20200606_Catamaran Beach

We geared up and got in the water by 8:44 am. Luis went first, walking through the rather large waves on the beach and struggling to maintain his balance in the shallow water. Leo went next and then Martha and I followed. There was a fairly strong North current against which we each struggled to maintain an Easterly bearing. Once we got past the sand bar and into deeper water, things got a little easier. We could duck under the breaking waves without fear of being knocked off our feet. 

As I crossed the sand bar, I saw Luis heading back onto the beach so I swam back to ask if he needed any help. He signaled that he was fine, but unwilling to continue the dive. I headed East again and caught up to Martha and Leo. We agreed to proceed with the dive and descend at 8:49 am. Martha had some difficulty equalizing her ears and descended slowly to the bottom to meet Leo and I. The current and poor visibility separated us, however. Leo and I were deciding whether to go to the surface to find Martha when I spotted her swimming past only a few feet away. She was focused on her compass bearing and did not see me. It took me a while to get Leo's attention then to swim after Martha. By the time we were together again, the current had drifted us past the Hotel Maren, which is about 800 feet North of the buoy pin and the blocks marking our usual path to the Swiss Cheese Reef. 

We swam ESE and caught an edge of the Swiss Cheese Reef. We continued South over some intermittent reef. Martha found a large Gaudy Nautica which unfortunately had been damaged. We also came upon a young Green Sea Turtle hunkered down between some rocks. We tried to follow the turtle but he soon lost us in the poor visibility. 

Martha signaled that she was down to 1500 psi, so we turned the dive. I surfaced to find that we were just off the first burm South of Tower 4, which is where we had wanted to have entered the water. We headed West to the beach and quickly got into shallow water where Luis was waiting for us to exit. He met me as I stood up and I gave him my fins and the flag then managed to walk out slowly without any additional help. Martha got knocked down in the shallow water just off the beach, but Luis went to help her exit the water. Leo walked out under his own power and carrying his own fins.

Our dive time was 70 minutes and our maximum depth was 24 feet. My actual consumption rate was 32.67 psi/minute; my surface air consumption was 21.14 psi/minute and my residual minute volume was .55 cubic feet. 

20200601_Swiss Cheese Reef Parts One and Two

I spent some time early yesterday getting my tanks inspected and filled. I checked one of Martha's 65 cubic foot tanks and it had not been filled. I got it filled. Unfortunately, I did not check her second tank.  Since my Suunto computer had died the night before and Martha's computer was also not working, we did not check the tank before Martha geared up.

We walked to the beach and entered the water off Tower 4. We walked in and swam out to the buoy line where we descended at 7:32 am. about 10 minutes later, Martha discovered that the tank was empty. We surfaced at 7:44 and swam back to the beach. We exited the water and walked back to the Jeep where we swapped tanks for her. 

After changing Martha's tank we got back in the water and swam out towards the reef. We descended at 8:20 am over the edge of the sand and I spotted the tie-down and pin for the buoy that used to mark the vessel exclusion zone. The water was clear and we could easily see what was left of the blocks from the pin. 

We swam East to the blocks East to the Wrap Around Ledge. We swam over the Ledge and out to the Rock Line, then we went North along the Rock Line to the tire and swam due East from the tire across the sand flat, past the Crescent Moon Rock and NE towards the Staghorn Coral. This time we found the Staghorn Coral and swam with the various Grunts and other brightly colored fish. 

We swam East to the Sectioned Rock and then turned North to follow the Swiss Cheese Reef for about 250 yards, where it ended. We then swam East again then turned South to follow the Swiss Cheese Reef back to the Sectioned Rock and then West to the beach where we surfaced at 10:15 am. 

Winds were calm and the water was, too, so getting out was much easier than it had been earlier in the week. The dive was 114 minutes. My actual consumption rate was 20.24 psi/minute. The Surface Air Consumption rate was 13.91 psi/minute and my Residual Minute Volume was .36 cubic feet per minute.