Greetings NEDs,


        If you're living on the east coast of the Western Hemisphere, there's some
under utilized, excellent diving close at hand.  Flamingo Divers and Caicos
Adventures both take the one hour trip from Provo to the uninhabited
islands of West Caicos and French Cay for the excellent wall diving there.

        Brooxie, my wife, spent a week discussing the nuances of passing gas at
sea level while I took advantage of the availability of nitrox  to extend
my bottom times on these life filled walls.  For big stuff, we had CRSs and
eagle rays on almost every dive with a squadron of 13 eagle rays on our day
off French Cay (from where the cruel French pirate with the eclectic
tastes, Francois L'Ollonois (L'Ollonais) would prey on Spanish shipping and
force his captives to eat rich sauces and decadent, buttery desserts until
their gall bladders would be in agony and they would pay hefty ransoms).

        Going without strobes or lights, I didn't concentrate on any macro stuff,
but I was delighted to see shadow stalking by trumpet fish, courtship
behavior by all sorts of fish, Bob's namesake getting cleaned by gobies at
four different stations, actively feeding goatfish, parrotfish crunching
coral and algae so close I could see inside their mouths, bar jacks on
southern stingrays, and such a plethora of life I could scarcely find a
place to put a finger.  Overall, the most unusual thing I saw (aside from
the sharks and eagle rays) were large numbers of Nassau groupers which have
been in short supply at most Floridian and Caribbean sites for the last
couple of decades.  Good viz., easy diving, a hang bar at 15' with a
hookah, all in all I couldn't complain until the last day when I lost a
spare mask and snorkel.

        As a personal observation, I paid close attention to feelings of
intoxication over several dives and subjectively noticed that a mix with a
higher oxygen content seemed less narcotic than a mix with more nitrogen at
equal depths.  BTW, years ago when my ancient fraternal friends made cyser,
mead, wine, and beer, Wine Arts sold a yeast that could live up to a
concentration of 17% alcohol, and I remember traveling to various summer
schools with a crate of malic acid, citric acid, and vitamins hoping to
stumble upon some ultimate honey liquor, brew, or wine.  Long after I gave
up, I came across a German beer called "EKU 28" or something along that
line (as I recall "28" was part of the name and someone in a local liquor
store (I lived in Berwyn the Bohemian suburb of Chicago then where Pilsner
Urquell was the beer on tap along with a few other Czech and German beers)
suggested that this powerful German brew was 28 proof).  It seemed even
stronger to me, so strong in fact, that one couldn't use it as a chaser for
Scotch.  Anyway, Udo's Weinkeller Home of 1000 Beers (and a micro-brewery)
sold me my first "EKU 28."  Surprisingly enough, Udo didn't sell any wine
saying, "I only sell beer."  He said the same thing when people asked why
he didn't sell Budweiser or Miller.  Right now my brews of choice are
Chicago's various Honkers on tap or the bicoastal bottles of San
Francisco's Anchor Steam and, with apologies to our UK brethren, Boston's
Sam Adams.  In fact, Sam Adams is sitting in front of me now clamoring for
my attention.


DPTNST,


John