Blue Heron Bridge Dive

[SFLDiver]

One trick with a night dive at Blue Heron ... Phil Foster Park is open Sunrise - Sunset,
which means parking along the roadside just east of the park entrance. Preferably along the south side of the road as there is a stairway down to the beach and a short walk to the east span. Carpool if possible.

My car is full right now, plus I have family intermingling appointments to complicate my trip.
I plan on being there around 7 ... 7:30pm.

 

[DebbyDiver]

Since my post of interest, I have learned that my cat is diabetic which means I have to go home after work to deal with him before heading off to a dive. Previous to this happening, I would have put my dive stuff in the car and headed up after work. I can't make it home then back up in a reasonable amount of time, darn it, BUT...I'd really like to try that dive as a weekend morning dive. Please let me know if you're doing that anytime soon.

I have a beach dive tentatively planned for Tuesday night in Hollywood, which does give me time to deal with poor ol' puss before a dive.

 

[SFLDiver]

Ahhh, another nice night dive under a bridge loaded with critters.
Still no frogfish spotted, altho I got a tip on where they might be.
Pardon the finger shot, but I wanted something of scale.

No sooner had I pointed out the first hippocampus to Jenny,
she turns around and not 2 minutes later spots the 2nd one.

^^^ decorator crab, altho all you can make out is the smaller claws

Jenny meets hippocampus ...

 

[Dr. Doug Ebersole]

Brian Cripe of Jim Abernethy's Scuba Adventures tells me the two striated frogfish are on the far west pilings just south of the small span next to a couple of old tires (at least that's where he saw them two weeks ago). However, I was there Sunday morning for over an hour and couldn't find them. Brian is a better man than me!!! I'll keep looking. Lots of other great critters, though.

 

[DebbyDiver]

Wow, AWESOME shots!! I do hope this dive will be repeated on a weekend night sometime so that I can join in. Great work!

 

[SFLDiver]

Re; frogfish on pilings .... yup, confirmed.
That's what we heard as well, and the source said they could not find them earlier this week.
I gave the pilings a looksee and found nada.

Re: weekend nights.
You have to face
1. parking on the main road, and
2. dealing with weekend party traffic, not to mention
3. weekend fishermen with beer

High tide friday is 10:30pm, but I aint gonna even try it.
We'll wait for a friday or sunday with a high tide near 8pm.

High tide on this tuesday night dive was 8:34pm,
which translates into
- leaving my house in Boca ... 6:40pm
- arrive at bridge ... 7:30pm
- get in water and wait for it ... 7:50pm
(it -is- possible to endure a bit of the slowing tide by hanging bottom or in-between pilings)
- tide goes somewhat slack ... 8:10pm
- high (slack) tide 8:34pm
- tide switched around 9:30pm
- we were out of water around 10pm
- hit Wendy's for a late dinner ... 10:30pm

 

[DebbyDiver]

I'll be happy to jump in when you can do it on a Sunday night; having to head south from Fort Lauderdale after work to deal with my diabetic kitty puts weeknights out of the question. Of course, if poor ol' puss passes away anytime soon, that frees me up for weeknights...

 

[SFLDiver]

Someone lose their bridge at the bridge ?
Mardie found this on last Tues dive.
Any claimants must prove ownership by fit ... barnacles included.

 

[SFLDiver]

Ah rats, there goes the neighborhood!

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-pphilfoster01sep01,0,3523223.story

Be prepared for bridge virgins who need to learn tide timing and channel avoidance.
(and how not to kick the photogs with their fins!)
At least they didnt leak the whereabouts of the -really- good snit!

 

[Sandbar]

Man...who would've thought that my thread about Blue Heron would have legs like this? It's a bridge over the ICW for crying out loud!!!!!!