2004/01/18
Thunderbolt and Kissing Grunt Reef by Matt Hoelscher

Photo Gallery

Dive Shop: Abyss Dive Center
Boat: Vitamin Sea

4 divers in hotel room can sure do a number on it in one night! Notice all of Charlie’s scuba gear in the lower left corner neatly laid out to dry after being rinsed. I think I’ve just been out DIR’d in the anal retentive category!



Conditions
Seas 4-6ft (2-4ft according to the owner Bill)
Visibility 35ft
Air temp 74
Water Temp 73
Current .75 knot NE

I dove with Abyss last summer. Their boat is a about 35ft, has a center tank rack for 6 and dry bench seating in the bow for everyone. The operation and boat is well kept and you feel more like a guest on a private boat instead of taking a seat on the city bus to the dive site. Across the parking lot from the dive shop is a Holiday Inn. The shop offers packages for $170 for two people to dive with hotel room for the night. However to dive the Thunderbolt, there is a $60 surcharge for a professional Dive Master or Instructor to go out and tie the boat into one of two barrels on the bow or stern of Tbolt. The barrels are 16-30ft below the surface depending on current and attached to the wreck with thick aircraft cable.

Before the charter, I discussed with the Captain Bill, the owner, about other ways to dive the wreck. Someone jumps the barrel, ties the boat in, runs a granny line to the stern, which is also connected to a tag line out the back. I would have been happier to have a live boat and a hot drop on the barrel or the wreck itself. However, no other options were available in his mind, this was the way the dive was to be done. The only exception he has made to his process is for advanced nitrox or trimix classes to do a technical dive on the wreck. But then the whole boat has to be booked. I had 4 spots and found two more divers to go. When those divers called to inquire about doing a deco dive and some spearfishing they did not get a warm welcome and were told that if they shot a short fish, Bill would confiscate their guns and NOT return them. This was enough to scare them off, and it should have been a warning to me, but I didn’t listen to it. I was going to earn my PADI specialty card for “diving with a stubborn dive boat captain.”

Since we had the afternoon trip, we slept in, put our gear together, had breakfast, took a nap and got ready for the afternoon dive trip. Keys cable has the computer generated “War Games” voice reading the forecast of 2-4ft in the morning building to 3-5ft with storms and small craft advisory. The boat arrived 20 minutes late and there wasn’t a smile to be found on any of the 6 faces getting off. It looked more like a relief to be safely back at the dock. At the dock, after paying for the full trip with surcharge, we inquired with Bill about doing two nearby reef dives instead of going out to the Tbolt? Bill said the shallow reefs, 18-22ft were blown out with 15ft of visibility and the Tbolt was the best dive in Marathon. Bill said the seas were 2-3 and might build to 4ft while we were out. Charlie and I wanted to dive the wreck again, so we decided to continue as planned. We left the dock at about 12:50 PM. It was a 30 minute ride out to the Tbolt. Twice the Vitamin Sea came off a wave of such height that everything that wasn’t tied down caught air and landed with a crash. Items do not jump off of tables on to the floor in 4ft seas. I told Bill I thought it was 4-6ft seas. He said it was 2-3ft, 4ft at the most. Later he mentioned the freeboard of the boat was 2ft and the waves were not breaking over it, therefore the seas were not higher than 2 ft. I agreed, they didn’t break, as the boat was floating over the waves, but that I liked his logic.

Dive 1: Thunderbolt
3:08 PM
SI: clear
S: Matt, Charlie
D: 100ft plan, 113ft max (we didn’t hit the sand which is close to 120ft
D: 30 mins plan, 47 mins rt
D: Around the wreck, up the anchor line
D: 70ft deep, 20/3 10/3



Bill was the Dive Master and donned the 30cuft pony bottle strapped to a hard plastic backpack and asked to borrow Alicia’s weightbelt as he had a full suit on. He was preparring to jump the barrel. The challenge was that Bill had to see the barrel in the water on the port side of the boat before he would jump in. The captain had to head into the 4-6ft seas with sun in front to find the barrel. Charlie went up to the flybridge to help look out. I kept finding the barrel 15ft off the stern of the boat when the sun was at my back. With a single screw, it was hard to maneuver the boat into position and we would lose track of the barrel in the turn. After 25 minutes, Bill made a splash with all the lines, but the wind and sea pulled the boat and him off before he could make the tie. I calmly and respectfully asked Bill if we could do a reef dive instead? I lost faith in that this was a day to dive the Tbolt. Bill responded by saying that there was only one time in 12 years that he couldn’t get tied into the barrel. In his defensive responsee, I could tell he had gone “Ahab.” Ahab had his whale and Bill had his barrel.



The captain could not hold the boat in position. Bill freed all the lines and we took another 10 minutes before he jumped in with no luck. He got back on the boat and got ready to jump again. Another 10-15 minutes went by before he made the tie. With Bill back aboard we tied the boat in and prepared to dive. They tied a blue granny line from the bow to the stern and tossed out a large tag line. I could see a V-shaped wake coming off the orange ball. I warned Charlie of a .5 to 1 knot current and Bill scoffed saying that he could swim against the current and it wasn’t that bad. Several times the boat rolled as it took a 6 footer broadside. Bill was loose his balance and go for something to hang on to. I would mentioned, “Oh, that must have been a 4 footer?”

Bill gave a full briefing on the Thunderbolt. He had printed cards for all the divers and a blow up for him to point out key features. He mentioned that it was safe to go in the holds, but he didn’t want single Al80 divers inside the ship with less than 1800 psi. At that point, get out and explore the outside. He also wanted the divers to locate the line at 1200 psi and explore the bow for the last bit of gas and start up at 1000 PSI. He mentioned that he was now doing deep stops at 40ft for 3 minutes and 15ft for 5 minutes. We explained we would be stopping at 70ft and doing 1 minute up from there with 3 minutes at 20 and 10. He ok’d our plan. He asked if we were diving computers and we said “yes”. He said that we had to leave the bottom 5 minutes before going into deco. Then clearly he said that if Charlie and I went into deco there wouldnt' be a second dive. The Swedish tables say 100ft for 35 minutes with a mandatory 3/3. We asked if 100ft for 30 minutes was ok and that was approved.

We completed our checks and Charlie prepared to jump. I told him to hold and asked Bill why the granny line was straight off infront of me, running perpendicular to the boat? Bill was angry and questioned the knots used by the captain on the lines. It must have come untied. We recovered the lines and saw that the line was sawed in half 10ft down the line, It was cut from the barrel.

It was now 2:15 PM and Bill tried to arrange all three lines for another tie in. I could see his perception was narrowed and he was completely focused on doing a task he’s never had a problem doing before. Charlie and I were in our gear and couldn’t assist him spotting the barrel. After another 1/2 hour of swaying in the seas, I respectfully stated again, that I would prefer to do a reef dive. Bill asked for 5 more minutes to hit the barrel. The 5 minutes ticked by quickly compared to the past hour and half. Bill took off the small rig and stated boldly that we were going to anchor on the wreck. He had a nice plow anchor, 10ft of chain and a winch that could raise the Titanic. He ordered the captain to the bow to prep the anchor and he would set the boat up. I watched the barrel go right by the port side as the anchor was dropped and set. I was inches away from walking away from my money and the dive by requesting to go home without refund from the shop. Andrea stated before we got out there that she wasn’t diving. Boy did I marry a smart woman.



Charlie’s sister Alicia was seasick and not sure if she wanted to go in. We decided that Charlie and I would go as we were geared up and Alicia would dive with Bill. Charlie and I splashed in and started pulling ourselves up the line to the anchor. Hand over hand it took over 4 minutes to get down to the wreck. At 70ft I saw my computer say I had 30 minutes of bottom time left. Huh? Oh crap, it was 24 hours since my last dive and my computer cleared and reset from guage mood to computer mode on 21%. I was on 32%, oh well I thought, “my computer is going into deco!”



On the way down we passed a school of 40 or so Barracuda who were swimming to stay in place. At the bow of the Tbolt, two large Goliath Grouper were swimming around. A Green Moray came out to greet us and posed for pictures. I didn’t pay any attention to him as the anchor was set in a Charlie Foxtrot. The anchor line was draped over the 1 inch steel barrel line and the anchor was off the starboard side of the ship. The line was pulling the anchor up on the lip of the boat. It would not take much to move the anchor. I thought about moving the anchor up and over the line, but I was afraid the boat would pull me off before I could reset it. The anchor line had rubbed 20% thru the anchor line since it was set, I didn’t think it would be here when we got back. There was another grapnel and line laying up on the bow with a frayed end, I wonder if it suffered the same fate?



Then I decided that this wasn’t my problem, we have lift bags to deploy as surface markers if we drift off and we paid $60 for someone to take care of this for us. Lets dive! Charlie really wanted to go into the cargo hold. As we swam off, I realized that there had been a buzzing sound from my left post since my descent. I stopped Charlie and requested a bubble check. There were tiny bubbles and Charlie said to continue the dive. I thought it was the valve, later I found out it was the DIN fitting was just a hair loose. The first hallway was empty except for a school a Flamesfish in the closet. We came to amidship and the bubbling had me nervous so I exited the overhead. At the open cargo hold we were buzzed by Amberjack. We swam aft and found two big Goliath in the overhead section. Charlie followed it in, I didn’t see where the big fish went. In the middle of the ship at the bottom there is still some big machinery and lots of pipe and valves. In the next hold on the port side, there were huge circuit breaker panels left over from the days of serving FP&L a gigantic floating lightening rod!



We circled around into the big hold and saw that Alicia and Bill had made it down to the wreck. Charlie went headed back into the forward hold and I flashed him and gestured, “no more penetration”. We would have to come back to swim the stairwell from the bottom of the ship to the bridge. Back outside, I saw Alicia and Bill swimming hard and fast for the line. It seemed they hadn’t been down for 15 minutes and I saw Bill pulling the pony bottle off the line and attaching it to his BC. They were heading up. We still had 10 minutes of bottom time and Charlie said he wanted to swim around the outside of wreck one last time. I ok’d him and then heard a tank banger. I looked back and saw Bill was gesturing me. I flashed Charlie, but I should have grabbed his fin before going back over the bow to Bill.



Bill wanted me to watch him pull the anchor off the lip and reset it on the hull the way it should have been in the first place. He was inches away from not making it. He didn’t want me to touch it, just to watch him. I ok’d and swam back after Charlie. Charlie gave me the Latin gesture for “what the heck are you doing?” He gave me the lead and we circled around and heading back for the line. It was nice having the wreck to ourselves. Murphy owned me on this dive, at 30 minutes we gave the thumb and began the ascent. My computer had giving me the warning beeps of impending doom on the wreck when it gave me a ceiling at 10ft for 8 minutes. We continued our ascent and saw Bill waiting for us at 40ft. I felt like I was being chaparroned at the High school prom. We continued right up past him to 20ft.



I was on top of Charlie hanging like laundry in the breeze. He swam up and checked Charlie’s computer to see if we were in deco! He gave us the ok with a smile. Charlie’s computer was in guage mode and it was doing the 3 minute Sunnto safety stop countdown at 18ft. Too funny! After three minutes at 10 ft, Charlie gave the thumb. I asked for 3 minutes for my computer to clear. I didn’t know if it would lock out or go directly into gauge mode.



Back on the boat, Bill mentioned that he thought 8 minutes at 20ft was a little overkill. I told him my computer had to clear. I said my computer thought taking 1 hour and 40 minutes to tie into a barrel was little over kill. I told him after 20 minutes it shuts itself off. I didn’t notice it and it water activated on the dive, reset to 21%. He didn’t respond.



It was coming up on 4 PM and we headed over to Kissing Grunt Reef for the second dive. Bill switched his tank and Alicia’s tank over. We anchored on site and Bill said that this would be a 30ft max dive and asked how much gas we had. Charlie had 1700psi and I had 1400 psi left in our set of double 80s. He said that we would be lucky to get a 30 minutes dive in with that much gas. He would do another quick dive with Alicia and we would follow along. We had to navigate from the anchor, to a 3-6ft ledge that ran East to West. We said that we had about 70cuft of gas and could easily do an hour dive at this depth. We agreed to do a 45 minute dive as time was getting late and people on the boat were not feeling well.

Dive 2: Kissing Grunt Reef
4:40 PM
SI: 45 minutes
S: Matt and Charlie
A: 32%
D: 30ft plan, 31ft
D: 45 mins plan, 40 mins rt (underwater recall heard at 38 mins)
D: down the reef and back
D: slow 2 min ascent



We jumped in and followed Bill around the coral heads. The coral and sea fans were pretty beat up. We swam around in a big circle until we caught the ledge and followed it. I stopped for some photos of a juvenile Smooth Trunkfish. We saw some Mutton Snapper and a Black Grouper. Bill came right back under the boat, I was impressed. He and Alicia went up and Charlie and I stayed down as planned.



We found a small Green Moray tucked under a small coral head. After looking at a few fish, we turned around but lost track of the boat. 38 minutes into the dive I could hear the clacking of a lead weight on the metal dive ladder. We were being recalled. We did a slow 2 minute ascent and came up next to the boat. There was a large storm front blowing in from the East. We would either have to head for Cuba or go through it to go home. We packed up our gear and headed home. It was quite beautiful. We could feel the temperature drop 5 degrees as we passed into the storm. The rain blanketed us and the captain throttled back due to visibility. All I wanted to do was go home. We packed up, changed into the dry clothes and headed home.



I kept smiling through the whole trip, though it was ruined before we even jumped in the water. There was so much BS to deal with, I couldn’t relax and have fun. I looked forward to the peace of shore diving Monday off Datura Avenue. This is also a big plus for Cave diving, no boats or captains to deal with in order to reach the dive site!