Boynton Dive Report

[BIGSAGE136]

It was definetly great to see you guys again and the dive as usual was fabulous. I had the opportunity to do something I have really looked forward to and that was to dive with Peter
. for those who dont know Peter's work can be seen here http://www.splashdowndivers.com/photo_gallery/underwater_photography/up_settings.htm.

I believe the shark story. something was just on the far side of my viz but definetly there. Not a threat but a presence.
After Peter's work I am only showing these pictures to show him I did at least get a shot. I really thank him for his patience.

The dives...per the mosquito...Dive 1 max depth 61' dive time 60 minutes..temp 81 degrees..surface interval 34 minutes...Dive 2 max depth 51' dive time 40 mins..temp 75 degrees go figure.

They say pictures speak louder than words so hopefully the shots will do the talking. they don't hold a candle to Peters work but I'll keep trying.

Thanks for another great outing. I never have a single regret with you guys.

 

[Scubakevdm]

Hey, nice! Thanks Big Sage! Sorry that this is late, but old Scubakev fell asleep last night before he could write the dive report, and let me tell you in advance that there was extra special cool stuff too. We'll get to that in a minute though. So here's the report for 4/13/04. Seas were kind rough, maybe 2-4' but pretty pointy and frequent, so there was a good bit of movement. The vis was about 60'. Water temp was 73 on the 1st dive, 75 on the 2nd (thermocline at about 60'). We did Black Condo first, which is where all the cool stuff was. Here's what happened. We were drifting along seeing all the regular cool stuff when I spotted a small hawksbill turtle munching on some sponge or something, off to our left. I headed over to see if it was interested in coming for a swim with us. Oddly enough, when I was about 30' away from it it all of a sudden charges straight at me, sprinting. "Hmm," says I, "Quite an aggressive little turtle." Then a 10' hammerhead materialized behind him and it all made sense. The hammerhead was none too happy to see our group, and decided not to pursue the turtle if it meant tangling with the likes of us. It seemed like he kept thinking about it though. He looked at the turtle, then up at the group, then back at the turtle, then up at the group as he slowly sauntered past us, then disappeared. Awesome behavior, really remarkable stuff to see. Then... just when I thought that it couldn't get any better, a 5' sailfish comes slowly cruising down the reef, about 3' above the top of the ledge, about 40' away. Wow, what a great dive.

I'm sorry to have to tell you that the next dive did not have anything as spectacular as the first, but it did have regular cool stuff like midnight parrots, morray eels and spotted drums. To be perfectly honest with you, I probably missed alot of stuff because I was still so overwhelmed. I still am, kinda.

 

[JohnF]

Dayum! I've seen a Hammerhead diving off Splashdown so that's old, but I've never seen a Sailfish. Tell Mr. Gray I expect him to find one for me next time I'm down.

JohnF

 

[Scubakevdm]

Whoa! I didn't think I'd ever get to write another report. Luckily I was able to make four dives today and start chiping away at the big stack of "not-diving" that I've accumulated. The coolest thing today was spotted before we even left the dock... two cow nose rays cruising in the marina. There also have been alot of sea-horses in the marina. We took a bunch out to the reef and let them go. I don't know how well they'll do out there, but I can't imagine they'd do any better in the intracostal. Anyhoo, here's the report.
Waves were small today, about 2-3' in the morning and then 1-2' in the afternoon. Water temp... an insanely cold 73 degrees. The vis was about 55' when the sun came out, probably 45 when it didn't. So, a little bit less than typical vis, and you know what that means... conditions condusive to high aquatic life density. Yes, the life was dense. All regular cool stuf was seen including nurse sharks, loggerhead and hawksbill turles, spotted and green morrays and interesting gray angel and spotted cowfish behaviors. The angels were swimming in some kind of concentric orbital pattern. There were four of them. I was afraid that they were on some kinda drugs, carrying on like that. I left before I fell victim to robbery or violence. The cowfish were just kinda chilling. There were four of them as well, and they were paired up, head to head mirroring each other. Neat. It was nice to get back into the water. Oh yeah, it was Jim's (the captain of Loggerhead) birthday, so he came scuba swimming with us too. Happy birthday Jim!

 

[Scubakevdm]

Hey! Thanks for reading this. I got to go diving again today in the afternoon and we had lots of fun. The seas were 1-2' Vis was about 60' on the first dive, probably 40' on the second, but the 40' vis was isolated to the North end of the reef. Water temp was min. 74 degrees with a slight thermocline at 35'. (The upper layer was about 75.) The first drop was Black Condo. There was a slight South current. Notable was an adult Hawksbill turtle that was quite photogenic and approachable. He almost collided with me a number of times and swam for a long time in etremely close proximity... like 3" away. He just couldn't have cared less about us being there. Someone lost a bag of chum which I happened upon and picked up off the reef. The ensuing cloud of fish food was instantly consumed by about a thousand yellowtail snapper. A green morray came out of his hole to watch, and maybe grab one of the snappers.
We dropped in at God's Spot up on the North end after that, and saw the usuall fifteen billion fish that live up there, and then slid out to Tabletops in the slight West current. Unusual. Anyway we saw a humongous black grouper, two regular ones and the dog snapper colony. Oh yeah, and the biggest hermit crab I've ever seen. Pretty fun, it was a nice day.

 

[Scubakevdm]

Hey! I got to go diving again, on the 25th! I should have written something about the dive sooner 'cause I don't remember too much about it other than the seas were about 2', the vis was about 50', the water temp was 74 and the current was North and mild. Wait a minute, it's all coming back to me now... it was a macro kind of a dive, the people I was with were interested mostly in invertebrates. Notables included a goldentail morray, and a purple mouthed one too. I have the feeling that there was one other cool thing that I saw, but it escapes me. Hmm, I saw a scorpionfish, but that wasn't it. Oh well, sorry.

 

[Scubakevdm]

Oh my, it was a sad day in Boynton. Old Scubakev commited a grave dive foul. I'll fill you in on that in a minute. First the vitals. Seas were 2-3' fron the SE. Vis was maybe 20'. Water temp was still 74 degrees. There was a moderate to strong North current.
And now, the gory details. It was Scubakevs day off, and what better way to spend one's day off than diving? So, off to my friend's boat I go. My friend, and his dive charter shall remain nameless. Upon arriving, I come to understand that there are two people that have little or no knowledge of the reef. Certainly, if one's friend is nice enough to invite one diving, one should be kind enough to show his customers around the reef. Especially if one has made hundreds and hundreds of dives on that reef. Right? I mean, it's the right thing to do, isn't it? Well, to make a long story short, I end up pulling them off the reef about 35 minutes into the dive, planting them squarely in the sand. I could give you more details, to try to explain why I did this, and there are a number of reasons, but at the end of the day it was an accident. I wasn't where I thought I was, and I was so confident that I didn't even think to check. I'm kinda going on and on about this, because it illustrates an important point. When I become too comfortable with something, the likelyhood of error increases substantially.
Anyway, notables on the desert dive were a huge loggerhead right when we jumped in and a yellow stingray.
The next dive went without incident. Notable was a friendly adolesent loggerhead.

 

[aquasport]

Get the seas down to 1-2 ft, i get there next week. Vis 50, Thanks kev

 

[BIGSAGE136]

Details! Hey! How about that avatar. Peter is great isnt he?

 

[Scubakevdm]

Details! Hey! How about that avatar. Peter is great isnt he?

I noticed! Quite deboner