Sandog VII Trip Report

[kgehring]

Hope everyone had a great trip. Let's hear about it!

[Bryan]

It was a small group this year but it was a lot of fun. We got to meet Bill Bain and his son, Leigh Angold and his wife joined us as well. Chris DeFelice (formerly of Weekie Wachee) came over on Friday.
We took some time to set down as a group and do a casual dedication to Fred....He was surely missed on this Sand Dog and all other to come.....I know he was laughing with us as we shared stories and comments about him and the adventures we have had together in the last few years.....
The seas were a little rough off and on but Jupiter Dive Center and the boats treated us great. It took them a minute or two to actually realize divers were going to USE this stuff! Most of the others are in route to home or have gone to Key Largo......Pictures and more details will follow as folks get home I am sure.

[ivan's mermaid]

Hi Everyone: Rob and I had a really nice time at Jupiter. I do wish we would have had time to visit the Burt Reynolds and Friends Museum, but we had too much diving to do....(seriously, there is a BR & Friends Museum).
The folks at Jupiter Dive were really nice, and they do have a great set up.
For those that didn't get enough boat diving, Chris DeFelice took a small group to dive the Blue Heron Bridge at slack tide. There were lots of divers there. We saw starfish, scorpion fish, and tons of Jacks. Interesting dive.
We drove from Jupiter to Key Largo on Sunday in a torrential downpour. So much for Sunny Florida.
Our accommodations at the Pelican Resort were pretty nice. I'd recommend it. It's an older place but well kept and clean.
Silent World treated us very nicely. Monday, Rob, Allan, Rob Sewell, Luis & James dove the Speigel Grove. The seas were very choppy and the afternoon dives were cancelled. Christine, myself, and some new friends, Paul and Cheryl took a trip accross the 7 mile bridge all the way to Mile Marker 0 and visited Key West. Cool place. The forecast for Tuesday was bleak, however; the winds calmed and the sea got smoother, and made for 4 really nice dives on shallow reefs and wrecks.
We didn't get to dive at Christ of the Abyss, which I would have really liked to do.
Rob and I are headed North, on the Florida Turnpike, it's only 7 am and we've already hit 4 toll booths, ..... perhaps Christine, Luis, Paul and Cheryl will get to dive the statue today.
I know Allan and James took their cameras down on every dive, wow what fantastic divers they are, vintage gear, cameras and perfect bouyancy. Can't wait to see their pictures. I'll let James tell you about his Camera Lense oddysey.
All in all, we had a really great time visiting with friends, and diving together.
There are a few of those great looking Sand Dog VII T-shirts , just let Rob know if you like one. Looking forward to Sand Dog VIII - Bonaire.....

[Herman]

It was great seeing all of you this weekend. The diving was good but seeing old friends and making new ones was the best part of the trip, as always. I am got lazy this year and did not take a camera so I am looking forward to seeing Alan and James's photos. For those who where not there, Bonaire got chosen for SD VIII and I got "elected" as travel agent. Start saving your pennies for SD VII, it's going to be a full week of all the vintage diving you can stand in the shore diving capital of the world.

[Nemrod]

Well, not much to tell on the lens, a botched hand off in rough seas found me missing a lens. A four hundred dollar lens but worse, my favorite one and they are kind of hard to get. So, I told my wife in tears and she prayed to St. Anthony, patron saint of things lost, and the next day a phone call for the guys at the wonderful Jupiter Diver Center with the amazing news that they had the lens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And, I now have it back and it is none the worse for sitting on the bottom all lonesome for a day.

Thanks Jupiter Dive Center for the lens, the great diving, great boats, great people.

The forum does not allow picture posting anymore it seems or I would post them, I do have a few good shots despite the conditions and my klutziness.

I had great fun, thanks Bryan, Allan, Luis and all.

James

[Gunther49]

I would like to thank everyone @ Sandog VII for their hospitality.
I really enjoyed meeting you all, and I enjoyed my dive. Hopefully the next time we meet I will have enough experience, and be in condition to handle the full schedule of dives. Thanks again Leigh

[bbain]

My son and I really enjoyed meeting everyone. The Friday PM dive reminded me of the diving we used to do in Long Island Sound in July -- good experience for my son.

He wound up with a reverse sinus squeeze and the resulting nosebleed foreclosed diving on Saturday. However,a friend of my dad who is both an ENT and diver was able to diagnose the problem and we have a cure. The cure will also keep my son from future "feeding the fishes" episodes as well.

I have already informed the Exchequer of the Treasury a/k/a She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed that we're in for Bonaire next year. Not sure she believes me . . . .

[Herman]

......................I have already informed the Exchequer of the Treasury a/k/a She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed that we're in for Bonaire next year. Not sure she believes me . . . .

A Rumpole fan??

Leigh, as soon as it warms up a little maybe we can get a mini-sand dog going at Rawling. I am sure I can get Henry to join us and maybe a few more who are not too far. The manager is a buddy of mine so full vintage is not an issue.

[crimediver]

Herman,
Lemme know if you are planning a Rawlings dive. That is in my backyard and will try to make it.-jim

[Bryan]

James I E-mailed you about posting photos....I will do it for you if you send them to me using my Photobucket account or you can post them with yours....We should not have to visit another site to see pictures of our event....

[swimjim]

I will try again later, I am using Photobucket but it says they are too big, dunno . James

If you have photo editing software on your computer, resizing your images is easy enough. I usually resize to 1000 by 750 and that works well for photo bucket slide shows. Then it's just a matter of cutting and pasting the link here.

Jim

[Bryan]

Thanks Jim! If the photos are full sized then you have to scroll side to side to see the image and it throws the page out of whack....Looking forward to seeing the pictures..

[Creed]

If you don't have other photo editing software, you can always download Gimp: http://www.gimp.org/windows/

[Creed]

I had the same problem briefly. Try resizing a set to 1024x768, upload to photobucket and link again.

[Bryan]

Thats why I asked you to send them to me. I don't have any problem with photobucket posting photos. I was also trying to save you some aggravation.