At 6:30 am, Martha and I drove to the Ocean Parking Lot on South A1A and the Mos were just moments behind us. Gearing up was a little chaotic, but we got it done and were on our way to the beach by 7:25 am. I was carrying the hoola hoops. We descended at the buoy line at 7:42 am and headed East to the Wrap Around Ledge. I had planned to get on the sand before the staghorn coral, but decided it was problem enough to carry the hoops to the Ledge.
I set the Hoola Hoops up and took Cora aside. I did not test for buoyancy because we had just guessed at the 8 pounds she carried and I am certain she was heavy. We did make a very slow controlled descent and then spent time hovering and moving from one depth to another by just changing our breathing. Then we went through the hoops.
I lead and Cora followed. I went through the bottom hoop on the West; swam up to the bottom hoop on the East and floated up to pass through the top hoop using only my breathing to change depth. I went back and forth floating to different depths and swimming from one set of hoops to the other. Cora followed. Once the pattern was established, I stepped back and watched as Cora went from one hoop to another. She did very well, so I went through on my back and she followed, moving slowly and carefully controlling her depth. She was moving a little too fast, but she had good control of her position in the water.
We joined the others and headed to the Staghorn Coral then North along the Swiss Cheese Reef to the first Coral Head on the upper shelf. I turned the dive there and we swam back to the beach, picking up the hoops at the Wrap Around Ledge. No one was out of air. and no one complained of being too heavy or light.
Bottom time for the dive was 69 minutes at a maximum depth of 18.4 feet. My SAC was 17.99 psi/minute and my RMV was 0.46 ft3/minute.
A continuing log of dives and commentary on items of interest to students at Cordova Diving.
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