Boynton area dive boat recommendations

[scubadada]

We got blown off the Castor last year. The dive boat anchored at the wheelhouse and we worked against the current along the collapsed mid section to reach the bow which is detached but close to the rest of the wreck.

As we circled the bow the wife swam to follow a Goliath, I stuck with her and when we tried to kick back to the bow we realized we had drifted quite a bit and it was going to take a while and much of our remaining gas to get back to the bow let alone traverse the entire wreck and return to the line at about 100'.

I made the call to abandon the wreck and deployed my dsmb. After an uneventful ascent and safety stop we were almost immediately picked up after surfacing but the Captain of the Starfish boat wasn't happy with us. He said we were drifting towards a very busy area.

He didn't want to go the 2nd dive on another wreck but unfortunately he finally gave in and obliged. I say unfortunate because we found the Budweiser to be almost completely devoid of marine life and it's in a state of deterioration. It's the 2nd best of the 3 wrecks in Boynton, the 3rd bring the Tony which I consider to be extremely dangerous. It's so boring a diver could easily fall asleep, breathe down their tank and drown.

Hi @LI-er

The Castor can be a challenging dive. Since 2009, I have dived the Castor 130 times. Most of these dives were between 2012 and 2016, before Hurricane Matthew knocked the bow off to the starboard, interfering with the Goliath Grouper aggregation. I have continued to dive the Castor this year.
Trip Report - Back in the water in Florida

The current on the Castor can be quite impressive., sometimes prohibiting diving. I do not understand your problem with getting back to the ascent line at the stern. The current was usual, north. You swam to the bow and interacted with Goliath Grouper. The drift back to the stern is very easy and fast with a north current. I can only assume that you and you wife did not pay appropriate attention to your gas or misjudged how much was required to return. You did not get blown off the Castor, you failed to manage your gas.

I have had someone pull the ascent line before my arrival a couple of times, the only times I have made a DSMB free drifting ascent. I can imagine that Capt Chris might have questioned your experience or skill after such a maneuver.

On the other hand, I agree, the Bud Bar and the Capt Tony have seem much better days, I avoid them. Both used to be reasonably good dives.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @LI-er

Thanks for the explanation.

It's easy for me to say as I am very familiar with the Castor. As you knew you were on the east side, you might have tried swimming west a bit, using the current direction and/or your compass. There is a large anchor chain coming off the bow end of the wreck on the port (east) side that is a very useful feature for navigation, did you see it? I often use the chain to swim off the wreck when the Goliath Grouper aggregate away from the Castor when the current is slow. You're right, the wreck can be a little creepy when visibility is low and it can disappear from sight pretty quickly.

 

[h2o_hamilton]

I've exclusively dove charters in Jupiter and WPB. During mini season, I dove out of Boynton for the first time on Scubatyme. I will say, it was a little bit of a culture shock. Everyone on the boat was divided up into groups and handed a dive flag, and you had to provide your own reel. I asked for weights, and they looked at me funny, so I ran back to my truck to grab weights. You paid once you were on the boat. Groups were dropped off separately, maybe this had to do with lobster hunting, but I'm not sure. Our surface intervals were allowed to spread out too. The crew was good, Ben was the captain, and he took us all the way to Del Rey when we weren't finding lobster near Boynton. One concern, there weren't any roll calls after dives. The boat was large and packed with divers. Towing the flag was annoying, especially when there's 2ft swells and you're trying to catch lobsters. They threw a ball and rope to us to pull us into the boat.

It was definitely a different experience than the Jupiter/WPB charters where customer service and a catered experience is at the forefront. This felt more DIY, they were there to get you to the dive spot, and the rest was up to you. When I questioned why we had to tow a flag, they kinda chuckled about not having to follow a DM like you do up north. I countered that by saying, no, we can do whatever we like and just shoot a DSMB when we are done. Capt Ben said he wished he could do that. I'm not sure what he meant by that, are there different rules or something south of WPB? Is it a company rule? Insurance related? Are the currents different?

This is accurate. Diving south of WPB…kinda sucks if you’re used to organization and service. That’s not to say the operations are bad, but they seem to be catered to the “local” attitude.