I, my SO, and a few friends went on the 3.5 day Ultimate Getaway
liveaboard trip this past weekend. This was my second trip on the boat
(the first Turkey weekend a year and half ago).
We left Ft. Meyers Beach around 7 or so on Thursday night. When we
awoke around 7 the next morning, we were pulling into the dive site.
Had a quick breakfast and started gearing up. Most of the divers on
the boat were experienced and many had been on the boat previously.
Out of 20 divers, only one was not diving nitrox. Most of the
experienced divers were using large capacity steel tanks for the dives
so we could get a lot more bottom time. The boat was had spear
fishers, lobster killers (me), photographers, and gawkers on board,
and each was serious in their chosen activity.The first few dives of
the day were tests for me since I was trying to determine if I had
fixed a previous leak in the drysuit. The air temp was around 80
during the morning and everyone was telling me that I was going to
burn up during the dives. Fortunately, the leak was fixed and I was
able to dive dry the entire weekend without resorting to the emergency
wetsuit. Yes, it was warm for the first dive swimming, but once I had
everything set, it was go time.
The water temp was around 77 for the most dives with the last day
having a temp around 71 for the two dives. Many of us created 3 pools
for the trip: biggest fish, biggest lobster, and most lobster. I was
pulling out all the tricks I had. Besides having the drysuit to keep
me toasty for the 40-70 minute dives, I brought a few 'toys'. I have
currently have two scooters (Mako and a Torpedo) that I used for the
dives. The Torpedo has old batteries, so it only lasted 2 dives of
varied use, but the Mako lasted a full two dive on constant burn. With
the scooters, I was able to slice my breathing rate, cover more
ground, and pretty much have more fun. Since I wasn't spearfishing, I
was not worried about noise in the least. On one dive with the
scooter, I was able to surface with 7 large lobster in my catch bag.
For almost all the dives, I ran out of NDL time way before running low
on air and often exited the water with 1000-1500psi left in my steel
95. I was able to ride the NDL limits the first two dove of each day,
but the rest of the day were pretty much decompression dives with
stops between 2 to 10 minutes. Vis varied between 40 and 80 for the
most part. There were some incredible sites with coral pinnacles that
rose had a relief of 30 feet or more from the bottom and I completely
forgot about lobstering as I was scootering through these sites. It
felt very much like flying in a Cessna into the Grand Canyon. In one
such site I found a small cavern that held the biggest lobster I had
ever seen. The thing had to be 12 lbs if an ounce, but he was well out
of reach from my tickle stick since my tank kept be from going
further. No problem though, that is an advantage of a 7 foot hose. It
was a simple matter to take off the gear, rest it on the side, and
crawl into the hole after Lobzilla. The cavern opened up after the
small entrance with enough room to move my arms. However, this lobster
did not get to be so big by being stupid and after just a few
maneuvers, he was gone into some very distant hole that I could barely
see. This formation was so huge that if a bit more hollow, it could
have held several divers. Alas, after a severe silting, I wormed my
way back out and reset my gear. My buddy said the hold looked like a
smokestack of silt while the lobster was toying with me and my
accompanying frustrations. On another dive I could not find any
lobster after a huge search of dozens of places. I was finally giving
up and was looking at the enormous sponges. I happened to look under
one particularly large sponge and found that it was hollow inside!
Tucked into every cranny were lobster. I pulled out over 6 lobster and
only one of them were of legal size with all the other just barely
under 3 inches. On three of them, the tiny hairs on the carapace were
touching the gauge! Argggggg
Friday and Saturday consisted of 7 dives on both days including one
night dive. The night dives were fun since I borrowed a friend's wreck
light that held a small battery canister and 35W light. Lobster
pickings were somewhat easy since several were just out walking the
reef. I got two each dive and had several assists where I would light
the way for several people whom were struggling with their own prey.
On the last night I found a large reef crab walking the reef and found
it simple matter to grab him and remove the huge claws! The crab was
stunned when I left it on the reef, but my friend said as soon as I
left, two large grouper swooped in for their own meal.
The last dives on Sunday were the Baja California and the
communications relay tower nearby. The wreck was sunk in WWII by a
German U-boat and carried a cargo of spare parts, a jeep, bottles,
buttons, and combs. I scootered this dive so I could visit the whole
site. While search for goodies, I ran across a deep sea fishing reel
that looked like it was bought yesterday. The things was completely
intact and had all the rigging in place wither barely any blemish in
the least. Apparently it must have gotten dropped or pulled in no less
than few days before. I rescued it as well as a glass bowel, a few
buttons, jar, and a comb or two. The rest of the dive was spent
looking through the wreck and exploring it's resting place. The last
dive was on the tower that had an incredible amount of growth on the
support columns. Being one of the first down, I was fortunate to see a
few huge jewfish before they left. I haven't figure out my bottom time
exactly yet, but I made 16 dives with noting less than 38 minutes of
BT and several that lasted 60-70 minutes. In all, I caught 23 lobster
and two large reef crab claws. I sold two of the smallest lobster at
the dock for 15$ and collected a pot of 35$ for the most lobster. I
was beat out of another 35$ pot for the biggest lobster by a measly
ounce. I knew I should have stuffed him with rocks!
All in all, it was a great trip and WELL worth the price. Capt. Pitts
and crew did an incredible job and made sure everyone was satisfied
and that they had fun. The food was great (steak, eggs, bacon,
hamburgers, etc) as was the company. I would highly recommend the trip
to anyone and in fact am booking the entire boat again for this time
next year and may even go again in July. I think I caught the bug from
that wreck dive as now I am extremely interested in hitting a lot more
wrecks. Guess I will miss Ginnie Springs. <> I can still remember
the excitement of finding things like the reel and intact bowel