The Vandenberg Sinks!!

So a bunch of us from Sea Base were going to drive down to the Brinton Center and take the Scoutmaster to Key West to watch the Vandenberg sink but there were too many people from the Brinton Center so the boat was full. Instead we loaded up on the BSA Adventure(Newton) at 6 am and Capt Carol drove us down the ~3 1/2 hours to watch. It was a long ride but certainly memorable. We arrived about 9:30 and anchored just outside the 1 mile radius safety zone with our front row seats. We pulled out our cameras and binoculars to check it out and watched all the other boats there to watch as well as the planes and helicopters flying over head. At about 10:20am the first charge went off and she started to sink but just as it was going down the Key West Express drove right between us and the boat and totally blocked our view. We thought ok it will be out of the way in a minute and we'll still be able to see it as they predicted 3 minutes for it to sink. Well, by the time the huge Key West Express moved the boat was gone. 1 minute and 45 seconds and it was done. It was still neat to see but the gosh darn Key West Express was in the way!! There were tons of people yelling at the boat on the radio and evidently people were trying to throw things at it and shoot water at the boat because they were equally as mad about the view being blocked but evidently the Coast Guard came to their rescue. So it was neat to see, well what we could see of it, and I won't forget it.
Pictures on Facebook...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2070577&id=44801562&l=28f3bef598

Recap

The past few months have flown by. I left Club Med on Saturday May 2nd and flew to Burlington to stay with my brother and sister in law for a few days, drove to New Hampshire to get my things from my parents place, visit Helen and Phil and my grandmother, back to VT for a few more days then flew to Phoenix on Mothers Day to visit mom and dad for a few days. We went to the Desert Botanical Gardens and saw the glass exhibit by Chihuly, as well as had dinner with Anne and Shawn. Then on May 15th I flew to Miami and took the Keys Shuttle here to Sea Base. We had staff training for a week which included too many practice rescues to count and a few 20 minute dives. It's strange going from 60-130 foot dives to here where our absolute maximum is 60ft and most dives in the 20-30 foot range. I've been catching up with many old friends that are back for one more summer of fun in the Keys. Many have graduated from college and had real jobs or couldn't find a real job and are back at Sea Base. It's good to be back .