Boynton Dive Report

[Scubakevdm]

Well, the word for today is ... crappy. It was a crappy day to dive. Maybe it's just me, because the passengers from Milwalkee and Minnesota were pretty happy about it. I would estimate today's diving to be in the bottom 5% of days I've dived here. Seas were about 3' all swell, no chop, contributing to the 25-30' vis. Turtles and nurse sharks were seen, a free-swimming spotted moray, and actually, there was a very cool sharptailed eel too. I guess it wasn't that bad. Water temp was 73. Maybe tomorrow will be nicer. I'm really trying to see a whale shark.

 

[Scubakevdm]

Okay, here's a report for 1/22/04 through today, 'cause the board was down. The surge has settled back down and the water was reasonably clear today, although there was still a fair amount of silt fogging up the bottom 10' or so on the inside of the reef. Outside looked really nice from the top, but I didn't dive it. Even though the vis was crappy, I did get to see some pretty cool stuff. I've made 9 dives since the last report and I have trouble sorting out what happened on what day, so I'll lay it on you all at once. I saw a Black Brotula (stygnobrotula latebricola) which is a pretty rare and very cool find. They look sorta like the last 2" of a moray's tail with a tiny head on the front. They live in cracks in the reef. Also a hammerhead (scalloped) about 9' long, a guitar-fish about 4' long, and two of the three Pacific Sailfin Tangs that live on the North end of the reef.Harvey, the three finned Green Turtle who was rescued about five weeks ago was spotted back on the North end too. Saved by Ed T, and driven to the turtle savers in Juno, he was released about a week and a half ago up there and he made it back, just like they said. Someone saw a spotted eagle ray this morning too.

 

[SmokeAire]

Thanks for the dive reports. Because of your reports, a Boynton dive will be in the near future. Good job.

Chuck

 

[Scubakevdm]

You are certainly welcome, thanks for reading them, and I'm glad to hear you're coming down. And now for today's dive report... Seas probably 3-5, but the vis was nice, probably 70' or so. It seemed better on the south end of the reef. Really very pleasant dives with all regular cool stuff big nurse sharks, three different kinds of turtles and grunts. Just joking about the grunts - I mean there were grunts, but I'm not that excited about them. Oh yeah, there was a medium sized turtle skeleton too that I didn't see yesterday but it looks like it's been there a while. So I guess that's about it. Have a nice day.

 

[Scubakevdm]

Hello, and thanks for reading the Boynton Dive Report. Here's the report for today, 1/28/04:
Seas were a little choppy today, maybe about 3-5' with strong winds from the North. The vis was about average at around 60', water temp... 73. There was very little current, eventually running South. Cool stuff for today- Three very large nurse sharks sharing a ledge. Mating? I don't know. That might explain the aggressive shark behavior from the other day. Anyway, we had fun taking pictures with them. Also, the giant not-very-friendly loggerhead turtle was down there today. I haven't seen the friendly one lately. So I guess that's it. Sorry, old Kev was trimming his dry-suit today, and not looking around as much as usual, but... there's a trip tomorrow. Peace. -Kev

 

[Scubakevdm]

I'm late with some of these reports, sorry. Here they are anyway though.
1/29/04. Seas were flat, vis was about 60', water temp was 75. A moderate South current, about 3/4 kts. for both dives. For the first dive we did the Tony (wreck in about 85') which is very cool, my favorite wreck. We have pictures of it on our website if you want to see it (WWW.Splashdowndivers.com). I spotted one of the larger Goliath Groupers as I dropped down to tie off the down line, but didn't get to spend too much time down there. One of our divers had alot of trouble equalizing, and I stayed up high to try to help him out. The second dive we did the Gulfstream Ledges, high relief shore facing ledges max depth 65'. The guy who couldn't equalize and I hopped in last, about 100 yards behind the rest of our group and just did an ultra slow descent. Success! He got down and had a great dive. All regular cool stuff (nurse sharks, turtles and morays) was seen by our group, I was happy to see the guy get down.
1/30/04. Seas were flat, water temp 73 with a thermocline at about 45-50'. The vis was down, around 45'. It was also pretty overcast which made it kinda dark too. Moderate north current (about 1/2 kt swinging to moderate to strong heading East-northeast by late afternoon. All regular cool stuff and extremely dense aquatic life. I don't know if it was the vis, the cold water or the clouds, but the reef was packed with fish. We did Briney Breezes, a shore facing ledge in 60' of water for the first dive and did Linn's, a kinda tricky but enormously fishy dive up on the crest of the reef in about 45' for the second. Both were very nice and had all regular cool stuff. After work I went diving with some friends out at Tabletops, a huge field of large undercut coral heads, max depth 65'. I saw a giant Cubera snapper, about 45 lbs, and a pretty big Nassau grouper about 35 lbs. There are people that argue that the Nassau grouper doesn't exist up here. We have some, just not many. That's the third one I've seen in the last year or so. They're very cool.
1/31/04. Seas were about 2-3' today, I didn't get to dive, but I was on the boat so I'll fill you in as well as I can. Current was very mild and north. Water temp was 75. Reports on the vis were between 60-80'. My guess was 70, looking at it from the top. We did the Delray ledges, spectacular shore facing ledge about 15' high and really undercut for the first dive. Then, by popular demand we did it again on the second dive. Anyway, all regular cool stuff was reported along with a very cool baby hawksbill turtle. Peace, -Kev

 

[augie]

Thanks for all of the reports!

Delray Ledges has always been one of my favorites down your way (and Shark Reef when we can talk the captain into going that far south!).

I've never heard of Tabletops - is it called by another name, or is it somewhere that the charters don't usually go?

 

[Scubakevdm]

Hello, here's today's Boynton Dive Report (2/2/04).
Seas were almost flat, maybe 1' rollers. I think a breeze from the West or Northwest, whatever, there was no chop. Water temp... 75 degrees. The vis... kinda crappy at about 45, maybe 50 feet, but the water was still nice. There was a moderatley strong North current, probably a knot. The first dive was Briney Breezes, a shore facing ledge that's kinda craggley on top in places. Max depth is about 62'. I'm gonna see if I can find a pic of this section of the reef after I finish writing this, and I'll throw it up here. Anyway, I'm sorry to say that I didn't even see the regular cool stuff on this dive, because early on I came across some very uncool stuff. There was a medium sized danforth anchor dug into the side of a barrel sponge, it's line woven through a variety of soft corals and sponges kinda floppin' around in the current. So I stayed behind to untangle it, collect it and remove it. Everyone else seemed pretty chipper on the SI, so they probably had fun, which is good.
So, the second dive we did Castle ledge, moving up to Linn's. There were three Green Turtles, one friendly and an awful lot of Scrawled Files. Oh yeah, and an Amberjack with something in its mouth. I couldn't tell what it was, it looked like a burnt piece of bacon. Things that make you go "Hmmm". So it was pretty fun. Watch out for tomorrow though. I think I'm gonna take the day off and go diving.

Okay, I couldn't find any really good shots of Briney Breezes, but I didn't look that hard. Here's a pic of the friendly loggerhead that I have written about in earlier reports. This shot was taken on Briney, and here's just of the reef. If you are really interested in finding out more about all of the different sites I talk about, you can go to our website at WWW.Splashdowndivers.com and look under "Local Diving" then "Reef Sites" Peter does a really great job with the sites there. For now, here's the pics.

 

[Scubakevdm]

Thanks for all of the reports!

Delray Ledges has always been one of my favorites down your way (and Shark Reef when we can talk the captain into going that far south!).

I've never heard of Tabletops - is it called by another name, or is it somewhere that the charters don't usually go?

Whoa, sorry I forgot to reply! First of all, thanks for taking the time to read the reports. I think that Tabletops may also be called something like Allen's Patches. I can't recall exactly. I'm sure that some of the other boats go there, but I'm also sure that some of them have no idea what or where it is.

 

[Scubakevdm]

Well! What a great day for diving today was. Seas, less than 1', wind about 5 kts from the NE. There was a mild south current and the vis was about 65, maybe 70'. We didn't have a trip today, so I took the day off and went diving. The first dive was a secret reef that hardly anyone knows about. Its a drop off from 45' of water in the sand down to about 70'. It is a series of offshore facing ledges and cragley coral like you find on the crest of the main reef down here. Its very cool, but small. We were trying to capture lobsters, but even on the top-secret spots there were none. There was something there though that made for an exciting dive... hords of triggerfish. They descended on us from the moment that we hit the water and attacked us continuosly throughout the dive. Whew.
The next dive was on Tabletops. Really nice. Tabletops is nice to do on low current days because you can swim completely around the coral heads, also its really wide and you can dive it all day long without seeing the same stuff twice. Anyway I saw some Black Groupers, one of them was like 45 or 50 lbs. and a school of the biggest Yellowtail Snapper I've ever seen. Also two Cubera Snappers, maybe 25 lbs each. The don't stick you arm in a hole unless you look inside it first rule was re-enforced today when a 6' Green Moray who was afraid of arms squirted out of the hole that my arm (which I guess is not afraid of eels) was in. I was capturing a lobster, in case you're wondering. So, it was a very fun day off for me, not so fun for one Florida Lobster.