drrich2
Contributor
Advance Warning: I'm writing to share the experience of an out-of-state guy making a spontaneous (day before) decision to venture over alone and try a Blue Heron Bridge dive Friday 5-5-17 with high tide at 5:30 p.m., who ended up doing a mainly solo dive with no guide. I may have errors in my understanding; I'm laying out what I think was the case.
Just got back from an 8 day family trip to Florida and made a short notice decision to head down to get a single dive in at Blue Heron Bridge, known via Scuba Board as a world-class shallow shore diving ‘muck’ destination. Looked to be about 20 - 25 minutes from our hotel in Jupiter, not hard to find via GPS but a number of turns getting there. Don’t know if I’ll ever be back ‘in the neighborhood.’
There are some logistical issues. The basic setup is like this:
Blue Heron Bridge Scuba has an online map depicting what I’m describing.
1.) Phil Foster Park seen from above is like a big, square piece of land. On the north edge, just a little west of dead center, is Blue Heron Bridge Scuba, the dive shop where you can rent gear. Along the south end of that square land mass is the Blue Heron Bridge, which has large concrete pilings extending down into the water, and there are sandy stretches where a person can walk in.
2.) You can get good viz. when high tide brings it in. Time of high tide varies. Intent was enter 45 minutes before, exit by 45 minutes afterward. That Friday the predicted high tide was 5:30 p.m.; turns out even exiting at 6:15 p.m. there was still plenty of natural light (didn’t need a dive light).
3.) I called Blue Heron Bridge Scuba, it wasn’t practical to hire a guide on such short notice, yes it’s required to tow a dive flag, all their tanks are AL80’s, and I could show up around 4 p.m., rent weights, tank and flag, plan to enter the water around 4:45 p.m. in anticipate of that day’s high tide at 5:30 p.m., and be out by 6:15 p.m.
4.) Discussed a map and planning with the desk guy. Along the south edge of the bridge (across the highway from the land-mass), there’s a large, roughly rectangular swimming area, no diving. Divers can enter from sandy patches under the bridge on either side of the swimming area. I opted for the southwest entry, near a large blue-topped overhead cover.
5.) A large ‘band’ extends around the swimming area, with a long irregular ‘chain’ of underwater features such as shopping carts and other structures, offering divers a region to explore aside from the pilings under the bridge.
6.) Beyond the scuba region is boat channel, there were plenty of boats in sight, and while there are lines of floating markers intended to demarcate all this (& it looks nice on an overhead map), it’s a lot harder for me to make out with my head prairie dogging the surfacing looking around frequently. It’s easy to get disoriented. Have a compass you know how to use!
7.) The desk guy suggested starting the dive heading out eastward and into the ‘dive band’ due to the current that’d be coming in at the time.
8.) Another diver I met at the desk told me I could watch the group of ~ 20 he was in enter; he didn’t see a problem with me unofficially following at a distance. But they were entering and heading west, toward pilings. There’s also a fishing pier a little north of the west end of the bridge.
9.) I opted for following that group, then discovered maybe 20 feet of viz., fairly substantial current so that we faced into it and I was actually ahead of them instead of behind, and soon I abandoned the plan to follow them around.
10.) New plan: head back toward 'scuba zone' around swimming area, then explore pilings and underwater structures, go up top from time to time & try to stay out the swimming area (which I may have invaded) and the boat lane. I’d left the camera home since it was my 1st time pulling a dive flag (a styrofoam ball with a flag sticking out the top, & underneath a straight ‘stick’ with a weight at the end of it; drug by what looked like yellow ski rope attached to a yellow plastic frame, not a reel). LeisurePro has one very similar.
11.) So I made it out to the scuba ‘zone’ to explore a couple of growth-encrusted, boulder-sized ‘things’ I couldn’t identify and some shopping carts, and otherwise focused on circling pilings, trying to stay out of the boat lane and messing with towing the dive float.
12.) Late in the dive, I saw one of the earlier group heading back in (recognized him by the checkered shorts) and followed him back to the exit.
Some take-home points from this navigationally challenged, poor situational awareness, slow-to-catch-on to geographical positioning intermediate diver new to Blue Heron Bridge:
1.) Gear cost of entry: Pretty cheap unguided. A bit over $32 with tax for rentals I could return the next day.
2.) Viz ~ 20 - 30 feet over course of dive.
3.) Current annoying at first, then faded.
4.) Complex dive site due to varied structure and zones one needs to avoid, coupled with finning around pilings and getting quite disoriented. This is not like shore diving Bonaire.
5.) Running an AL80 with a good fill down lower than most would advise, I got 1:49 dive, max depth 14.72 feet, average depth 8.08 feet, snagged the float twice and had to go up top to unsnag it once.
6.) A guide would be worth it just to navigate and handle the float so I could focus on critter hunting and snapshots.
What I got out of the dive:
1 Little octopus.
1 Southern stingray.
3 Yellow stingray sightings; could've been the same one.
1 Scorpion fish.
At least 2 bristleworms.
2 Crabs & 1 hermit crab.
School of sheeps head.
Gray angelfish.
? Blue angelfish.
1 Spotted moray eel.
3 Very large sea stars; 2 yellow and one brown with yellow mottling, all very similar looking. One of the yellows might be the biggest sea star I've ever seen.
A very small flounder.
Arrow crabs.
I think a red banded coral shrimp.
Spiny Lobster.
1 Jellyfish upside down on the bottom; about the size of a moon jelly, with short tentacles & a lot of pretty blue on them.
A number of small barracuda.
1 Scrawled filefish.
A hogfish.
A small porkfish. I think a French grunt.
Conch.
At least 3 kinds of sea cucumber.
Varied sea urchins.
Bottom Line: Had a good time, glad I finally made it out, more of an 'adventure' than I intended. It ought to really pay off for someone with the aptitude and resources to put in the time and effort to get good at diving there.
Just got back from an 8 day family trip to Florida and made a short notice decision to head down to get a single dive in at Blue Heron Bridge, known via Scuba Board as a world-class shallow shore diving ‘muck’ destination. Looked to be about 20 - 25 minutes from our hotel in Jupiter, not hard to find via GPS but a number of turns getting there. Don’t know if I’ll ever be back ‘in the neighborhood.’
There are some logistical issues. The basic setup is like this:
Blue Heron Bridge Scuba has an online map depicting what I’m describing.
1.) Phil Foster Park seen from above is like a big, square piece of land. On the north edge, just a little west of dead center, is Blue Heron Bridge Scuba, the dive shop where you can rent gear. Along the south end of that square land mass is the Blue Heron Bridge, which has large concrete pilings extending down into the water, and there are sandy stretches where a person can walk in.
2.) You can get good viz. when high tide brings it in. Time of high tide varies. Intent was enter 45 minutes before, exit by 45 minutes afterward. That Friday the predicted high tide was 5:30 p.m.; turns out even exiting at 6:15 p.m. there was still plenty of natural light (didn’t need a dive light).
3.) I called Blue Heron Bridge Scuba, it wasn’t practical to hire a guide on such short notice, yes it’s required to tow a dive flag, all their tanks are AL80’s, and I could show up around 4 p.m., rent weights, tank and flag, plan to enter the water around 4:45 p.m. in anticipate of that day’s high tide at 5:30 p.m., and be out by 6:15 p.m.
4.) Discussed a map and planning with the desk guy. Along the south edge of the bridge (across the highway from the land-mass), there’s a large, roughly rectangular swimming area, no diving. Divers can enter from sandy patches under the bridge on either side of the swimming area. I opted for the southwest entry, near a large blue-topped overhead cover.
5.) A large ‘band’ extends around the swimming area, with a long irregular ‘chain’ of underwater features such as shopping carts and other structures, offering divers a region to explore aside from the pilings under the bridge.
6.) Beyond the scuba region is boat channel, there were plenty of boats in sight, and while there are lines of floating markers intended to demarcate all this (& it looks nice on an overhead map), it’s a lot harder for me to make out with my head prairie dogging the surfacing looking around frequently. It’s easy to get disoriented. Have a compass you know how to use!
7.) The desk guy suggested starting the dive heading out eastward and into the ‘dive band’ due to the current that’d be coming in at the time.
8.) Another diver I met at the desk told me I could watch the group of ~ 20 he was in enter; he didn’t see a problem with me unofficially following at a distance. But they were entering and heading west, toward pilings. There’s also a fishing pier a little north of the west end of the bridge.
9.) I opted for following that group, then discovered maybe 20 feet of viz., fairly substantial current so that we faced into it and I was actually ahead of them instead of behind, and soon I abandoned the plan to follow them around.
10.) New plan: head back toward 'scuba zone' around swimming area, then explore pilings and underwater structures, go up top from time to time & try to stay out the swimming area (which I may have invaded) and the boat lane. I’d left the camera home since it was my 1st time pulling a dive flag (a styrofoam ball with a flag sticking out the top, & underneath a straight ‘stick’ with a weight at the end of it; drug by what looked like yellow ski rope attached to a yellow plastic frame, not a reel). LeisurePro has one very similar.
11.) So I made it out to the scuba ‘zone’ to explore a couple of growth-encrusted, boulder-sized ‘things’ I couldn’t identify and some shopping carts, and otherwise focused on circling pilings, trying to stay out of the boat lane and messing with towing the dive float.
12.) Late in the dive, I saw one of the earlier group heading back in (recognized him by the checkered shorts) and followed him back to the exit.
Some take-home points from this navigationally challenged, poor situational awareness, slow-to-catch-on to geographical positioning intermediate diver new to Blue Heron Bridge:
1.) Gear cost of entry: Pretty cheap unguided. A bit over $32 with tax for rentals I could return the next day.
2.) Viz ~ 20 - 30 feet over course of dive.
3.) Current annoying at first, then faded.
4.) Complex dive site due to varied structure and zones one needs to avoid, coupled with finning around pilings and getting quite disoriented. This is not like shore diving Bonaire.
5.) Running an AL80 with a good fill down lower than most would advise, I got 1:49 dive, max depth 14.72 feet, average depth 8.08 feet, snagged the float twice and had to go up top to unsnag it once.
6.) A guide would be worth it just to navigate and handle the float so I could focus on critter hunting and snapshots.
What I got out of the dive:
1 Little octopus.
1 Southern stingray.
3 Yellow stingray sightings; could've been the same one.
1 Scorpion fish.
At least 2 bristleworms.
2 Crabs & 1 hermit crab.
School of sheeps head.
Gray angelfish.
? Blue angelfish.
1 Spotted moray eel.
3 Very large sea stars; 2 yellow and one brown with yellow mottling, all very similar looking. One of the yellows might be the biggest sea star I've ever seen.
A very small flounder.
Arrow crabs.
I think a red banded coral shrimp.
Spiny Lobster.
1 Jellyfish upside down on the bottom; about the size of a moon jelly, with short tentacles & a lot of pretty blue on them.
A number of small barracuda.
1 Scrawled filefish.
A hogfish.
A small porkfish. I think a French grunt.
Conch.
At least 3 kinds of sea cucumber.
Varied sea urchins.
Bottom Line: Had a good time, glad I finally made it out, more of an 'adventure' than I intended. It ought to really pay off for someone with the aptitude and resources to put in the time and effort to get good at diving there.
