SLS081311A - day one

To see pictures of the trip go to http://www.schoonerconchpearl.com/ . Captain Holley posts pictures every day or two.
Sunday is the first full day for the Scuba Live-Aboard. They were awakened at 5am by the other crew that was sharing the San Francisco room with them. The other crew decided it was soooo important that they clean before they left, regardless of the noise they were making. It was put to a stop when they dragged out the vacuum cleaner.
The crew made it to flags at 07:45 ready to go. After flags it was breakfast then the real fun started. We met at the commissary at 09:00 to start the provisioning process. Some of the crew went inside to inventory and pack all of the food for the week. The rest of the crew was on ice duty. We take a lot of ice with us, 3 large coolers of block ice and three large coolers of cubed ice, and they are heavy. Once the trailer was filled with all of the food and ice we moved over to the scuba area. Here we loaded 14 scuba tanks, all of the scuba gear and all of the personal gear. The little trailer was getting quite full so we ended up putting some of the personal gear in the back of the vans. While this was going on a few of the crew went back to the dorms to finish cleaning.
With everything ready to go we loaded into the vans and headed out…’wheels up’ at 10:00…pretty good. The ride takes about 1 ½ hours so on the way we discussed the trip and even practiced knots. Captain Denny likes it when the scouts can tie at least a clove hitch. My van stopped along the way at Baby’s Coffee; the Southernmost Coffee Roaster in the US. They sell all kinds of coffee with funky names. One of my favorites is ‘Death by Coffee’. Megan’s van stopped at CVS. Stopping on the way to and from the boat is one of the few times we have a chance to get out as live-aboard instructors. We only have Saturday mornings off.
We arrived at the boat at 11:30…right on schedule! We were greeted by Captains Denny and Holley and then the fun began. Everything that was loaded into the trailer and vans had to be unloaded and carried to the boat to be stowed or set up on board. It’s about a 50 yd. walk, including a small set of steps. Everything was hauled to the boat, stowed or set-up and then we had an on-board orientation and lunch. Now the fun begins.
We headed out to the reef. It was a nice day; sunny, the sea was flat and there was a slight breeze. Then we arrive at the dive site…JELLYFISH…and lots of them. We’ve been dealing with this problem for weeks here in the Keys and the hope is we’ll get to a dive site without any or at least very few. Not this one. The first dive is a led dive where the divers follow an instructor around so that their skills can be assessed and so that they can get acclimated to diving in the ocean. This went well so the divers were able to be turned loose for the second dive…a buddy dive. Despite all of the jellyfish, both dives went well, with very few minor stings. By the end of the week they’ll be experts at dodging jellyfish. It’s like being in a frogger game.
After the dives we headed for Key Lois and ‘monkey island’. You’ll have to ask the boys about that. It was a beautiful ride with lots of flying fish exploding out of the water. We had dinner on the way; chicken patties, stuffing and corn. We arrived at the anchor site, dropped the hook and settled in for a very quiet night.