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Old 08-04-2014, 05:24 PM
cdavisdb cdavisdb is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Sarasota, FL
Posts: 1,056
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few days later we were in Nassau, again switching crews. Picked up Chris and Jake, a father son team who dive the springs in Central Florida. They had never spearfished, never spent any time on a small boat, or done much salt water diving, so this was an experience. They picked up spearfishing real fast. I was worried about having to feed us with little help, but, not a problem. Jake is 13, and already an outstanding diver. Know any 13 year olds who can dive 80 ft + and stay down a couple of minutes?? Very fun to dive with these guys. We spent a couple of days in the Berry Islands and then headed for Riding Rock, south of Bimini. Worked north, diving spots I knew about, especially a big ledge call Victory Reef, south of Cat Cay. 40-80 ft humongus ledge several miles long. The current blows you along it so its a different spot each time you dive. Good coral, lots of healthy soft corals, extremely nice place.

Next day was dolphins. Oh boy, did we get into them. Found them very early, almost the moment we arrived in the right area. Dolphins all around the boat. Divers getting gear on as fast as they can. I'm jumping up and down and screaming at the divers HURRY UP, GET IN THE WATER BEFORE WE LOSE' UM--- HURRY UP!! These guys are spring divers, where there is a premium on getting everything just right and none on speed. Afraid I was not too polite, but they were forgiving. Apparently the dolphins really wanted to play. They stayed around and went wild when Jake and Chris got in, tale slapping, mobbing the divers, just crazy. More than once I could see a diver with several dolphin in front of him only to have a couple of more surf a wave right over his back. 25 minutes of this and I couldn't stand it anymore. Switched places with Chris and got in with my Dol-Fin. Its a monofin with an aluminum blade that pivots much like a dolphin's tail. Unique design and these dolphins had never seen it before. They went nuts again. The reaction was much like two years ago with a different group, but even more so. They were so close and moving so fast, just amazing. I could not have stuck my arm out without sticking it through a dolphin. A couple of times, I was afraid of getting hit. Never did though. They seemed to like balling up around me as I a did loop-d-loops as fast as I could spin, the dolphins going very fast and chattering like crazy.

Maybe 40 minutes total that seemed like 30 seconds and the dolphins decided they had other things to do. We hunted for another group for several hours, found a big group, but they were going someplace and had no time for us. Oh well.

Next day we tried again, but had less luck, just one group of 3 who were not all that interested.
Broke off at 10 am and headed back to Ft Lauderdale. Uneventful crossing, nice and calm


Some trip, and a good time was had by all.






Notes

Performance

This is one that really needs a vacuum gauge. When you load it heavy, the vacuum drops a lot. To keep from burning valves you have to slow down, also a lot. Light loaded, vacuum at 7, I can run 3600-3700 rpms. Load it down and that drops to 3100-3200. Since the duoprop doesn't slip, that translates directly into boat speed. The engine is working much harder, but it sounds, feels and runs exactly the same unless you try to run it to WOT. The only reasonable way to know whats going on is the vacuum gauge. Heavy loaded, my speed was lower than I wanted, around 20-21 kts. That came up pretty fast as we burned off fuel, groceries and water.

Fuel economy the only time I checked it carefully on a long run was 1.7 kmiles/gallon. That was late in the trip and I had the sense that fuel economy was slightly better earlier, maybe 1.8 kmiles/gal.

The single I/0 duoprop combination works very well for this boat, but I'd like a bit more speed. The extra horsepower of a 383 stroker would be mighty welcome.

Trim is real interesting. As stated other places, this boat likes weight forward, lots of it. On the way home I had a chance to play with trim and found that at 21-22 knots (a) trim had very little affect on speed and (b) it ran most comfortably and often fastest with the tabs( 8x12 Bennets) far down and the drive trimed almost all the way down. This is not at all what I would have expected. It looked like the biggest possible tabs, molded to the hull shape (like Blue Herons, but even bigger) would reallly work well, cutd down on the roll as well. Anybody care to comment???

Roll

Of course, the 25, being so sharp, has a considerable roll, more than a 23 but no worse than a Formula 233. Thankfully it doesn't snap like many deepVs, so I have no trouble getting used to it. There is something else that is more annoying. The boat has a fast, short roll when the water is near but not quite flat, almost a skitter, +/- 5 degrees or less, but very fast. For me, this is annoying and hard to get used to.

Crew:

I can't say enough about the crew. A real pleasure to have such experienced guys aboard on the first leg. Simon has been on a number of trips and has the drill down pat. He cooks some(and better than me) and that takes a load off my back. Matt was the surprise. It usually takes a while for a new crew to adapt to a challenging and new situation. Matt, fit in immediately. He is a planner as well as a very experienced small boat operator. In no time, he was doing stuff on the boat that needed doing before I'd even thought of it much less asked for help. An enormous help. Both, of course, were congenial companions in a place that had no privacy and wasn't always as comfortable as you might want. All this and outstanding divers, too. I was blessed.


Chris and Jake were just fun. Neither had any experience at this sort of thing, but adapted quickly. It was a real pleasure to watch and seeing the dolphins go nuts was amazing. Almost as good as being in the water myself.

Food

Carl's fold down galley, a two burner white gas stove and I can feed 3 hungry divers no sweat. I had modified the forward storage compartments under the bunks to carry more cans and staples and in total had enough to carry food for a month, buying some produce along the way and gathering seafood. Fish were not nearly as thick as I expected. There are more grouper south of Bimini than in any of the places we went, and we did not even see any hogs in the three outer islands. Still there was enough. Lobster too. Matt figured out how to cook the big ones (the ones that usualy have the texture of tire rubber). We split them and cooked'em the shortest possible time. Tender and delicious. Conch salad was enjoyed by all, frequently on the first leg of the trip, less often there after. Very good stuff. Simon always brings some of his special Chilean spices and fish tacos with that stuff are to die for. Simon is a very good cook.



Whew! that's a lot of typing. Now for the pics. give me a little time on the videos, but I'll try to post a few pics tonight
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