OP
- Messages
- 20,485
- Reaction score
- 19,854
- Location
- Philadelphia and Boynton Beach
- # of dives
- 1000 - 2499
Day 5 of 12. What a difference another day makes. It was a beautiful day with calm seas. We headed down to Delray with Capt Jim and Mate Josh from Loggerhead.
First dive was at Delray Ledges. I took my camera today because the vis was so spectacular yesterday. I guess that jinxed it. The vis had dropped back down to a green, cloudy 30 feet or so. There was essentially no current, water temp 81 degrees. It was a very relaxing dive, nothing spectacular but many, many huge schools of grunt as is common in Delray.
The second dive is often one of my favorites, starting outside at the southern end of Boynton Reef at 007. The vis started out a little better than in Delray with a mild to moderate current pulling east. The current increased rapidly, making it difficult to stay on the reef and bringing dirty green water from inside. I knew it was really odd when an instructor and his student, doing OW dive #4, came past in front of me on the outside reef at nearly 80 feet. I gave up on the outside reef and headed west toward the inside. That is usually a leisurely 5-10 minute swim. Today it was 15-20 minutes of strenuous swimming to make the inside reef at Clubhouse. Once I made the inside reef, the current lessened and I finished the dive with vis of 20-30 feet and 81 degree water. Again, nothing spectacular, a couple of Loggerhead, a Nurse Shark, all the usual reef fish.
Back on the boat, turned out the instructor and his student had been pulled across the reef from the inside by the current and bailed while they were being pulled out to sea. Today was a good day to remind one that the sea can serve up many surprises and that you need to be prepared for circumstances very different than you might have expected.
Tomorrow is another day
First dive was at Delray Ledges. I took my camera today because the vis was so spectacular yesterday. I guess that jinxed it. The vis had dropped back down to a green, cloudy 30 feet or so. There was essentially no current, water temp 81 degrees. It was a very relaxing dive, nothing spectacular but many, many huge schools of grunt as is common in Delray.
The second dive is often one of my favorites, starting outside at the southern end of Boynton Reef at 007. The vis started out a little better than in Delray with a mild to moderate current pulling east. The current increased rapidly, making it difficult to stay on the reef and bringing dirty green water from inside. I knew it was really odd when an instructor and his student, doing OW dive #4, came past in front of me on the outside reef at nearly 80 feet. I gave up on the outside reef and headed west toward the inside. That is usually a leisurely 5-10 minute swim. Today it was 15-20 minutes of strenuous swimming to make the inside reef at Clubhouse. Once I made the inside reef, the current lessened and I finished the dive with vis of 20-30 feet and 81 degree water. Again, nothing spectacular, a couple of Loggerhead, a Nurse Shark, all the usual reef fish.
Back on the boat, turned out the instructor and his student had been pulled across the reef from the inside by the current and bailed while they were being pulled out to sea. Today was a good day to remind one that the sea can serve up many surprises and that you need to be prepared for circumstances very different than you might have expected.
Tomorrow is another day
