What a perfect dive of diving.... The morning started out wonderfully with all nine of us SB'ers being at the boat dock ahead of schedule. We unloaded gear, parked, and got ready to take off. The day couldn't have been any more beautiful. Captain Paul gave us the run down on the safety of the boat and such as Mike (deck hand who never has much too say, but is always one step ahead of what you need) quickly freed us from the dock. The sun beaming down warm us all, as Kimberly our (favorite) DM briefed us on our up coming dive site. The first reef, Bonnie's reef, named by Captain Paul because it's beauty reminded him of his wife, was amazing. At 80 feet deep with viz right around 70 feet or so we saw an array of life. Nice distinctive ledges, with tons of hiding spots for critters. We saw a beautiful green moray (big) out swimming around. I think maybe she was even a little more curious of us then we were of her..... ok, well maybe not, but she was somewhat fascinated with us too. We saw a turtle, a sting ray, a nice size nurse shark, and all the other local fish here.
Had a few laughs on the surface interval before Kimberly briefed us on our next location.. My favorite (woohoo!!) The Tunnels!!!! This is a MUST DO place. Nice swim through with a few humongous Goliath Grouper tucked up under the ledges. And let the record show, the ever elusive 10 foot bull shark once again showed her pretty face, only this time I didn't get to see her, Kimberly (DM) and my Husband got the opportunity this time. The rest of us did get to share water with a beautiful little Black tip reefie (she was about 4-5 ft). Again we saw a few nurse sharks, turtle, sting rays and all their little food...um... I mean friends. We maxed out this site at 74 feet and even though the viz tends to drop a bit here, the residents on this reef more than made up for it. I kept this dive a bit short knowing I had two more dive to do in West Palm Beach later so I came up before seeing the several other Black tip reefies, and another bull shark that our gracious Dm Kimberly reported when she got back to the boat.
All in all, everyone had a fantastic dive.. There were lots of smiles and laughter on the boat ride in. It remains to be said, Jupiter Dive Charter is hands down, my favorite dive operation in that area. You couldn't get me on a different boat out of Jupiter!
I added a few of the pictures to my gallery since I wasn't able to get them up linked directly here.
