I scheduled two deep dives on ScubaTyme for Sunday afternoon. Charles Chase, Chris Coney, Verdes Terblanche and I went. Charles completed his Advanced Open Water course and Verdes completed his Deep Diving certification.
I wanted to shoot wide angle on the RSB-1, which was the first dive. I brought the Canon 5d Mk 1 with a 28-105mm lens set at 70mm and the dome port. I checked the CF card and made sure the battery was fully charged.
The RSB-1 is a 160-foot USCG tender sunk as part of the artificial reef program in Broward County on 14 May 1994. The vessel rests on a sandy bottom in 118 feet of water and reaches upwards to 73 feet. Its bow points North. It has twin stacks and an antenna arrays which is still intact. Amanda tied off at the wheel house and we went down the line.
When we got to the deck, I times each of them opening the red combination locks we worked with on the boat. They each did well. I enjoy the deep black of the red locks. I tried to get a shot, but the battery was dead. Go figure.
The second dive was on the backside of the Third Reefline. We went to 132 feet, but it was all sand. I had some trouble clearing my ears at 60 feet, but got to the bottom with the others.
We swam West and found some isolated bits of reef, but not a lot of life. We did see a tire. We also saw a lobster trap on a line, which was pretty cool. My computer had warned me to begin my ascent because of my high N2 load, so I did not get very good shots of the lobster trap, just some shots looking down on it.
I was shooting my Intova point and shoot, and the poor light was a problem. A lot of my shots were blurred.
We made stops at 65 feet and 32 feet, but my computer still put me into deco and required a 5 minute stop at 10 feet. Chris was unable to hold his position at 10 feet, and floated to the surface. He was showing no DCS symptoms while we drove home, but he was definitely out of profile.
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