Science Diving Weekend Extravaganza

BANG!!! My drifting mind was jolted instantly to full alert. The van was packed to the brim with luggage, dive gear, 10 people, and several scuba tanks of highly compressed air as it plowed forward at 65mph down Alligator Alley well after dark. My hands reached for the seat in front of me as my eyes focused on the road ahead. My mind was working at an inhuman pace as it processed everything around me: my classmates in the car waking up startled, the van to our right, the scuba cylinders beneath our seats, and the highway ahead as it swayed left and right across the windshield.

After what felt like 30 seconds of stumbling to a stop, Kevin (class TA) was able to control the van all the way to the shoulder on the median. We immediately checked for traffic and hopped out of the van, hearing another car grind its way to the median in front of us. I advised everyone to stay well back from the highway and went with 3 others to find whatever it was that we just hit while Kevin got back in the van to drive it to the other side of the 2-lane highway. A few hundred yards of scurrying down the median, we saw a shape on the road that turned out to be part of the suspension of the semi-truck that we did not realize had already pulled off the side of the road a hundred yards ahead of where our van stopped. I picked up the greasy, piping hot, 50 pound piece of metal and with the others crossed the road and worked our way over the rough terrain back to the van.

After regrouping, I was finally able to look at the tire. The hole in the rubber was nearly big enough to fit my head and around the hole it looked as if it was mauled and mangled by a bear. Knowing the shoulder was not safe, we immediately started in on changing the tire. We removed all bags from the back, struggled to remove the spare tire from under the van, eventually released it, jacked up the van, changed the tire, replaced the blowout, loaded all the bags back in, and filed back in for a short ride to the nearest gas station to top off the tire pressure. Since everyone was safe, I feel safe saying that it was a very exhilarating and exciting way to kick off a great weekend.

The rest of the weekend was entirely enjoyable but none of it makes for nearly as good of a story so I apologize for the dry style of the rest of the post.  Furthermore, I am unable to get a hold of any classmate photos from Little Salt Spring, at least as of yet.  Sorry!

We arrived at Little Salt Spring during a thunderstorm so we carried only the essentials in from the vans. 6 hours later we were waking up for an orientation and some diving. The weather had cleared and it was looking beautiful.  A couple people from the Florida Aquarium came down to show us some surface-supplied diving where the tanks remain at the surface and the divers descent with an “umbilical” attached to them. The type of masks they brought allowed for verbal communication and it was the first time I had ever tried it. If it weren't outrageously expensive and bulky, it would be a cool way to dive under more circumstances. We also learned about underwater archaeological excavation techniques that day which again was something very new to me.

Entrance to the Florida Aquarium

Saturday morning was spent at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, a good 1-2 hours north of our site. Last month when we took the midterm for the class, I earned one of the top 7 scores and thus earned a dive in the aquarium. The dive was actually broken up into two parts: first was an underwater tour of the tank we were in, and the second was to clean algae from the fake corals. My favorite part of the entire dive was a queen triggerfish that I interacted with for about 5-10 minutes. In all likelihood it was being territorial (as most triggerfish tend to be), but it was so timid about it that it made for a fantastic interaction where I pretended to reason with it, explaining with hand gestures that I needed to clean the corals.  When that didn't work out, I offered it my alternate air supply, I pretended to clean the fish itself, and turn back to the glass looking puzzled at all the amused faces pointed in my direction.

Queen Triggerfish Photo: A. Porter

Eventually my buddy came over and motioned me away from my corner to clean a different part of the tank. The cleaning was very unusual because with fake coral, the best way to scrub was by climbing and otherwise aggressively holding onto it. I hope that none of the aquarium guests saw us on the coral thinking it was real and walking away with the notion that this is how professional divers treat coral. Between the remainder of Saturday and Sunday morning, I had the opportunity to dive with double tanks (which I'm already certified for but it was nice to do again anyway), use a diver propulsion vehicle (“scooter”), practice navigation, and excavate one of the sites used for archaeological study. Overall, the weekend was fantastic.

In other news:

My good camera is indeed broken, hopefully not beyond repair but it's out of commission for the time being.

My underwater camera's battery charger is no longer functioning, so it will be a while before I solve that issue, though it is easier than fixing a broken camera.

I ordered a machete which came in the mail while I was gone so I can now easily open coconuts!

Simon Cowell's show “X Factor” is having auditions for 2 days at our basketball stadium on campus. Traffic is horrific!

Rafael Nadal ended up losing a tiebreaker to Djokovic in the finals

Rafael managed to snag free tickets for the Sony Ericsson Open on the 28^th of March and we were able to see a couple matches before they were canceled on account of rain. We picked up the raincheck and went in 2 days later to see Djokovic and Azarenka, the two who would continue on to become the singles champions.