Florida - our new home

I know, you read our blog to learn about diving but I couldn't resist adding a personal note. Today was an important day for us. Tom, Penny & I have finally completed our move to Florida. We sold our house on beautiful Whidbey Island in Washington state and the moving van arrived today and unloaded an amazing number of boxes and furniture. We overflowed the 16' container we thought would hold the things we weren't going to be using for awhile. And, now the garage is stacked with boxes, tools and furniture. Where does it all come from? I must confess it was reassuring to see the furniture Tom carefully crafted, the sign Greg carved in workshop, the chair that Penny curled up in during cold weather, the tables my uncle made so long ago, the odds and ends of many years of life together. It should be really interesting when we start unpacking the boxes. Well, back to diving...Bo

Blue Grotto 21 May 2009

I went to the Grotto today and it was wonderful. Unlimited viz and not another soul in the the water. I did get a report from the staff there that several of the springs are flooded out though. Make sure you check where you are going to avoid disappointment.

Hoping that the rain ends soon and viz comes back the last couple of weeks has spoiled me.

Carl

DAN Seminar 20 May 2009

Thank you Dr. Alex F. Brylske, Ph.D. Alex is a DAN Training Consultant.
He presented Part 2 in the DAN seminar series entitled "Dive Safety: New Insights and Fresh Perspectives." Addressing a wide range of topics including: the latest information on out-of-air emergencies; how deep diving affects respiration and carbon dioxide retention; how gender and age affect diving and the psychology of decompression illness. This series is very informative and should be available soon via the DAN website www.diversalertnetwork.org
Again, thank you Alex for your time.

Thank you also to Chris, Seth, Casey, Bob, Jer and Chris H. for coming out and spending the evening with us.

Carl

Service Club Park 20 May 2009 Viz Report

You know that we are always glad to report great viz... well sorry, this is not the one that I like to post other than to give you a heads up... I was out with three students yesterday and viz was 1-3 feet. The rain that we so dearly need is clouding the waters. As this weather pattern starts to clear so should the waters. I will let you know how it is the next time I am out.

Carl

May Donut Dive!!!

(note: I'm sorry for getting this out so late, I know that blogs are relevant only if they are timely and will do better moving forward)

What a Donut Dive!!!! 24 people showed up and we all had a great time, new people to the dives, lots of good stuff and of course lots of donuts consumed. Next time there will be even more donuts (and hopefully divers :-). Below is a slide show of the dive. All the items pictured were found, which leads me to:

Air for Donut Dive: $4
Finding a Visa Classic on the bottom: Priceless

The card pictured expired in 2000 and had a few barnacles on it. It may have been down there for a while. That will be the last time they use a credit card to scale a fish on the boat...

Greg

Legend of Larry the Lobster

Great dives out at M5 and Silvertooth today. Viz was 25' at M5 and 15' at Silvertooth. Lots of stuff to see. Went cruising around the reef balls of the Burial Reef and enjoyed seeing all of the different growth in different stages.

But, most of all, saw a LARGE lobster hanging out at Silvertooth today - missing one antenna. Also saw a smaller one hanging out a little further up as well. Lobster at Silvertooth???? Greg

Community of Divers

Hit Service Club today - 82 degrees and 20' of viz. If you can get out this weekend, do it!

I had two divers getting certified today, Jenna and Jordan. It was a lot of fun since the conditions were really good and there were a lot of divers out. For me, the really fun part is seeing the community of divers together. We talked with a bunch of folks about what they were finding and what we were up to out there. When we came back in from our second dive, all of the divers congratulated Jenna and Jordan on getting certified.

It is a great community we are part of and a fun group of people. Greg

Diving is WOW!!!

Headed out to the ledges at 45' directly wnw of Longboat Pass. Top to bottom viz! 77 degrees! Lots and lots of fish. Tropicals included, triggers, butterflies, file and trunks. We headed over to the Orange Tug and had a great dive there with viz enough to see the whole tug. It was almost totally flat out there as well.

Thanks to Capt. Bob for a great day!!! Greg