BHB Snorkeling

[BrewingDiver]

Having some friends from up north here mid November who may want to snorkel. Wife and I regularly dive at BHB but always go at high tide. For the week they are here the tide times are not favorable, so we are wondering about the conditions for the snorkel trail when it's not high tide. Viz and current mainly (safety) and I understand there will always be some variability. Worth the time, especially for novices?

 

[archman]

No, probably not. I've been in the water a few times when the tide's not at high slack. At best, viz was meh. At worst, it's pee soup. Stinky pee soup.

And that's just the viz. The current may also be pretty bad, depending on how close you are to a tide flip.

But if meh-level viz is okay, and maybe your group avoided the main snorkel train and just floated around the little entry coves or something, it might not be too bad unless you're at a spring low tide and all the water is sucked out. Sometimes I go "tide pooling" at the bridge at low tide, it's pretty dope.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

It might be hit or miss. This time of year the viz is generally pretty bad even at high tide, but I've heard reports of decent viz also this time of year.
Snorkel trail is pretty tame no matter when the tide is, so probably have the best luck there.

 

[BrewingDiver]

I've been diving there about 2 years now so I checked my log. Looks like for that week viz was only about 15 feet, whereas in early December is was 35' or so. That's only a sample of 2 of each so may not be useful. If we go we will probably do the snorkel trail only. I don't want to subject them to the currents near the bridge that can be tricky at times. Worst case I guess it would be a trip to the beach.

 

[archman]

If the waves are relatively flat, you might try snorkeling The Breakers. I haven't been there myself, but I've been told by a lot of locals that it's pretty popular.

And there's also Peanut Island. You need to take the ferry over or rent a kayak from the Riviera Beach marina, but it has nice snorkeling. It's best at high tide, though, just like at Phil Foster.

 

[PBcatfish]

Having some friends from up north here mid November who may want to snorkel. Wife and I regularly dive at BHB but always go at high tide. For the week they are here the tide times are not favorable, so we are wondering about the conditions for the snorkel trail when it's not high tide. Viz and current mainly (safety) and I understand there will always be some variability. Worth the time, especially for novices?

At/near high tide, visibility is at it's best. The quality of that visibility varies with the weather over the past couple of days, how much the sea has been churned up, & how much rain we have had. Lots or rain & choppy conditions on the outside reduce vis at high tide, when the clean water washes in from outside the inlet.

As we get further from high tide, the visibility is controlled by the water that is washing out of the ICW. Here, the amount of muck in the water is more a function of how much rain we have had in the last few months,the height of the water in lake Okeechobee and the amount of fertilizer run off from the cane fields to the west. Most of the year, if you are 2-3 hours off high tide, the water at the bridge is pretty bad. If it hasn't rained much in a month or two, then the off hours are not as bad. I know of at least one diver from Boston & another who was visiting from Brooklyn that both thought the bad water was not that bad. It's all relative.

 

[BrewingDiver]

Good info. If we go it will probably be Friday. After that the tide is a little late in the day. We dove there 2 weeks ago and viz was a hazy 25'. Yeah what sucks for us will look pretty good from a northern perspective☺.