My ship awaits!! The Norwegian Epic arrived in Miami yesterday passing by South Beach and docking at her new home at the Port of Miami. The latest innovative ship in the cruise industry awaits. I board the Epic this morning around 11am!!
Pre-Cruise Prep: Where to Dine and Drink on the Norwegian Epic? The countdown is on! Just a few more hours of preparation before I leave for the Port of Miami tomorrow morning for a two night inaugural “Cruise to Nowhere” about the Norwegian Epic, the latest and biggest ship from Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL). The Epic arrived this afternoon to Miami with great fanfare because she is the largest ship to make the Port of Miami home since the Royal Caribbean launched Liberty of the Seas in May 2007. Epic is also a innovative ship both in design and amenities. NCL has set out to redefine cruising the past 10 years and succeeded a major victory with other major cruise lines adopting the company’s freestyle program of dining options on cruise ships. NCL moved away from the tradition of set dining times, specific dining rooms and formal dining attire and then built an entire cruising philosophy and sales strategy around the freestyle program. NCL has launched a ship that applaudes the cruise line’s freestyle mentality on a grand scale. The Epic boasts over 20 unique restaurants and 20 different bars including the first ice bar at sea. The dining options range from the elegant in the Manhattan Room to casual in O’Sheehan’s Irish Bar (with a 3 lane bowling alley) to Las Vegas style with dinner in the Spiegel Tent during a Cirque Dreams dinner show. You can dine where you want (sometimes for an extra fee), when you want and there is even 24 hour pizza delivered anywhere in the ship just like your neighborhood Dominos. Plus, you can always order 24 hours room service! Tommorrow the Epic journey (and Epic dining!!) begins!
SURREAL!! In one word describes my Heavy Metal Full Moon night dive on the LSD 32 Spiegel Grove on Saturday night. Excellent dive conditions and a fun group of local divemasters and instructors added to an extraordinary evening dive where the full moon lit up the wreck with a faint glow that gave me the opportunity to conduct my entire dive without a light or beacon. What an awesome experience! My dive on Saturday night reminded me how grateful I am in to live in Key Largo to go diving with local friends to experience something so unique despite my 6 years living in the area.
A very windy week of weather died down enough Saturday afternoon to make for a pleasant 45 minute boat trip to the Spiegel Grove dive site. The full moon was rising and the weather was pleasant and Capt Pete Lacombe organized a great group of divers aboard Keys Diver II. It was alread dark when we arrived at the dive site and I was first in the water and immediately could see the outline of the wreck 60 feet down while descending the #6 mooring ball. Halfway down the line I told myself, “Dave we are going stealth mode tonight….no dive light unless absolutely needed.” What a great decision! I made way way from the mooring line aft torward the massive well deck and two crane arms of the Landing Ship Dock (LSD).
I was right below the dive boat in 80-90 feet of water and could easily see divers on the surface as their lights penetrated the water all the way down to the bottom of the well deck 115 feet below the surface. The water was as clear it gets for a dive on the Spiegel and rising full moon was making the ambient light brigher and brigher with every minute. The entire wreck was teaming with fluorescent bioluminescence (glowing mini marine organisms). At one point I sat on the aft crane arm in the silence of the surronding water and watched the other divers in our group dive around the wreck with their dive lights beaming up and down through the “gin” clear water. No other diver could see me and I enjoyed an hour on the Spiegel in “stealth mode” in my own world of underwater serenity.
My dive profile was very conservative: maximum depth for most of the dive was 80 feet and I spent over half of the dive on shallowest sections on top of the superstructure. The goal was to maximize dive time and take in as much as the wreck as possible while in “stealth mode.” The coolest experience of the night was looking into cutouts in the Spiegel’s hull that were on the port forward side of the superstructure. These cutouts faced right into the current and the force of the water was creating a window and room full of bioluminescence that resembled a 1000 fireflys. Sooooo Cooooolll!!
The first half of my dive I avoided other divers so their lights would not ruin my serenity. The Mission Impossible theme song was in my head as I ducked in an around corners to avoid my other dive buddies. I was having so much fun and was sooooo relaxed that I was 40 minutes into my dive before I even check my dive computer. I could see my depth guage in the faint moonlight so I knew I had plenty and air and after checking my dive computer I realized I had another 20 minutes of No Deco time. (Yes you can dive 1 hour NO DECO on the Spiegel Grove with a descent dive computer, diving Nitrox 32 Enriched Air, a conservative/shallow dive profile, a 120 cu ft tank and awesome air consumption). I used almost all 20 remaining minutes of my No Deco time on top of Spiegel’s superstructure and had a nice slow ascent back to the dive boat.
Thanks to Pete Lacombe for organizing an awesome full moon night dive. Another classic!
My underwater camera is back. After a 6 month hiatus in the repair shop (don’t ask), my Sea&Sea 1G is working fine and ready to go. My skills are a bit rusty but I was able to snap some sharp pics of interior features of the Spiegel Grove on Sunday morning in very clear dive conditions. I also caught the largest Porcupinefish (pufferfish) I have ever seen in my shutter during my shallow second dive the same morning. The HUGE Mommy puffer was joined by a much smaller baby puffer. Thanks to my dive buddy Eugene for joining the fun and finally starting his Enriched Air/Nitrox class after 30+ years of diving. The pictures below are of the Large Porcupinefish, the wind speed and direction meter from the Radar Room of the LSD-32 Spiegel Grove and on the right is an oven from the main galley on the Spiegel Grove. See the link below for the full photo gallery.
Speigel Grove and Sand Isle Photo Gallery June 27, 2010
You never know where a good dive will lead. Chris Adams visited his parents Carlie and Leslie Adams in Key Largo in early June and was treated to some fantastic dive conditions both on the shallow reefs and the deep wrecks in the area. During his visit, I led Chris on his first tour of the naval shipUSS Spiegel Grove on June 10th (see post). Chris traveled back home to PA in mid June and started a new job with Princeton Tec, the adventure gear company know best in the SCUBA industry for their dive lights. Chris’s first assignment at Princeton Tec…..writing a blog entry about his dive experience in Key Largo. Not a bad gig Chris…….any other job openings available at Princeton Tec??!! Chris mentioned me in his blog post and created to a link the “Enjoy the Journey” blog entry about our our awesome Spiegel dive together. Thanks for the shout out Chris!! I am very impressed with the both the adventure writing skills of Chris and the “Lighting the Dash” Princeton Tec blog. Check out the blog and follow the adventures of Chris Adams at the link below:
Another great weekend of diving in the Upper Florida Keys thanks to goregous summer weather and specatular diving conditions. Carlie Adams and I went diving on the Eagle and Davis Ledge on Saturday morning and group of South Florida friends came down to dive the wreck of the USCG Bibb and Molossas Reef on Sunday morning. The conditions Sunday am on the Bibb were perfect for a deep wreck dive: 100+ viz, NO Current and calm water on the surface.
The Bibb is the sister ship of the Duane and sunk intentionally a few days apart in 1987 and only 600 yards separates the two wrecks. Unlike the Duane, the Bibb lies on her starboard side in minimally 94 feet of water. Due to the ships depth and orientation, the Bibb has less colorful coral growth and schools of fish than the Duane but is still a spectacular dive worth seeing at least once. At one point during the dive, I was hovering at 50 feet between the stern and bow moorning balls and I could see the entire hull of the 327 foot Coast Guard Cutter. All of the divers in our group enjoyed dive the Bibb but prefer to dive the Duane next time.
Molasses Reef was our second dive site on Sunday morning and the conditions were absolutlely perfect for a liesurely reef dive. 150+ viz, no current, nurse sharks, schools of reef fish and colorful coral ledges made for a stunning dive experience. The mooring ball on Molasses was Railroad Wreck a spot where pieces from the old Overseas Keys railway fell in the water during a storm en route to delivery in the lower keys for installation in the 1920′s. The section we dove is also known high spurs of coral ledges and deep sand channels of Molasses Reef. The area just west of our mooring ball is where the Wellwood ship ran aground in the 1980′s and wiped out the reef. The Wellwood area of the reef is recovering but still lacks color and growth of undamaged sections of Molasses. We also swam by Eagle Ray Alley but no Eagle Rays in site today. Overall another excellent summer reef dive in Key Largo.
Thanks to Camilo and Tammy Romano, Dr. Eugene, Greg Roll and Carlie for joining the fun. It was Greg’s first dive in Key Largo in over a year. His dive gear had an inch of dust on it! Greg promises to dive more frequently in the Keys this summer. Also, thanks to Florida Keys Dive Center in Tavernier who hosted both days of diving this weekend. My friend Jason Schwenke manages a fantastic dive operation with 46 foot Newton “fast” dive boats and a wonderful staff. We will be diving with FLAKEYS again this summer.
Florida Keys Dive Center Web site:
Another amazing day of diving in the Upper Keys! Saturday’s adventure was on the Wreck of the Eagle: a cargo carrier intentially sunk off Islamorada in 1987. The conditions were spectacular with 80+ feet of viz, NO current and the wreck full of schooling grunts, snapper and large tarpon. I first did some inside exploration of the superstructure of the Eagle which is bit disorienting because the ship lies at a 50 degree angle. I found the engine room for the first time which is quite accessible off the forward side of the lower cargo area. (Advanced divers only please!) Carlie Adams took some stellar video (to be published later) and we both received kudos from the boat staff for catching a lionfish on the wreck. I donated the Lionfish to REEF in Key Largo for further study and my local Lionfish guru and good friend Alecia Adamson reported our capture and was perplexed by our use of a large ziploc bag to catch the invasive creature. Overall, an excellent dive and thanks to Florida Keys Dive Center for another great dive boat experience.
The perfect dive conditions continue in Key Largo in June. I went diving on the Spiegel Grove on Thursday morning with Carlie and Leslie Adams and their son Chris who was visiting from their home in PA. It was the first time on the Grove for Chris and I was brought in to give Chris a very special tour of the massive wreck. Thursday was a beautiful summer day in Key Largo and the conditions underwater were perfect for an epic wreck dive. The viz was over 100 feet and a moderate current brought in schooling fish and pelagics to keep the dive exciting. Chris and I dove on Faber 120 steel tanks on Nitrox 32 and his parents were on Alum 80 air tanks which made a big difference in dive profiles. The Adams family and I started on the “T” mooring line (#7) and descended down to the bow of the Spiegel and admired the entire bow and superstructure peering through the spectacular visibility.
The first half of the dive was dedicated to the main deck and well deck of the Grove and then Carlie and Leslie had to return to the dive boat. The rest of the dive with Chris was an interior tour of the superstructure on the “service level” (Level 01) of the Spiegel. The rooms visited included the machine shop, galley, mess halls and we saw Snoopy. After a thorough tour of level 01 it was time to get Chris back to the mooring line at the starboard forward superstructure of the wreck. Congrats to Chris for completing his first true wreck dive and first Speigel Grove dive and he completed the dive with spectacular conditions and witnessed the most impressive features of the Grove.
Thanks to Rainbow Reef Dive Center in Key Largo, FL for taking the group on a fantastic dive. Rainbow Reef is a first rate operation located on MM 100 in Port Largo and run impressive dive boats with a friendly helpful crew. The Adams family and I had a great ime with Rainbow Reef, were impressed by the dive operation and we will be using the dive center again.
I witnessed my first Lionfish catch at Pickles Reef off Key Largo on Memorial Day with the Indian Valley SCUBA gang. Carlie Adams used his REEF Lionfish Hunter training and license well and took the Lionfish to task with help with a net from the our dive boat the Amoray diver. Watching the lionfish catch was a nice way to end a very exciting dive where my group saw 3 huge Eagle Rays, a Green Moray Eel, Coral Banded Shrimp and Flamingo Tongues. Great job Carly! How did the Lionfish taste?
Thank you to all the friends and divers at Indian Valley SCUBA and my local friends here in Key Largo and Miami for another excellent Memorial Day weekend of diving. IVS comes down 5-6 times a year to dive in Key Largo and always on Memorial day weekend. The 20+ members of this year’s group were treated to fantastic weather, calm water, perfect dive conditions and even a sunset pirate cruise on Tuesday night. There are just too many stories to tell in a few posts but fun was had by all and the diving continued on Monday morning with Pickles Reef and Snapper Ledge. The fish life at Snapper Ledge was as abundant as advertised with hundreds of snappers, grunts and goatfish schooling along the ledge. We look forward to seeing the IVS group back down in Key Largo for lobster hunting and another dive weekend in late July. Lobster season!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sunday afternoon of the Memorial Day Indian Valley SCUBA weekend ended with two amazing dives, a double deep wreck afteroon the USCG Duane and LSD 32 Spiegel Grove. The first dive on the Duane was one of best ever on a wreck that I have visited underwater over 100 times. The conditions were perfect: moderate current, 100+ super clear blue water vizibility, flat calm water and clear skies and plenty of fish activity. To start the dive, I lead my divers, Luke and John, through a complete tour of the superstructure of the Duane including the crew berths, the galley, ship’s offices, CO cabin, radio room, chart room and wheelhouse.
Outside the wreck was just as fun with a turtle, a spotted moray eel, a porcupine fish, a southern stingray and two huge Jewfish all floating around the Duane. I even had time to float up to the top of the Crow’s nest of the wreck 50 feet above the superstructure. Now what made the dive one of the best ever was a school of over 300 permit (large round silver pelagic game fish) swarming the Duane. The school of fish was so big that shadows were cast over the wreck as the fish swam over our group. Absolutely amazing and a great way to end a spectacular dive!!
