Dive Trip Report to:
Florida Keys - Tavernier - Conch Republic
Purpose:
To Wreck Dive In The Keys
Dive #1:
Monday, 05-July, Morning Dive. My Dive #215
A. Dive Boat / Location:
Republic II /
Eagle
B. Conditions:
Visibility:
80'
Seas:
1'
Water Temp:
85 (nice and warm)
Skies:
Sunny, Clear Blue Skies
Air Temp:
90's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time:
Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - 112 ft for 38 min
, Me: Analog 110 ft
, Me: Cochran Captain 108 ft for 42 min
Dive Partner R: 107 ft for 37 min
Dive Partner S: 109 ft.
Air consumption:
Me: 3500 - 1000 lb (120 cu ft)
Dive Partner R: 3100 - 750 lb (80 cu ft)
Dive Partner S: 3100 - 750 lb (80 cu ft)
Current:
Light on the surface, none on the bottom
Description:
Well, this dive again was what the
trip to the Key's was about! Diving the
Eagle
.
Another hour boat ride to the wreck site! Again, after jumping in and following the mooring line down, we spotted the ship right near the surface. The Vis had improved! We had preplanned this dive to go to the broken off stern section, down by the prop, around the stern end to the top of the stern section (it's on its side though) and work our way to the bow. We went through the mid ship swim through, into the hold, out the blast hole and down to the bow on the bottom. There, I spotted the bow blast hole - that's where the Jew Fish from the day before disappreared into! We worked our way to the 70' level and back to the stern mooring line - that's where we came down. I had 3 minutes left at that depth and did not want to give up that time. I entered the bridge, it's on a real wierd angle - not perpindicular to the ground level but about 30 degree angle to that.
The monster tarpon were there. When we first came down, I spied a very very big fish going between the broken stern section and the rest of the ship. It looked like the Jew Fish! On getting closer, it was just a very very big tarpon! We did not see the VW Bus size fish on this dive. Some other divers did see it when they first got down. To see this fish, you must be the 1st on the wreck and look real fast, because she'll disappear within 5 minutes of divers bubbles nearby!
Again, on the way up, we went up in 10 ft increments, looking over the Eagle as much as possible!
Dive #2:
Monday, 05-July, Morning Dive. My Dive #216
A. Dive Boat / Location:
Republic II / The Cage
B. Conditions:
Visibility:
30'
Seas:
less than 1'
Water Temp:
85 (nice and warm)
Skies:
Sunny, Clear Blue Skies
Air Temp:
90's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time:
Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - 46 ft for 58 min
, Me: Analog 47 ft
, Me: Cochran Captain - 44 ft for 58 min
Dive Partner R: 40'
Dive Partner R: 40'
Air consumption:
Me: 3100 - 450 lb (80 cu ft)
Dive Partner R: 3000 - 700 lb (80 cu ft)
Dive Partner S: 3300 - 1200 lb (80 cu ft) - some
people don't breath any air!!!!
Current:
Light to medium
Description:
Again, it's real hard to top the
Eagle dive! We had our choice of an anchor, shallow or semi deep drift. We
all picked the semi-deep drift! We all hate working on the anchor dives, the
drift dive let's mother nature take you along! Well, this was another dead
reef! There were no colors, no red's and oranges of live coral! There
was a lot of relief consisting of trenches running across our path of travel.
These trenches were 3-8 ft across and 1-2 ft deep. This type of trench would
be expected to be filled with fish, bugs and moray's! Well, we did see a few
bugs - small in size, few fish, no moray's. We did see a 3' turtle, that
made the dive! The first group in (we were the last in) did see a nurse shark,
a moray and lot's more when they first got down! We saw a lot of dead coral,
There also was a series of several old broken lobster traps still joined by
there ropes! The ropes were floating above the bottom, not like previously
see ones in Key Largo and Biscayne Bay that were rubbing across the live
coral bottom.