Tommy's Third and Fourth Open Water Dives

Milton and Tommy were 30 minutes late driving up from Homestead this morning. Wind was out of the NNE at about 10 knots, so the surf was too rough for Ryan, who had some errands to run. He told me to park in his spot and go for both dives. We parked as he had directed and geared up, but Mike, the chairman of the Board of Directors, came to tell me that because I was a "commercial diver" and engaged in transacting business, I couldn't park in their lot.  I told him we were just diving and that Ryan had directed me to park in the spot for which he pays rent, but Mike thought that would still be a problem. This is absurd.

Anyway, we headed off to the beach to make Tommy's third dive.  The surf was up, but not impossibly so. We all got out, though Milton had more problems with his bum leg than Tommy did. I ended up towing Milton much of the way out, but he kept sitting up in the water which killed his forward momentum. I asked him once not to do it, but he couldn't help himself, so I just swam off and left him to figure it out on his own.  We got to the sand and descended. Milton held the flag line while Tommy and I did the ascents.  Even though I asked Tommy to signal that he was out of air before he went for my octupus, I had to remind to do it him when we were actually performing the ascent. We went up slowly: 35 ft in 105 seconds or 3 seconds per foot.  The CESA was faster:  35 ft in 46 seconds or 1.3 seconds per foot, which is slower than the 60 ft per minute PADI requires but triggered some ascent warnings from my Suunto computer, which preferred a 30 ft/minute ascent rate. Anyway, we swam back in and I showed them a common octopus hiding in a hole and a Yellow Sand Ray buried in the sand. Visibility was poor but it was a fun dive.

Dive Time was 35 minutes; my SAC rate was 18.51 and my RMV was 0.48 ft3/minute.

Ryan was at the apartment when we got back and Mike had spoken with him. Ryan wasn't too concerned about it all. Mike apparently has a reputation as an old maid. The more I think of it, the more I get pissed off, but its really Ryan who ought to be upset.  He pays for that parking spot and Mike has pretty much made himself a part of any decision regarding it.

Regardless, Milton, Tommy and I packed up and drove down to the South Beach Parking Lot to make our second dive and Tommy's final dive necessary for certification. We walked in just South of Tower 2 and headed East. We somehow missed the tiered reef, so I headed South and we went right to the beginning of the Jacks.  Swam along the North side for a bit, but turned the dive when Milton indicated he was down to 1,100 psi.  We headed back a little faster than we swam out. Might have made 2 hours, but wasn't sure how Milton was doing for air. Just as well. We came out just North of Tower 1 and walked up to the truck. Tommy did well using 8 pounds of weight.

Dive time 104 minutes; consumption rate was 23.81 at an average depth of 17 feet; SAC rate was 15.71 on an 80 ft3 tank; RMV was 0.41 ft3/minute.