Dive Stories From Back In The Day

[ricki]

Undersea stories go back millennia, most lost to time. You can have a great diving experience at anytime still what interesting, great things happened back in the day? No end of stories, near misses, great discoveries, so tell us about it.


http://www.fksa.org/albums/album347/lobster_s.jpg

[ricki]

I had forgotten about this, just came back to me yesterday, really don't know why either. I was 16 solo free diving on a familiar reef off Ft. Lauderdale Beach in 1973. I was using a long classic Greg Noll, 9' 2" tanker surfboard. Wish I still had the board but soon left it in the garage, it was easier just to swim over the reefs than to deal with the board.

http://mjroseblog.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/04/14/greg_noll_at_sunset_2.jpg
Greg with a creation and its intended playground

This was an usual morning as there was thick fog down to the water with very limited visibility. May have had a couple of days a year like that. While on the reef, I kept hearing ships horns go off to the east. Port Everglades was a few miles to the south, strange. Couldn't see anything above water, so might as well keep looking below.

In time the fog started to lift, looking seaward what should I find? A cruise ship, a big one, it was the Costa Line, "Federico C." It was about a 1/4 mile east of me and was hard aground with some tugs trying to pull it off.

http://www.timetableimages.com/maritime/images/costa66i.jpg
From: http://www.timetableimages.com/

The ship ran in and out of the Port for many years, it was a regular feature on the water.

I paddled out to check it out. It was aimed due west and hard aground. The waterline at the bow was ten feet above the water and submerged by the same amount at the stern. Seems they may have thought they were steaming into Pt. Everglades, just three miles too far north? There was no GPS in those days, just Loran, RDF's and of course radar. With all that makes you wonder how they messed up still they did.


http://www.timetableimages.com/maritime/images/costa66.jpg

I anchored the Greg Noll off to the bottom and then swam and dove along the hull. It hit the second reef and snow plowed a ton of sand up to the north and south of the hull. Corals were thrown all over the place included formerly bleached heads that had been buried. The bow was just west of the second reef terrace and stern lay just to the east. It was a relict elkhorn reef from about 10,000 years ago when we still had prolific elkhorn on barrier reefs off Ft. Lauderdale. Around mid ships I could go completely under the ship to the other side. There was about a 3 ft. gap between the bottom of the hull and the trench the ship plowed up. You could pause down there and hear ship noises and vibrations from within the hull, surreal place to hang out. Some live hard and soft coral had been buried in the process.


http://www.fksa.org/albums/album469/FedericoC_04.jpg


The ships officers called down to me, so I filled them in with what I saw about how the ship was lying on the bottom. Passengers threw some key fobs down to me. Still have one somewhere too. I dove around a bit longer until they said they were going to run up the ships screws to try to refloat her with the tugs help. I had felt a light current heading sternward previously from lesser attempts. So, I headed back to shore. Came out the next day but the USCG chased me off that time.


http://www.fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes/Florida/Admin-File/album346/album348/Misc-shots/Frederico%20C%20grounding.jpg?m=1566402200
People being transferred from the ship with the help of the Captain Bill long time Lauderdale drift fishing boat. Photo from Shirley A. Menditto, FB page, "South Florida The Way We Remember It."


It took five days to remove the vessel from the reef, first removing passengers (up to 800), then crew (up to 400), then all the luggage and eventually fuel into a barge to be able to float it free. They had a bunch of tugs pulling on it throughout. An interesting experience for a teen back in the day. It was quite a sight seeing this thing just off the house. The Fredrico C is gone now, understand the Costa line was bought out sometime back. Wonder if it is still afloat somewhere?

http://cdn2.shipspotting.com/photos/middle/9/5/8/1059859.jpg
The ship at dock over in Nassau, a regular stop back in the day.

PS - the Fredrico C came to a bad end under suspicious circumstances. It was sold in 1983 to Premier Cruises and subsequently to Dolphin Cruise Lines. It was sold a last time, before sinking off the Carolina coast as detailed below: "Sinking[edit]

SeaBreeze sinking near Cape Charles.
On December 17, 2000, the ship sank off the coast of North Carolina/Virginia. The boiler allegedly broke off and damaged the ship.[8]

The investigation into the sinking of Seabreeze I caused international concern, based upon numerous suspicious incidents, including the fact that the ship was likely to fetch only between $5 and $6 million for scrap, but had a $20 million insurance policy on it. The cruise ship sank in international waters flying the Panamanian flag, making Panama responsible for the investigation of the sinking.

The ship's captain told the United States Coast Guard rescuers that his boat was in imminent danger of sinking as a result of its engine room being flooded in high winds and 25-foot (7.6 m) seas.[9] At the time, the Coast Guard rescuers believed that it was highly unlikely for a ship that large to sink that quickly, and were astonished when the Greek captain demanded that all hands be extracted from the ship, instead of requesting salvage tugs and trying to tow it to shore for recovery. Subsequently, all 34 crewmembers were rescued; there were no passengers on board.[3][4]

At the time of the sinking, Steven Cotton of the International Transport Workers' Federation in London stated that he wished that the ship, which went down 225 nautical miles (417 km) off the Virginia coast, had gone down 25 nautical miles (46 km) closer to the coast because that would have put the case in the hands of American investigators. According to Cotton, "Panama's track record of carrying out comprehensive investigations into vessel sinkings is not very good."[10]

The vessel had just been purchased by Cruise Ventures III, a subsidiary of New York-based DLJ Capital Funding and was traveling from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Charleston, South Carolina.[9]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_SeaBreeze

[ricki]

No other stories out there? Has to be, I know there are some incredible experiences out there. To prime things, here's a few from my end, just one liners only from 1980 and before.


- Diving/drilling on the barrier reef looking for Columbus' Santa Maria in a mound of coral off Cap Haitian in 1970's Baby Doc Haiti.

- Looking for a scuttled Hatteras sportsfisherman with a load of drugs along the reefs in 90 ft., with dead baby hammerhead sharks laying around on the bottom in lousy viz.

- Taking the Florida Secretary of State free diving on a 1830's shipwreck with media.

- Filming a crazy french guy with an electronic shark repelling device in a feeding behavior stirred up over the graveyard off Gun Cay in the Bahamas.

- Searching for and finding a $1M high definition side scan sonar fish in deeper water.

- Being a dive escort for a girl on her family's yacht for trips to the Bahamas at 16, she was crazier about diving extremes than I was too.

- A bounce dive to 265 ft. for black coral off Cozumel at 16 into intense narcosis and O2 toxicity.

- A bounce dive to 275 ft. because (... no good reason) at 17, fighting off a narc'd out diver and again sliding into O2 toxicity.

- Doing a photogrammetric survey of dredging reef damage in 90 ft. with a wetsub.

- Night dives in 180 ft. looking for spiny oysters in the sand drifting into the third reef at 90 ft.

- Designing a training course for the Sheriff's office for UW drug interdiction at night at 90 ft. using a wetsub in 1977.

- Almost getting castrated by a hungry permit while carrying a bunch of bugs in my hands conveniently but unwisely protected by my bathing suit.

- Doing a bounce dive to 250 ft. on a wall off the Biminis at 16 with 2/3rds full 72 cft tank, like an idiot. Resulted in a low grade DCS hit, earned that one.


and lots of other strange, sometimes unwise but otherwise interesting stuff. So how about it, what strange, interesting and hopefully not too shocking experiences can you relate?

[ricki]

Here's another diving story, one not listed above, from about 1978. We were bidding on a National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFs) project to study king mackerel or kingfish "fallout" from gillnets as they migrated around the Florida peninsula. Gillnets have a fixed net apertures, fish vary in size of course. If a fish swims into an aperture, it gets "gilled" or stuck when the net catches behind their gills. The net is pulled in and the fish are pulled out into the boat.


http://www.landbigfish.com/images/fish/LBF_King_Mackerel.jpg
King Mackerel or Kingfish
From: http://www.landbigfish.com/


If this fish is too large, as in the case of some King Mackerel, it might just get its nose stuck momentarily. This apparently sent some mackerel into something akin to a fish heart attack, killing them on the spot, they "fallout" of the net and were lost. Bycatch was and still is a serious concern related to netting, fallout was another resource depletion issue as well. It wasn't well understood at the time, hence the study was proposed.


http://www.fao.org/figis/servlet/IRS?iid=7930 http://www.cnsm.csulb.edu/departments/geology/people/bperry/geology303/gillnet4.jpg
Gillnets
From: Drifting net, http://www.fao.org/ and Secured net, http://www.cnsm.csulb.edu/


The Request For Proposal stated that divers using a wetsub were to document the interaction of larger king mackerel with gill nets, documenting fallout process and estimating quantities of fallout per netting run. We were also to recover fallout specimens for evaluation by NMFS. This was to be repeated around the migration along the Florida coast. As shark have trailed the migration since time began and now having strugging, dying and dead, large king mackerel around the nets boosted the risk of negative shark interactions. NMPS likely anticipated the successful bidder using something like the "Sharkhunter" popular in some areas in those days.


http://www.psubs.org/psub_pic/querzoli_pic/Bw2.jpg
The Sharkhunter wetsub
From: http://www.psubs.org/


I recall that Walter Stark formerly of RSMAS may have used one of these for studying sharks in off some Pacific atolls. This may have lent some support for using these two man subs in this application.

Well, we didn't have a Sharkhunter, but we did have a Rebikoff Remora. So, decided to construct a cage around the diver and propose using this. Talk about flight modification! As you have a power umbilical, you have the added advantage of using surface air supply, a comlink, even video feed to the surface. I seem to recall portable video cameras had yet to come out for UW use. Camera heads with surface feed were still in use. So, it presented some key advantages over the Sharkhunter and a few disadvantages as well.


http://www.fksa.org/albums/album347/sd_1.sized.jpg
The Remora closely resembled the Rebikoff Pegasus shown above


Visualize this, you are motoring in poor visibility, in cold water, in waves, variable current, mackerel are schooling thick about you with all that detritus they expel. The odd shark or pack roils through the school from time to time but largely are invisible due to poor viz. and lots of fish in the way. Then the net shows up, barely. You see struggling fish, sharks again yanking the off buffet item off the net. If you're lucky, you might even see some particularly large mackerel nose in, explode into spasms, expire and fall out of the net. If you're really lucky you be able to keep it in sight without getting netted yourself as it settles to the bottom. There you can pick it up, assuming you don't have to beat sharks off to grab your specimen. Then get the lot including yourself and your Remora safely on the rocking boat. Easy, right?

Spent a ton of time thinking this over, planning and on project design. Despite making a good bid, we didn't get it. The firm that did, never put any divers in the water, with or without a wetsub. I understand they towed a video camera with a ruler scale inset, that was the bulk of their study?! Well, they probably didn't lose any divers, then again, they never hired any in the first place. Your public dollars at work, back in the day. In hindsight, I'm thinking, well it would have been real interesting but maybe we lucked out after all in not getting the project?


A bit more about the controversy dealing with gillnetting king mackerel appears at:
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/40+Years+1969-2009:+return+of+the+king.-a0212034487

and about the mackerel migration at:
http://spo.nmfs.noaa.gov/mfr563/mfr5632.pdf

So, there's another one, see they don't even have to happen, completely. A good tale with a near miss works too. Over to you ...

[ricki]

A post and response from: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=4886246

I pulled this one over from another thread I posted on:

(It happened in the summer of 1978. The equipment consisted of a Healthways steel 72, Aqua-Lung Aquarius reg, White Stag Deep SPG, USD Atlantis mask, USD Otarie fins, 5 pounds on a USD weight belt, USD diver's knife. I had just bought the Aquarius and this was my first dive with a single hose reg.)

One year, when I was just a kid, my family went to Tennessee for vacation. While we were there, we visited Tuckaleechee (sp?) Caverns. From that time on, I was fascinated by caves. By the time I reached my early twenties, I had spent thousands of hours exploring underground and crawling through some pretty tight places. I even became a member of the Tri-State Search and Rescue Team, specializing in cave rescue.

So, when my friend and I discovered a cave in the rock wall of a man-made lake where we were diving (I'm not going to say where because I don't want to tempt anyone), we decided to check it out.

Yeah, I know. We were young and stupid. I should've known better.

Anyway, Fuzz led the way and I followed him into the cave. The passage was tight and Fuzz kicked up the sediment to the point where I couldn't see squat. I groped along behind him, hands out in front, trying to keep up. Then, I suddenly found myself in clear water and Fuzz was nowhere in sight. I switched off my light to see if I could detect his light. Nada. Black as Hades. At that moment, I felt my tank grate against the ceiling for an instant, then come free.

I realized that I must have taken a side passage and was separated from Fuzz. I started to back out, but couldn't. I was stuck. My tank was lodged in a depression in the ceiling and I couldn't move. My first thought was to simply unbuckle my harness and slip out from under the tank, then pull it out of the cave after me, but the passage was too tight and I couldn't get my hand down to my waist to release the buckle. I thought about cutting the harness away at the shoulders but my knife was strapped to my leg, out reach.

Out of options, all I could do was watch the needle of my SPG as my air slowly ran out. I thought about my parents and my girlfriend. I thought about how stupid I was and I wondered how long it would be before someone found my body.

At 500 psi, my J valve started honking its low air warning. At 300 psi it would cut off and I couldn't reach the rod to turn on the reserve. Panic was about to set in when I felt something moving along my left leg. It moved up to my waist and I felt a tug at my harness buckle. Then, something grabbed my ankles and yanked me backward and free. I pulled my tank after me and followed Fuzz back out to open water. On the way, I had to open the reserve. When we were back on the boat, I had this overwhelming urge to give ugly ol' Fuzz a kiss. I settled for a hug and a handshake.


Great story, congratulations on making it out! A number of us have had a Fuzz intercede when we needed it most. Glad he was able to find you. Do you recall his side of the story, i.e. when he discovered you weren't there and how he went about finding you?

My first dive in Warm Mineral Springs in 1977 or so, I did a tour of sorts with the lead archaeologist, Sonny C0ckerell. Went down a bunch of the fixed lines to various paleo and archeo digs in the springs. More about that later. Anyway, I recall standing on the bottom near one of the sources at around 230 ft. with an inclined rock ceiling overhead and pretty narc'd. I was checking out the scenery, on air, looking at the pressure gage, etc.. but felt no compulsion to move or ascend. Was ok just to stand there, not sure if I would have moved or not. Sonny came along gave a thumbs up and that is what we did. A lot milder than your experience, still narcosis can do that sometimes. Keep you somewhat aware in la la land but lacking the incentive to get out of Dodge. Had it another time at about 170 ft., even forgot I had a large hogfish on a spear. Had been away at school and deep diving for many months contributing to things.

Please keep the stories coming. High drama, a narrow miss or just an unusual but memorable experience, lots of great tales from back in the day.

[ricki]

and another from: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/vintage-equipment-diving/313549-vintage-diving-stories-3.html

Here's an anecdote I've retrieved from a forum other than Scubaboard. It relates to a recent event when I was vintage snorkelling.

For many years I did my swimming in the lakes of Minneapolis in the American Upper Midwest, where I travelled each summer to spend time with my brother, who lives and works there. During the very hot summers there, an hour's dip in one of the lakes was just "what the doctor ordered".

In 2005, the doctor ordered something different, an operation to remove my cancerous prostate gland. After years of never darkening a medical practitioner's door, I found myself undergoing major abdominal surgery for the first time in my life. Fortunately for me, I had a full recovery. As I was then in my late 50s, the health professionals began to take more of an interest in me and I began to get annual checkups. I was advised during one of these sessions to take more exercise.

I've never seen any point in exercise just for the sake of it, so I decided to pursue the two physical activities that appealed to me most: walking and swimming. In the case of walking, I soon found an old colliery waggonway with agreeable views and pleasant rural surroundings, a walk several miles in length, ending with a visit to a shop where I could buy my morning newspaper. As for swimming, I tried my local swimming pool, but hated the excessive heat, the fact that I was expected to swim up and down roped-off lanes in the same boring way as I had done in my youth, and that I wasn't allowed to swim with fins, which I love using.

One early morning I decided to drive to the coast to go swimming off a sandy North Sea beach. Clad in my Hydroglove replica vintage drysuit and wearing an oval dive mask, all-rubber full-foot fins and a simple J-shaped snorkel, I enjoyed one of the best hours of my life swimming about in the waves. The bay where I swam was almost devoid of wildlife, despite public notices warning of the possible presence of seal pups and requesting dogwalkers to keep their pets under control. Strands of seaweed and a few small jellyfish were the only flora and fauna I came across and I felt pretty safe from the latter thanks to my drysuit and the fins on my feet. After my swim I emerged warm and refreshed, determined to repeat the experience each weekend morning, weather and sea-state permitting.

One subsequent weekend morning I went down to the coast for my swim in the early morning, the sun barely above the horizon. I chose to swim at dawn because I valued the solitude and I didn't like an audience. I put on my suit and other gear, walked down to the sea's edge and proceeded to swim. A while later I turned round to face the coast and spotted two policemen gazing seawards at me. They waved and I slowly came ashore. They came over and explained that they had observed me in the water and wondered what I was doing. They presumed that I was either attempting suicide or that I was a North Korean spy landing from an enemy ship far out to sea. The North Korean spy idea wasn't too far-fetched, considering I still swim with the old-fashioned black snorkelling gear that was popular in the 1950s and 1960s. The two bobbies expressed surprise that I had chosen that particular bay to swim as there were no fish, or any other wildlife for that matter, to observe. I replied that the idea was to get fit and that the glorious view of the rising sun was enough of an incentive for me to swim there and at such an early hour. The policemen and I then parted company, I relieved that I hadn't broken some obscure by-law or "health and safety" regulation, they pleased to have had a "human seal" break the monotony of their night-shift.

I've swum regularly in the same spot for over four years now, but never again have I had an encounter with our "boys in blue". However, I'm still regarded with some suspicion by the local beach dogwalkers. I'm always concerned when I see their canines being let off the leash because they always seem to rush, barking in my direction when I'm splashing away above the waves. I have to say, though, that the worst that's ever happened to me dog-wise is when one pooch picked up and ran away with one of my spare fins. The owner retrieved it and replaced it, sheepishly, on my pile of clothing.

I'm looking forward to resuming normal business as soon as spring comes round. My suit, fins, mask and snorkel are waiting in the cupboard, ready to come out of hibernation when it's time. The great thing is that I'm now retired and don't have to wait until the weekend if the weather's good and the sea's calm!

[ricki]

These are great stories! As a youth I dived with a group called The Bay State Frogmen.
A great bunch guys ranging from the 30's to 40's old men to a 16 year old pup. One guy who kinda took me under his wing was Charlie he was at the tail end of the greatest generation. Old enough to remember WWII but not old enough to have served. Still forged from the same mettle as the rest,hard as nails but a kind and generous nature.
He always took me on dives he knew I was ready for even if I didn't think so! "Come on you ain't gona learn to dive unless you do it, just stay with me and if you feel like your gona s--- yourself let me know and we'll go up". So anyway the years go by and one day I was free diving / spearfishing around 1978 near a place called Kings Beach in Newport RI ...


Continued at:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/vintage-equipment-diving/313549-vintage-diving-stories-3.html#post4892271

[ricki]

Another from the wayback machine, my first overseas dive trip. It was with an old Ft. Lauderdale dive club, the Aqua Addicts in 1972. Used to meet at the Hall Of Fame, rode my bike over there past all the old fishing charter boats, sea scouts house boat, old time Lauderdale haunts. Dive clubs like ski clubs in Florida are unusual in some respects. I have a theory, the less accessible a sport is, the more people like to get together to talk about it. For that reason, Florida has some of the largest ski clubs in the US while the dive clubs come and go. Understand Colorado has a large dive club. Go figure. The Addicts are long gone today but for a new 15 year old diver and new to Florida it was just the ticket. A weekend dive trip to Cay Sal Banks in the Bahamas was laid on departing out of Islamorada in the Keys.


http://www.fksa.org/albums/album470/Cay_Sal_Bank.jpg
The Double Headed Shot Cays on the NW quadrant of the Bank lay about 53 miles from Islamorada. Cuba is just 30 miles south of Cay Sal Bank. Little known but centrally located.


Doc Golden, long time Addict and notable Ft. Lauderdale diver volunteered to drive myself and another diver down to the boat in Islamorada. The 55 ft. steel hauled power yacht was tied up by the commercial fishing boats at Holiday Isle. It was captained by a self-avowed "beat-nik." True story, perhaps the only one I ever met. They sort of vanished in the 1950's and early 60's by accounts.

http://www.fksa.org/gallery3/var/albums/Florida/Admin-File/album369/album403/album467/album469/album470/CAYSAL1.png?m=1327626060/CAYSAL1
We head down to the Double Headed Shot Cays along the NW part of Cay Sal.


Even today, Cay Sal is off the path for many. It is remote, a "pseudo atoll" framed by the Florida Keys to the northwest, the Bahamian plateau to the east and Cuba to the south. Some have even theorized that Cay Sal was created by a large meteorite impact. It resembles a normal coral atoll common to tropical areas of the Pacific but I understand it was not formed in that fashion.

We had some pretty good rolling seas on the way down. Also, I recall they must have oversold the boat as there were guys in sleeping bags on the aft deck dead to the world snoring away in the morning. Being the only dry land for some miles, migrating warblers stopped by to rest. I was amazed to see them nosing around the guys faces passed out on the deck. One stuck its head in a guys mouth and even stepped in? Talk about wanting someplace dark to hang out. Bird, I would keep looking.

Eventually we were shadowed and then boarded by an armed crew from a USCG ship. The Bay of Pigs had happened just 11 years previously, the Cold War and enmity between the Cuba and the United States governments were in full swing. It was a routine search for contraband and shortly there after we were sent on our way. We were told the last time the vessel was in these waters it was boarded by crews from two Cuban gunboats. Wonder if there were any attack subs or boomers in the area? Unstable time and dicey area of the Straits in those days.


http://www.fksa.org/albums/album470/cay_sal_bank_dxsearchcom.jpg
The long abandoned lighthouse station, like so many others in the islands


We made it to the cay and anchored off before the lighthouse. The lighthouse is not only abandoned but pretty much shredded by countless hurricanes. The buildings were built tough, just not tough enough for all the pounding. Cay Sal has been a layover spot for smugglers running north, more often south for a coons age. Weapons were the contraband of choice for a long time. We even saw some cartridge dumps underwater around the island. A bit of the Wild West in Cay Sal in those days. I understand rafters heading north from Cuba lay over there at times.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Cay_sal.jpg
A view of the cays from the southwest.
https://wikimedia.org/

Gun running for the numerous revolutions going way back concluding with Castro's revolt of the late 1950's was a common thing. Not sure but it may have played a role in rum running during prohibition. It is a pretty remote area after all. Recall the rum runners would moor in cities off major ports waiting for night and speedboats to hull the hooch into shore. In more recent times running people and drugs has taken over.

The visibility was great, 100 ft. plus with an incredible cobalt blue cast to the water as I recall. It was this way in the Florida Current waters frequently in those days. Sadly, no longer at least not as often, climate change at work, you've got me?

We dove our single 72 cft and regs. with dinky vests for a couple of days. I recall being particularly impressed by a heavier guy's only slightly larger vest that had TWO CO2 cartridges. Blinded by science ... or was it technology? We didn't do any real deep stuff, that had to wait until I came back with a young lady and her family almost two years later. That's another story though.


http://www.fksa.org/albums/album470/cay_sal_img_3003.jpg


The Cay has all these great rock solution features, caverns, blowholes, you name it. In good viz, lots of marine life it was quite a playground to explore. There was a wreck of a sidewheeler vessel there, the Steamship Marion of the Mitchell Line. Didn't figure out that it was a sidewheeler until sometime later by the giveaway cast iron support hoops laying on the bottom. It may have resembled one of the sidewheelers in the engraving above this. The Marion was traveling with passengers and cargo from Key West to New Orleans when it struck bottom off the Double Headed Shot Cays on April 2, 1863. The vessel was sinking so the captain elected to run the ship into the rocks of the cay. More about the wreck and circumstances at http://www.forensicgenealogy.info/contest_43_results.html

http://www.forensicgenealogy.info/images/steamship_marion.jpg
A illustration of the Steamship Marion, the one that gained fame at Ft. Sumter during the outbreak of the Civil War. It may resemble the vessel sunk off Cay Sal but is apparently a different ship.
http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/mssc/ftsumter/marion.htm

Did some free diving may even made 50 ft, maybe. Would be a few more decades before I figured out long fins are a world better for free diving than my first Jet Fins. Time tells all, if we pay attention.

It was a great first trip, more to come. Would like to go back there and checkout some of those blue holes, kite in the lagoon and in some of the swell areas. Scooter free diving the drop offs would be a blast too. These days lots of other folks have been there, what sort of things did you see?

[ricki]

Still more going up at:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/vintage-equipment-diving/313549-vintage-diving-stories-4.html

including ...

In lower michigan we had a lake cottage, in 76' I was there in the winter, out playing hockey. At this time Ice was froze thick in most areas, I shoveld my rink and flooded it at knight and had a great rink. The trick was to flood it quickly, So I got big plastic barrels from the pepsi plant, they were the only place you could find them back then, and were filled with caffine. A neighbor on the lake worked there. Any ways you fillled in the corners, and dumped at same time to get an even thick coat.

Shootin the puck from one end to the other in the net, is what I was doin one morning. there are Ice shanty's all over and vehicles, out Ice fishing and you would park at the shanty. I noticed alot of trucks and then a wrecker showed up. I hopped on my sled and shot across the lake to see what was up, the shanty was floating in broken Ice, in the middle there is not much snow as the wind blows it off, you can see the ice was thin. Every one had less a view than I, for I had my skates on and keeped circling it, I have had tons of experience of thin Ice getting the puck next to the waters edge as the lake was freezing.

I ended up skating around the shanty with a rope and then hooked to wrecker and pulled it out, It was destroyed. There was bubbles still coming up through the broken Ice hole,

[ricki]

Here's another one. We were doing a reef survey about 20 miles off Tampa Bay in December decades back. We were staying on an EPA support ship, a big one, think it was a former oversized gunboat or something in the Vietnam War. The goal was to survey quadrants on the bottom, a coral patch reef, for type and percent coverage. I recall it had something to do with a dredging project related to the Port of Tampa. The corals looked pretty good surprising me at the time. We were two man teams in Zodiacs with no comlink, usually no big deal but this day there was fog. Another fog story? Fog, especially the real thick variety isn't that common in the SE coast but is more common in the Tampa area. There weren't any waves or wind to speak of fortunately. Anyway, here we were 20 miles offshore heading out in a small inflatable and at about a ships length out, the mothership vanishes? Not very comforting particularly considering how routinely I used to have outboard failures in those years. Twenty miles offshore, no power, no mothership in sight and no communications lost in a fog? Hope the consultant we were working for worked up a bit more contingency management for future projects. Can't recall another time had to so a survey in the fog, heavy seas, cold water, after dark, curious sharks, stupid deco but not fog. Good news is, no outboard failure or getting lost either. The viz.UW was pretty good about 40 ft., the water was only about 18 ft. and a lot warmer than I would have thought possible for that time of year. I had made a snowman in Tampa a few years prior at USF and was firmly convinced at just how nippy it can get over there. It was an interesting project with no real problems. Regarding attire, recall I had on a 72 cft with USD Conshelf Reg, a Aquatech BCD (think I still have it too) and a 4 or 5 mm farmer john. Hope the reef is still doing ok out there.

[ricki]

I used to go out with Norine's operation as a teen on the Mispah. That was before the rained down tons of wrecks all over the place. It was worth the drive up from the three or so wrecks off Ft. Lauderdale at the time. I last dove were her on the Hole In The Wall with a boatload of 60 plus year old divers in about 1992. I was on air, dove a conservative profile, did a conservative safety stop and still got a niggle hit. A carry over from trimix diving in those days. She was a unique lady.

I started my Basic Naui course with Chuck at Divers Haven in 1971 and finished it at Underseas Sports south of the tunnel when he set up the first shop. There were a lot of real interesting personalities in the business in those days to be sure. I remember Bryan and Mary, did they take over Surf Sun and Fun on the beach just south of Sunrise before buying Chuck out?

Slate and I went through the YMCA ITC together. It was a real long course, seems like 12 weekends at FAU. I commuted from USF, it was a good excuse to head back home to the SE. Intense intriguing course though, learned a lot. I was surprised to see how much the content had been dumbed down many years later. Have we lost the capacity, mass marketing pressures overwhelmed things or what? I guess the same could be said about normal academia in some cases too. Not a great trend.

I used to carry my tank rigged up in a dive bag, walked down the beach between lifeguard stands when they we're looking, sank the bag fast and walked out into deeper water. When I was at neck level, ducked under and walked out to the first reef to gear up. The beach patrol didn't allow solo divers, they were quite strict about it too. Couldn't always find a buddy when conditions were right. Would reverse the process on the way in. Once I am fairly certain the legendary Capt. Gene Bergman of the FLBP chased me out free style on the surface. Fortunately, I out ran him on the bottom. Had an ongoing disagreement of sorts going with him for years over diving access. They would make up rules, I would comply, then they would make up new rules when I was ready to go and on. Thought about release nurse sharks near the beach from a cage, digging a lion trap for the jeeps, dumb stuff kids think up. He wasn't that bad, then again, he never caught me either. The good old days?

Norine Rouse attended part of my NAUI ITC back in the day. Grand old lady.

I wasn't at UnderSeas Sports when Chuck started it, but I worked for the second owners for most of the time that they owned it. Who remembers Bryan and Mary Brooks and their kids? Most people thought I was one of their kids as well. Great memories.

I was also one of Slate's first customers, bought some stuff from him back in '78 when he first opened.

OK now I feel old!!!

[ricki]

It was 1974 and my good friend Heinz Richter had brought over about 130 fellow country men from Germany to vacation in Ft. Lauderdale. Ossie Pulyer was a German diving instructor leading a group of SCUBA divers on the tour. I took about four divers out to Cuda Reef off Dania Beach, FL along with Ossie and a student. I had rented SCUBA gear for the lot at Surf Sun And Fun on A1A just south of Sunrise the day before. The dive went well, with everyone on board except for Ossie and his student. The seas were running about 2 to 4 ft. swells with ok visibility, it was October after all.

I went up on the bow to checkout the anchor and the last two in the water. Both divers were on the surface. the student's eyes were large as saucers and growing by the second. Oh boy, he's panicking, no obvious reason why either but what the hell. So I dove in the water went around behind the guy and popped his harness buckles. I was pulling his tank away when it stopped, What?! I rented the damn thing as was responsible for returning it. Ossie was hanging on to one of the straps, as that realization started to sink in, along came another. An intense burning pain starting at the base of my left leg, working higher. I yelled at Ossie to let go, he didn't but it was about too late at that point anyway, had waited too long to move. Pretty soon it was over my back, hurt like a mother! Let go of the strap and hauled into the boat myself. Most of my left leg and all over my back had been hit by Portuguese Man-O-War tentacles. Must have had a nice sized float too, long, thick tentacles. Had some heavy 1/4 inch welts developing and lots of livid Portuguese marks.

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/animals/images/primary/portuguese-man-o-war.jpg
From: http://nationalgeographic.com/

Shortly convulsions, severe cramping set in along real intense pain, confusion and shock. Went below looking for something to ease the sensation panicking a bit myself, couldn't find much, poured a beer on it. Well it least it didn't smell too good after, Bud and it did feel better for about 20 seconds. Didn't know about peeing on it and didn't think to bring Adolphs Meat Tenderizer either.

Everyone was onboard, I was more than ready to head in. I was the only one that knew how to run the boat, whoops. So driving hard at full speed I would steer through torrents of boat traffic running out of the Port on a busy Sunday afternoon.

http://www.cruisetimetables.com/pictures/fortlauderdaleflorida.jpg
The port inlet on a quieter day
http://www.cruisetimetables.com/

When the thicker parts passed, I would fall back in the seat and let someone else do the driving. It was hard to concentrate after all and short stints were about all that I could manage with the convulsions and cramping. Made it to Lauderdale Marina eventually, docked without smashing the hull in. Mike Driver, the dock master was a friend and helped me out with a quick trip to Holy Cross Hospital. Long story short, ten grains of morphine and all was right with the world again, more or less. My dad came over and took the boat back to the dock and I was released the next day. Been hit by Portuguese tons of times, most around here have, that was the worse dosing up to that point and since. Wouldn't like to have been on a beach free dive to the outer second reef when something like that happened. Long swim in and without flotation, might not make it.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album521/Lauderdale_Marina_1974_aerial.jpg
Lauderdale Marina from around that time
From: http://www.lauderdalemarina.com/

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[ricki]

It took place in a land far away overseas and decades in the past. It happened to someone I know but who shall remain nameless. He had just been coasting along over a couple of miles of reef just looking around. He had no bugging gear with him as it happened. He came up on a tire on the sand in about 15 ft. of water. I think they call them "condos" these days but back then, just tires. The hubs were long gone but they were fairly sprouting with antennae.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album347/2225192926_bcd14ffe29.jpg
Like the Bug Coop only deeper
From: http://flickr.com/

Not the easy broken chromed aluminum variety but those bound to Panulirus argus, Spiny Lobster. He thought, hmm maybe should bring some bugs home to dinner, uh, for dinner. Problem, he had no gloves and had experienced the slice and dicing that comes with barehanding bugs that don't want to be manhandled.

The ever inventive mind hatched a solution, take your bathing suit off, wrap it around your right hand and you're good to go. So, hand clothed and privates free to the deep blue sea he descended to address the bugs. Tires have the unique quality of making lobsters feel more secure and providing an infinite distance along which to travel, in circles at high speed inside the rim. Catching them is easier than shooting fish in a barrel, even without a gun. Just plop your hand in the inner recess of the tire and wait for the bugs playing Roller Derby to slam into your open fingers. As this was long ago and far away in a distant land, he tailed the bugs making it easier to hang on to them. Five lobster were gathered in this fashion sans bug bag and off to shore again.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album347/lobster_s.jpg
Do these guys have attitude or what?
From: http://dive.scubadiving.com/members/divetips.php?s=682

The guy was uneasy about putting his burden down and covering up his privates lest a greedy triggerfish fly in and scarf up the bootie, the bugs that is. So, cupping the tails in both hands he swam in au naturale for a time. Doing the odd barrel role to look around he happened to notice a permit fish in tow. A BIG permit and an eager one at that with a strange look in his eye?

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album347/01_28_B_29sm.jpg
Permit on the hoof
From: http://antiguaisland.blogspot.com/2007_03_07_archive.html

The diver was back peddling facing the permit hands in front along with everything else as it happened. It was a good sized one about the size of a Thanksgiving serving platter. The fish would rush in and then back off. This was starting to unnerve the guy more than a bit, considering a) he thought permits were midwater feeders, no crustacea or annelids in their diet b) despite the presence of bugs there was other potential fodder. There is a certain degree of irrationality that comes with certain types of threats to guys. This was one of those touchy situations and trophic analysis aside, Ockham's razor aside, it wasn't clear to the guy what was in the permits mind or on the menu. The damn fish kept charging in! The guy kicked it THREE TIMES and it still kept running in, dammmuh! He had kicked sharks only twice in the past and the toothy tiburons had fled. Not so our permit though. New problem, the water was getting shallower. He is envisioning running up on the beach holding the bug tails, flapping about with a permit dolphining in his wake to the general entertainment of the bathers on the beach. Understand in some cultures, having your right hand covered and nothing else ... means absolutely nothing?


http://www.fksa.org/albums/album347/Permit_say_cheese.jpg
The offending fish saying ahhhh. LOOK at the size of that mauw, gives me the willies!
From: http://captaintadburke.com/the_fishing.html

Coming down to the moment of truth and precious little water, he decided to throw the permit a bone, uh tail. It was the biggest one too, damn! The permit glided up, sniffed it and charged along after the diver AGAIN. In about two feet of water and shoaling at this point, kicked the fish one more time with feeling and it whipped around to gorge on the bug tail on the bottom. He was then able to drop the tails for a second, don his suit and walk out with what shreds of dignity the permit sneak attack allowed.


Moral: Five bugs in the hand are good, but four and safely covered privates are better if permit'ed!?

[ricki]

Here's a good one, from 1972. I had hooked up with Don Bartlett through the Underseas Sports Diving Club in Ft. Lauderdale. We were running down to Key Largo via US 1 through south Miami in his VW van (the Turnpike Extension was years in the future). Don was a fireman and a hell of a nice guy. I was a sophomore in High School. It was my first trip to dive Pennekamp. The Keys were a lot quieter and less developed in those days. Lots of mom and pop small places from the 1950's with the larger flashy stuff well off in the future. We were on our way to Carl Gage's Key Largo Diving Headquarters, (now occupied by Quiescent). Made it to the shop, checked in and hung around the dock. I can recall just how clear the water of Florida Bay was, a bit green but a lot clearer than what I have seen in recent times. We loaded up Carl's cattle boat and headed out and through the cut to the ocean. The water was blue, well at least that hasn't changed particularly outside Hawks Channel. Still, like Florida Bay it was CLEAR, really clear. We were only heading out to Molasses Reef if memory serves, over the Florida Reef Tract and not in deep water. In those days there weren't large, well known wrecks in deep water like the Speigel or Duane, those were still well off in the future. Most of the action was over the Reef Tract and to a lesser degree in the patch reefs of the Channel.

We get out, anchor in sand, no mooring balls yet. You could look over the side and all over there was this peculiar but beautiful blue water with these abundant patches of golden brown all over the place. The brown was patches of elkhorn coral (Acropora palmatta). We gear up in our single steel 72's with thin diving vests in some but not all cases and jump in. It was a calm day adding to the visibility which was on the order of 100 ft.. Viz. in this range was fairly common both in the warm months of summer and in particular in the cooler months of the year when plankton populations eased. There were the spur and grove features, tall mounds of coral pointing offshore, crowned with dense, continuous stands of healthy elkhorn. There were thick patches of staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) in various areas. There were massive corals as well, star coral (Montastrea annularis and cavernosa), brain coral (Diploria clivosa), electric stands of vertical fingers of fire coral (Millipora) and a great deal more. The corals were brilliantly and uniformly colored, free of blotches, blemishes, spots or bleaching. Even reef building crustose algae like Halimeda was a rich green with white carbonate flecks going to town.

There was a "normal" diversity and abundance of fin fish over the reef. In particular some LARGE grouper and hogfish. I can recall regularly seeing a four footer on Molasses in a similar area for sometime afterward. This was before domestic fishermen were kicked out of the Bahamas and redoubled efforts to further deplete domestic stocks. Large grouper had yet to be taken by poachers from this Federal Park in subsequent years. It was so clear, I left the tank onboard for the second dive and just jumped in with a mask. Free diving was so easy in all that clear, warm and fairly shallow water.

Today, visibility is consistently less, elkhorn coral is largely gone, staghorn too. Massive corals are still there although so are common blotches, discolored areas and bleaching. Algae covers a lot more bottom that was previously viable coral growth. There are lots of mooring balls today. Large grouper are still not that common to my knowledge although jewfish may be coming back. Not sure where the effects of climate change stop and development impact begin. At any rate, the intensely lush and vibrant reefs from all those years ago are gone. Perhaps someday, they'll come back, we can hope so. I was shown an area of young elkhorn just north of Key Largo a couple of months ago. The colonies covered a couple of acres perhaps more and seemed to date after the hurricanes of 2004 and 2005. Hope they come back in full.

In the meantime, the reefs of the Keys are still well worth visiting and striving to protect as best we can. I still run down there many times each year, there's nothing like the Keys even today, certainly not in the rest of the USA. Best enjoy what they have to offer, it still both special and unique.

I tried to find some photos online of some of the reef features from that time without success. I have my own slides from the early '70's and collect photo books of that vintage. So, I'll see if I can upload some to this story.

[ricki]

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/p235x165/11079600_10152708223748199_4395736935993017364_n.j pg?oh=8bdc01ba5b2106d4351b429de10d6515&oe=55B43B42&__gda__=1437535421_9dc1509bddf910743ba42c81067c4b0 b

I once found and recovered an 8 ft. long side scan sonar fish a professor had lost when I was in college. It was tee boned into a ledge on the third reef. It originally cost $1,000,000.00 and was developed for mine detection and identification. It operated at a relatively high frequency for improved resolution, had bottom following depth sounder, circuitry and automatic machine-flown wing, rudder/stabilizer assemblies to maintain proper beam focus. It was comprised of five compartments including a section with explosively deployed pingers for marking targets. Pretty advanced stuff for "analog" technology. Digital versions were only starting to come online a few years prior to my finding the fish. I had about 1/2 mile length of shoreline it was supposed to be off of. That and the story of how it was lost. I assumed it came up on a relative steep ledge the bottom following depth finder would miss and slammed home. With that info I was able to find and recover it with three tanks in part of a day on the third reef in 90 ft. of water. That sucker was HEAVY though, bent a davit at Lauderdale Marina pulling it out of the water where I had it suspended by plastic 55 gallon drums. As the prof didn't throw the analog control console after it, it made one hell of a paper weight!

https://scontent-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/1491698_10152708214473199_7973819757883998949_n.jp g?oh=07a5b7f31b4978915f5f7bf6f30a479d&oe=55B551CB

I am surprised to have found a photo of the unit from http://web.mit.edu/museum/exhibitions/klein-side-scan-sonar.html It was surplus tech before I found it, hence its donation to the FAU Ocean Engineering Department. The writeup says it was a top secret device for 25 years prior to that time? The professor pulled up the wing and umbilical, I recovered the balance from the third reef.



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