Trip Report Boynton and West Palm: August 12-17, 2022

[Trailboss123]

This will not be your typical lengthy and detailed Trailboss trip report. Just a few highlights and notes and no photos since I left my camera at home (long story).

I began diving on Friday morning out of Boynton Beach with Splashdown Divers. We did a 2 tank trip on their boat Delta Splash. I really liked the boat and it is definitely much faster than the Loggerhead boat, which is now jointly owned and merged. The boats sit side by side in the marina. Either boat can be booked from the same website: Splashdown Divers – Splashdown Divers. Boynton Beach diving at its best!

Seas were a calm 1 foot and water temp a balmy 85. I haven't been in such warm water in many years. It felt nice. Nothing exciting to report, just good solid dives.
Day 2 was 4 dives on the Loggerhead boat and Day 3 was 4 dives up in West Palm Beach with Narcosis and today was 2 dives with Starfish back in Boynton. It was nice to have Captain Alex piloting the boat and setting us down in primo locations on the Boynton Ledge and Lynn's Reef, like only he can.

Unfortunately, the visibility has been pretty marginal and downright horrible on certain dives. Current has been very weird. Mostly mild for the most part, with one exception. Current direction has been all over the place, but mostly running south instead of north. Today we caught a west current half way through one of the dives.

That being said, you couldn't ask for better topside conditions. The last 3 days were absolutely dead calm and glassy with the right amount of sunshine, cloud cover and light breeze.
Tomorrow I will be on a private boat with one other diver and we plan to dive the Castor first. Drop in south of the bow and drift north down the wreck to the wheelhouse and stern and see some Goliath Groupers, followed by a couple of reef dives. Wednesday will be the last day of diving with 2 morning dives with Splashdown before heading back to the Pacific NW.

Did see a 10 foot girthy Bull Shark yesterday in a very close cruise by with a huge remora attached. A couple of Lemons on Saturday.
Lots of schooling fish and a cool group of squid. Lots of green morays. Spadefish schools. Always good diving.

I will be doing a week long liveaboard in the Sea Of Cortez from September 3-10. I promise a full detailed report on that trip.

In case you thought I was exaggerating about the dead calm seas, check this out:

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I was diving Sat & Sun in Palm Beach & Jupiter and can corroborate the super calm surface conditions!

 

[drrich2]

Question...you are familiar with the area, and you chose to do both Boynton and West Palm Beach, and thus used different dive op.s. IIRC, you're not the only one's who's done that on a trip. On the other hand, judging from trip reports on ScubaBoard, most divers head to a destination and stay at one accommodation diving with one dive. op. the whole week (a common trip duration).

In your opinion, what do you gain by hitting both Boynton and West Palm rather than just sticking with one or the other?

Also, for the benefit of other divers who might consider these destinations, am I correct in recalling that (unlike Jupiter, FL, where I have a couple of trips), Boynton and West Palm operators tend not to put a 'free' guide in the water, and it's still drift diving so at least one of a buddy pair tows a dive flag?

If I've got a wrong understanding, sorry about that. Just thought those would be good things to know, if so.

 

[Manatee Diver]

Pura Vida puts guides in the water. Starfish didn't.

 

[Rob9876]

Walker's in Palm Beach/Riviera Beach also puts guides in the water towing a flag, but you can go up on your own DSMB if you need/want.

 

[Jcp2]

If there are enough divers, Pura Vida splits them into two groups and does two separate drops each with their own guide and flag.

 

[Trailboss123]

Question...you are familiar with the area, and you chose to do both Boynton and West Palm Beach, and thus used different dive op.s. IIRC, you're not the only one's who's done that on a trip. On the other hand, judging from trip reports on ScubaBoard, most divers head to a destination and stay at one accommodation diving with one dive. op. the whole week (a common trip duration).

In your opinion, what do you gain by hitting both Boynton and West Palm rather than just sticking with one or the other?

Also, for the benefit of other divers who might consider these destinations, am I correct in recalling that (unlike Jupiter, FL, where I have a couple of trips), Boynton and West Palm operators tend not to put a 'free' guide in the water, and it's still drift diving so at least one of a buddy pair tows a dive flag?

If I've got a wrong understanding, sorry about that. Just thought those would be good things to know, if so.

My experience is that the Boynton and West Palm are different in both aspects that you bring up.

Boynton: None of the operators put a guide in the water. They provide a very visible float with a flag on it and a reel attached to it and you dive your own dive with a buddy or a small group and get picked up at the end of the dive. On any given dive site, you have the option to be dropped on the outside of the reef (east side and deeper) or the inside (west side of reef and shallower). The Boynton reef(s) are typically shallower, fishier and prettier in my opinion.

West Palm: All of the operators I have ever used in West Palm put a dive guide in the water that carries the reel and float and you stick with them. The dive sites are deeper than Boynton (with a few exceptions, where the profile is very similar). The currents tend t be a bit faster in West Palm on average, there are more wrecks in this area and they dive sites can be more sharky than Boynton, it seems (particularly during aggregation season(s). Most people consider the diving around West Palm to be a bit more advanced, but it really depends on the dive site. The dives I did this past Sunday were at Flower Garden, Ron's Rock, Tumble Rocks and these are all shallower dive sites and beginner friendly. It was a weekend and the boat had a lot of newer divers and these were appropriate dive sites.

Drive time distance between Boynton Marina and West Palm Marina is only 15 minutes. So, it makes it easy to base yourself in either area or in between and bounce back and forth, if you desire. Weather also plays a role at certain times. West Palm inlet and boats are more likely to be able to go out when the seas get a bit rougher and may be your only option. Mid week diving has far fewer divers than weekends and some dive operators may not be going out on certain days, so you may need to pick a location based on availability. Based on time of year, my experience is that if you plan to dive on weekends, you should plan in advance and pick an operator and lock it in, as boats can fill up. Week days allow for more flexibility.

My personal experience is that the diving and reefs are quite different between Boynton and West Palm, thus the reason I like to mix it up a bit and do both while on a trip, but if I had to make a choice between the two, I would probably choose Boynton because I like the reef and sea life better (fishier and more colorful). I also prefer to stay in the Boynton/Del Ray Beach area. Just has a better feel to me than West Palm.

These are just my observations. I have 6 trips out here in the last 7 years and have made 83 dives during those visits. So, I am no local Floridian authority, but as an outsider coming in, that is how I would sum it up.

 

[Johnoly]

None of the operators put a guide in the water.

Glad you had a good trip !. The FLA/USGS chartered diveboats are a bit strange here. We have uninspected(6pk) and Inspected(greater than 6). It's not required on inspected boats to have a crew member in the water so a new diver won't get lost. But it is required on inspected boats to have a deck hand who will safely bungie your tank in. Most of us will agree, getting lost is a slightly bigger danger so there's that flag rule too, but no one wants to carry it except the crewmember. Lots of people also get the deck crewmember's term wrong and @Wookie will tell you it's important. Some divers will wrongly call him the 1st mate, 2nd captain or the shop guy, but when things go wrong it's an important term no matter what his other than bungie duties may be.

I agree with you @Trailboss123 , there's a big difference between the Boynton reefs and the WPB reefs as far as how tall, curvy, and varied they are. Diving both gives you a wide change in scenery. Sounds like you had very good topside conditions.

 

[flyboy08]

Excellent mate!

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Question...you are familiar with the area, and you chose to do both Boynton and West Palm Beach, and thus used different dive op.s. IIRC, you're not the only one's who's done that on a trip. On the other hand, judging from trip reports on ScubaBoard, most divers head to a destination and stay at one accommodation diving with one dive. op. the whole week (a common trip duration).

In your opinion, what do you gain by hitting both Boynton and West Palm rather than just sticking with one or the other?

Also, for the benefit of other divers who might consider these destinations, am I correct in recalling that (unlike Jupiter, FL, where I have a couple of trips), Boynton and West Palm operators tend not to put a 'free' guide in the water, and it's still drift diving so at least one of a buddy pair tows a dive flag?

If I've got a wrong understanding, sorry about that. Just thought those would be good things to know, if so.

@Trailboss123 has summarized the differences well. He has enough trips here to know! There are pros and cons to both approaches.

For me, given that I dive here monthly, I like to try and hit two locations over the course of the weekend. Primarily for variety but also to hedge my bets in case one location is a bit "off", sometimes another is just fine. I frequently do Palm Beach/Jupiter and occasionally Boynton/Palm Beach, Boynton/Ft. Lauderdale, Pompano Beach/Ft. Lauderdale, or some other combination. If I'm heading south and doing Key Largo, which is rare, I spend the entire trip there.