Well, it was a first for the Spree, operating as a day boat.
Sort of. Except we’re a bunch of trained mules, and the only thing we know is
liveaboard. But I digress. We teamed up with Capt. Gary from Conch Republic and
with Capt. Dan from Horizon to make a weekend of wreck diving in the Florida
Keys. The divers arrived on Thursday night, and got lodging for Thursday night,
a double on the Spiegel with Horizon, or a double on the Duane with Conch
Republic, Friday nights lodging, then a double with us on the Vandenberg, and
Saturday nights lodging in Key West. Divers could do either a double dip, or one
long deco dive Saturday afternoon. We ended up with 8 divers, 2 on evolutions, 1
with doubles and deco gasses, and 5 on open circuit recreational nitrox mixes,
diving single 80’s. Sounds cool, right?
We got to the Vandenberg to find Tim Taylor and the Tiburon back in town, and on
the down current buoy. Tim moved right out of the way for us, and moved up a
buoy. Thanks, Tim. Current was, shall we say, sporty. Mike jumped in with his
evolution, and the current ripped his mouthpiece right off the unit. After a
mouth full of water, he reached up to grab his loop, and turned the mouthpiece
off. He went to bailout, and got back on the boat. No harm, no foul, the second
dive was fine.
Conditions on the first dive were seas slick, water temp 86, air temp ungodly
hot, current about 2 knots, visibility 50 feet. After a surface interval of
about 2 hours, it was time to generate a second dive. Conditions were the same,
but current had slacked considerably, although was still present. Most divers
saw the entire ship.
All in all it was a great trip, everyone agreed that it was a good value, and
you can be assured this will be a repeater.
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