Trip Report
Hermit Crab and I arrived early and already the parking spaces were taken at 12th street. So we drove north to 8th, hung out for a while until all showed up.
Dive 1
Me, Mark, Marvel, Rick, Angie, Bruno (friend of R & A), Joe
Since the current was again running north, we headed south, agreeing that the first person to hit 700psi would turn the dive. One guy headed back early because he was cold, but the rest of us managed to do a 94 min dive. Pompano is a nice beach dive, it is patchy reef and in my opinion, not as many fish as other places. Once the sun came out (just as we were turning the dive), the fish seemed to come out also and the reef came alive with schools of grunts, and ocean tangs. I saw a very small blenny, black with white spots. When measured against my gloved finger, my finger seemed monsterous. According to the Fish ID book, it looked like the spinyhead blenny, but according to the book, this blenny is not in Florida, and the blenny I saw did not appear to have spikes. HMmm. I am guessing that the width of its head was under 1/8".
Good place for macro. One reason is the need to stay low, as there was a lot of boat traffic. Some got pretty close and I heard one break the waves. Also was this really cool coral. It was pillar like and wavy. I had fun creating currents of water over it and it looked like a wheat field. Very cool.
Dive 2
Marvel, me, Rick and Joe
Wind picked up a little and so did the current. Because the boating traffic picked up also, we decided to head more east than the boat ridden south. Going east has a really nice seaweed bed. Of course I planned this excursion and was trying to find seahorses LOL! Finally we headed more west and south and found some patch reef. The boaters and jet skiiers quit their tear over our heads so we could hear the sounds of the reef. Geesh, those poor fish with all that noise pollution! Saw a big porcipine fish, and a little puffer fish. It was so cute, I wanted to take him home. Poor thing was missing an eye!
Ok, I think I wrote enough, and will let some others chime in.
Good day to dive even with the boaters. Good company and a HUGE THANKS goes to Angie who offered to keep dry the second dive and watch Hermit Crab so I could dive. Thanks Angie you're the best!
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