It was a long period of preparation and paperwork, but we finally were on the way. We arrived in Miami Florida on Aug 6th and picked up a big 15 passenger van and drove south the FLA Keys on our way to Sea Base! We stopped at a restaurant on the water in Key Largo and saw huge Tarpon swimming off the docks and had a nice seafood meal. The drive was pretty as we were on the spit of land that juts down as a string of islands all the way down the keys to Islamorada. Further south is Key West but we stopped short of that (about another hour or two). We arrived at Sea Base excited for the Scuba Adventure to come.
We got there just at the right time as we were the first crew to arrive. Our Divemaster “Scott” was a great seasoned veteran who had two adult boys who had been eagle scouts and he came down for the summer to hang out with the scouts and lead dive teams. He was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic and we all really learned a lot and enjoyed his company. As we were the first crew, everything as far as swim and scuba check-in went much faster than planned so we were so far ahead of schedule that we completed the next days scheduled tasks and were all done! In preparation we had gone up to PA in June for our open water scuba certification in a big freezing quarry after completing classwork in May in Vienna at the dive shop. We had all our equipment and certification in advance as that was required for the specific scuba adventure we had signed up for. The other option is to get certified at Sea Base but we wanted to focus on diving and not the certification work so we did it in advance.
Monday Aug 7, we had the morning off as we had completed all our check-in activities and loaded the boat with heavy tanks and waited for the other crews to complete check-in activities. That afternoon we went out for our first dive! We finally got into the water and had our first taste of diving. The first site we went to we caught the mooring in the propeller and tore it up and it was very windy so we abandoned the site and went to a shallower reef for our first dive. It was great although windy and the visibility was far better than the quarry in PA but more turbid than is usually the case in FLA. We all successfully rallied with our divemaster and had no issues with the dive. Some other crews lost their dive master and had to be recovered but we stayed together with our buddies and dive master as we were trained. We then picked up and hit a snorkeling site as well were we played around and saw different fish. We were surprisingly tired after the diving and after ensuring we had taken care of all our gear and tanks for the next day, we had dinner and slept well that night in our barracks (there was a cantina with milkshakes and other food and a game area to decompress).. After each trip, we sat with our divemaster and recorded each dive pattern in terms of air pressure usage, depth and bottom time as well as the type of dive and what we saw. We recorded all the results in our dive books and had the divemaster sign them off. This helps keep a running record of all your diving.
Tuesday – 8/8/17 – Our first full Scuba day! Got up for a 7:00am service (part of our Duty to God requirement). Then went to breakfast and got our gear loaded on the boat. Our Divemaster said to check the tanks for air pressure before bringing them to the boat. Good advice as the other crew ended up carrying back 4 very heavy tanks they loaded that ended up being less than full.
We brought two tanks for a two tank Dive day. On the way out, the boat captain saw porpoises and started turning in circles and the porpoises followed the wake we were making and were leaping out of the water as we circled!
The weather was very windy with big chop and like the first day, we abandoned the site we planned to go to in order to find one closer to shore. When we got there, we had to Giant Stride off the boat to get as far away as possible as the boat would rise and slam down again due to the waves. These boats are 46 foot Newtons and can handle big waves with dual John Deere Diesel engines.
The water was murky with only about 12 feet visibility. But, we still saw reef coral and fish. There were fire coral and sgt major fish and a big ray about 4 feet wide! A barracuda was also seen.
When we got out it was really hard as the railing swung and back of the boat was smashing to and fro. We made it back onboard and several of us were Sea sick despite taking Bonine as some of us had. We then motored to the second site and there was surge but a little less. This site also had beautiful coral and maybe 15 feet of visibility. It is hard to stay with your Dive buddy when you can hardly see them 10 feet away.
Still, it was a fun dive. Our sickest scout didn’t feel up to the second dive as there was quite a bit of sickness going overboard just before that dive. We then picked up and went to a third site that was calm and went snorkeling. Everyone went and we participated in BSA snorkel and then we were cut loose to have fun jumping off the boat. We saw a crab under a rock.
Everyone felt better after that relaxing swim and we ate lunch at that site. We came back that evening and took a class on Reef Conservation that was very interesting. Some of us got milkshakes or other snacks and played games like checkers and 4 square before going to bed. Sure is tiring to Scuba dive. You get very dehydrated from the dry air and feel fatigued and want to sleep. The weather is supposed to get better with less wind in a couple of days.
Wed -8/9/17 – Big Day. Rescheduled the Night Dive to Wed to avoid possible tropical depression. Today was a 3 Dive Day!
We went out in the morning to Davey Crocker Reef. The Captain invited both Tommy and James L. to drive the boat! That was pretty nice. Wind was much calmer than the first two days and we could really see clearly underwater! Davey Crocker Reef is easy to navigate as it is like swimming along a wall. We saw all kinds of interesting life such as multiple Moray Eels. They are big and green with sharp teeth. We saw a crab and fish called Sgt Majors along with Trumpet Fish that are shaped like a trumpet with a big long nose. We were also excited to see some sharks. They were Nurse Sharks. One was sleeping and was really big (probably 10 feet long and very fat). We did not disturb him.
The second Dive was at Davis Reef which is one we were scheduled to go to previously but had aborted due to weather. Here we saw more sharks along with a Black eel with leopard print markings and beautiful trigger fish and spiny lobster. Spotted a good size Black Grouper. Some of us patted the tummy of a Buddha and a little fish named sparky would nibble your finger when you touched the Buddha (someone planted the cement Buddha in the ocean). We had fun snorkeling as well and were excited the night wasn’t over.
We ate dinner and then jumped into the boat with our gear for the night dive. It can get heavy carrying the air tanks and gear around. We were all issued flashlights and another tank lite so others might see us if we were lost. We dove in and investigated the Reef at night. We saw a lot of nocturnal creatures. Lots of crabs and lobster were out at night. We saw the poisonous Lion fish that are invasive and are taking over as they have no predators. We saw quite a few eels as well. Were excited to see a school of 6 spotted eagle rays swimming in formation with 6 foot wingspans along with a turtle that was seen by a few of us.
Our Dive Master Scott had the day off so missed the change in schedule. Our replacement Divemaster Eggs, was laid back and let us go on our own. We did fine. Our regular boat captain (Ian) was cranking the tunes so we could jam while heading to our dive sites. He was a colorful guy.
Florida Sea Base Historian’s Report: 8/10/2017-8/11/2017
We were now in the middle of the week; past the middle, actually, with a few more days left till our adventure ended. I remember the first dives at the beginning of the week – even the tiniest fish filled us with adrenaline; however, by now it had all become routine. Wake up at 7:30, flags, breakfast – which seemed to always include scrambled eggs – head to our dive, and yet now it was clear: we were no longer new to the program.
The dives usually consisted of all types of fish, main attractions usually being – spotted eagle rays, lobsters and crabs, lionfish, barracuda, sharks. Usually when we got back, we’d be drained from the dives we had done, and usually it was two, though tomorrow it would be three dives at a time.
Thursday’s dive we visited the dive sites Pillars of Atlantis and Landing Strip. At the pillars, it featured ten pillars sunken in 26 feet deep water, in a bowling pin formation with 25 feet of visibility. At the Landing Strip however, fish were easily more visible with 35 feet of visibility. Both dives proved to be quite exciting. After we arrived back at the dock, not only did we have to unload and clean our gear, but also, we had to load up three more tanks onto the boat – in preparation for tomorrow’s dives.
Friday – second to last day. Same routine, same old. However, with three dives in a row, it would be the most dives done in a day this week besides the day with the night dive, and even the day with the night dive had a couple hours separated between the second and third. With these dives, there would be a shorter surface interval. After following our usual schedule, we arrived at our first dive site, the Benwood Wreck.
This was no ordinary wreck of rubble; it was a shipwreck, a sunken ship that apparently collided with another boat. Reason? Back in WWII, boats thought it’d be a good idea to turn off lights during the night to avoid detection by German U-Boats. Consequently, collisions can occur. The shipwreck had mostly been cleaned out on the inside, but it didn’t matter – all the cool stuff was on the outside.
Our next destination after ascending was French Reef. I think it was here where I almost got pinned under a rock tunnel and gotten stung by fire coral (and it’s called fire coral not because of its look, but more of what it does to you) and barely crawled out. Our next dive location, Molasses, had a more generous swim through which was a lot larger.
When we came back after three dives, we were quite wasted from the dives. However, tomorrow would be the last day. I would say we slept well.
Report for 8/12/2017- 8/13/2017
On Saturday we could only have one dive because of the decompression sickness guidelines. Saturday was like a regular day we had breakfast packed her a lunch gather gear and hopped on the boat for another day of diving.
We only had one dive today and it was in the morning but we all made account knowing that it would be our last time for a while. Personally I really enjoyed our Captain named Ian. Who constantly played music and told funny jokes and even let some people drive the boat including myself. We arrived back on land and then the cleaning process for gear started. We put our used tank back to be filled and then took a BCD’s and fill them with water and shake our packs around and then drained the water so no salt water would get stuck inside the BCD causing it to mold and possibly ripping the BCD. After this we were all given the Scott test which our instructor named Scott would hold our BCD over us and drain the excess water onto our head. Most of us did a good job of draining our packs. After this we hung up our flippers put away our BCDs and cleaned or personal gear including snorkel and mask.
The rest of the day was a very relaxing day we spent most of it cleaning our stuff and packing up for the big day that was ahead of us tomorrow. We had lunch on base and dinner was the LUAU!! The luau was Saturday night and was filled with many games such as volleyball tug-of-war and other fun games. After games we had a friendly limbo contest which James Ye represented Troop 55 very well. After the limbo contest we feasted with an all out meal. There are many types of seafood kabobs meatballs tacos. We finished our meal went back upstairs showered and finish the packing we want to get as much rest as we could because we knew we had a long day the next day. The next morning we said goodbye to the other crew from Minnesota, had breakfast, and finish packing. We packed up the van and headed out from there. We stopped at a place called Robbie’s only five minutes from Sea Base and saw many manatees and large Fish (Tarpon) that we were able to feed. We continued along the road and stopped at a nice restaurant for brunch. Being refueled we hit the road again and didn’t stop until we hit the airport at the airport we checked in the car, checked our luggage and boarded the plane. We had very nice seats with entertainment systems after 2 1/2 hours we were back in Washington DC. Being picked up from the airport by Mr. Smith and Ms. Bashar we went back to St. Francis and were picked up by our parents.
For more information regarding sea base high adventure:
http://www.bsaseabase.org/
