish/chicken. I forget what we did after that, probably drank a little. We were beat from getting tossed around on the water, so I think we headed to bed early.
Saturday, March 23, 2007
We did two reefs, same story, haha. I’m not a reef guy. But the diving was relaxing and exactly what I needed. Again, it was fun finding stuff with Pete. We saw a few rays, dolphin topside, huge barracuda, a nurse shark… again maybe some of that was on Sunday. Who knows? Oh yeah, more sick people with surprisingly high morale. We did some more pool lounging in the afternoon. Afternoon drinking carried into an evening BBQ. Evening BBQ carried into more drinking… and a showdown at the big chess board. Checkmate! Then a few of us went to the local bar within walking distance. After a victorious match at the pool tables by us guys (barely), we played some picture matching… so addicting. Then we went back.
Sunday, March 23, 2007
We started off with the Thunderbolt, a cargo ship I think. The down line went to the bow, which sat at 80’ or so. 20’ aft was the deck, which sat at around 100’. Another 20’ or so aft started the superstructure which was about 20’ thick. After that sat a cargo bay which was maybe 40’ long, then another 30’ or so of deck to the stern. Pete, a random guy and I hit the down line and hovered at around 80-90’ as we headed aft. We passed the super structure and inspected the cargo bay a little. The bottom of the bay was easily 120’ so we didn’t venture deep on our 80 cu ft tanks of air in an effort to extend our bottom time. We hit the stern, but there wasn’t much to look at besides a few holes. The prop sat deeper as well, so we just turned around. We hit the superstructure at around 70-80’ and penetrated a clear opening in the back. Lots of windows and doors provided a safe swim-through. The visibility was fantastic and the swim-through made the dive. It was very peaceful inside. A swim to the bow and up the line ended the dive. No current allowed for some nice hovering for the safety stop. Verrry cool dive.We did a reef dive with a ton of lobsters after that… or maybe the one with the… ok, no idea.More seafood at the seafood place… Caesar salad with scallops this time. Also good. The festivities for the night, well, are classified.
Monday, March 23, 2007
I’m too tired to type. We went home…
Blair 2 (Jr)
