Mr. Grimes and Mr. Luff got up at 7 am and let the boys sleep until 7:45 am.  Breakfast was cereal, which meant an easy cleanup, and then the boys want to goof off for a while and zone-out on the television.  We loaded up our dive gear and drove to Lady Cyana’s Dive Shop a couple miles south of our motel.  We got there early, at 11:15, to get checked in and make certain all our rental equipment arrangements were satisfactory.  Since we were so early, we had time to kill and went for a 35-minute drive.  We got back when we’re supposed to and ended up waiting another 45 minutes while the boat was being loaded.  Our trip out into the Atlantic only lasted about 25 minutes when we pulled up at our first dive site: The Gardens.  All six of us dove as a group in this area of patch reefs.  At our deepest point, we were at only 20 feet, but that meant we stayed down a full hour.  Water temperature was wonderful at 85 degrees F (which was a good thing since none of us were wearing skins or wetsuits), and visibility averaged about 80 feet.  Aside from the thousands of colorful reef fish, this dive’s best sightings were of a 3-foot long trumpet fish and a small ray.

After our first dive, the Lady Cyana IV moved over to another site, called Hens and Chickens, so named because the coral formations have large mounds surrounded by many smaller ones.  This 50-minute dive gave the group a good view of a large green sea turtle, a lobster nest and a bunch of smaller barracuda.

When we climbed back on the boat, several of us were surprised to learn it was already 4:40 pm.  After a little bit longer ride back, we pulled into dock to find Ken R., Chris R’s dad, waiting for us.  He’s flown in to join us for the next few days until we leave the docks at Sea Base.  We stored our gear at Lady Cyana’s since we would be going out again in the morning and returned to the motel.

Everyone showers; changes and the boys immediately turn the TV back on.  Ken and Chris R. leave to go get Chris R’s underwater film developed.  When they return, Ken offers to take us all to Outback Steakhouse for dinner.  Not a single soul had to spend any time choosing between our planned hot dogs and steaks!

After a wonderful dinner, we all piled back into our cars and decided to drive south for a while.  We were treated with a spectacular sunset as we crossed 7-mile bridge and then we returned to the motel.

NEXT: Day 3