The beyond crew:
Day 1:
Sunday was a busy day starting with breakfast and then getting right to work provisioning the boats with food for the week at sea. Noah, Graham, Tayton, Nathan, and Chris Sine are on the Daydreamer with Captain Scott and Dive Instructor Sal. Izze, Grace, Kai, Beckett and I are on Beyond with Captain Floyd and Divemaster Dustin. Both boats left base around 10 am and motored out to our first dive location – Alligator Reef. The Daydreamer crew did 2 dives on the reef plus a night dive. The Beyond crew decided to take it a little easier and opted to only do one dive and a night dive plus a few naps during the day.
Today also consisted of the crew leaders – Noah/Daydreamer and Izze/Beyond – creating the duty rosters which assigned cooking, cleaning, and anchor duty to each member of the crew. Anchor duty is the most unique experience where at least one member of the crew needs to be awake for a portion of the night from 10 pm to 6 am. The Daydreamer crew decided to split the night into 2hr 40-minute shifts with buddy pairs staying up together. The Beyond crew opted to have each member take a 1 hr and 36-minute shift and not to be in buddy pairs. I am using my anchor watch time (2:48am – 4:24am) to write this note. 😊
Day 2:
Another great day on Beyond. I hope the Daydreamer crew had a great time too, but we seem to have ended up on different dive sites today as we never saw them after leaving Alligator Reef this morning. Hope to meet up with them at some point this week as it would be nice to at least wave at them.
Today, the Beyond crew went on two dives and opted out of a third dive again in favor of napping in the afternoon. We definitely are a laid-back group and happy to have a balanced life when it comes to scuba diving. We did see lots of beautiful fish, a baby sea turtle, and even a sleepy nurse shark while diving. Beckett got some good underwater photos that we will share later once we are home and can download them from his camera. Kai was feeling a bit of motion sickness today, so stayed on the boat for the 2nd dive. Despite not feeling so great, he powered through and completed his chores on the duty roster – cleaning up after lunch and cooking dinner – which was a delicious taco/burrito bar with both chicken, hamburger and vegan “meat”. He proved himself to be a great fellow crew member. Thanks, Kai!
Our evening was spent doing some fishing from the back of the boat. Many fish were caught, but none of them were large enough to keep. So much for a fish dinner tomorrow, but we will keep trying. Beckett came up with a ritual after taking the hook out of each small fish where he would give the fish a kiss before tossing it back in the water. 😳 You can see a picture of him doing this in the Google Photo Album along with some more pictures from today.
More diving is ahead of us tomorrow and we will be doing a conservation project where we will be doing a fish survey while diving and reporting the results to REEF (Reef Environmental Education Foundation). It is also a great way to learn the names of different types of fish in the Keys.
I am currently sitting the middle shift of our anchor watch time period (1:12am – 2:48am). It actually isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It is so peaceful listening to the waves lap against the boat and I can hear sea turtles surfacing and gasping for air.
That’s all for now. I’ll update you again tomorrow.
Day 3:
Here is another update from my anchor watch shift. Today’s seas were quite rough which was not great for my motion sickness. I spent most of my day in bed with my eyes closed. A couple of the kids were not feeling great, but that didn’t stop them from diving at 3 different reefs including a wreck dive. Surprisingly the rough seas didn’t impact the visibility underwater and everyone reported that the dives were great.
The captain found a calmer spot near land to anchor for the night so we are all feeling better now. Today’s forecast is for more wind and rough seas, but we hope to still get in a few more dives.
The food has been good. We had eggs, sausage, and bagels for breakfast, Grace made Chicken Caesar Salads for lunch and Izzy made great hamburgers for dinner.
Day 4:
We had another sunny but windy day. The wind caused choppy seas once again, but that didn’t stop the scouts from going on 3 dives including one where they saw around 10 nurse sharks! We moved to the Gulf side of the Keys to anchor for the evening where the water is nice and calm. Daydreamer is anchored near us this evening, so before dinner the scouts from the Beyond decided to snorkel over to say hi. The Daydreamer scouts were diving in the very shallow waters where we are anchored, so it was a short visit.
Tonight is our last night at sea. Unfortunately the forecast is for even stronger winds for tomorrow, so we will probably not be able to get in a final dive. We plan to have a leisurely breakfast and maybe snorkel again here in our peaceful waters before motoring back to Sea Base where we will clean the boat and scuba equipment. We are all looking forward to a warm shower and the luau for dinner.
Update before leaving:
We made it back to solid ground yesterday afternoon. After cleaning the boats and scuba gear, we all headed to the showers. I’ve never been so thankful for a fresh water shower. We had a luau for dinner with everyone wearing Hawaiian shirts and enjoying seafood for dinner.
We are now on our way back to Miami Airport with a quick stop at the Robert is Here fruit stand for milkshakes and the Alligator Farm to see some alligators and an airboat ride.
Our flight home is United flight 1971 arriving at 9:50pm. If anyone needs a ride home, please let me know. Brant will be picking me up and can drive the minivan so we have 3 extra seats.
The day dreamer crew:
Day 1 monday:
An almost full moon and a cool breeze at 5:44AM.
As Sonya mentioned, our captains have taken slightly different routes, so we started our day with breakfast burritos from chef Nathan and a short motor to the 1st of four dives led by dive master Sal. We dove the “Rocky Top”, “Davis”, “Davy Crocker” reefs, and finally reached “White Banks” where we moored for the night. Each dive was completely different: some shallow with giant brain coral, others deep with schools of fish, and even seagrass which looked like a well manicured lawn. The highlight was seeing a half dozen nurse sharks (very tame according to dive master Sal) and a stingray.
Noah fixed lunch with sandwiches while underway to our next dive. Graham was suffering a bit of sea sickness, but recovered after a power nap. Captain Scott even unfurled the jib, boosting (his estimate) our speed from 4.5 to 5 knots.
Tayton was on dinner duty and fixed chicken burritos with chips and salsa. For the evening entertainment, dive master Sal gave a presentation on some of the 500+ species of fish found on the local reefs. We will actually be participating in a fish count, and the data will be used by various agencies to monitor fish populations. Nathan and Tayton immediately put their newly acquired knowledge to use by dropping a fishing line in the water, and caught a couple “Spanish grunts” which were released instead of becoming fish tacos.
The sun is rising at 6:47AM. Hope Captain Scott will be up soon. He makes a great espresso.
Day 2 tuesday :
Tuesday began with a bang as we left before breakfast to secure a mooring ball at the wreck of the Benwood (https://www.florida-keys-vacation.com/Benwood-Wreck.html). The scouts actually ate on the way, and we immediately jumped in the water as soon as we arrived. We made two dives, the first just for sightseeing, and the second as part of the BSA Sea Base and Planet Aware (https://planetaware.co.uk) “Dive against Debris” program which has the ambitious goal of hauling-in 2000 lbs of garbage over the year. Fortunately for the environment, only Noah was able to collect a few plastic wrappers.
After diving, Graham fixed sandwiches for lunch as we headed for our 3rd dive at “Frenchman’s Reef”. Here each scout chose 2 fish to count as part of a census for REEF (https://www.reef.org/gafc). There were a lot of fish, but those who chose to count sharks left empty handed.
Our 4th and final dive was at a secret spot which Captain Scott had found but had never dived. Unfortunately, it was mostly sea grass and a strong 3 knot current, so we swam around and a couple of the scouts practiced the all important skill of blowing bubble rings.
We anchored off “Rodriguez Key” for the night, and Nathan and Tayton attempted to catch a few fish. Dinner was a group effort with Tayton on the stove, Dive Master Sal (who thankfully has some professional kitchen experience) giving expert advice on how to cook steak, and the rest of us debating how much mash potatoes to make from a bag with 34 servings (we made too much). In the end, it was an amazing meal, complete with vanilla pudding for dessert.
Everyone was exhausted, and besides those on the 12-2AM anchor watch, the crew tucked in for the night.
I can see the anchor lights of our sister boat Beyond off the port side. Captain Scott is definitely not up yet, so maybe I’ll see if I can make some espresso.
Day 3 wednesday:
9:07PM, well past anchor watch, and as the old sailing proverb says, the updates will continue until morale improves.
The multiple dives were catching up to us and everyone slept in. Graham fixed pancakes with homemade maple syrup for breakfast, and we learned that Dive Master Sal has yet another secret skill: he makes his own maple syrup from scratch. Yes, he taps the trees, boils the sap, and bottles the syrup. Not only that, he’s got his own Minecraft YouTube channel with one of his videos garnering 8M views. A true Renaissance man.
As predicted, the wind had picked up and we headed out looking for a dive site with reasonable swells and good clarity. Along the way, the scouts played chess, Captain Scott raised the jib, and I dropped a line. Besides a single yellow fin, all I caught was sargassum which is becoming more plentiful. We passed our sister ship diving at “molasses reef”, but we decided it was too choppy, and we headed onto “chicks and hens”. Once underwater, the visibility was not nearly as good as previous days, and although the patch coral reef was beautiful, we could really only see about 20 feet.
We sailed on through the Snake Creek drawbridge and dropped anchor next to the Beyond. Captain Scott promised clear but shallow water, and he delivered. We dove off the Plantation Marina and saw only a few fish, but the sea floor was littered with Cassiopeia or “upside-down jellyfish”.
Dinner was prepared by Tayton with hamburgers, baked beans, and the last bag of chocolate chip cookies. The scouts chilled on the trampoline and everyone, except for the first anchor watch crew, headed off to bed.
Obviously, I wasn’t awake enough to write yesterday morning, and had to rely on Captain Scott for espresso. I’m running out of mornings to prove my skills.
Day 4 thursday:
Thursday morning started even slower than Wednesday with more pancakes, but sadly, we had used all of Dive Master Sal’s homemade maple syrup. After some debate, we decided to forgo a 14th dive at the Plantation Yacht Club, and instead opted to hoist the jib and sail back to Sea Base. Flying a single sail, we clocked 5.1 knots in a 30 knot wind. Not bad!
Captain Scott also presented Tayton with his prestigious “Captain’s Award” for exemplifying helpfulness by being the first one on the boat, and then lifting each of the other diver’s tanks and BCD. Nobody asked Tayton to do this. He just did it. Very cool.
During the ride home Crew Chief Noah roused everyone to work through the cleaning checklist, and we arrived at the dock with almost all of the chores completed. We unloaded the dive gear, food, and personal items. We rinsed our gear and ran off to prepare for the traditional luau. Honestly, the luau was the same as the regular dinner except we were smartly dressed in Hawaiian shirts and dessert included mini Key lime pies.
The highlight of the evening was returning to the Day Dream one last time where Captain Scott treated us to fresh cut pineapple and his famous Pina Coladas (sans rum). The scouts had written thank-you cards for Sal and Scott, and it was a nice chance to say farewell.
Everyone headed back to the dorm for a few rounds of ping-pong. Unlike previous nights, the crew had proper beds, air conditioning, and a full night’s sleep without an anchor watch.
Oh, and I forget to mention that I did finally get up before Captain Scott and managed to make an espresso. Captain Scott even had some.
I’m happy to report we arrived back at Sea Base on Thursday. In fact, as I write this on Friday, the scouts are flying home.
Thanks to Chris Sine on the day dreamer and to Sonya Hanna on the beyond for writing the daily updates for all of you guys to read.