2009-Florida-Key Largo Diving
\nI wake up early, around 7:30.\u00a0 I am thinking about the dive AND making the video for The Great Barrier Reef job.\u00a0 I work on what I want to say.\u00a0 I rehearse it and change it and figure out how to record it.\u00a0 I wanted to use my camera, but I would have to hold it.\u00a0 I decided to use the laptop to record the message.\u00a0 I practice several time and the first one that comes out good is 20 seconds too long.\u00a0 I make some modifications.\u00a0 It is still long.\u00a0 I speak more quickly.\u00a0 It sounds a little rushed, but that is it.\u00a0 I try to\u00a0 upload it a couple of times and it keeps timing out.\u00a0 I will have to drive to the library tonight or find some other hot spot.\u00a0 I really don\u2019t like not having internet access\u2026
\nSo after waiting for my app to upload I leave a little later then I had hoped.\u00a0 I have to be in Key Largo by 12:30 to check in for my dive.\u00a0 I don\u2019t like being rushed.\u00a0 I also need some shoes to wear for the water.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to wear my hiking shoes\u2026\u00a0 I put the address in ANB that is along the way.\u00a0 I bolt from the hotel without doing a proper checkout.\u00a0 I get my car and apparently it is not on the main bill.\u00a0 I may have to call to confirm.\u00a0 I pay them and am on my way.\u00a0 I follow the directions, but they keep taking me west\u2026\u00a0 I want to go south\u2026\u00a0 I question if I confused ANB, so I go to remove my via, well I put in the address of the hotel I just left, ooops.\u00a0 I get off the highway and then I figure that I screwed it up.\u00a0 I put in the correct address and it wants me to get back on the highway\u2026\u00a0 well I just happen to be at a street mall with a Marshal\u2019s and a Target, score.\u00a0 I go into Marshal\u2019s find the perfect sandals\u2026
\nOn to Key Largo\u2026
\nThe rest of the drive is ok.\u00a0 There is a lot of construction and I was told later that I should taken the highway instead\u2026\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if I would have, but I would also have thought that ANB would have selected that\u2026\u00a0 anyway this is the first time this trip that I actually had to be somewhere at any particular time\u2026well, I made it with 25 minutes to spare.
\nSo, I get there and have to pee!\u00a0 I go to the bathroom and it is locked.\u00a0 I assume that someone is in there.\u00a0 We do the check-in and register for the dive\u2026\u00a0 there is a little more to it then that, but isn\u2019t there always\u2026\u00a0 it has been some time since I have dived.\u00a0 If it has been more than 2 years I have to recertify in the pool all day and take a test\u2026\u00a0 well, I want to dive today, actually in 25 minutes, so I may have slightly exaggerated how long it has been since I last dived\u2026\u00a0 also they tell me that the first dive is a deep dive for some advanced open water divers and they are both wreck dives\u2026\u00a0 well, well\u2026 my cert is just open water\u2026\u00a0 they tell me that I need a guide\u2026\u00a0 I am OK with that.\u00a0 I may be brave, but I am not foolish\u2026 much, a lot, or often (pick two :>).\u00a0 So I get the paperwork all filled out AND I just so happened to bring my PADI card with me\u2026 what a smart boy\u2026 sometimes.\u00a0 I tell them that I need all the gear as I have brought nothing\u2026\u00a0 they fill out the form and whack my credit card\u2026
\nI go to my room and quickly change making sure to bring warm stuff for the boat trip back.\u00a0 I know that I am going to be COLD!\u00a0 I mossey over to the rental shack\u2026\u00a0 renting any kind of sporting equipment is the same\u2026\u00a0 Hi, my name is Rick and I am a renter \u2026.\u00a0 Hans fixes me up with a mask and snorkel and I try on a wet suit.\u00a0 It fits well, slimming even\u2026\u00a0 we go and get on the boat and chit chat\u2026\u00a0 I am a little apprehensive as this is a serious dive.\u00a0 I did not know quite how serious until I read the review later at: http:\/\/fla-keys.com\/spiegelgrove\/.\u00a0 Any way it is a very nice day if not a little cool.\u00a0 The seas are 1-2 feet.\u00a0 Not bad.\u00a0 It takes\u00a0 about 45 minutes to get there.\u00a0 Hans is going over the advanced open water information with another couple who are certifying.\u00a0 Capt Joe goes over all of the safety stuff as we cruise though the mangroves on the way to open water.
\nHans asks me if I need a weight belt\u2026\u00a0 I am a little confused.\u00a0 Of course I need a weight belt, i have nothing remember???\u00a0 Well apparently there was a little mix up.\u00a0 He did not give me a BC (Buoyancy Compensator).\u00a0 This is probably the second most important piece of equipment for a dive, with the regulator being first.\u00a0 I put breathing above floating cuz I can swim, but I CAN\u2019T breathe under water.\u00a0 I ask him to take a look at the BC so I can familiarize myself with it.\u00a0 I remember that you put air in it to compensate for the weights so you can achieve zero buoyancy.\u00a0 That way you get the cool weightless feeling and you don\u2019t have to struggle to go up or down.\u00a0 Well, he looks at me like I have two heads\u2026\u00a0 you don\u2019t have one he asks\u2026\u00a0 to which I reply with the remember I have nothing remark.\u00a0 Well Christie was the one that filled out my form and she also knew that I had nothing\u2026\u00a0 a couple of moments of panic ensure.\u00a0 My biggest fear is that I will not be able to dive!\u00a0 They, of course have a spare one on board.\u00a0 Well, it is not the best looking piece of equipment that I have ever seen, but it works.\u00a0 I later check out the one that I should have gotten and they are nice :<\u00a0 they also have pockets for the weights :>\u00a0 NOW that question makes sense\u2026\u00a0 ok, NOW he shows me how to put air in and how to take air out\u2026\u00a0 remember to be upright and hold the hose up when expelling air\u2026 oh yea, that sounds familiar.
\nWell we are almost ready to hit the water.\u00a0 Hans is my buddy and we will be diving with a couple that are doing the open water cert.\u00a0 hey, wait a minute, Hans is double dipping here\u2026 he has to be here with the couple and I am paying him to be my guide\u2026 hmmm\u2026\u00a0 if I want to dive today, they need to make a couple of things right\u2026\u00a0 I don\u2019t\u00a0 know if I want to spend the money to go again today\u2026\u00a0 I am on the fence.\u00a0 It would be nice now that I know what I am doing again and I know the people. PLUS they should give me the gear for free and supply Hans\u2026\u00a0 maybe I will call and check it out.\u00a0 I am down here\u2026
\nSo as they talk about the first dive I find out that this is the deep dive for the couple\u2019s advanced open water cert.\u00a0 Well, I have NEVER done a deep dive.\u00a0 I am thinking that this should be interesting.\u00a0 Some might think that this may be a little crazy\u2026 well, let me say this about that.\u00a0 First of all it may be a little risky.\u00a0 BUT only if not properly handled.\u00a0 Diving is mostly common sense with a couple of rules regardless of how you dive\u2026\u00a0 one, don\u2019t run out of air, which leads to two, don\u2019t surface too fast, and three equalize your ears!!!\u00a0 Of those, the one I was most concerned about was the equalizing.\u00a0 Hold your nose and blow until your ears pop.\u00a0 I practiced on the boat on the way out\u2026 ah yea, this is coming back\u2026\u00a0 slowly\u2026\u00a0 my open water cert dive was a while ago and it was after a hardy night of festivities\u2026\u00a0 oh yeah, and whatever you, as it says on the cover of the hitchhikers guide, \u201cDON\u2019T PANIC!\u201d
\nI did forget to equalize my mask at first and ended up squishing my face a bit.\u00a0 I also got a little red-eye, but hey.
\nSo Hans showed me the operation of the BC and we are ready to go\u2026 now the point of no return for diving is just like that of sky diving.\u00a0 When that first person jumps, you know that is the way you have to g\u2026\u00a0 well I waddle over look over the edge and jump!\u00a0\u00a0 We follow the rope down and eq on the way down.\u00a0 This is cool! The water is warm and clear and looming below is a really big wreck!\u00a0 Nice!\u00a0 We get to the wreck and my ears are happy and I un-squish my face and I achieve zero buoyancy.\u00a0 Time to check out this wreck.\u00a0 Now if you read the link from above you have determined that this is serious.\u00a0 It is 130 feet down and you can swim through the wreck.\u00a0 Now the people that I am with are newbies and not all that adventurous.\u00a0 I signal to Hans that I would like to go into the ship.\u00a0 He denies the request to go below decks and instead leads us to a pass-through.\u00a0 We got a really good picture of it.\u00a0 It was cool, but I wanted to do more.\u00a0 One of the problems with a deep dive including all the things already mentioned is the fact that you use your air, fast.\u00a0 You can only stay\u00a0 down for 15-20 minutes before you have to go up\u2026\u00a0 also I had to hang with these other people who in retrospect took some cool picture.
\nThe wreck was cool, there were lots of fishies and a huge grouper.\u00a0 I way a green eel and a sea turtle swim by.\u00a0 I wanted to chase him, but I would have had to leave my group behind and I could not signal them.\u00a0 I am sure that part of the equipment that I was supposed to get would have included a knife, so I could have signaled.\u00a0 Read the link, it tells you all about the dive:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/fla-keys.com\/spiegelgrove\/.
\nThen we were off to the wreck cert dive for my advanced cohorts.\u00a0 I thought we just dove a wreck\u2026 well apparently that counted as the deep dive, not the wreck dive, so we travel a mile or so with in pennycamp park to the Bennan.\u00a0 This was a shallower dive so we could stay down longer.\u00a0 This is a natural wreck, meaning the ship actually wrecked\u2026 making it a \u2026 ship wreck.\u00a0 Apparently in 1942 while two ships were staying closer to shore to avoid the enemy (turns out that was a bad plan) they crashed.\u00a0 This is the smaller boat and it lost and sunk.\u00a0 Well the fish like it!\u00a0 There are lots of them.\u00a0 I get a little bored with my camera wielding buddies and my supposed buddy and swim a little ahead.\u00a0 I spot a sea turtle and swim after it a bit.\u00a0 Well, first of all I am not going to catch it, second of all I will completely lose my group\u2026\u00a0 I turn around and swim back.\u00a0 There are lots of\u00a0 colorful fish and the wreck is cool.\u00a0 Lots of jagged metal though\u2026\u00a0 we see several large groupers and various fish.\u00a0 You know the fish you dive\u2026
\nNow this is actually my first real dive.\u00a0 My other dives were in Tampa and the water was cloudy and not very deep.\u00a0 This was much better.\u00a0 I think that we will have to go in Cancun in May.\u00a0 It should be warmer and they have some great sites.
\nAfter our second dive, it is cold.\u00a0 My fingers are their usual dead-white and I am shivering\u2026 I go and change into the dry stuff that I brought.\u00a0\u00a0 Things warm up pretty well.\u00a0 We chit-chat on the way in and the couple offer to share the pictures with me.\u00a0 Sweet.
\nNow I am hungry for internet access and secondarily food.\u00a0 I cruise over to the food store which happens to be next to the library that has internet.\u00a0 I get on and search an AT&T hot spot.\u00a0 Score, there is one right down the road at a Starbucks.\u00a0 I shop and buy the healthy chips and trail mix and bananas and cinnamon raison rolls, yum.\u00a0 Oh, yea, of course I also get some diet dew.
\nWhile there\u00a0 I scope out my dinner options.\u00a0 Now let me take this time out to express how important internet access is to someone whoe does not plan at all\u2026\u00a0 very.\u00a0\u00a0 I do ask the locals and I do have ANB, so I am not without options, BUT, the internet is way better\u2026\u00a0 so I ask the starbys guy where to eat and he tells me 5 doors down is a great place.\u00a0 I look it up and it has good reviews.\u00a0 I am in.\u00a0 the problem is that when I go to look for it I miss it\u2026\u00a0 this is one of those separated highways that I don\u2019t care for because I spend a lot of time turning around\u2026\u00a0 well I turn around eventually when I find there special crossover places and head in the other direction.\u00a0 Well as I was researching dinner plans I came across the Key Largo Conch House.\u00a0 It looked really good and I figured that I would do lunch there the next day.\u00a0 Well, turns out that I was about to drive by it.\u00a0 I thought it was way further up, and in the other direction.\u00a0 This should not be a surprise for anyone that know me.\u00a0 It also used to be called the Key Largo Coffee House.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now how you go from a coffee house to a full blown restaurant I do not know.\u00a0 I drive right on by it and part in the enterprise rent-a-car place. I did not want to turn around twice more to get into their parking lot\u2026 I can walk.
\nThe place is small on the inside, but that have lots of table and tiki torches outside.\u00a0 I sit in the corner at a nice little table.\u00a0 There is one couple in the restaurant.\u00a0 So there is the host, and three waitresses for 3 patrons inside.\u00a0 I am not sure if anyone is sitting outside.\u00a0 But this is a Friday night\u2026\u00a0 I read the reviews and they were good.\u00a0 More importantly then that the food and service were good.\u00a0 I was not overly hungry after eating some chips and a cinnamon roll after shopping.\u00a0 The service was right there and I actually got assistance from all three waitresses.\u00a0 One brought my na beer, one took my order, and another one checked on me\u2026\u00a0 what service\u2026\u00a0 I ordered the conch fritter, you kind of have to at the Conch House, now don\u2019t you, and I also ordered pan seared yellow tuna.\u00a0 They were both very good.\u00a0 I finished up around 9:30 and came back to the room.\u00a0 Both Star Trek and The Fifth Element were on.\u00a0 I switched back and forth between them and chilled.\u00a0 By midnight I was exhausted and went to sleep.
\nNow my room was right next to the pool and I could hear the drone of the pool pump and my air conditioner.\u00a0 That was not too bad, but I woke at 2:30 am and did not sleep too well after that.\u00a0 There was a thwumph that I heard every so once in a while.\u00a0 I am not sure what it was.
\nKey Largo Day 2
\nToday consisted of kayaking and sun bathing.\u00a0 I did offer to helps some people with their boat, but they declined\u2026
\nI have to figure out where I want to stay tomorrow night.\u00a0 I\u00a0 am headed to Key West.\u00a0 I think that I am going to check them all out on line and make sure that they have paid parking and internet access for my laptop.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think I will make reservations.\u00a0 I think I will call a couple before and see the deal, and then take a drive by.\u00a0 It\u2019s not like I have anything better to do :>
\nNow I am off to Starbucks for an afternoon coffee and my internet fix\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2009-Florida-Key Largo Diving I wake up early, around 7:30.\u00a0 I am thinking about the dive AND making the video for The Great Barrier Reef job.\u00a0 I work on what I want to say.\u00a0 I rehearse it and change it and figure out how to record it.\u00a0 I wanted to use my camera, but I would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-florida-2009"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7vq9N-2U","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186,"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions\/186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}