Back in Tampa we had booked ourselves onto a technical diving wreck fest with Silent World (http://www.silentworld.com) down in Key Largo, The wreck fest started on the 3rd of July. We also had to return the car to Budget Car Rentals after 30 days of rental, which fell on 1 Aug. So our plan was to do another boat day and dive the downstream passage of Hole In The Wall, and then drive the 3.5 hours to Gainesville for the night of the 31st. Then make the switch on the 1st of August and drive the 6.5 hours from Gainesville to Key Largo.
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| Marianna to Key Largo through Gainesville |
But the 31st dawned with lots of weather warnings about storms heading our way from Alabama, and as we drove off to Cave Adventurers the heavens opened with a massive thunderstorm. So boating was out of the question, we settled our bill and headed to Gainesville. Merritt's Mill Pond had been good to us and we had done some fantastic diving. Now onto the sea, some wrecks and warmer water!
On the way down we stopped in at Ginnie Springs which is now open to the public after the flooding. We just wanted to take a look at the surface and see what the area and water look like because this is where we're heading after our jaunt to the sea. We had to wait in the car while it poured with rain for about an hour but then we got a chance to look about. The water is tannic on the edges of the river, but clear in the springs, although it looks green instead of blue when there is enough depth (more than 5m I'd say). But it looks enticing and we think we've made the right choice to return here after Wreck Fest.
We continued on to Gainesville and checked in at the Howard Johnson motel. We could only get a room on the second floor and there was no lift. This was a disaster. We had planned to unpack everything tonight, fetch the new car the next morning, and the return to the hotel to repack. It would take ages to carry all the kit up the stairs with no lift or trolley to help us. So we decided to take a chance and go straight to Budget and see if we could load everything from one car to the next. And it worked! We managed to get an even bigger car for the same deal as the Ford Flex. So we were moving from a Ford Flex to a Ford Expedition and this time we managed to get an extended rental agreement so that we won't have to make a swap again on the 31st of August. Perfect! :)
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| Holiday Ford No. 2 (Ford Expedition) |
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| So much space! :) |
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| Moving all our kit from the Ford Flex ... |
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| ... to the floor ... |
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| ... to the Ford Expedition |
With the car switch already sorted out, Wednesday was easy. We just woke up and started our journey down to Key Largo. We were driving right passed Palm Beach so we had to make a side trip to see it!
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| There is no doubt why it's called "Palm Beach" |
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| Palm Beach |
I also tried to get a few shots of the highway between Palm Beach and Miami ... 6 lanes and as we neared Miami they all filled up at 13h30 on a Wednesday!
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| 6 lane highway from Palm Beach to Miami |
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| Traffic starting to fill up the lanes closer to Miami |
Finally we made it to Key Largo, checked in at Silent World, and sorted out which dives we'd be doing and what gases we needed mixed for our stages. The deepest wreck we could be doing bottoms out at 70m, so we chose a 20/30 and a 50/0 each for the stages, and would mix 10/50 for our dils each day and top them up with air between dives if we did two dives a day. The diving only started on Friday, so we would have a day off tomorrow to see Key West and the Florida Keys and explore Key Largo.
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