Divers Two | The Dive Center for the Jersey Shore

Once again the island worked its magic on us with the warm tropical air, the friendly people, the great food and most of all the wonderful diving. I think everyone in our group of 10 divers plus the two non-diving Muhlhausen daughters had a great time.

The diving in Bonaire offers something for everyone. Most dives start in shallow reefs with lots of small marine life to keep one’s attention. The reefs generally drop off pretty steeply and one can venture as deep as you want. Most of us stuck to one hour dives and stretched out gas supplies by staying shallow at the end. The rebreather contingent was able to dive deeper at times and enjoy a leisurely decompression on the second half of the dive while slowly ascending along the reef – still sticking to a one hour profile.

All the dives were great, but a special one for me was where we started on “The Lake” along the south central west shore. On this part of the island, there are two reef systems separated by a sandy valley. The valley is studded with wild coral formations at times resembling giant mushrooms. We headed south along the edge of the reef until a dark shape loomed ahead of us. This was the “Hilma Hooker”, perhaps Bonaire’s best known wreck site. We were able to do a leisurely tour of the Hooker before heading back at shallower depths to our exit point.

On most days we started with two boat dives on the Green Flash, one of Toucan Divers dive boats. Returning mid day, we tried to work in some lunch, before heading out in our pickups for an afternoon dive or two. We managed a couple of night dives during the week at the Plaza Resorts dive site, “18 Palms”, and usually finished the day with a fairly late dinner in one of Bonaire’s marvelous restaurants.

Perhaps my only regrets about diving Bonaire are that there are only 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. Most days we were hard pressed to get in all the dives we wanted to and still find time to eat. And 7 days is hardly long enough to fully appreciate the island.

Pompano Beach, Florida - 2008

Feb 1^st, 2008 - The Team Arrives

After a pretty uneventful flight, the advance team of the Divers Two 2008 Pompano Beach Expedition Dive Squad and Tactical Wind Ensemble arrived at the hotel. We reported to our rooms and assembled, checked, and inspected our state-of- the-art equipment for the following day.

As we headed out to dinner, I suggested a nice Thai/Sushi place nearby. My two companions grimaced and shook their heads. Instead we found an acceptable Florida version of an Irish pub that at least had draft Guiness.

Note to self: Must be more discriminating in team selection. Doubt that these two could survive on raw sea cucumbers and urchins if the mission demands it.

Feb 2^nd, 2008 First Dives

I awake to partly cloudy skies, mild breezes, and air temperatures in the mid 70s. The television weather forecast predicts 5 days of mostly calm seas, sunshine, and air temperatures in the mid 80s. Thanks to our superior conditioning and training this should prove little hindrance to our crack squad of dive commandos.

We head over to the boat the Coral Princess, one of South Florida Dive Headquarters dive boats and find it crawling with divers. It's the first nice Saturday after a stretch of bad weather, and it seems like everybody in Florida wants to dive (but why on this boat??). Our Ninja-like techniques enable us to secure choice spots on the boat and before long we are heading out to sea.

Luckily, we won't all be in the same patch of ocean; some of the divers will be dropped off on a local reef while the rest of us will dive the Capt Dan a nice intact ship sitting in 100+ feet of water. Our squad consists of 4 AOW and Wreck Diver students: Bob, Dominic, Gary and Kevin, two almost divemasters: George and Rich, and instructor-in-training Rick, who will assist me on the dives.

After we moor to the wreck, I jump into the warm, blue waters and swim over to the ball to await the others. Once everyone is assembled on the line we start down, but difficulties arise one diver heads back to the boat for more weight. Then another has problems with a new mask that leaks. Rick goes down with the rest of the group while we get a spare mask.

The phrase like herding cats comes to mind. Finally assembled on the bottom we tour the wreck. The visibility is around 40 feet, the water temperature is around 73 degrees and there's little or no current.

A little different from my last dive in NJ with 46 degree water and about 8 feet of viz. I think I'll be able to adapt to these strange, new conditions though.

I love these Florida wrecks - easy diving and lots of colorful fish. Some of our group later report seeing a big green moray eel holed up on the deck. I missed him probably because I spent most of my time watching my herd err group.

After about 25 minutes of bottom time, we all ascend. For some this is their first tropical dive and for all of us it's a great start to the trip.

Our second dive is a drift dive along the outer reefs in 40-80 feet of water. It's a good opportunity to relax and practice buoyancy control. Rick carries the flag, but I have the compass so there's some confusion about who to follow since I like to explore little nooks and coral formations I spot along the way and often veer away from the main group.

I have to confess that I find the drift dives off Pompano kind of boring. There's usually not much current so you have to work to cover ground. (OK call me lazy.) The reefs are not very colorful with little relief. They have the usual assortment of tropical fishiest Parrotfish, Angelfish, and many others that I don't know the name of. But after a while it all looks the same. I duck into the occasional shallow canyon in the reef and poke my head under outcrops hoping to spot a lobster or crab, or something a little unusual, but mostly come up empty.

After about 40 minutes we all slowly ascend and do a drifting safety stop. Everyone displays admirable buoyancy control.

At the surface, I spin around looking for the dive boat.

"Where's the dive boat! "

"We're lost at sea!"

"Gather into a circle and watch for sharks!"

"We're all gonna die!"

"Have you seen the movie "Open Water"?"

Just kidding. After a short time, Capt. Dick comes to our rescue and we get back on board.

Back on shore, I locate my KISS rebreather and bailout bottles that I've shipped down from New Jersey. Everything seems to have arrived safely. I spend a good part of the afternoon popping the valves back on the tanks, filling them, lugging everything to my hotel room and assembling and checking the rebreather before tomorrow's adventures.

But before that we have a:

Night Dive!

Will our heroes survive their night dive?

What about the sharks, rays, and monstrous sea creatures?

To read the exciting conclusion of the night dive and the rest of the trip go to:

http://scuba.harvest.woodworks.com/FL_2008.html

It's long, but worth

Cocos Island 2008 with Divers Two

I told people that diving Cocos Island would be the trip of a lifetime. For most of us I think it lived up to this expectation.
Highlights were swimming in blue water with schools of hammerheads above or below me, seeing a whale shark, doing a night dive with "wolf" packs of whitetip sharks hunting in the reefs, and swimming in the midst of an enormous school of big eye jacks.

The Undersea Hunter operation was first rate, the crew magnificent, and our group of hardy divers the best companions imaginable.
Midway through the trip we began hatching plans for a return.

I came away awed by the experience and with the firm conviction that any serious diver should do whatever they can to dive in this incomparable location.
So I guess you can say I had a good time.

Here's some links with other reports, pictures, and videos from our trip.

Blair Svihra Jr.'s videos:

http://www.jeepguide.com/cocos/cocos-24meg-large.wmv

http://www.jeepguide.com/cocos/cocos-12meg-small.wmv

Reports from our trip on the Undersea Hunter site:

http://www.underseahunter.com/uh.htm and click on Trip & Guest reports,
28 Oct - 7 November 2008

My edited pictures from the trip:

http://picasaweb.google.com/darthmuhl/CocosIslandOctNov2008

Sterling Levie's comprehensive website devoted to the trip:

http://homepage.mac.com/sterlinglevie/Sites/2008/DivingCocos/Home.html

Carl