Lionfish Sampling Day 3: The ups and downs of small boat sampling

All of our sites are located 10-15 miles offshore in somewhere between 50 and 80 feet of water. To get there, we are using a 26 foot catamaran with two 115 horsepower outboard motors. It is a great work boat for four divers. There is lots of space to store gear and get ourselves ready. The boat is wide, and there is a lot of deck space. The T-top provides a fairly large amount of shade, and the boat is very easy to maneuver. Each day we bring out pleanty of food to eat between dives, and we take turns at the helm. 

However, working on a small boat requires quite a bit of pre-planning and organization. We have a total of 24 Nitrox tanks. We can only bring 12 out on the boat with us at one time because of the amount of space on the boat and the number of hours in a day. The two divers who are about to go on the boat get their gear ready on the back corners of the boat, while the other two people bring their gear to the bow when they get out of the water. Since the sites we are working at are 300 feet long and the current is relatively strong, the pair of divers who stay on the boat don't anchor. They "hold station" by watching the divers' bubbles & driving the boat so that it stays close enough to the divers to pick them up when the dive is over.  This can be extremely easy if the wind is calm and the waves are small. It gets much more challenging when the wind is blowing the tops off of the waves, and the current is running several knots. Anything above about 15 knots of wind makes this an impossible task and requires that you cancel diving for the day. Fortunately we have yet to have a day like that. 

By managing our air consumption pretty religiously, we can make the tanks that we have last about 2.5 days. Today was our "tank day." We sampled for two twelve-hour days, and today we were only on the boat from 7:30 am until 1 pm. Then we ran the tanks up to the dive shop to get all of our tanks filled. This is still work, but it's a bit easier since we just bring the tanks to the shop and then let the shop workers fill them. However, we do have to lift those 38 lb steel tanks into the back of the truck, and then unload them at the dive shop, load them back up to take them back, and then unolad them back at the National Park. 

Since conditions were a bit marginal and we were trying to complete a deep site, we were only able ot finish half of the surveys we needed to. Tomorrow will be another full 12-hour day. We will again attempt to complete three sites. I always say "attempt" because you never know what will happen on the water on any given day. It's always an adventure.