February 24, 2008 - Video Project

The afternoon of the 24th finds the Video Dude and dive buddies Heather and Terri aboard the "Lady Go Diver" on our way to the "M/V Castor" and "Fink's Grouper Hole".

Dive #1 is on the "M/V Castor", a very nice wreck about 4 miles north of Boca Raton Inlet. After nearly an hour's boat ride, we arrive on site and after a briefing on the wreck, we all splash in and follow the descent line down to the wreck. The three of us take the grand tour of the wreck and try to see as much as possible. Terri did a few penetrations into the engine room and cargo hold, while Heather and I swam around outside checking out the tunicates and fish life. This is a big wreck and I am sure I didn't get to see all of it, especially since I cut my dive short due to maxxing out on nitrogen because of my deep dive on the "Captain Dan" earlier today. While on my safety stop at 60ft, the herd of students that were on the boat come rocketing past me heading for the "magic" 15ft safety stop without even a care for their ascent rates! What a mess. They end up causing the line to come loose from the wreck and all of the students start bobbing on the surface! A dangerous situation to be sure and fortunately no one was injured. Those of us with a little more presence of mind managed to avoid the problem of losing the line and made our stops successfully. Needless to say there were several lively discussions amongst the instructors, divemasters and captain once everyone was back on deck!

Dive #2 was on "Fink's Grouper Hole" and all I can say is that it now ranks as one of my top ten all-time favorite dives! I forgot all about the snafus of the first dive! Heather limited-out on Lobsters, we saw a 10ft Nurse Shark, a 7ft Green Moray Eel, Spotted Filefish, Blue Chromis, school after school of Grunts, Squirrel Fish and Angel Fish. A nice little current pushed us along, decent visibility of about 50ft, but a little chilly at 70 degrees! Still, the most fun I've had on a dive in a while and heather was really jazzed about all the lobsters! Fink's is definitely on my list of "Sites to Return To" that's for sure!

A long day of both work and fun in Paradise!

The Video Dude