We Be Diving

After two years, we finally 'got wet' again. Scuba diving, that is. We met several of our friends from Kayuba down at the Ft Lauderdale beach. There's a dive spot just due east of the NE 14th Street area that we lovingly refer to as "Kayuba Reef". It's an easy put-in for our kayaks and a short paddle out to the second reef.

I was feeling pretty pleased with myself for remembering how to put all my scuba gear together and in the kayak. That was until I saw the weights still sitting in the trunk of the car! Dang. We have integrated BCs (Buoyancy Control Device) with weight pockets that are hard to access once the tank is on...let alone, when everything is already on the kayak and strapped down. But, it would make it awfully difficult to dive without those weights, so I fussed around with my equipment and thought I got the weights in the pockets and secured.

After getting our gear together, the group of us paddled out, across our clear, flat ocean. Our friend Chris has a funny saying: she refers to it as "my ocean" when the chop is less than 1-2...INCHES. Yeah, we're spoiled down here! I almost forgot how beautiful it is out on our reef. As soon as we jumped in, there were schools of fish, big corals and sponges, several large angelfish, pufferfish, eels, and so much more to rediscover. And, of course, we did see our usual share of tires from the artificial reef debacle of the 1970's. Perhaps someday, and hopefully sooner than 14 years from now, we'll be able to dive without seeing these tires strewn about.

About half way thru the dive, I found myself listing to one side. I kept fidgeting with my gear until I had a "duh" moment. I checked for my weights, and yep, one fell out. Andy and I backtracked some, but decided to forget about the weight and just enjoy the rest of our dive. Since we're planning on hanging around Ft Lauderdale this summer, we should be able to get some more dives in without waiting another two years!

UPDATE: Chris posted some pictures of our kayak dive on her webalbums. I didn't take my camera that day since I figured I had enough to try and remember! Just click on the link and arrow to the right for more photos...