Well, after last weeks blow came the rain. It rained all week. It rained so hard they closed the airport, we had thunder and lightning, and it rained. We ended up with 15 inches of rain in 3 days. Guess what 15" of rain does to the reefs?

So, the forecast was for it to blow in the Dry Tortugas. We called the trip leader for In-Depth Travel and asked how sturdy and flexible his folks were. The answer was "we want to dive". We said that we might have to go up the keys instead of out to Tortugas, and the response was "we want to get wet". We told the open booking folks that we were headed to the keys instead of out to Tortugas, and only one dropped out. I wonder what the response would be if we asked again.

We headed for the wreck of the Thunderbolt, 19 divers and 6 crew. When we crossed the reef line (in the dark) I flipped on the searchlight and saw milk. We arrived at the Thunderbolt and went looking for moorings, in the dark. The moorings on the Thunderbolt are about 10 feet below the surface, so CP jumped in and found one. Turns out another liveaboard ripped one off, so one is all we got. We tied in, and briefed the dive. No current, 1-2 foot wave height, 82 degree water, 5 feet of vis. everyone jumped in and felt around the dive site, and came back up, slightly frowning. I shrugged, and we got ready for another. On the second dive bottom vis opened up to about 30 feet, and divers saw goliath grouper, black grouper, lionfish, a big turtle of unknown species, and grunts. After the second dive we headed for the Sombrero reef. We spent the rest of the day on Sombrero, and vis remained about 5 feet. Hearty souls dived, those less hearty drank beer.

Saturday morning we spent on the Adolphus Busch for a couple. The vis is starting to clear up a little, maybe 20 feet. divers saw green morays, goliath and black grouper, and a host of reef fish, but missed that clear visibility we are used to. The afternoon reef dives we spent on Pelican shoal, where we could actually see the bottom, and Western Sambo Ecological Reserve. Pelican had the usual variety of reef fish, Western Sambo was loaded with lobster. The afternoon reef dives were actually quite good, even though they were shallow and the vis wasn't spectacular.

Sunday morning we were on the Vandenberg for a couple. Stas' and Jay are trying their luck at stabbing lionfish, a few folks are practicing wreck penetration, and the whole gang is diving except for those flying at 7 tomorrow morning.

It wasn't the greatest ending to the season that I might have hoped for, but there are smiles all around, and we accomplished the mission - everyone got wet.

Melanie and I would like to thank our loyal customers for their friendship and patronage. We would like to thank the crew for putting up with us again, and look forward to seeing all of you next year, crew and customers alike. The Spree will be going to bed for the next 3 months. While sleeping, she will be getting a new dress, and new power plants. I'll be in Fort Lauderdale tomorrow picking the new generators up. We'll be kicking off the 2012 season with some Tortugas trips and some tech diving trips.

Melanie and I will see many of you at DEMA first week in November, then we head for Grenada for a lovely vacation. Diving, of course. We'll also see many of you at various trade shows around the country.

Thanks again for a great (our best ever) 2011 season and we'll see you next year!