Captain’s Log – Wed 5/14/25
We left Marina Del Mar first thing in the morning, planning to stop for fuel on the way out. Of the two fuel docks there, one was closed (assuming out of fuel) and there was no way I could get a 41’ boat side tied in the 30’ of space the other had. It was high tide so we motored over to Pilot House Marina about 5 minutes south of Port Largo. We took 13.5 gallons, a little over half a tank, of fresh fuel and 10 gallons spare fuel. It diluted the fuel that had the water in it and everything looks much better.
With the delay to run around for fuel, we opted to go to Molasses Reef which was closer. Finally have good conditions at the reefs, with occasional 2’ roller but mostly 1’. We both used the snuba units this time. It was a fairly shallow dive, but we have them so why not. The best part of the reef and the most fish were actually right under the boat. We swam towards the lighthouse thinking the shallower part might be pretty but should have used more of the air time near the boat.
We limited ourselves to a 30 minute dive while we are getting used to the limit of the battery powered snuba unit. Mine was noticeably harder to draw air the last 5 minutes or so as we returned to the boat. My meter read 1/4 battery when I pulled it out. I probably could get 40 minutes in a pinch. A little less than a standard dive tank. Unlike a dive tank, the gauge is on the unit at the surface so you actually have to come up to check it.
On the plus side, we plugged both of the batteries back in and they were charged up in about an hour and a half. We could theoretically keep going all day by swapping out batteries with short breaks between dives. The chargers draw about 2 amps each so it’s nothing for our solar panel.
We headed back north to stage for tomorrow stopping at the same spot we were ran off with the higher seas. It was initially a little bumpy with the sea breeze but calmed to flat overnight.
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