Laurel and I spent this past weekend in the Florida Keys on a group scuba diving trip with Seaventures, leaving Thursday afternoon to board the bus in Alpharetta, and returning early this morning. This was my first diving trip after becoming open water certified.

• The bus arrived at the Ramada Inn at Key Largo on Friday morning. After having breakfast at Doc’s Diner, a local wafflehouse-like establishment within walking distance from the hotel, we geared up and boarded the boat, Rainbow Reef, and left for Molasses Reef.
• The first dive of the day was a disaster. With two to three foot seas, and ocassionally reaching four feet, Titus succumed to sea sickness while in the water. Unable to grab a hold of the drift line, and due to unfortunate under weighting, Laurel and I were dragged by a strong current away from the boat. Laurel then deployed our rescue gear, and we were ultimately picked up by a passing dive boat. Fortunately, I was not the only person to have problems that day. Several inexperienced divers such as myself had to be rescued, while a few student divers never made it off the boat. On the plus side, I did manage to see two nurse sharks while underwater during this brief dive. The second dive of the day was cancelled as a result of inclement weather.
• Saturday morning was met with equally high winds, and the dive was cancelled and moved to that afternoon. One of the crew recalled that the waves were breaking over the side of the boat, with six to eight foot seas. Though a few adventurous souls chose to dive anyway, Laurel and I decided it best to practice our skills in the local pool after yesterday’s events.
• Thus, our second dive of the trip was performed in Three Sisters Reef, where the seas were signifantly calmer and would allow the open water students to begin completing their certification requirements. Unfortunately, visibility was terrible, and the dive would have been basically useless if not for the dive experience acquired. Mike, our instructor, led the dive. He was also the same instructor who left us for dead on Friday afternoon. Just kidding.
• Our third dive at Molases Reef was the best dive of the day. The waters were clear and visibility was excellent. Many divers reported seeing reef sharks, moray eels, and eagle rays.
• Sunday proved to be an excellent day for diving. Our fourth dive of the trip was performed at Spiegel Grove, a Landing Ship Dock that has been sunk to create an artificial reef in Key Largo. The vessel is 510 feet in length, 84 feet wide.
• An alternative dive site at the Benwood Historic Shipwreck was offered to student divers not comfortable with the depths of Spiegel Grove.
• Our last dive of the trip was performed at the French Reef. The location provided a great combination of swim-through caves and a great shallows area with stands of elkhorn coral and a deep reef with large sponges and well developed coral heads. It was an excellent dive to conclude the weekend trip.

The bus left for Atlanta later that evening, and we returned to Atlanta early Monday morning.