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Queen of Nassau (formerly known as
Islamorada Wreck) 225fsw.
Islamorada- Florida Keys
Feb 10th 2002
Even though I didn't have to be at the boat until 11:00am, I couldn't sleep and hopped out of bed early. Today was the day I had been waiting for, I got to dive the Islamorada wreck. Believe me I was really nervous since I didn't really know the people on the boat very well and I had the wobbly knees feeling. But I figure that there's a first time for everything and I wasn't going to let my wobbly knees stop me.
I arrived at Bud n' Marys in good time and immediately saw the parking lot simply stuffed with dive gear, including several video cameras, Gee nobody told me we were making a movie I would have got my hair done. I could hardly find a place to add my gear to the pile but gradually over the next 30 minutes the gear pile began to look more organized and moved from the dock to the boat as if there were a thousand worker bees moving it piece by piece.
By this time I had met a few of the people, but was still feeling nervous. However as it turned out there was no need, they were all really nice and friendly.
The weather was wet and overcast and the seas were pretty bumpy.. Not the kind of day I had hoped for, but it was OK because I saw that there was the helpful naked lady on the boat to ward off the rough seas. It's a pity she didn't hold up too well though.
Finally we arrived at the site and dropped the grapple on the wreck.
Woohoo my favorite thing NO CURRENT :-). We split up into two dive teams and the ones with the longer planned Bottom times jumped first. I had only 25 minutes planned so I was in the second group.
I was up by the bow with about 3 other divers. Now I found out why the comfy seats in the bow were all open. Once geared up we had to make it to the stern of the boat to jump, BUT!! this boat had a restriction and it was pretty hard to pass through this with all my gear on.. Perhaps I should have had a sidemount
rig. However since I was also the smallest diver I knew that I could make it if the guys in front of me did.
Eventually it was my turn to jump and I hit the water.. Phew.. it's always such a relief to forget about gravity for a while.
I descended ultra slowly, not at my normal speed because my ear was still feeling a bit funky from a recent infection, but eventually the wreck came into View... WHAT A SIGHT.. I was pretty much last down, and already I could see a bunch of lights bobbing around in the gloom, people with scooters zooming about, people with cameras taking pictures and people with videos lurking here and there. It was just like the landing party off star trek. The vis was not much over 40ft, and I had been warned that this was typical for this wreck. This was definately a look but don't touch dive, not only because it was a preserved wreck, but there was fine silt everywhere, and where there was no silt there were those VERY sharp
oysters. It was AWESOME, the wreck was pristine and untouched with bits and pieces laying everywhere. There is a large fishing net draped over one section of the wreck and it reminded me of something you would read about in a Robert Ballard book. I could tell the wreck was really old, the fixtures were very old fashioned looking and the lifeboat
davits were all curvy and elegant. The deck itself was gone, I guess it had been made of wood. You could see straight through to the decks below.. and I swear I could see what looked like a bathtub, but heck what do I know.
Nobody else saw it so maybe It was something else! I also saw a giant Jewfish lurking inside the wreck.. A few moments later I nearly jumped out of my skin. My dive buddy had pulled on my fin and was pointing to
something. The Jewfish had come out and was checking to see who had disturbed his beauty sleep. He was really huge, and AWFULLY CLOSE!!! Yikes!!.
Good job he wasn't an Australian Grouper ;-)...
As the end of my bottom time approached I hung out by the line for my last couple of minutes and then started up. I could see people unhooking the grapple below me. Today my deco went really well. I had brought my secret weapon (nope not a butt weight), but a nice 2 pounder in my bellows pocket.. It works wonders, for once I felt perfectly balanced. I was enjoying myself so much that I just hung out at 20 feet way longer than I needed to and watched as the stragglers reached their 20ft stop and hung out there. Sadly, eventually I had to leave and get out of the
water. But WHAT A DIVE!! it was really cool.
That evening we all went for dinner at Whale Harbor. I had passed this place at least a thousand times, never went in but had heard of the legendary "all you can eat" seafood buffet. The reality was better than the legend.. I'm amazed that there was anything left after 10 hungry divers descended on the food, but somehow the buffet never looked any smaller no matter how many times we went back to get more Crab legs. It was a fun dinner, and thank goodness everyone had crab legs because nobody could tell who was firing crab juice at who!!!.. My only complaint was that somebody put butter in the finger bowls ;-) (a long story, but I promise to bring my own wetnaps next time). It was a super way to finish off one of the most exciting days of diving I have had for a long time.. Great food, wonderful company, fantastic antique regulator stories! I met some super nice people and had a ball.
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