Day 2 – April Fool’s Day
Down here in the Keys you lose track of time, day of the
week, dates…it’s the Keys Disease creeping in. We didn’t celebrate April fool’s
Day here; actually it’s odd that I missed it as I’m known as a bit of a joker
around here. We did however go diving, and that’s no joke…but first we had to
take care of business.
This is going to be a long post…they get shorter as the
week goes along.
It was the crew’s first full day at FSB (Florida Sea
Base). Everyone was up and at flags on time at 07:45. Unfortunately Aaron was
sick and throwing up…not good. Flags went on, we sang ‘Froggy’ and then it was
off to breakfast. At breakfast Aaron was still feeling sick so we started
considering our options with him.
After breakfast the crew joined Jenna and me in the scuba
classroom for a thorough (and often boring) orientation about the trip and the
Conch Pearl. Most of the crews receive my 5 page ‘diverDave’s Unofficial
Leader’s Guide’ at least two months before arrival at FSB. (I sent it to this
crew but somehow it ended up in the wrong hands and never got distributed).
That’s their first barrage of information from us. The second is this
orientation and the third is the Captain’s orientation when the crew arrives at
the boat. Captain Denny and I believe that the crews have to hear things three
times before the information sinks in. During the orientation I received a call
from a very concerned Captain Denny regarding Aaron’s current state. Seems that
during the first trip of the season a scout was sick before boarding the boat,
then during the week proceeded to pass a stomach bug around to the whole crew,
including the staff. It wasn’t pretty as there is only one tiny bathroom for 14
people. In the mean time, given the option, Aaron had decided that he would
rather not be out on a boat in his current state. Tom ran around, in what I
found out to be his usual, efficient manner, and arranged for a ‘swap’ to replace
Aaron, giving another scout the opportunity to join us out on the Live Aboard.
So ends the saga of Aaron as far as the Conch Pearl goes, we thought.
After the orientation the crew met at the Commissary to
inventory and load a week’s worth of food and ice. It takes a lot of food and a
ton (well almost a ton) of ice to support 16 people for a week of diving. That
went very well. The crew set about the task with great efficiency…a good sign
for the week to come. Everything was loaded into the trailer then we moved over
to the scuba area. Here we loaded the scuba gear and personal gear into the
trailer. We had a set a target of 11:00 for ‘wheels up’ to depart for the boat
and we were right on time…until…Tom had become tied up in the process of
switching Robert for Aaron. I took the opportunity to take the van I would be
driving to get fuel. The rest of the crew waited. Finally, at about 11:15
everything was done, ready and we were loaded to go. We waved goodbye to
Divemaster Paul as he saw us off (he had been on the Conch Pearl with me the
week before) and we hit the highway. Whew!
At this point everything changes. We throttle back and
begin to relax. We have an almost two hour drive to Stock Island (right next to
Key West) where the Conch Pearl lives. The drive is mostly on a two lane road
where being in a hurry is useless. In the Keys you realize that being in a hurry
is usually just frustrating so it’s best to enjoy the view and take your time.
We made some stops along the way. First it was Publix Grocery story for some
avocados then Baby’s Coffee for some ‘Southernmost Coffee’. Baby’s Coffee is
the best around so it is a regular stop for me.
We finally arrived at the marina to be greeted by
Captains Denny and Holley. The boat was ready, the Captains were ready and the
crew was ready…it’s a wonderful thing. The crew set about transferring all of
the gear, food and ice to the boat and stowed it all in proper manner in
accordance with instructions from myself and the Captains. Because this was
Jenna’s first trip on the Conch Pearl she mainly stepped back and watched…for
awhile. It wasn’t long before she jumped right in and picked up on the
operation.
Now that everything was stowed we were ready for the
Captain’s orientation. The Captain’s go into great detail on matters concerning
the boat, including a show and tell on the operation of the marine toilet. With
that out of the way we had lunch and headed out to sea. What a beautiful day;
warm and sunny. At the same time last week we were dreading the thought of bouncing
about on the ocean while being bundled up to stay warm.
We headed out to Toppino’s Buoy, the first dive site.
When we got there Denny observed that there could be some current and that the
visibility was not the best so we moved on to our next site, Western Sambo. We
moored in the Western Sambo reef complex at an area called ‘the Haystacks’,
named after the large, haystack like, formations of coral. It was going to be
the first real dive so Denny did another thorough orientation, this time on how
we gear up and get into and out of the water.
Next I gave a dive briefing on the site and how the dive was going to
go. The first dive is always a led dive. It gives us a chance to look the
divers over again and to address any issues that may arise. Jenna and I got in
first then all of the divers followed. We did a buoyancy check, adjusted some
weights and down we went. Two of the divers had trouble clearing their ears so
they went back to the boat. We’ll work with them later.
The dive went as expected…divers were all over the place,
running into each other, running into us, floating up, dropping down…as
expected. The first dive is always a little rough. We circled a few coral
heads, went up into one of the fingers between rows of coral and then returned
to the boat; about a half hour dive. Overall the dive went well. There were no
real issues that we couldn’t correct and everyone made it back on the boat
‘without incident’. That’s always a good feeling…being responsible for 11
divers, some of them OPKs (other people’s kids) can weigh heavily on you
sometimes.
We said goodbye to Western Sambo and headed for Key West
Harbor to moor for the night. We sailed in past Mallory Square where they hold
the nightly Sunset Festival, having our picture taken by lots of tourists. The
Conch Pearl is a very pretty boat, especially under sail. By the time we
reached the mooring ball we had taken down the sails and were ready to eat.
Diving makes people hungry and this crew was a prime example of that.
Dinner was crazy dream burgers and mac n’ cheese. After that I don’t know what
happened…I was asleep in seconds.
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