Chillin' in LBTS -- hooray!

[Trisha]

We pulled an all-nighter from OKC to Ponce-de-Leon on Thursday, June 23, and lazed about at Morrison Springs on Saturday before doing another all-nighter down Florida Turnpike for Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. I think we have a plan here for future trips!

Morrison Springs is gorgeous. We love the live oaks and the Spanish moss, the pavillion and benches for surface intervals, but the real treat is the water. My benchmark is seeing rainbows in the sand as I shore dive -- so sweet!

Richard, Liz and I did a dive together and saw perch (breem, someone said) striped bass, and freshwater eels in the caverns. Richard got pictures of two medium-sized bass "sleeping" in the upper ledges. In the photos they could have been floating in air.
It was silty by the time we got in, with quite a few divers and swimmers in the water. Richard used his 7-mil J/J and we girls had 3/2 suits and beanies, but it was still good.

After taking a nap, Richard and I got back in. We were the last divers of the afternoon, and the visibility improved quite a bit. One eel got very chummy with Richard, then swam off in disgust when we had no food for her. I tried getting some pictures of the cypress tree, but the far end was too murky to show up.

All in all, a good day diving. We intend to do the same on the way back this weekend, but Kim and Liz are talking about 50% Off Bookstores in Dallas as well. We will see.
Have fun in the springs!

 

[CBulla]

Sounds like yawl are having quite the adventure!

 

[Trisha]

Recapping the last few days at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea:
The shore diving at Datura Avenue looked like a problem on Independence Day and Tuesday, so we passed on that. Kim, Liz and I took floats out to the beach on Monday and played in the surf until they started setting off firecrackers and Roman candles, then changed and watched the displays from the El Mar. Cheers to LBTS and the surrounding areas for a lovely celebration.
Tuesday we hung out at the apartment, did laundry, watched TV. The girls are lobbying for the Cartoon Channel and anime (a teenage thing.) We dropped by a bookstore and goggled at the prices at a supermarket.
Wednesday Richard felt under the weather, so we had another lazy day.

Finally on Thursday Richard had diving withdrawals and booked a two-tank trip with Scubatyme. We heard about them from Charles at Fill Express when we were here in March, but didn't have time for a boat trip. This time we took the plunge, literally.
Scubatyme did right by us for our first boat dives in the ocean. Thanks to Captain Brian and Divemaster Chris for lessons in entering and exiting in choppy seas.

We went to the Sanctuary first for a 50 feet/ 45 minute dive. Temps in the 80s, visibility 35-45 feet, light north current, rough seas on surface.
Awesome! Schools of fish, layers of silver, silver and yellow, blue... 15-foot coral ledges with several inquisitive spotted morays (one got up close and personal with Richard -- before his camera could recharge -- and darted back into the crevase.) Okay, so sargeant majors get bigger than an inch... more like five inches! Squirrelfish, rock beauties, cornetfish in yellows, blues, browns... we are still looking in i.d. books to find them all.
On our safety stop two torpedo-shaped fish buzzed us. I don't think the tail was right for barricuda, but I took off my wedding band for the next dive, just in case.

Our second dive was at Hillsboro, 45 feet/ 60 minutes. Temps in the 80s, visibility 30-35 feet, light north current, rough seas on exit.
Dropoffs were variable (we had six divers, and one pair said they were only at 30 feet, but we went over 50 feet and could have dropped lower.) The viz was worse, the numbers and variety of fish at the Sanctuary spoiled us for what we saw, but it was wet and beat lake diving all to pieces. More of the usual suspects, including several pics of pufferfish hiding in vase-shaped coral. Drifting too fast to find mullusks or crustacians.
The exit was a trick, but everyone came up with smiles on their faces. Two spearfishermen caught their dinner, a serious photographer spoke a bit with the others, and a good time was had by all!

Alas, Hurricane Dennis is at category four, barging through Cuba, so we are bagging our last day and getting ready to leave. Thanks also to Sergio and David at Beach Apartments Motel for two weeks at a prime diving location. The landscaping is lush, the one bedroom apartment is spacious, and the price is right.
We probably will head up to I-40 and miss much of the drama. This definitely is one of my favorite locations and a great introduction to the wonders of the Atlantic.
Hope to be back soon!

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Glad you had fun, take care on your way out, its gonna be a madhouse on the interstates!

 

[Trisha]

We're home!
No problems getting back, just some lightning to the west on I-10 and a few evening showers. We went past Lake Tenkiller at Gore, OK, on Saturday -- alas, we didn't take time to fill our tanks before leaving LBTS.

Best shore dive - Richard: seeing the hawksbill turtle and taking several pictures before it left the premises.
Best shore dive - Trish: looking around the larger first reef ledges and finding the hangouts of porkfish, grunts, parrotfish, doctorfish, etc.

Best boat dive: definitely the Sanctuary. Everybody but Elvis in the reef! Okay, no nurse sharks or yellow stingrays, but fun with the spotted morays. The LBTS dives were a great preview of what we would see.

Plans for next trip:
Spearfishing! The flatheads better beware, because Richard is on a mission.
More boat dives! I can get used to that.
Bringing Richard's brother! Who, incidentally, scuba dives, spearfishes, and has a boat....