Scubafriends Network

Some things don’t change – Dive Atlas of the World is still number 1. But some newcomers made a surprisingly good showing, such as the Lonely Planet Sardinia (joining the list at #3). Read on for the whole list.

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So due to major knee surgery I’m forbidden from diving this year. (I’m going to appeal in the fall..) BUT.. all hope is not lost. We do have a trip planned. (And we won’t even have to fly there. Or spend 3 weeks driving.)

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I finally gave in and switched to WordPress. Part of why I haven’t been posting recently (..ok, its been about 5 months) is the old interface and the constant need to update Drupal. Unfortunately, accounts haven’t been migrated over, so you’ll need to reregister. The good news is its much easier to post now, so I should have something up every few days. (And I can queue posts ahead of time when I expect to be busy, yay..)
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So it looks like that Dean will be long gone and the potential storm will peter out before our trip. Cross your fins!
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Yes, we’re still here (although we’ve been very, very busy recently ..) The plans for the early-summer trip fell through, but thats all about to change. We are looking to go to Pensacola over Labor Day weekend to dive the world’s largest artificial reef, the aircraft carrier formerly known as the USS Oriskany. Interested? More details after the break.
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Registrations were broken and I didn’t get it fixed until now. Its fixed. So if you registered, and it didn’t work, do it again and it’ll be fine. In other news, we just got back from a couple days at the beach to celebrate my birthday. Good times, we’ll prolly go back. Dunno about diving locally though.

No diving for us today. Weather says small craft should “exercise caution” so none of the boats are going out. Maybe tomorrow, maybe not. (And maybe we’ll be going to a couple of springs this afternoon, haven’t decided yet.)

Update: They called tomorrow’s trip also. So, after 2900 miles, no Oriskany. But we did get to see lots of cool places, and ‘discovered’ the springs, grottos and caverns of Florida. So we’ll be back.

So the forecast isn’t looking that good, but we’re finally on our way to Pensacola to dive with MBT. If the weather improves, we’ll be diving the Oriskany on Sat and Sun. (Bad weather seems to be following us anytime we go to the water – Key West was choppy until we gave up on diving, and there is a small craft advisory for yesterday and today in Pensacola.) I’ve promised more writings and pics, so read on for our trip report so far. (With lots of pics!)

Current GPS Mark: N24.68500°, W81.21698°, 160f – Seven Mile Bridge
Key West was great, and now we’re on our way to New Port Ritchie, up near Clearwater. We didn’t have the opportunity to do any real amount of diving in Key West due to the water conditions (really rough, heavy currents, <10ft viz), but that will change at our next stop – Crystal River, FL. (I was going to put our dive/tour info here, but I’m having trouble finding the website again. Doh! So I’ll regroup on it later.)
Update: I found the info – it was the one that was right in front of me the whole time (doh!). We’ll be doing a manatee snorkel in the morning and then a trip to the Devil’s Den cavern in the afternoon, with Bird’s.

Current GPS Mark: N25.79302°, W80.20560° – I-95 Miami)
Photo: A pelican with a big fish, in Key West

So yesterday was Vero Beach, Cape Canaveral/Kennedy Space Center and dinner at the
Ocean Grill. The only part of that that went well was dinner, which was excellent. At KSC we ended up spending all day in lines (line to get on the bus, then the bus waited in line, then a line for food. Line after line after line…) and it was a total waste. (Which is unfortunate, because I’m a huge space buff.) Didn’t even get to go to the rocket park. And the Vero Beach Holiday Inn “Hotel and Suites” Oceanside was just as bad – 4 star prices for a 2 star (at best) motel.

Moving along, we’re currently stuck in stop and go traffic in north Miami, on our way to the Hard Rock for lunch. I’ll update this post after lunch..

Update: Don’t go to the Hard Rock Miami. Just don’t.. sigh. We’re back on track for Key West although we might end up being late (B&B wants us in no later than 6pm. Its 2 and we’re still stuck in Miami. So we’ll see how that works out. Software says its possible, but we’re dubious.)