Chillin' in LBTS -- hooray!

[Trisha]

We made it! After much teeth-grinding over the Weather Channel, we made the long trip from OKC to Ponce de Leon, spent the day diving and snoozing at Morrison Springs, and headed down Florida Turnpike to Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. Whoo hoo!!

So far we've been in the water at the Snorkel Trail Saturday, Sunday and Monday, took off Tuesday to do some shore stuff, got rolled on Wednesday (so did five other divers), and had two gorgeous hour-long dives Thursday and Friday mornings.
I think we're getting the hang of conch-style diving!

We'll be here on El Mar doing shore dives off Datura Avenue through next week. We are late morning people (8:00 am or so) and that seems to suit the fish. I might have Richard talked into a boat dive after the Independence Day hoopla dies down (we stocked up today -- no moving the vehicle.)

I am so stoked about being here! Florida is awesome!

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

So glad to hear you like this neck of the woods. Stop by tomorrow at Hibiscus (one street south of Datura) and say hi as we are coming out of the water...We are diving early...6AM...gotta beat those crowds!

 

[Trisha]

Sorry we missed you. Richard and Kimberly got into the water at Datura around 10:00 am and stayed out an hour. Richard saw his first sharks! Alas, he had his camera and the dive flag, so his pictures were fly-overs of the coral.
I did shore duty with a book and tried to figure which of five dive flags to watch. A patrol boat came out to Kim when she was on the surface and asked her and two other groups about spearfishing. She dropped down to see the grey angels but passed on the sharks (two to three foot nurse sharks in the Honeycombs.)

It's 1:30 pm and we might try an afternoon dive. Liz is not enthused after battling the current Thursday, but maybe her sister's report will change her mind. This is spoiling the girls for lake diving.

 

[Scuba_Dad]

It's 1:30 pm and we might try an afternoon dive. Liz is not enthused after battling the current Thursday, but maybe her sister's report will change her mind. This is spoiling the girls for lake diving.

I'll be there in the morning. I'm planning on getting there around 8... I'll be diving with my 11 yr old and 16 yr old...

Al

 

[DriftDiver]

So glad to hear you like this neck of the woods. Stop by tomorrow at Hibiscus (one street south of Datura) and say hi as we are coming out of the water...We are diving early...6AM...gotta beat those crowds!

Jenny,

I HAVE to get my act together and come down and shore dive with you sometime. I knew y'all do this all summer - but - I didn't realize you do it every weekend.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Ummmm James, if we work during the week, and we dive all summer, when would we be diving??

 

[Trisha]

Beautiful this morning... I woke up first for a change, checked outside and saw the clouds coming in... fiddled around a bit and by the time Richard was up it had already rained at LBTS. Geared up and walked down El Mar to Datura Avenue beach.
Others were just getting out and talking about eels and nurse sharks at the Honeycombs, just east of the Snorkel Trail. So in we went!

Found the anchor and the cannons -- check. Found the Honeycombs and the usual suspects -- check. None of the small sharks Richard and Kim saw yesterday, though.
On a bit further east across some patchy reef to more Honeycombs, still less than 12 feet deep... Richard motioned me over and made that hand-to-the-forehead sign for "shark." In the hole I saw a tail... in another I saw a dorsal fin... and in another I saw a head and pectoral fins. A big nurse shark! Wow....

I was entranced, until Richard finished taking pictures and motioned me to the surface. Then he told me he had been ready to back off when I started moving around to see all of it, "because that was easily twice as large as the ones we saw yesterday!"
Oops!

Goodness only knows when we'll be at the beach on the Fourth. We aim for 8:00 to 10:00 am, which is a pretty broad stretch, but it's a vacation! Fill Express is where we usually get our tanks filled, but we are hunkered in during the LBTS celebrations.

Liz looked at the pictures and may be headed out with Richard in the morning, so I'll be at the pavillion catching up with Harry Potter before the next book comes out. With my glasses on I can actually keep track of the dive flags!
Morning dives are sweet at LBTS! And they are starting to recognize us at Mulligans, with our late breakfasts.

 

[Trisha]

An off-topic question or two:
What are those lizards around the El Mar area apartments? One type is about five or six inches long and curls its tail up whether sitting or running. The other type is smaller, around four inches long, and when still it puffs out a throat flap of orange or yellow.

What is the deal with the fenced-off apartments on the north side of Commercial and El Mar? Villas by the Sea is currently out of commission.

What's happening with the Washingtonia Avenue beach entrance? The site was recommended in March as a diving alternative to Datura Avenue, but is torn up now.
Thanks for the information.

 

[Tom Winters]

The curly-tailed little critters are Bahamian lizards, here to take over along with iguanas. I was securing my lines today when I realized there was a big old iguana sitting on the piling right next to the dock. I went after him, but they are a lot speedier than they look. Even the little ones go like bandits.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

The green lizard that puffs its throat flap is probably a green anole. They can change colors as well Pretty nifty critter.

How'd you like Morrison Springs? What was the visibility like? I know the rivers were on the rise after the rainfall we had all last week. It was absolutely beautiful that past weekend. Did you make it to Vortex as well?