Diving the Ken Vitale with Leonardo, Felipe and Guillermo

I decided to shoot wide-angle today, so I changed lenses. Then I decided to use the dome port, but instead of switching ports, I just put the Mk2 into the housing for the Mk I. It seemed like a good idea. When I got in the water for the first dive, however, the housing was flooding, so I took the camera back to the boat, which is why there are no pictures accompanying this entry. But that is not the biggest problem. I have been unable to get the camera out of the housing. The hot shoe is caught on a 2mm lip on the top of the housing.

The dive itself was a delight, though the visibility was pretty poor for a second reef dive. We swam around the wreck, then entered the wheel house and went down the staircase, out onto the mid-deck and down into the hold. Well, Leonardo, Guillermo and I did. Felipe swam around. We went back for a second try, and Felipe ascended the staircase, but Guillermo swam around. We penetrated into the bow of the boat and had just come up on deck when Guillermo indicated that he had only 500 psi remaining, so I sent him to the asecnt line and I rounded up the others. Leonardo was reluctant to leave, as he still had over 1500 psi. Felipe was okay with leaving as he had only 1000 psi remaining. At my insistence, we all swam to the line and caught up to Guillermo, with whom I shared air since I still had about 1800 psi. We made a long safety stop and swam to the stern to board on the swim ladders.

The second dive was a drift dive on the Oakland Ledges. During our surface interval, I had urged the guys to stay horizontal, not use their arms to swim and to focus on their breathing. Felipe was still having some problems, so I switched one of my 2 pound weights for one of his 3 pound weights and he seemed to do better, but it was probably psyhological. We surfaced when I heard the boat nearby. We had been diving for just over an hour and Leonardo was getting cold.