Article Author:

Captain D.J.
Master Instructor

What the heck does that mean? Well, yesterday Capt. Bill was guiding some divers on the Wreck of the Eagle in Islamorada.. Capt. Dan had heard a rumor that a fishing boat had sunk at the site the day before.. We didn’t believe it.. Oooops!

After it blew everyone’s minds on that trip, we decided to revisit it today and get you some video of what is probably quite a unique experience… When we got out there, Sea Tow had already started to take down lift bags so they could lift it up and salvage it. They were nice enough to let us dive it before they inflated them, in fact we even spent a few minutes and helped haul a few of them down there. Alex was the diver from Sea Tow and it sure looked like he had a tough job.. I think he said they were using five 7,000 pound lift bags, and 3 5,000 lift bags.. Either way, that thing was coming up sometime today, so this was our only chance to see it and hopefully grab some video for you!

It pretty much looked like it just came to rest gently on the bottom, but it was laying right up against the Eagle… Anyway, I guess it doesn’t happen every day so it was interesting to say the least.. On our little impromptu trip we had Col. Mike Cosby from the USAF who is based in Iraq and involved in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Every time I see him, I thank him for defending our country, so I’ll say it again here.

Happy New Year to everyone! Enjoy the video!

Click here to see the Wreck VIDEO! (requires Flash)

Article Author:

Captain D.J.
Master Instructor

Another year is in the books at Rainbow Reef and we would like to thank everyone who came down to dive with us this year, and we hope to see you next year as well. We’ve met so many nice people over the past few years, and this year was no exception. On behalf of the entire staff we want to wish everyone a happy, healthy and safe holiday season, wherever you find yourself.

May the new year bring you prosperity and be better than 2008. No doubt that this was a tough year for most people with the economy faltering and the pressure that put on all of us. We were paying almost $5.00 a gallon for Diesel fuel at one point, but we are thrilled to be back around $2.50 a gallon again. It is hard to keep the dive trips affordable when fuel is that high, and if a business has to raise prices, it’s a vicious circle.. You have no choice, but then you begin to price people out of the market. So, we did all we could to stand firm and we didn’t raise our prices last year, and we are proud to say we were just about the only shop around that didn’t either raise prices or add a fuel surcharge. We plan on keeping the prices just the same for this coming year, so we hope you will come back and see us! 

We had our annual Holiday party last night. Lots of people came and we had fun telling all the funny stories from the past year.. You would think we all see each other every day, but not really.. Between the two shops and days off, it is rare that we are all under one roof. Not only did we have the whole crew, we were also fortunate enough to have some special guests! George and Mel Yates from Team Divers joined us, along with Anya and Rob from Scuba-Fun.. Candy also came, she is the Dockmaster in Key Largo.. Some of you may even remember my brother George! He came down from West Palm beach! Just about everyone in the crew brought a guest so we had a whole room at Outback Steakhouse to ourselves!

Bridget Findley (Capt. Bills wife) was kind enough to send me a few pictures she took… Some of you we will see this week over Christmas.. The rest of you we will see in 2009!! Look forward to it!

Article Author:

Captain D.J.
Master Instructor

Hi gang,

 Sorry it’s been a while since we’ve gotten to post something to the BLOG.. We’ve been pretty busy, but that shouldn’t be an excuse, I guess I just have to get more people involved in bringing you guys all the latest news from the reef.. Why do we have time today? The wind is blooooooooowing pretty hard and we had to cancel the trips. This doesn’t happen much, but every once in a while, it’s just not worth getting tossed around that much.

So.. We had one our returning IDC customers who is now a PADI Instructor diving with us this past weekend. His name is Jeff and he had a group of divers with him from Richmond, Virginia. He managed to snap a picture of a fish that we aren’t quite sure what it is.. I don’t seem to have the Paul Humman book around here, so we thought maybe someone would know?! Please help! Just click the comment button and show us your stuff!! If you want to see it in person, apparently he is easy to find on Snapper Ledge…

See you soon, we have lots of new things planned for the new year, and I’m excited to be rolling them out soon.. Keep checking the site and you just might be one of the first people to see one of the coolest things we’ve come up with yet..