We celebrated our 25th anniversary at Bermuda. At our private bay the clear blue water was magnificent. At a depth of 5 to 12 feet we saw lots of small fish like snapper, damselfish, Sergeant Major and butterfly fish. Sergeant Majors nipped at Rosie’s fingers and legs expecting a snack. In the distance (Photo#3)to the left of Daniel Island where I am snorkeling is the wreck of the HMS Vixen with its bow sticking out of the water. The Vixen was sunk intentionally in 1897 to block and prevent attacks on the royal dockyards. One day we rented kayaks and paddled around Daniel Island but failed to reach the Vixen.
Expedition Team: Holly Miller, Shane Miller, Rosie Miller, Jacque Miller, Matt Miller, Cory Evans, Dave Miller
Date: April, 2009, June 2011
We stopped by Dolphins Plus two times and several of the family enjoyed a 45 minute close up encounter with several dolphins. They got to snorkel in their natural environment, swim and observe them up close while they swam, circled around them and performed jumps. We camped at Key Largo Campground one of our favorite places.
My 53rd dive was my first deep dive. The USCG Cutter William I. Duane was launched in 1936 and intentionally sunk as an artificial reef in November 1987. The boat is 327 feet long. In WWII it helped sink German U-Boat U-77 rescueing 22 Nazi crew from the water.
Due to a strong current we held on to the mooring line and descended. Visibility was only 40 feet so I did not even see the huge ship until I was 45 feet down the line. Was advised to stay behind the superstructure and off the stern or the current would blow you away. The mooring line came down amidship behind a stack at 80 foot depth. We eventually worked our way down to a 105 foot depth which was the main deck. We swam through many semi-darked rooms but had enough light to see many large spadefish, barracuda and a goliath grouper. Only one photo survived as the camera I was using did not work at that depth.
Dive Team: Dave Miller, Matt Miller, Shane Miller, Holly Miller, Jacque Miller, Rosie Miller
Date: December 23, 2007
Shane’s first dive at age 13. A great introductory river dive. The dive boat coasted 1.1 mile downriver to K.P. Hole County Park as Rosie, Jacque and Holly snorkeled nearby. Below Matt, Shane and Dave were scuba diving in the spring fed river viewing various fish hiding in the grasses. We spent time sticking our arms down to our elbows in the thermal spring underwater “blowholes” hoping to grab a shark tooth.
Dave’s 45th dive and Holly’s second ocean dive after diving the Benwood shipwreck earlier in the morning. We dove 50 minutes at a depth of 30 to 38 feet. Holly led the way swimming inside a swim-through cave called Sand Bottom Cave. In the cave we viewed six large silver snapper. Later we saw our first giant eagle ray half submerged in the sand. Very abundant reef as we saw beautiful coral and thousands of fish. Returning toward the dive boat we swam once again through Sand Bottom Cave this time seeing a large angelfish and a school of butterfly fish. We had lunch at my favorite restaurant, The Galley. I had mahi-mahi and Holly had calamari and shrimp quesadillas.
Saw several nurse sharks, sea turtle, barracuda, green and spotted moray eels. Vibrant reefs with porkfish, angelfish, groupers, filefish, spadefish, grouper, trumpetfish, trunkfish, sea fans, colorful coral and thousands of small fish. Had lunch at Holiday Isle Raw Bar and we both ordered “Jaws” – the famous large fish sandwich & fries.
It was CJHS Spring Break, so Matt and I headed to the Florida Keys pulling the pop-up camper. We stayed at the Fiesta Key Resort KOA. Our pop-up camper was 25 feet from the edge of the Gulf of Mexico with a fantastic view at sunset. We enjoyed two days of great diving and ate our first ever key lime pie. On the third night, Dave went to the campground bathroom at 2:40am and the weather channel was flashing that severe thunderstorms with 60mph winds would hit the keys in 10 minutes. Dave ran back, lowered the pop-up camper a few feet and hung on as the camper was battered by rain and high wind for three hours. Next morning, tents and camper awnings were scattered around the campground but we were fine. Sadly, due to moderate winds and high swells our third day of diving was cancelled.
We made alternative plans. Matt & I snorkeled the 10 foot deep waters about 50 yards out from our campground and we saw dozens of lobsters. Matt pulled at their antennas. We celebrated at an all-you-can eat seafood restaurant where we tried many things we had never eaten before. We made 8 total dives at Islamorada with Holiday Isle Divers.
Our favorite dive was Ham Reef or Hamasarus Reef, where, at a depth of 34 feet, we saw six nurse sharks, many moray eels, grouper, parrotfish, barracuda, lobster and many more. We also had our first large sea turtle encounter.
We dove just one of the many areas of Molasses Reef, one of the world’s most popular reefs. The depth of our 55 minute dive at Coral Canyon ranged from 15 to 25 feet. Matt & I saw our first shark – a four foot long nurse shark. We also saw our first scorpionfish. We also viewed beautiful coral, squirrelfish, barracuda, grunts, angelfish, porkfish and trumpetfish. We even had two NASA aquanauts on board our dive ship who were living nearby underwater in the 45 foot long Aquarius Laboratory.
Located at the Key Largo Dry Rocks Reef the famous nine foot tall “Christ of the Abyss” statue is in only 25 feet of water making it a popular snorkel and dive site. The statue, made by the Italian Sculpture Galletti, was placed in these protected waters around 1966. During our 35 minute dive over six fingers of the reef we spotted large brain corals (Photo#3), butterfly fish, jacks and tangs. Sadly, the once beautiful coral around the statue is gray in color and has died due to careless divers and snorkelers who have stepped on the coral.
After a successful morning manatee hunt on Crystal River where we snorkeled nearly an hour with two adults and a baby manatee (Photo #1 & #2), the American Pro dive boat took us westward to Kings Bay. At a site called King Spring we did our first cavern dive. We dove down 35 feet to a reef that had hundreds of small fish. In the distance behind some large rocks was the entrance to the cavern. We descended, turned on our dive lights and entered the cavern. As we swam to the cavern’s maximum depth of 47 feet we saw many fossils embedded in the walls. One room of the cavern was called “Catfish Closet” as 4 large catfish hung out in a dark recessed hole. We swam to another room and turned off our dive lights creating a solid black labyrinth. Turning our lights back on we swam to another area of the cave where our divemaster showed us how to create a “air bubble hot springs”. In turn, we removed our air regulator from our mouth and blew bubbles of air watching them float to the top of the cave and “boil”.
