To say that the trip this past weekend went well would be an understatement. We had five people at Vortex Spring Friday doing their Compass Navigation, Search and Recovery and Peak Buoyancy dives. Everyone did very well and I believe quite a few of the divers shed some lead on the Peak Buoyancy dive. Saturday I got a call at 5am about how hard the wind was blowing and how bad the seas were. The marine forecast called for the seas to diminish as the day progressed. We moved the trip back about an hour and ten divers headed out. It was a little bumpy about 2 to 3ft but, not too bad. When we arrived on our first site the Ackokeek the seas were down to a steady 2ft. The dive was fantastic, vis was about 30ft. and the Advanced divers got their deep dive completed while enjoying a huge Goliath grouper patrolling the wheelhouse. The next dive was on the Mac 10 Reef which is actually an old dive work barge. There is a lot of structure to explore and the whole site was covered with bait fish, Amberjack, Spanish Mackerel among other fish. Unfortunately, while were diving the seas started to get ugly. We decided to head back inshore to see if the conditions would improve but, when we arrived at Bridge Span 1 the seas were only increasing and the last dive was called. One of the best parts of going on these trips is dinner Saturday night at Captain Anderson’s and once again the restaurant and my favorite waitress Lisa did not disappoint. Sunday was much calmer in the gulf. We went out and did the Twin Tugs which I hadn’t been on in awhile. The whole port side of the intact tug was covered in beautiful robust ivory coral. The last dive was on DuPont Span 1. This was the first time I had been there. It’s like your regular bridge spans only on steroids. The whole top of the span which sits in about 60ft. of water was covered with communities of Blennies and Gobies and at the end a nurse shark came cruising by. This is now one of my favorite dives. Congratulations to Gary and Evan Bauer, Marvin Roe, Brian James and Brett Barris who are Coral Reef Dive Shop’s newest Advanced Open Water divers.