I arrive at the dive shop with time to spare, and get a leash for my housing so I can let go of it without fear (for a moment, anyway). Today i'm diving the Spiegel Grove - a 500 foot shipwreck sunk in 2002. It was intentionally sunk, to create artificial reef for the keys, however everything that could've gone wrong, went wrong. It wound up sitting with its bow sticking out of the water, and they couldn't get it to go under properly. When it finally sank completely, four days later, it rolled over on its side...not at all according to plan. Luckily, a few years later, hurricane Dennis swept through Key Largo, turning the Spiegel Grove upright...just how it was always meant to be. It now sits comfortably in about 130 feet of water...but the current can be mighty fierce.
I spoke to the two gents from North Carolina about the Spiegel Grove, they'd been on it the day before. They were saying that the current was so fierce it could blow your regulator out of your mouth. That people hanging on to the descent line looked like so many flags blowing in the wind.
The worst part was, they were right.
We got out to sea to discover 6-8 foot swells, shaking the boat up and down like crazy. Tanks were in danger of flying out of their holders, and people were holding on to whatever was nearby. The crazier folks were smiling. "It's like a ride!" said Don, my dive buddy. "You've just got to enjoy it!"
I don't get seasick, and no heavy objects were flying at me just yet, so I felt allright about it. I allowed myself a grin and enjoyed the insane leaps and drops of the boat (which was starting to feel awfully small in the very large ocean). They briefed us on what we were into, repeating over and over to USE THE LINE. If we didn't, we were likely to be blown clear by the fierce current. What a perfect dive to take my camera underwater for the first time.
I jumped off the back of the boat, grabbed the line, and hauled myself in so they could hand me my camera down. The boat reared up about six feet in the air before I could reach the handle and then crashed back down. I kept one hand on the line and grabbed my camera with the other. That was the easy part.
Then, I had to pull myself along the line, more or less one-handed....WITHOUT sliding my hand along it, because since fishing is allowed there, there are often hooks in the line. Oh, goody.
Imagine, if you will, a game of tug-of-war. It's you, against the twenty largest people you've ever seen in your life. But you can't see those people, so you have no idea when they're ready to pull. And there are no rules...they can pull you up, down, sideways, even back behind you. You are a fish on the end of a line, and the fisherman is having a grand mal seizure.
I was able to use two fingers on my camera hand to try and hand-under-hand my way to the bottom of the rope. Don, my buddy, went first. I followed as quickly as I could. Luckily, once at the bottom (31.8 metres down) the current completely stopped.
The ship was really something to behold...we came down on the stern, and the very end of the ship is a huge, open-top cargo bay. I remember looking across the water and seeing what I thought was another wreck in the distance...but it was just the opposite side of the cargo bay...that's how massive this thing is. I think the biggest ship i've dived on was a barge, and it was maybe 100 feet long. This dwarfed it. You could've parked that barge in the cargo bay.
Sadly, being on the stern meant we missed out on a lot of cool swim-throughs near the bridge, and at the bow. But we still did a few that were amazing. I'll post footage once I can parse through it all, but we did one where we went through a door in the side of the ship, and then up and out of a hatch in the top of the room. That was pretty cool. Also, the still flying American flag was something to be seen.
It was AMAZING. It blew my mind. It's such a deep dive that it had to be relatively short, but I think I could do all the rest of my dives on this trip on just this wreck, and still have an amazing time. What an incredible thing. It's hard to imagine it up above the water, in service, full of human beings. It was intentionally sunk, so no one died when this ship went down, so you're spared the apprehension of thinking on the lives lost in the rooms and decks around you. But you can't help but wonder...what was this thing? What did it do? People had jobs here. They lived lives here. And now it's just one more piece of reef, as far as the animals are concerned. Something for the silly divers to gawk at.
The ride up the rope was a little less strenuous. There were a few big jellyfish near the top, but in the still reasonably serious current, there's not much you can do to avoid them. Just hang on to the line, and hope they don't come any closer. I managed to get my camera going while we were doing our safety stop. Here's Don flapping like a flag in the breeze.
If you look carefully at his bubbles, you'll see them streaming off to the right, instead of up. Pretty serious wind.
We returned to the boat only to discover that two people had gotten awfully seasick, and two more had panicked in the intense current and gotten back on the boat. I felt bad...poor folks were stuck at sea for another dive, and the seas were not making it easy on them.
Our second dive was on a reef called French Reef. The current was way less serious, but there was some intense surge (surge is like a rocking-chair current that goes back and forth). Surge is a lot more manageable because you don't have to fight to stay in one spot, but it kicks up a lot of silt and debris so visibility was less than ideal. We still made some friends.
These fish seemed unperturbed by the surge, and were content to let us get right up close and personal.
As well, I saw some of the larger parrotfish that i've ever seen. Quite cool to watch them peck at the reef and eat.
All in all, this dive was uneventful, especially after the awe and splendor of the Spiegel Grove. It was a shallow dive, so we were able to stay down over an hour, but we didn't find too much to pique our interest. There was mention from the captain of a cave called hourglass cave, but we couldn't find it. The one saving grace was that we did find a number of very cool (very tight) swim-throughs.
A swim through is defined as any overhead passage where you can see your exit from the entry point. So no corners, no long tunnels, nothing that requires a dive light to see. That way, you're guaranteed two ways out that you know are there and can see. You don't need a cave specialty or a wreck specialty to do swim throughs. You can just swim...through.
Anyway, the surge mucked up the vis a bit, and there wasn't a huge amount to see, but it was still a beautiful dive, and whenever we found those swim-throughs we made the most of it. I certainly enjoyed myself, and got some cool footage too. After coming back on board, we had a brief adventure en route back to shore...where one of the engines on the boat died...and then the steering gave out.
There was a brief moment of "Uh-oh" between passengers, but no one was really in a hurry (save the poor seasick folk from earlier) so we lounged and waited for the dive centre's other boat to come help us out. I made friends with another videographer. We showed each other some stuff we'd shot.
After a while, a wrench from the other boat, and some MacGyver tactics from the crew, we made it back to port. I snacked on the dock at the restaurant next door, then headed home for a much needed afternoon nap.
The rest of the day was pretty lazy. I had a bit of a headache, and was still recovering from the awkward sleep schedule, so I loaded the footage off of my camera, read my book, and went for a bite to eat at this great waterside pub called the Lorelei. A live band played and everything! It was a nice way to wind down after a hectic couple of days. Tomorrow i'm diving on the mainland in Jupiter, and i've got a long...long...early drive to get there. I probably could've planned this a little better.
Anyway, early to bed. The early...diver...catches the...fish? Okay...that's reaching.
I only took a few photos today and mostly video, but the photos turned out great so tomorrow i'll aim to take more!
See y'all soon!
-Jeff
No comments:
Post a Comment