Afternoon
Private charter on splashdown
Mostly sunny and hot
Seas 2-3 feet
Strong N current
Water temp 82 ish
Viz 50 feet
Today is the day we have been waiting for…
Came through the inlet and was happy to see the barge out on the site. Carman and his crew were there as well. They had the buoys set and the barge was setting anchor. They were going to have to reset with two anchors but were able to hold the boat in place with some skillful piloting of the captain. Carman gave the thumbs up and the show was on.
A 5 ton rock makes a hell of a splash when it’s dropped off the side of a boat. The work lasted a couple of hours or so and was great fun to watch. Shortly after the work was done the barge steamed off and we got to go in.
First dive was Shawn and I. Shortly after we got down Carman and Willie (from the Palm Beach post) showed up. They only stayed down long enough to make sure the new reef did not cause any damage to any existing habitats… and it did not. All is good.
The first drop was very surreal… It was amazing. It was way better than I could have imagined… And I ve had 3 years to imagine it. The large size of the rock is what makes it so cool.. These things are massive. It was truly unbelievable. I can’t describe it and pictures don’t do it justice. You have to see it for your self if you can.
I was so excited to get in I forgot to turn on my computer. The current was so strong we bailed on the safety stop as it was too hard to maintain position… the current was ripping.
Second dive was shortly after. Daina and Kevin came down as well.
I swam around with Daina for a while the she went up. Shawn and I hung out just drifting into la la land and exploring the new reef. The cool thing is that the reef is just big enough to keep you interested but no so big that Shawn can wander of into the unknown. I thought we were supposed to only have a 30 min bottom time, I looked down from la la land and we were down for 44 minutes. I grabbed Shawn and headed up. He was trying to untie the buoy but I kept grabbing him and insisting we go up. I thought we were way over time, but I was wrong, we were supposed to have a 45 minute bottom time. (I didn’t know because I forgot to turn on my computer on the first dive). He was wondering what the hell I was doing, but I thought I was doing the right thing (albeit 15 minutes over bottom time).
Luckily the line was still attached so we could decompress The current was still ripping on top (much slower on bottom) We had a 5 minute deco stop to be safe
The reef has several identifying features:
The obelisk right smack in the middle.
A monolith all by itself on the s side
Wale tail on the s e side
The lounge chair on the N side
The sandwich next to lounge chair just to the w
The rubble field on the w.
B