Troop 97 News: Dive!

by Doris Sanchez

A crew of 8 from Troop 97, New City, NY, dived the coral reefs and wrecks of the Florida Keys. Designed for certified divers, this program at BSA Florida Sea Base, in Lower Matecumbe in Islamorada, FL, offered eleven dives. They explored the only living coral reef system in the USA, diving sites like Alligator, Captain Grumpy and Crescent Reefs.

Every day at Sea Base, the crew prepared for typically 2 dives per day. They gathered their air tanks and once on the boat, fine-tuned their skills at attaching their BCDs and regulators. They did their buddy safety checks before every dive and experienced the importance and reliance of diving with a buddy.

Everyone improved every day at maintaining neutral buoyancy and the critical importance of managing their air supply.

Their dive itinerary also featured a night dive, a deep dive (to 60 feet) and marine life studies. They rubbed the belly of an underwater statue of Buddha, 42 feet deep on Davis reef! Not to mention lots of fun on the boat after their dives. Snorkeling over shipwreck relics, water Frisbee and diving off the boat.

Oh yes, the moon jellyfish! Unfortunately they were introduced to these brainless creatures, which still managed to get the best of the crew...ouch!

The crew saw some beautiful and amazing undersea sights. Amazing coral formations, nurse sharks, sea rays, spotted and green moray eels, hawksbill and green turtles, lion fish, very large barracuda and more. They were often surrounded by schools of hundreds of fish, becoming one with the school. On the night dive, the crew witnessed not only the change of the marine life that comes out at night, but bioluminescent organisms, that glowed like stars underwater! Even squid and octopus that changed glowing colors before their eyes.

The Troop 97 crew (nick-named the Sea Knights), were looked after by a top-notch crew of dive masters, boat captain and first-mate, who essentially became part of our family for the week. All-in-all, it was an experience never to be forgotten!