Blackbeard's Recap 5 - Oops

Day 5 was an interesting day.

The first dive we did was Morgan's Peak and it got a bit sporty.

It has a shallow area and a wall dive, and of course our dive team went for the wall dive.

We dropped on down the wall and started exploring.

 We found a very large crab on the way down to 94 feet.

Some fish and interesting coral down there.

We then started getting close to our No-Deco-Limit and I signaled for us to ascend somewhat to keep within the proper NDL range and let everyone know the air situation. I singled that we should turn the dive and head back to the upline then, but Jay kept us moving along the wall instead of cutting back immediately, planning to do a rectangular path. That didn't quite work out as he intended.

Unfortunately he made the wrong turn at Albuquerque and we were starting to get low on air and ended up ascending and doing our safety stop kinda far from the boat as he didn't quite close the rectangle he was trying to make.

So we surfaced a pretty darn good distance form the boat, which was still in sight, and signaled we were ok, and we inflated a marker buoy so they would be able to see us.

We then tried swimming to the boat.  No dice, the current was against us and the surface was pretty choppy and all we were getting was tired for our efforts.  We were also down to around 500 psi each so descending and trying to swim to the boat against the current was also not a great option.

So we signaled we needed a pickup, and the dingy came to get us and we got to ride back to the boat in style.  Not a preferred technique, but it gave the deckhand something to do and was a safe means of getting back.  After that dive, the three of us did a debrief and affirmed some better safety procedures to adopt for all future dives.

Unfortunately, at some point after we doffed our gear in the water and got it in the dingy, something had to have hit my primary second stage of my regulator. This apparently hit it just right to mess it up and cause it to do a slow almost silent leak. This would bite me later.

So safely aboard, we headed to the Island of the Iguanas to enjoy a surface interval.

These iguanas are cute and will eat right out of your hand, if you don't mind them biting your hand, as such stick feeding is the way to go:

 Lots of fun, and they move real fast when they want to.

Then we got set to dive the Washing Machine, which in had been looking forward to doing.

I then discovered the issue with my regulator and we could not get it fixed in time for me to make the washing machine dive which is a cool drift dive where the current tumbles you about. We ended up swapping out the entire hose so I was good for subsequent dives but I missed that one.

On the upside it turned out the Washing Machine had been set to the gentle cycle so I didn't miss much at all.  Next time.

We headed back to the Exumas and soon arrived at the Pablo Escobar Plane site - the place I did my first dive with Blackbeard's. Our dive master euphemistically noted the plane had been carrying a cargo of "soccer balls" , and while most had been recovered by the authorities, if we happened to find a "soccer ball" during the dive it need to be turned over ASAP.

It was a great relaxing dive, 22 feet for an hour.

Some nice big fish were hanging around the plane wreck.

No sharks were seen so we likely won't see a Cocaine Shark movie anytime soon.  A shark hyped up on cocaine a rather scary thought.

It's a fun wreck to dive.

Then for the night dive, my buddies declared themselves too cold to dive, so I went out with Megan, a newer diver who was getting her advanced Open Water certification done on the boat. 

She was a good dive buddy, needs to work on her trim a bit.

The wreck at night was pretty cool to see, with a big fish hiding underneath it.

Megan was getting cold, so we turned the dive and ended it after 31 minutes. Still a nice fun dive.

We got out, hung up our gear and warmed up with some adult beverages.

Day 5 had some challenges but it was still a darn good day.

Blackbeards Recap 4 - Diving With The Sharks

The next day we got up and dove the Monolith.

Monolith is a great wall dive that looks like it can go down forever.

 There were lionfish  at 100 feet.

A nice dive to a max of 101 feet with an average of 57 feet.

After the Monolith, we motored to our next dive site, Spolit Coralhead.

 The crew put the shark feeding hats went on, signaling the fun was about to begin.

Shark Feeding dive time!

It would be a group entry, with everyone prepped in their gear lined up and ready to go at both exit points, and dropping into the water via negative entries in the shortest time possible.

At 50 feet we would be kneeling on the bottom watching the sharks get fed.

The sharks knew we were coming and were already circling to meet us for a meal.

We all got into position, then the chiumsicle was brought in and the fun began.

Much Shark feeding then took place, along with swarms of hungry jacks.

After the feed, we got to swim around the reef and see some of the sharks up close.

 

It was a great 47-minute Shark dive with the feeding frenzy itself lasting around 14 minutes. Getting back on the boat with the sharks circling around below was a rather fun feeling, but they were content after the feeding and didn't bother all of us lined up waiting on the tagline to get back on the boat.

We then dove the Cannonball reef. 

This was a nice shallow dive with a max depth of 25 feet and average of 20 feet and we got a solid hour bottom time.

Not too much to see except for typical reef fish after the action of the shark dive, but it was a nice relaxing dive indeed. 

There were a couple highlights, including a good looking triggerfish there.

 It wasn't triggered, which is good as there have been more divers bit by triggerfish than by sharks and triggerfish bites can hurt.

We also found out that fish do grow on trees!

 

On top of that, there was a cool puffer-fish in the area

After an hour dive, everyone was quite chilled at that point and then getting out of the water with a very cold wind and air temps in the low 60s it felt even worse.  As a result, all but 4 divers who were doing their advanced certification on the boat skipped the night dive.

I almost went but both my buddies bailed and convinced me that there wasn't anything too special about the dive site worth getting even more chilled for.  Then they plied me with beer,  and then the rum punch called, and all the divers not diving had one heckuva fun party on deck. 

That was a darn good end to the day.

Another Insane FAFSA Change

Effective January 1 this year, having multiple students in college does not effect you expected financial contribution.

 It used to be if you had two and your EFC was $25,000 then that was split between the two students, increasing your eligibility for financial aid, work-study etc.

No more.   Now with the same income you're EFC is $25,000 per student so you need to come up with twice as much as the calculation used to require.

Yet another effort on the part of the Biden administration to grind down the Middle Class.

Blackbeards Recap 3

The next day we dove Cut 'N' Run, Cobia Cage, and Kraken's Lair both during the day and at night.

The Cut N Run site was an anchorage by the where ships would cut their anchor lines and run when they spotted a pirate ship approaching.

So there's a large old anchor chain encrusted in coral that goes for a long way at the site.

There's also a neat plane wreck there as well.

While that plane will never fly again, there was a cool turtle flying through the water:

 

A fun dive to a max depth 72 feet for 38 minutes.

 Cobia Cage is a very cool site, with a huge cage designed to farm cobia.  It didn't work as sharks, that love to eat cobia figured out how to get in the cage and its now an encrusted spherical empty cage that is just cool to see. And yes there was a shark circling around that was pretty neat.

And, sadly you can't see it the cage or that shark, as I had a camera housing malfunction.  I then had it fixed for the next dive and all was well, but no images from this dive to a max depth of 102 feet (average of 56 feet) for 36 minutes.

Kraken's Lair didn't have any krakens.

It did have some cool tight coral swim-throughs:

 

And some large barracuda

At night some other creatures would come out.

That lobster was huge.  But, not lobster season, you can't take lobster on scuba in the Bahamas anyways, and lobster that large are apparently not very tasty. So, he got to continue going about his underwater nighttime business unhampered.

It was a cool dive.  Indeed, the night-time dive was rather chilly getting out in a cold wind.

Still a great diving day.

FAFSAing Around

The Freep is a master of understatement for the actual cause  of the woe expressed in the article: Significantly fewer students have completed the FAFSA while colleges try to manage fallout

About a quarter of Michigan's high school seniors have completed the federal FAFSA form, the ticket to receiving federal aid for higher education, compared with nearly 40% at this time in 2023, according to federal data.

The lagging completion numbers are partly due to a nearly three-month delay to roll out the new version of the form for students bound for higher education, according to Diann Cosme, director of MI Student Aid within the newly created Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential (MiLEAP).

The real reason is the new FAFSA fargin' website doesn't frickin' work.  The rollout, delayed as it has been simply is a website that DOES NOT WORK.

Shades of the Obamacare website rollout. This makes the Freep sad as it's the Democrats dropping the ball yet again so they clearly cant come out and state the obvious.

Quite simply the website makes it impossible to complete the form.

I get an email that I need to sign the app as a parent.

So I login.  The only actions are to either delete the form or edit it.

I do edit and it says you must review the entire page and go to the bottom to continue to sign it.

I go to bottom of the page.

 However at the bottom of the page there is only a button marked return, which returns you to the main screen.  It does not let you sign the FAFSA.

In short there is no way to sign the form.  The website does not work.

I swear, the Department of Education under Biden could mess up a wet dream.

Blackbeard's Recap 2

Day 2 started off with some strong coffee and breakfast and then we hit the water of the Eleuthras.

We dove Closemon Reef, Dog Rocks, and Tunnel Rocks. 

We had Gio join our dive buddy group to form a three-man team.

Gio is a very fun, extroverted, guy from California with a ton of energy.

He became a good dive buddy and we stayed a three-man team for pretty much all the dives on the trip from then on out.

Closemon reef dive had a max depth of 19 feet and lasted an hour and three minutes.  It's right off of Pimlico Cay, hence the reef is Close, Mon.

The highlight was a stingray flying through the water which was cool to see.

Other than that there were typical reef fish and coral.

 

Dog Rocks was 78.2 feet and 43 minutes.

 We dove down to the church site with the coral swim through that makes it look like a cathedral. A very pretty dive site.

The church had some pretty cool looking fish nearby:

 

and there were lots of Barracuda swimming around as well:

 

Tunnel Rocks we dove both during the day and nighttime.

39.7 feet for 51 minutes during the day, and 45 feet for 54 minutes that night.

It has some interesting coral growing trees that have been placed there to help increase the coral.

 Quite a few lionfish were seen on every dive. 

It's a pervasive invasive species, with some nasty venomous spines on it.  It apparently is a rather tasty fish once caught and filleted, but the Bahamas has yet to declare open season on it, unlike other Caribbean locations, so no fishing for it for us.

A jack joined our dive team for awhile likley looking for prey we might make appear:

 On the night dive, those same jacks were out and about looking for food:

If you had a smaller fish in your light beam, a jack would likely swoop in out of the darkness and appreciate you finding its meal.

We also saw a turtle resting during the night dive:

It was a nice, relaxing night dive.

The University of Michigan Pro-Terrorism Encampment

So, this is the main sign up at the University of Michigan pro-Hamas encampment:

 It says "Long Live The Intifada"

Note this is not the Dearborn campus, where it would be rather expected, instead, it is the main campus at Ann Arbor.

Intifada of course is the Hamas (and Fatah) campaign of terrorist bombings, shootings, and knifing attacks against Jews in Israel of which the October 7 attack was a part.

Note well they are praising the Intifada. 

To praise the Intifada while at the same time as claiming they are all for a ceasefire is disingenuous at best, and almost but not quite material support for terrorism at worst.  Makes the students useful idiots at best, with a strong sprinkling of progressive and Islamist fellow travelers.

We will note that Gov. Whitmer has so far still failed to condemn the Dearborn chants of Death to Israel and Death to America, and has now decided to do a "fine people on both sides" bit in regards to the University of Michigan - because she wants the Islamist votes for the Democrats, and she apparently equates people calling for global terrorism to be the same as those calling for Hamas to release the hostages they took on October 7 - including Americans still in captivity. 

Rather pathetic on her part.

Blackbeard's Recap 1

I actually got to the Bahamas as planned this trip. Was up at 0300 driving in the rain to get to the airport and happily there were no mechanical issues on this flight. Made it to my connecting flight at LaGuardia Airport with no problems and one heckuva long walk between the flights.

Made it in on Friday and stayed at the Bayview Suites on Paradise Island, which is a darn nice hotel. 

At the hotel, I repacked for live-aboard mode as opposed to flying mode so I was ready.

I then had a nice 10-minute walk in the sun to Anthony's restaurant, where I had an outstanding Bahamas style curry and a local beer.

After a good night, I assembled everything and checked out, and waited for my ride to the boat.  In the lobby, I met up with another diver, Jay, who was also heading to Blackbeard's.

We got picked up and were dropped off at the Marina where a large number of divers waited as both  Blackbeard's Morning Star and Sea Explore as well as All Star's Cat Ppalu were getting ready to head out. It was a nice time chatting with a whole bunch of divers.

We then boarded the Morningstar.

I was going to sleep in the Galley cabin whcih has upsides and downsides.

Upsides:

a Bigger bed, twin sized even!

Further upside, the coffee pot was in arms reach from my bunk, which was also a downside as the cook had that thing chunking and burbling along loudly starting at 5:30 am.

I also had a great view of the phone booth from within which the cook made amazing meals.

I claimed and labelled my mug and got to unpacking.

Downside to the galley bunks is that the galley also had the shower, and when the shower was in use, the toiler was unavailable.   It also had less privacy than the other bunk areas so you typically had to change lying down in your bunk with the curtain drawn. 

A further upside is the galley area was one of the two social centers of the ship so there was always something going on and it was a fun bunch of people.  I must say I enjoyed it more than the bow, even with the challenges in changing.

We had a nice cold-cut lunch and after the excellent and thorough boat and dive safety briefings, we headed out to sea.

We had sufficient time to do a checkout dive and the location would be Periwinkle reef, that had been the last dive on the December trip.

Jay and I decided to be dive buddies, and we were a good pairing with similar outlooks on safety and diving in general.

We dove in and found ourselves inside a school of fish:

 

Quite a neat dive. The Yellow Snappers are always a happy sight.

It was a great first dive. 

Max depth 22.8 feet and 43 minutes.

We then had our first dinner on board, socialized with some after dinner beverages and hit the hay for what would be a big day.  We would start heading to the Eleutheras, as the weather in the Exumas was going to be not as favorable for diving.

High School Level: Completed

Today was the Senior Clap-Out to celebrate the very last day of High School for the graduating seniors.

They would walk through the school being cheered by the other students and then to the door.  Leah would be walking among them, graduating summa cum laude.

Parents awaited for the door to open and the seniors to come out and to cheer them on.  This included a parent in a T-Rex suit to mark the festive occasion - wish I'd thought of that myself.

So, at 2:30pm they walked out the door for the last time as students to the cheers of their parents.

Quite an emotional moment, many of the female students (and moms too) were tearing up. A very proud moment as well to see these kids walk forward into their futures.

All that remains are her IB exams, and then she's done with high school completely.