Off to Film “The Spike”

It’ 6:30am on a Friday, August 20 and I am waiting for the rest of the gang to show up at Mayport Docks. The sun light is just starting to show itself. Two of the other divers show up around 7am. we setup our gear while we’re waiting for your boat and captain to arrive.

At around 7:45am all four of us head out, three divers and the captain, who is also a diver towards Spike. Spike sits about 25 miles almost due east of the Mayport Jetties. It is a very nice day. Almost no clouds and the weather report calls for temps in the 90’s, sea condition show to be 2-3 feet (on the NOAA website) yet other boaters are reporting 2 feet or less with about an 11 second delay. Not bad..

We’re on out way out to Spike when all of a sudden, we hit this wave that threw me upwards as the boat went downwards. A second later, the boat moved upwards and I moved downwards. We met in the middle. This occurred twice in quick succession. That was it. I was in pain, excruciating pain. Couldn’t breath and felt nauseous. I could not stand or move. I had so much pain in my lower back I could not move.

I worked my way to the back of the boat where I layed down. I was going to tough  it out, but we decided since we are only about 9-10 miles out, we would turn around and go back. That was a good decision. While we ran back towards shore the ride was smooth and kept the pain to a minimum.

I am driven to the hospital where after an x-ray it is determined I have a fractured vertebre. Geesh, another 6-8 weeks of no diving? I just left that hospital about a 6 weeks ago for a ruptured apendix, now I’m leaving with a fractured vertebre.

Oh, I have tickets and reservations to dive in Mexico. I leave the US this Sunday, 8/22. I still plan on going, but no diving. What will I do on an island with booze and pain meds? 🙂

I’ll write on the Mexico trip. I think I’ll do land excursions on my own. Rent a bike or a car. I’ve never seen the whole island…

Boohoo….

Larry

© 2010, lars2923. All rights reserved.