Florida Trip for Scuba Diving

We made the trip down to Deerfield Beach and on August 15 were introduced to their new boat.

Mark, Brenda, Jeff, Sherry and Dave Langley. The boat was quite spacious and we planned a trip on it for the next day.

On August 18 we went down to Miami to visit Planet Ocean. Jeff, Mark and Brenda look the part in their photo poster.

Mark exploring a small submarine called the Perry Link Deep Diver.

Jeff, Rod and Mark at Miami Seaquarium, where we visited on August 19.

Jeff by large cactus at Miami Seaquarium

Mark poses with a dolphin mascot of the Miami football team.

We saw this pair of spotted moray eels at the Seaquarium

A good view of a green turtle in the stream along with lots of other turtles and fish.

Clownfish. Mark built Nemo many years later.

Two spiny lobsters. Another foretaste of things to come, since we would see many such lobster in future dives, as in 1990.

We got to meet Hans and Lottie Gabriel, Dave's grandparents, who were 90 and 91. Marjorie, Brenda, Mark, Jeff, Sherry and Dave with ocean background near sunset in West Palm Beach.

We were on our way to the Keys for Rod and Jeff's checkout dives, presumably the first open-water dives. But we jumped the gun on that when Dave and Sherry took us out off Pompano for our first ocean scuba dives. August 20.

Jeff has his scuba tank on at left, with Rod behind him. Above, we are in the ocean for the first time with scuba gear. It was exciting. In the background is the shoreline and the buildings of Pompano Beach, Florida.

Jeff is just below the waves, and Rod is the last to descend. He is letting the air out of his BC to descend to the bottom. We are about a half-mile offshore at Pompano.