Trip Report Dive Report- Boynton Reefs 04/30/21

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Day 2 of 3 in the books. I got out with Splashdown Divers yesterday (Saturday May 1st). I will be brief, as I am getting ready to head out this morning for my last two dives of fhe weekend. It couldn't have been a more beautiful day out on the water. Sunny to partly cloudy with air temps in the mid to upper 80's and a slight breeze. The surface water was pretty much like glass. No swell to speak of. super flat and calm. Water temp dropped about 1 degree where we dived from the day before. A bot of a thermocline below 50 feet- So, 76-77 but still comfortable. Visibility deteriorated from the day before. The water was cloudy/murky with a lot of particulate. I would say 35 feet or so and a bit more greenish. Still excellent, compared to Pacific NW, obviously.

Looking back on the entire day, I had another large and girthy Lemon shark experience, another large nurse shark also. On the last dive of the day at Lynn's reef, a mutual friend of @scubadada and I (Maricela) and her son Alejandro had the fortunate pleasure of seeing a big Hammerhead, but alas, I was not with them to bear witness. Still waiting to see my first ever Hammerhead. One of these days.

Saw lots of black and white eels throughout the day, some more spadefish and just tons of spotted drum fish and High Hats. The High Hats really stood out throughout the day as I was seeing them in small schools under the overhangs. Scrawled filefish stood out also. Saw one really big porcupine fish. We killed a few small lionfish. Seems like the local dive crew is doing a good job of rooting them out. Very few to be seen these days.

I dived a few new sites I had not dived before (Gazebo and Lollipop) the other two dives were at Gulf Stream Ledge and Lynn's. We litterally had ZERO current on the first 2 dives. It wasn't until late afternoon at Lynn's that we saw real current, which made for a much different dive there than on Firday. The current pushed us NE into deeper water, which is why Maricela saw the Hammerhead. Also, had a wonderful huge Loggerhead encounter toward the end of the dive at Lynn's Reef.

Splashdown did a good job of safely getting us out and back all day. Their boat as 2 engines and is quite fast, so it makes getting out and back much quicker. We had a full boat for the morning dives (18 divers)- That was an eye opener for me. I haven't been around so many divers since the pandemic. It was just 7 of us for the afternoon, so that was nice and we had plenty of room to roam on the boat.

OK-- Out the door for the last dives of this short trip.
Cheers!
 
Isn't it getting into Loggerhead mating season? Maybe that little fella was feeling frisky and thought you looked a bit too appealing :wink:
 
Day 3 and the last day of this extended weekend "business/dive" trip is in the books.

Got out again this morning with Splashdown Divers in Boynton Beach.

Water temp was 78 for both dives. Visibility was pretty horrible, to be honest. But, I will never complain!

Dive 1 was way down at the southernmost end of the reef system at Clubhouse. We were fortunate to drop right down to 60 feet and go eye ball to eye ball with a lone and solitary Goliath Grouper. He was moving south against the current with a few small fish in tow. He was a behemoth. I have no idea how to gauge the size or weight, but he was one of the bigger Goliath's I have ever seen. 500 pounds or so!

My first thought was, "how random!!" Had we dropped down 30 seconds earlier, we would have never seen this gorgeous fish. It was moving south against the current with ease and we were moving north with the current. --
And yes, finally! we had some current today. It was not strong, but it was nice to not have to fin during the entire dive. It was a fun and leisurely stroll along the reef on both dives.

Other highlights on dive 1 this morning were a group of 5 Midnight Blue Parrotfish cruising by and a huge school of hundreds of yellow tail snappers. Also, 3 squids flittering along at 50 feet. I just love seeing squids- they bring a smile to my face!

Clubhouse was super fishy! Lots of tropical fish throughout the dive and lots of schooling fish. The reef down there also has lots of mini-walls in the 20 foot range.

I saw lots of fishing line entangled and strewn about the reef and was able to collect and cut most of it away and bring it to the surface.

Dive 2 was at Briny Breezes. I have dived that site once before, but didn't remember it well. I think we had a little bit of a bad drop out to the west edge where we encountered a lot of sand and random coral heads. Visibility was around 25 feet, so it was challenging to get perspective.
Once I realized the situation, I started finning and moving us east and about 20 minutes into the dive, things improved! The rest of the dive was wonderful.

I saw a massive Great Barracuda, a number of Moray sightings, porcupine fish, a big school of trigger fish and right at the end of the dive, a big huge Bull Shark showed up and capped off my weekend. Before I forget, I also saw something I had never seen before. A pair of good sized filefish that were super different in color. They were a bright yellow/orange. I did a double take. Never seen anything simIlar.

Cheers to South Florida, Gulf Stream diving!
 
Bull shark! Man eater!! I would be scared shxtless!
Popular line fishing area?
I bet you will bring a camera, even a simple one, to every diving trip.
Thank you
 
Bull shark! Man eater!! I would be scared shxtless!
Popular line fishing area?
I bet you will bring a camera, even a simple one, to every diving trip.
Thank you
We see Bull Sharks relatively frequently in Boynton Beach, West Palm, and Jupiter. Of course there is line fishing and spearfishing. I've never felt threatened by a Bull Shark. The Lemon Sharks and Reef Sharks get much closer and occasionally bump you. There are baited/feeding dives out of West Palm and Jupiter. I do not use these charters but dive some of the same sites. I don't think the sharks know if you are there to feed them or not.
 
I love seeing Bulls and Lemons, even had a lemon and 2 nurse sharks follow us for 40 minutes on the Abbey II reef - well actually they were following the hogfish on my buddies hip, that she had speared. But, I honestly don’t think I would appreciate being bumped by a lemon. Like Trailboss, I look forward to seeing my first hammerhead!! Great dive reports, thanks.
 
Hey TrailBoss,
Great to see you get some warm water fun. A buddy from No Cal is joining me next week in Key Largo for a week of warm water Bliss. Then I will be drysuit diving my way up the west coast in several trips this year. Hopefully, I'll make it all the way up to Tacoma & BC.
Good Divin,
SoCalRich
 
The Sandbar sharks have been thick in Broward and Palm Beach County, these are easily misidentified as Bulls
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/
https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

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