Jim Abernethy's Scuba Adventures, United States

Orlandosjm

25/07/15 at 15:45

First dive with Katy. It was rainy and overcast out so viz was pretty mediocre. We got down to the bridge at about 345. It was pretty busy there but the weather was starting to come in and we knew it was going to rain pretty heavily soon. We were able to get all of our equipment on and into the water by about 4 PM. We bumbled about trying to get our fins on and then we ventured out into the inter-coastal below the bridge. I trained Kaitlyn extensively at the pool so she knew exactly what to do when we got out there. I was extremely proud of her and she was very calm comfortable. And confident in the water. When it started raining about 75% of the people that were there cleared out from the beach. However, they were still probably about 30 people either snorkeling or scuba diving the area which was nice as we had some company. This is the first time that I actually used my diver down flag which was a bit of a pain as I had to keep hold of that while watching out for Kaitlyn. I had the worst time navigating the waters and we ended up in the channel briefly as visibility was poor because the sun was not out and I couldn't see which direction to go. I had problems navigating the rest of the day and ended up having to pop to the surface of the time to try to get my bearings. Kaitlyn thought it was amazing and found the vision quite fascinating as well as navigating underwater. We did have some problems getting her to neutral and negative buoyancy simply because I had also rented a wet suit which required that you have a little more weight on her. I just transferred weight from myself to her which took care of the problem immediately.

Orlandosjm

20/09/14 at 10:12

Second dive of the day over the South reefs again. Connor was guiding us this time and the second group off the boat. The boat was quite full with 17 divers and four staff members. I jumped in the water and realized quickly that I had forgotten my weight belt so I had to reboard. I got my weight belt on quickly and the boat captain, Jim, maneuvered the boat to where I would just send exactly to where Connor and the rest of the Group was. He was spot on and I descended, even in the current ,directly into the group. There was a good amount of sea life in this reef also though not as much as the last reef. My goal on this dive was to conserve air and paddle a minimum amount just allowing the current to sweep me across the coral fields. It was it had some very nice ledges and a good amount of sea life. I found my first conch Down there in the Sand-field. I did allow myself to drift. I was down for almost an hour and the last person back on the boat. I was pleased with my ascent procedures and maintain slight negative buoyancy up to 15 feet where I deployed the safety sausage for my obligatory three minutes safety stop.