Tuesday, 16 July 2019, 1st OW Dive on the Swiss Cheese Reef

Johnny met me in the Fort Lauderdale Beach Parking Lot just a little after 7:00 am. We geared up and got in the water, but Johnny complained that his BCD was leaking. Indeed it was, but we went back to shore and I tightened the inflator's connection to the BCD, which stopped the leak. We got geared up again and this time Johnny complained that a different air vent was leaking slowly but I told him to ignore it and we got back in the water.

We walked/swam over the sand bar and descended in about 7 feet of water at 7:45 am. We swam along the bottom to the buoy so that Johnny might avoid any problems equalizing. At the buoy we swam East to the Wrap Around Ledge and over the rubble to the Rock Line. Johnny was carrying 6 pounds of weight after he declared that 4 pounds were too heavy in the pool. He used his arms a lot and was often vertical in the water, but he got better during the dive.

We went North along the Rock line to the tire and then East to the Crescent Moon Rock. Along the way I demonstrated the removal and recovery skills and Johnny successfully demonstrated each skill.  He also removed and replaced his mask. I tried to get him to hover, but he seemed unable to do so, even when he used his legs to push himself off the sand.

From the Crescent Moon Rock We swam NE to the Staghorn Coral with hundreds of small grunts and snappers. Went East to the Sectioned Rock and spotted a Giant anemone on the West side of the rock. At about that point, Johnny let me know that he was down to 1500 psi so we turned the dive and swam back over the Staghorn Coral and across the rubble to the sand flat. I stopped on the sand flat to get Johnny to hover and this time he was successful. Then I demonstrated taking the gear off under water and he demonstrated the same skill, except that he did not completely remove the gear but left his right arm inside the shoulder strap.

Once he was back in his kit, we swam for the Rockline, over the rubble and over the Wrap Around Ledge. We swam past the buoy line then surfaced. He added air to his BCD to stay afloat and we swam to the beach. He took the flag and walked out of the surf. I came along more cautiously and striving to keep my balance. Eventually, I made my way out of the surf and we walked over the warming sand to the truck.

Our Bottom time was 49 minutes and the maximum depth was 20.0 feet. My SAC rate was 20.47 psi/minute. My RMV as .41 cubic feet per minute while my own computation reflects an RMV of 0.53 cubic feet per minute.