Diving of your own boat

[Life-Is-Good-Diver]

Hi, i just bought a 21' center consoul, and live in melbourne , FL, any good diving sites out of Sebastion inlet? Also, i know West Palm has some great sites, but it's all drift diving, im looking for some nice dive sites where me and my wife could anchor up and do some nice reef diving and take some great pictures, thanks!

 

[lhpdiver]

We're about 30 minutes south of WPB in north broward. My wife and I dive the reefs/wrecks off Broward-South Palm Beach off our 25 ft center console. Ray Mcallister has a couple of great "diving locations" publications which cover Tenneco Towers (south) to Jupiter Inlet (north). You should be able to find them in most dive shops.

 

[Scuba_Dad]

Hi, i just bought a 21' center consoul, and live in melbourne , FL, any good diving sites out of Sebastion inlet? Also, i know West Palm has some great sites, but it's all drift diving, im looking for some nice dive sites where me and my wife could anchor up and do some nice reef diving and take some great pictures, thanks!

I wish my neighbor still lived next door to me... He used to spend a lot of time diving and fishing out of Sebastian and Canaveral.

Check out the dive clubs... I know there are several people with Down Under Dive Club who have boats and go out diving a lot. Also, there's the Melbourne Beach Hunt club...

Al

 

[Life-Is-Good-Diver]

I wish my neighbor still lived next door to me... He used to spend a lot of time diving and fishing out of Sebastian and Canaveral.

Check out the dive clubs... I know there are several people with Down Under Dive Club who have boats and go out diving a lot. Also, there's the Melbourne Beach Hunt club...

Al

you guys are in melbourne? you do any diving around here? Im also in melbourne, we should hook up, and do some diving, !!

 

[Life-Is-Good-Diver]

We're about 30 minutes south of WPB in north broward. My wife and I dive the reefs/wrecks off Broward-South Palm Beach off our 25 ft center console. Ray Mcallister has a couple of great "diving locations" publications which cover Tenneco Towers (south) to Jupiter Inlet (north). You should be able to find them in most dive shops.

When you dive off your boat, do you have somone stay with your boat? We are both not to happy about diving off a boat and leaving nobody on top, but we do, thats why i was hoping of some dive sites out of the Gulf Stream curent, maybe close to the beach.

 

[USAF Diver]

I'm surprised to see so many people from Melbourne here.

I found a page a while ago with the GPS coordinates to an artificial reef of Sebastian inlet. Hope it comes in handy.

http://www.fishsisa.com/reef.htm

 

[lhpdiver]

When you dive off your boat, do you have somone stay with your boat? We are both not to happy about diving off a boat and leaving nobody on top, but we do, thats why i was hoping of some dive sites out of the Gulf Stream curent, maybe close to the beach.

No, we go out by ourselves. The GS is further off shore here. We do get currents. Sometimes ripping currents. We have a rule... if my wife can't roll in and swim to the anchor line, we call the dive. Then we usually go to a bailout site in calmer water.

Do you trailer your boat ? We don't so I'm on thin ice here but - there is a park in Pompano (Alsdorf) off 14th street where you can put in just off the intracoastal and be out on some of our favorite sites in about 30 minutes.

 

[Scuba_Dad]

I learned my lesson about leaving someone on the boat several years ago on the first day of mini-season. We were diving the third reef somewhere between Wabasso and Vero. Before entering the water, we saw a small black cloud over Vero. So, we decided to dive, then come up in 15 minutes to check the status of that one cloud. Well... two of the divers headed south on the reef, and my buddy and I headed north. About 15 minutes into the dive, my buddy signaled that he was going to go up and look around. Well... he never came back... suddenly, I started hearing boats screaming over my head... The dive flag was flying on the boat... so, I didn't have one with me. So, I decided to keep my head down and wait for my buddy to come back. The next thing I hear is this roar of rain above me. So, I surfaced... I couldn't see from wavetop to wavetop. It was raining that hard. Well... the best place for me is on the reef and to swim back to the anchor line. Well... I couldn't find it. So, I countinued to look for bugs while waiting for the storm to clear. Finally, everything got quiet... so, I surfaced... Guess what? I was the only one in the ocean. Not a boat in sight. Since I was on the third reef, I knew I could easily swim back to shore... I wasn't concerned about my safety. Then, another diveboat came cruising by... and I hitched a ride back to Sebastian. I figured the storm got bad enough, that they had to pull anchor, and they'd be back. On the way back to Sebastian, we saw my buddy's boat and the FMP tied up to it. I said.. Ah! They're looking for me. Well... neither my buddy or the other two divers were on the boat. The FMP found the boat drifting... So... I got on the boat and we headed back to where I was diving. As we get there... we see three divers sitting on the beach. The FMP sent a truck down to pick them up, and we went back to Sebastian.

What happened? The ring that holds the rope to anchor broke. When my buddy surfaced, the boat had already broken loose, and he tried to chase it. The other two guys were about 10 feet from the boat when it broke loose. They could almost feel it...

The moral of the story... don't leave your boat unattended.

Al

 

[Talon]

Dang Al... Carmichael, Tom, and I were just talking about situations like that the other day. Makes that night dive from last weekend not seem so bad now doesn't it . How far of a swim would it have been back to shore?

Marco, as soon as I read the message - just sounded like you. Checked out your picture and it was. Congrat's on finally getting a boat! I know you and Timina have been wanting one since you got down here. As for sites - check out the SISA reefs. They kind of remind me of the rock piles off the Mizpah in WPB. Ton of life on them. I hear a lot of Jew Fish hang out there. I haven't seen any, but did she the freaking biggest stingray I have ever seen there (10-12 feet long). Enjoy.

Michael

 

[GrierHPharmD]

I'll chime in on leaving somebody on the boat. Here's another story about a situation that went haywire, though I like Al's more:

http://www.undercurrent.org/members/UCnow/issues/y2004/UC0104/WhyDiversDie200401.pdf