1990

The Undersea World of Jules Verne

In July I flew down to Gainesville for my 20th high school reunion and while there went on an adventure with my brother. My brother David, always looking for adventures the two of us to do together, found the Julies’ Verne Undersea Lodge in the Florida Keys in which you can stay in an underwater “lodge”.  He explained it to me, the lodge was at the bottom of a lagoon in five fathoms water which you had to scuba dive down to enter. The lodge had a living room, kitchen and two bedrooms which could sleep four persons which you could book for overnight stays.  It sounded interesting enough to me that I agreed to do it with him.

In all fairness it is not actually the “Jules Verne” Undersea Lodge but just the “Jules’ Undersea Lodge” but my brother and I always called it The Jules Verne Lodge after the Jules Verne novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas and the Disney movie which I read and we saw when we were boys.

I stayed with Mom and Dad and attended a Friday evening reunion social and then a dinner on Saturday evening.  It was interesting to see all the people, other than John St. Jacques, I don’t think I had seen any of them since the 10 year reunion.  There was the somber moment of looking at the table with the list of classmates that had passed since high school. Otherwise, it was pretty much the same group of people, some of which I had known since elementary school.  I felt pretty much the same at the reunion as I did in high school, I knew all the people but felt like on outsider, other than John, none of them would I considered friends but more acquaintances from the past.

With the reunion over, David and I drove down to the Undersea Lodge in his car. Florida is a surprisingly long state at over 500 miles from the Georgia state line down to the southern tip at Key West but fortunately the Undersea Lodge was in one of the upper keys, Key Largo, which was still a good six hour drive from Gainesville.  We drove down a day early so we could get an early start the day of the Lodge stay, so we camped at Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.  The last time I had been to Pennekamp was on a scuba diving trip back in ’79 but this was the first time camping there.  David bought his camping gear, a small stove, ice chest, sleeping bags and a small tent that barely was big enough for the two of us.  After fixing dinner of beans and hotdogs we sat around the fire as it grew dark when for some reason the conversation turned to which way was west.  I pointed off in the proper direction saying, “West is that way.”, but David said, “No it’s not, its that direction.”, pointing in the opposite direction.  I knew I was right as I have a pretty good since of direction, but David insisted that west was in the opposite direction.  I tried to reason with him, but he insisted he was right until finally I said, “Well we will see who is right in the morning when the sun comes up.”, and turned in as the mosquitoes were persistent.  The next morning we got up early, made a fire, and sat around it drinking hot chocolate and eating donuts for breakfast when, sure enough, the sun came up in what I said was east.  The only thing David would say about it was, “Well that just isn’t right.” 

Mid-morning we packed up camp and headed over to the nearby Undersea Lodge and checked in.  The stay in the lodge started at 1:00 PM and ended at 11:00 AM the next day but you have to arrive an hour early to go through an orientation and training.  The lodge, as it was explained, was in five fathoms of water which is 30 feet.  The “fathoms” term makes me think of Captain Nemo in his Nautilus submarine.  The thirty foot depth, which you learn from your scuba diving lessons, allows you to stay indefinitely with out doing any decompression or getting the bends.  They go on to explain how the lodge is connected to air, power and phone to the shore and all systems were monitored at all times.

To reach the Lodge we would use scuba gear with a small air tank about the size of a small fire extinguisher which gives you only about twenty minutes of air but enough to reach the lodge which you enter though an opening in the floor, the air pressure in the lodge keeps the water at bay, like a glass turned upside down and submerged underwater.  The lodge accommodates for persons so two sisters about the same age as David and I were also there. With the orientation session over, the four of us don on scuba gear, get into the water and begin the swim out to the lodge.

The lagoon is around three hundred feet across surrounded by mangroves with a canal that led out to the ocean which was out of sight.  The Lodge  was in the deepest part in of the lagoon, a good hundred feet from shore.  As we slipped into the water I was very disappointed.  I had been diving off the coast of Florida, in the Bahamas, and in the Keys with visibility at worst twenty feet and often over 60 feet in crystal clear water, but here the lagoon was a green color from an algae bloom with visibility of only about ten feet.  It did make interesting diving, it was like being in a dense greenish yellow fog, as we swam along a few feet off the bottom, strange shapes like ghosts in the water would start to appear at the edge of visibility which would coalesce in your vision as we swam closer, a coral head, a ships bell, a what I thought was statue of Jules Verne.  It was a strange experience.

The Lodge was out of site due to the murkiness of the water but fortunately they had placed a rope line along the bottom which we followed and soon the Lodge started to appear, looming in before us in the dense, fog like, green water. The line led us under the Lodge where light shown down from an opening.  We swam upward into the light, breaking the surface into brightly lit wet area of the lodge where we climb out of the water and look around.

 

The Lodge itself consists of three large cylinders, eight feet in diameter and twenty feet long. Stacked in an upside-down triangle formation, the bottom cylinder was the wet area with a moon pool to enter and exit the lodge.  We remove our diving gear and place it the provided bins, rinse off in a freshwater shower, and dry ourselves with the provided towels.   

David and Larry entering the lodge

From the wet area we went up a short set of stairs that led into the two upper cylinders, one that contained the common area and the other two bedrooms each with their own window looking into the lagoon.  The common area has a giant bubble window looking out into the lagoon, couches along the wall, entertainment center on the other with selection of movies on VCR tapes, and then a well equipped kitchen on the other end.   There was a good selection of snacks provided including popcorn that could be made in the microwave.  The second cylinder was divided into two bedrooms each containing a set of bunk beds and a large moon window. Each of us was allowed a bring a small bag of clothes which were waiting on our bunks having been brought down by the staff while we were in training.

The Girls

We spent some time exploring the Lodge, getting acquainted with the girls, and eating some snacks before we decided to go out exploring the lagoon, underwater of course.  The scuba gear we used to get to the lodge had small pony tanks good for fifteen or so minutes of air so for longer excursions there were hookah lines in which the air tank is replaced by a long air hose, long like a hundred feet long.  The advantage of the hookah lines is you can stay down as long as you like, the disadvantage you are limited by the length of the hookah line which you have to drag around behind you and can get tangled in things.  David and I put on our hookah lines, masks and fins, drop though the moon pool and slip into the eerie green color water.

Me with hookah

We look around and head out from under the shade of the lodge into the brighter water under the sun where we could just make out dark objects in the distance.  Even in the brighter light, one could easily lose sight of the lodge and all sense of direction but, like the line that led us to the lodge, they had laid out other lines leading out into the murky water.  One led out into a loop into the lagoon while the other led to an underwater lab, they had explained.  Dragging our hookah lines behind us, David and I head out in the lagoon loop, keeping a hand on the rope or at least keeping sight if it which couldn’t have been more than ten feet.  The bottom of the lagoon was mostly sandy with an occasional small coral mounds with colorful fish swimming about them. There were also a few manmade artifacts, a small simulated ship wreck, a canon that looked like it might have fallen off an old Spanish gallon.  It was slow moving with the hookah lines trailing behind us some fifty feet while keeping the lines from being entangled on something.  It wasn’t the best diving experience but was interesting. 

Looking up into the lab from the moon pool

Returning back to the lodge we come up in the moon pool and get out for a while to take a rest and talk about what we saw then decided to go back out and check out the underwater lab.  We renter the moon pool, find the line that led to the lab and follow it until we see rising up before us what looked like a stubby spaceship in the murky water ahead of us.  We continue to follow the line which was attached to one of the lab struts and look up and see the lights of the lab in a small moon pool. We were told that we could check out the lab  but not enter it as there was research being performed in it. It was a small moon pool, so one at a time, we rose up into the pool and looked around the inside of the lab which had various instruments around on shelves and a microscope on the bench.  With not much else to see we head back to the Lodge.

Dinner and a movie

We alternated diving excursions with the two girls we were sharing the Lodge with as it was advised not to all four being out at the same time as the hookah lines were likely get tangled up so by the time we all did a couple of dives each, it was approaching dinner time so we rinsed and dried off and waited for dinner which was to be delivered to us.  Right on time at six PM we heard some sound from the wet room and upon looking we see a couple of divers emerging from the moon pool with what looked like pressure cooker pots which they passed up out of the water to us.  We take the pots to the kitchen area and open them to find a gourmet surf and turf dinner, lobster and steak, complete with bake potato, broccoli and a toss salad.  We had looked through the VCR tapes and found a movie which we watched while eating dinner.

David in the kitchen

Night had fallen by the time the movie was over, so David and I decided to go for a night dive. We headed to the wet room where we put on mask, fins, and hookah then head to the moon pool where there was a large ghostly angel fish in the pool.  I had been on a night dive once before in the Bahamas while on the Impossible Dream and it was spectular in the crystal clear water under the silvery light of the full moon.  This was totally different. As we slipped under the water in the moon pool, it was a different world. The light emanating from the moon pool lit the eerie yellow green water for about ten feet where it then faded to darkness.  Just at the edge of light swam fish, darting in and out of the cone of light making me wonder what larger fish may be out there. 

As we moved away from the moon pool our eyes adjusted and we could see better as swam into the darkness.  With the murky water there wasn’t much to see at night although it was interesting to look back at the lodge and see the yellow green water glowing from the moon pool and windows.  As we returned to the lodge, we swam up to the living area window and peered inside and waved to the girls before returning to the moon pool and getting out.

Hello Julie

After a warm shower and dry clothes, I called Julie.  Each person was allowed one long distance phone call. There was a phone in the common room and one in each bedroom which connected to the Lodge monitoring staff. You had to first provide the staff with the phone number who would make the call and connect you.  David called Mom and Dad who were quite thrilled to talk to him and me from under the sea.  I next called Julie in Virginia and told her about the experience.  After our phone calls we watched another movie and then turned in for the night. 

Me in the bedroom

I woke up early the following morning and made a cup of tea and ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast. David got up soon thereafter and after he had breakfast, we went out for one last dive before returning to the Lodge and packing up our things and then made the final dive back to the dock.  David and I talked about our experience on the six hour drive back to Gainesville where we then had to tell the story all over again to Mom and Dad.   After being underwater for so long, you are not supposed to fly for at least 24 hours to allow for proper decompression, so I stayed another day before flying back to Virginia.

It was a really fun and interesting experience, the only thing I would have liked to have been better was for the water to be clear.

It was a really fun and interesting experience, the only thing I would have liked to have been better was for the water to have been clear.  This would be the last time I would go scuba diving.

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