NAUI Advanced Scuba Diver - Part II (read Part I below first)

From my house, Kioni, Jake, and I make the relatively short drive over to Captain Bob's in Bradenton.  We're heading out for the first couple of dives to complete our Advanced Scuba certification.  This will knock out night and navigation.  We load up the boat and depart shortly after 5PM.  We're going to a ledge several miles off of the coast, the trip out takes about an hour.  The waves this afternoon are just enough to keep a constant spray of saltwater off of the bow raining on us in the back.  On a cooler day, this might get annoying after a while but today it is appreciated as the heat index is somewhere between molten shoe soles to spontaneous hair combustion.

It's good to see a couple of people from our class also decided to take this opportunity to knock off these dives as well.  I like diving more when I am familiar with those with whom I dive.  With these two and our three, the charter is rounded out by two singles and a father-daughter pair.  Everyone seems to have a bit of experience and I am looking forward great dive.

Our dive master hooks us in right off of the ledge.  Visibility in the gulf can be poor at times so the closer the anchor is to the objective the easier it is to find it as well as finding the anchor when coming back up the anchor line.  Captain Bob briefs us on what to expect, things to look for, and gives those of us diving for our advanced instructions to determine the direction of the ledge that we are on.  This ledge is an "L" shaped ledge with the anchor positioned pretty much right at the apex of the 'L".

Our first dive occurs in the late afternoon, still ample light to dive unaided by external light sources.  The reason for this is to give you a before-and-after of the same area so that you can see the differences from day into night.  Our instructions are 45 minutes down or 500 psi, whichever comes first.  Go past 500 psi and you're done for the day.  Everyone dons their gear and we start to make our way off of the stern.  In class earlier today, I found that I didn't need nearly as much weight as I had previously thought so this time I enter with only six pounds as opposed to my usual 12-16.  I am number three off of the boat and quickly make my way to the anchor line where I await Jake and Kioni.  I test my weight and it seems right on.  Check viz, about 15-20 feet - not too bad for the gulf but pales in comparison to some of the other spots we've dived.  By this time the rest of my group has caught up and we start our descent.  

My dive profile for the first dive

Jake descends at a rate that makes me think he might be the first scuba diver ever required to wear an auto-opening reserve chute.  Kioni and I head down at a much slower, and, I might add, wiser rate since you never know what you might be dropping in on in this viz.  We meet up at the anchor, 40 feet down, and decide to head left, in navigational terms: 180º or due south, along the ledge.  First part of the navigational exercise complete, I've got my bearing and the reciprocal.  We venture out about 100 yards or so and I notice that I am having to fight a lot harder to stay down.  This becomes even more pronounced as we continue (remember the thing about the tank slowly becoming more positively buoyant?).  I also notice that with my increased activity having to fight harder to stay lower, I am burning through my nitrox much faster.  This isn't helped by the fact that I have a small leak around the "O" ring on my tank.  I signal to Jake and Kioni to turn back, this way if it becomes more of an issue I am closer to the anchor line and can ascend if needed.  By the time we make it back to the anchor line, only about 15 minutes have elapsed but I am ready to call it and head up to work on my weight.  I signal to my group that I am ascending the line.  Kioni and Jake continue on while I make my safety stop on the line.  Three minutes at 15 feet.  Back to the boat.

Jake "the stone" - as in falling like one

Kioni

Jake and Kioni surfacing after our first dive

Captain Bob gets me secured and I start to go over my dive.  Immediately I add six more pounds of weight, for a total of 12.  This gets me back to what I would normally use; I know from our class this morning that it's still not right but I don't want to waste the next dive tweaking it.  Looking back I suppose I could have used our surface interval to do this but it just didn't occur to me at the time.  I came up with over 1400 pounds of nitrox and feel a bit cheated, but that I can overcome.

The dive boat can be a lonely place when divers are in the water.

After an hour or so of a surface interval we're back in the water.  This time with enough weight so as to not have to fight the entire time down.  We shoot the anchor line and head left (180º) just like last time.  However, this time it's dark!  The changes from day to night are stark, not unlike Las Vegas as the sun sets in the west.

This is the first real opportunity I've had to shoot photos with the external strobe I got for my anniversary this year (thanks, hon) and I intend to make the most of it.  Those who know me, know that I have a passion for photography and I believe that my work is at least above average.  But underwater photography presents some very unique challenges.  First, having an off-camera light source is essential for all but the most most forgiving (shallow and bright) circumstances.  To this point, the quality of my underwater photos has suffered to the point of me not making many shots, instead just focusing on shooting video because lighting underwater is so difficult.  I'll not go into that here but there are many more factors to consider and compensate for underwater.  Needless to say, I am looking forward to the possibilities presented by this key piece of equipment.

Our first stop is a hole in the ledge which houses an octopus.  I just happened to catch the movement when the light from my LED hand-light brushed by the hole.  Closing in I could see that this would be interesting.  I got off a few shots and tried to coax him out of his hidey-hole to no avail.  He did keep his eyes on us but never came out to play.  In the distance I could see beams of light penetrating the darkness, we signaled for the other group to show them what we had found.  Moments later we've got almost the entire charter on top of us - time to move on.

ET phone home

My dive profile for the second dive

We head back toward the anchor to see what we can find on the other side of the ledge.  By this time the viz has dropped quite a bit from our group coming through kicking up the bottom.  So we skip over to where no one has been yet and find a few interesting things.  Mostly fish of some sort.  Jake and Kioni spotted a Goliath Grouper tucked up under the ledge but I can neither confirm nor deny such a sighting.  Personally, I think it was a case of mass hysteria started by an ever excited Jake upon spotting a particularly interesting rock.  I, however, am immune to such mental defects and saw only what was truly there - a rock!

The remainder of the dive was much the same.  Fish here, jelly there, oh look - an eel!  I will say that the effort to stay down this time was much less than previous which allowed me to focus more on diving and photography.  Unfortunately, having a relatively new piece of equipment presents some challenges in task management and proficiency.  All-in-all it was a very rewarding day and I am looking forward to our next adventure.  I'll end with a few more photos.  I promise more as I improve my underwater skill, but for now these will have to do.

Parrotfish? My field guide thinks so.

A school of something.

A grouper I think.

Finally, an upside down hogfish showing off.