Dive reports with beach/weather conditions

[thedaddy]

Fri 5/1: 1 dive 1225; 2:42 (gotta love the steel 130)
Location: Alhambra
Temp - Time Surf/depth (deg F): 1225 81/75
Visibility: 10-15'
Tide: Incoming
Wind: ESE (5 kt?)
Seas: Flat
Drift algae: Particles in the water toward end of dive

Sat 5/2: 3 dives from 0842 - 1845; 1:55, 2:04, 2:10
Beautiful day of diving. The last dive I walked up out of the surf into a wedding at the end of the boardwalk!
Location: South Brohard
Temp - Time Surf/depth (deg F): 0842 79/75; 1228 86/78, 1654 86/79
Visibility: 15-20' as depth increased, decreasing to 10'-12' in the afternoon
Tide: High tide ~ 0930, Low ~ 1330
Wind: ESE to SE (5 kt?)
Surf: Flat to mild as the day progressed, 1'-2' at 1845
Drift algae: Particles in the water toward end of day

Sun 5/3: 2 dives, 2:10, 1:40
STRONG surge w/ Northward current in the afternoon - knocked about against the blocks and decided to call it with an hour of air still in the tank. Found a mammoth femur fragment (proximal, ball joint)!
Location: South Brohard
Temp - Time Surf/depth (deg F): 1023 84/77; 1334 86/79
Visibility: 10' decreasing over time to 1'-2' in the afternoon
Tide: High ~0945, Low ~ 1530
Wind: S/SE (10-20 kt)
Surf: 2'-3' seas growing to 4'-6' by late afternoon
Drift algae: Particles everywhere, 2' vis by the end of the dive

 

[jridg]

Went out with CAPT Jamie today - good day! Jamie put us on some great bottom.
Water temp - computer said 80F
depth - 27-30ft
Vis - 15-20ft - lots of 'snot' in the water
surge - little to none - no current to speak of
waves were 1-2ft

A good time had by all.

I found a nearly perfect 3" meg on the first dive along with a 3-1/2 inch worn meg. I also found several fossil scallops, a fairly large stingray barb, and three whale earbones some photos below.

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

Site Location: Service Club Park. (I've only done it once before)
Water Temp: 80-82F
Visibility: 10-16'
Tide state: incoming and outgoing depending on my two dives
Wind: From the south
Surf: mild, low waves entering and exiting even at the sandbar
Presence of drift algae: Spawning particles were everywhere


OK, I had the afternoon free of appointments and decided to make a dive today. Filled both S100's at Florida West this early afternoon.

I decided to look around for some different diving (Alhambra is my usual stop)... I almost ended up at Casperson (Decided against it because I had my high pressure 100s filled at FW... meaning, I was sure they only had about 3200 psi both... rather than the 3442 they are rated for fill [standard])

I chose Service Club for three simple reasons; first, I wanted to be as close to Golden as possible. Second; I wanted to hit the type of bottom that usually requires a boat. Third; I wanted to see how far I needed to swim to get there...

The answer is a 30 minute sturdy swim out in order to get to the minimum bottom that I have seen on most boats. If you are diving a S80, forget it... If you are not a strong swimmer, forget it... I made it there on the "rule of thirds", and I am a strong swimmer. Once I made it there, the "rule of thirds" still applied, but my swim-breathe time decreased. When it was time to swim back, I surfaced first to get a view. I estimate that I was a 1/2-3/4 of a mile from shore. If you run out of air, that can be a looooong surface swim back in!

I made two dives on the same profile and spent almost 4 1/2 hours underwater. Here is a picture of the "haul" 1,024 teeth total (including the partial megs). Often, I get into an area off VB and get a "feeling"... When I get that feeling, it usually pays off with teeth (unfortunately not usually the big megs!). I got that feeling passing the main reef (not the artificial pipe reef) on both dives today!

I could use some ID on the bottom bones. The plate on the far right is actually a bit conclave on the underside (I keep thinking turtle...)

 

[Aristakat]

Today was beautiful


water temp 78'
seas conditions 2 -3 ft
Vis 15ft with whale snot
bunch of AWESOME divers

one diver found a lower Mako that was one Beautiful tooth
was able to snap a few pics after one dive

 

[jridg]

Met up with Capt Grumby at the dive shop and headed down to Service club - met up with Kevin by happenstance in the parking lot.

We did about 90 minutes or so:

Water temp: computer said 83 - I was WARM in my 3mm - time to break out the 0.5mm
Vis - 5-10ft
Lots of drift algae after the reef at 22ft depth
wind was light from the west with minimal surf and light surge in the water
Tide was high (not sure in or outgoing)

Nice dive overall - found some great bottom out at 22ft - but the algae made it annoying - it was thick in areas.

Found around 100 teeth or so - decent lower mako, two tiger shark teeth, and a small hemi.

 

[dkramer]

Did Alhambra at 8:30 this morning. Winds were out of the south & viz was pretty good. At 16 ft. I could see my yak on the surface. At about 18ft deep I started to run into drift algae. Viz then dropped to perhaps 10 ft. Water temp was 80.

 

[BlueWaterBrad]

5/16/09 Great day!

Time - 9:00 thru 1:30
Air Temp - 85
Water Temp - 80
Vizibility - 15'-18'
Tide - High working on going out
Wind - Gentle breeze
Surf - Calm
Drift algae - Little or none till 2nd tank, then lots
Bottom silt - n/a

Good 2.5 hrs bottom time!

Out for FL UNDER SPORTS donut dive.
Tons of teeth, 200+. Laid on the bottom and picked 20-30 teeth up without moving. Found first meg (well half at least).
Going to take the boat out next time to some deeper water for bigger teeth! These shore dives are fun but getting old.

 

[sglake]

We went out today from Alahambra. Viz 12 to 15 in 20'..... Temp on 3 computers 82......120 min....3mm shortie.... lots of life around the artificial reef and the natural reef as well! It has been a month since i've been out and it was GREAT TO GET BACK IN THE WATER!!!

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

Date: May 18, 2009
Site Location: Service Club Park
Water Temp: 79-81F
Visibility: 7-10'
Tide state: outgoing
Wind: slight
Surf: mild
Presence of drift algae: low

Monday dive in the late afternoon/evening
Entered at the north edge of the house beyond the volley-ball court

Swam out to 20/21' and headed south (to shells and black sand w/o silt)
---

Dove with Aquagirl2u and her SO/Phil

Dive time 1 hour 45 min... approx. 260 teeth... no megs

 

[sharkboy1515]

Went out with Florida West yesterday. We got called out of the water half way through the second dive, but we got some good diving in. Water temp was 78 at the bottom, 6-0 feet of visibility, 2-3 foot seas. We found 2 decent megs that were around 2 1/2 inches plus several large pieces and plenty of smaller teeth. No drift algae present on either dive.