Diving the Sea of Cortez!

October 14, 2017

In March, I attended an SSI conference in North Carolina. I met a lot of great people. One of them was Tonia Foster of El Mar Dive Center in Mesa, AZ. She was discussing that she also owns El Mar Dive Center in San Carlo, Mexico. They take monthly trips there to dive the Sea of Cortez. Oh, look, a bucket list item!

After I returned home, I checked their calendar against mine and found out October would be the best time for me to go. I called the shop, booked a seat; the October trip was going to be a bus trip; they do bus or car caravans several times a year, October was the bus trip. I booked a flight. I was ready to go.

I flew to Phoenix the night before.; grabbed a hotel for the evening. Early the following day, Ubered to the shop in Meza. Meet Tonia there, she was not going this month, but she had an outstanding crew of dive professionals leading the trip. 

Once everyone was loaded up, we headed out. Along the ride and the trip, I got to meet some great people.  We stopped just north of the border for a pit spot and to pick up lunch. 

The crew from El Mar had this process down. They let everyone know what to expect when crossing the border, what to expect from Mexican customs. How to act and behave to quickly and efficiently move through the checkpoint.

We arrived late in the afternoon and checked into the hotel. The views were amazing, the pool view was from my balcony. Moving around that part of San Carlo was easy. Almost everything we needed for the weekend was within a short walk.

On Friday morning we headed for the boat. They have a Newton, which has become the standard for group diving.  The boat crew was from their local shop, again seasoned professionals.  The dive site was San Pedro Nolasco Island, off the coast of San Carlo. The island is a protected resource and home to lots of sea birds.  No worries for us we were there to dive.

All weekend the sea was calm and flat.  The dive conditions were excellent. I dove in a 3 mm suit, when I go back I think will take a 5 mm. The water temps were just on the edge of needing a thicker suit. 

The island is the reef.  All manner of sea life is attached to the exposed base below, Respectable sizes of small and medium schools of fish swimming around.  Lots of sea urchins, I had not seen them before, sections of the base were covered with them.   

The first day we did two dives on the south side of the island, the second day we did two dives local, just outside of the cove where the marina, the third day, on our way out to the island we saw a whale, well we got a glimpse of a whale as it surfaced for a breath, still very cool.  We did three dives that day.  What made the day spectacular was the sea lions, they also live on the island, a few of them decided to swim with us. It was such a blast. They are fast. They will swim by and tap you on the head with a fin.  They will just keep out of reach and put on a show of movement and speed, they darted in out of our group as we dove.  It was such a fun dive. 

Sunday night we had a group meal a Charly's Rock across the street from the hotel. We had a great time. Good People.

The next day we make our way north back across the border, That was a bit crazy, we had to stop at customs take out all of our bags, go into the building, run our bags through airport-style scanners, that was after it was checked by dogs, the bus had to go off to be inspected separately. Then we loaded up again, 10 miles up the road at another checkpoint armed border agents, looking more like military, did a walk through the bus. 

By evening we had arrived back in Mesa.  I had a great time on this weekend trip.  Now I have to see if I can get a group of my dive buddies to join me for a return trip.

Deerfield Beach May 2017 TIGER SHARK!!!

This was the second annual trip to the southeast coast of Florida of the new era.  During the winter months, the shop runs up to two trips to the Florida Springs area. I am trying to revive the summer time southeast coast trip.  The shop used to do this trip twice a season and we would get 6-8 divers per trip.  The long weekend trip, arrive on Thursday evening, either fly or drive, dive Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning, then leave Sunday afternoon if driving or late Monday morning if flying. Good weekend getaway and great diving.

This year we did the trip in May and it was just Ruben and I.  Ruben did his open water cert with me about two years ago. He dives when he can. 

Our plan was to dive out of the Deerfield Beach area Friday but conditions in the area where keeping the local boats in port.  Started calling around to find out who and better conditions either north or south of Deerfield Beach.  Found Florida Scuba Charters out of Palm Beach was going out Friday morning. So we got up early and headed north. 

I won't lie the ride out was rocky. Big rollers, some we were at the bottom of the swell and your were looking a good way up at the crest of the wave.  They have a smaller boat it a bigger than a six pack, they said they can take 15 but don't normally book more than 10.  We were 9 and 10 that day. The captain headed north toward Jupiter Inlet.   Our first dive as Area 51. Sun was shining the sea was getting claimer, water a bit cooler then what I am us to for Florida.  Great dive, the best part was the tiger shark that came to check out about halfway through the dive.  He was much closer on the first pass. Ruben was so excited he almost forgets to turn had Go Pro on. Here is what Ruben recorded from the second pass as the tiger shark swam away.  The real highlight of the trip.  Also, a dolphin swam with him as he was on the line to get back on the boat.  At first, he thought it was the shark returning was glad to see it was a dolphin just take a look to see what he was doing.

The second dive Ruben sat out, the roll of the ocean got to him.  We had moved to the Amphitheater dive site good deep drift dive saw a really big Grouper but not much else.

Saturday the weather was perfect the sea was not, no one was going out that I could find. So we spent the day exploring Deerfield Beach.

Sunday's weather was perfect and so water was nearly perfect.  We were going diving!  Using our favorite the Lady-Go-Diver boat. The boat had about 15 people on it, it can handle up to 29, 15 was just about right.  The first dive site was the Sea Emperor, wreck to reef project. One of my favorite 50-60 ft dives in the area always good stuff to see.   Although I did not see the resident eel nor did I see the giant grouper. Others said they saw the eel.  The grouper is legendary in size and lives in a hollow under the wreck. A great dive with so few people no one was on top of each other plenty of room to spread out and explore.

Second dive site and last one of the trip was a drift dive along the Deerfield Ledge.  Good viz just enough current in the 50 ft range to just meander along the bottom. A great way to end the weekend. Lots of fish, a good reef with places to looks for sea life, lots of sponges and critters in the larger sponges to check out.  Another great dive.

Ruben completed his Waves Tides and Current cert and started Boat which we will finish when we get together again in June.

Lots of fun looking forward to next years trip in May. We may go here again or we may head to Key Largo, Tige is pushing to change it up.  It's Florida diving, I am good either way, both locations are excellent. 

Shark Feed!!

January 4 2017
While not a fan of the practice, it is still a thrill to see a shark feed.  What trip on Blackbeard's wouldn't be complete without stopping by the wreck of the  Austin Smith to provide a morning snack to the local population?

Since I was here last in October 2015, Hurricane Matthew blew through the Bahamas during the late summer of 2016. The storm actually spun the wreck bow to stern and broke it into three part. Talk about power.  The bow is broken off and set apart from the rest of wreck, midships is broken from the stern.  The shark feed still happens on the stern it is now just the other way from what I remember.

Austin Smith Jan 2017

Austin Smith Oct 2015 these are the best shots I have of the ship whole. The video below shows how it looks now.

The sharks are always impressive

The video shows the state of the wreck and the feed.  

Danger Reef - AWESOME.

January 3, 2017
Southeast of Cistern Cay is Danger Reef. The top of the reef is about 25 the sand is about 60 ft. Huge boulder shape reef clustered together. Far too much to see even on the two dives on we did,

At one time this area was a shark feeding site so there are still a lot of sharks.  The reef could take days to explore and would be well worth it.

Watch the Black Group to the left at the start of the video, if you wanted to know where the shark was, look where they were looking. They never took their eyes off of him.

Smugglers Plane Wreck

January 1 2017

During the 1980s Norman Cay was a drug smugglers haven. At some point, someone missed the 3000 ft runway all together and crashed a Douglas C-47 in the waters west of the cay.

IIt is now known as the smuggler's wreck,   January 3, 2017: We did a dusk and night dive on it on.  Actually, I just did the dusk dive. Fun wreck to dive never dove a plane before.  In a grassy area with nothing else around.  Since it was dusk the dive was shallow and the sun angle was low made for a great dive. A lot of smaller fish. The crew said the site is active night but I was not feeling it. 

Celebrating the New Year in the Bahamas!

Did not have any plans for New Year's 2017. I felt I needed a break, I NEEDED to go diving. Found some friends who were going to Nassau for a week and I joined in.

Arriving in Nassau exited the plane down a flight of stairs on to the tarmac. It was about 32 degrees when I left DC, it was 72 degrees in Nassau. How nice it was!

Passed through customs found the tour bus driver for the ride to the boat. Wasted no time removing jacket and sweatshirt. then took this picture and posted it on Facebook and did not feel bad about posting it, hehe.  It was warm and wonderful.

Van loaded usual ride across the island. I realized this was my third trip to  Nassau. I have another trip plan here for later this year.

Dropped off at the Nassau Harbor Club met by the crew directed to the boat, I knew the way.  Bunks assigned, Bags up packed and stowed in the Harbor Club. Initial briefing by Captain Red who offered us a choice, we could set sail but the wind was picking up and then it would be a rough ride or we could stay in port celebrate the New Year watching the fireworks over Atlantis resort. The later is what he was pushing. We followed his recommendation.

 Clancy, our cook, who I am still convinced is a magician, made the first of weeks meals for 30 people on a boat in a galley that was slightly larger than a typical coat closet. The rest of the evening we got to know our shipmates.  Just before midnight the case of champagne was brought out and opened. We are all ready when the New Year started along with the fireworks over Atlantis.  The fireworks were excellent and went on for a good long time. Match or beat any July 4th show.   After the show and many empty bottles of bubbly, we all started drifting off to our bunks to see what the new year would bring us.

The crew managed to get up and pull out of port early, like before 6 AM.  Nothing like listening to the water move past the hull next your bunk.   I go up went on deck they had the sails up and we were moving.  At some point doing the week, Red said that at one point we were doing 9 knots. 

Heading out to our first dive site Lobster No Lobster.  Captain Red noted we would be staying in the Exuma Sound for the first part of the week, the wind was up, so was the ocean  it would be an unpleasant ride. They did a great job picking great locations to dive in the mean time.

I will be posting daily segments  or dive site locations as I get videos and pictures together,

Sailing New Year's Day 2017

Full Face Mask Pool Training

Tige and Matt decided to add OTS Full Face Mask to their Dive kit.  Se we hit the pool this weekend to work on the skills and get use to their new hardware. It was fun to see them all confident prior to using the mask, the "we got this", I love the enthusiasm.  It is a new skill set and drills that initially can see to be a bit of a task load.

The challenge is bailing out of a Full Face Mask in the event of an issue.  Started in the shallow pool went through the drills  with a few pointers and and tips. As I had expected and they bragged "we got this" was petty much true. 

We had a great time,  it will be even more fun on Guys Dive in a few week where we will complete the open water dives.

Return to Deerfield Beach!

It has  been a while.  The shop had not been to Deerfield Beach to go diving since before the change in ownership.  They were looking for  a long weekend type trip that would not bust the bank.  I had mentioned the shop use to go  at least twice a year to Deerfield Beach to dive with Dixie Divers on the Lady Go Diver.    That mention made me the trip lead.

 Long drive there and back but the diving was excellent with a bit of current. One of the dives it was really moving  like 3-4 knots, Flying underwater, good thing it was a drift dive, actually it wasn't it was a wreck dive that turned into a drift dive.

We are planning to go again Spring of 2017 then again in the Fall if there are enough who want to go.  Come join us.