Florida Dive report

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Wendy

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Well I haven't been in salt water since August, been too busy diving in them caves in north Florida. But I'
ve started working on my DM and needed to do some salt water boat kinda dives.

I met up wiht my two buddies down in Jupiter, Florida. We were planning on doing a 2 tank boat dive on some ledges. We used jupiter Dive Center (www.jupiterdivecenter.com). The boat was nice and the crew both friendly and helpful. The only thing I had a problem with was it was more like a giant group dive rather than a buddy dive. I like it better when everyone has a buddy. I kept seeing divers by themselves lobstering or whatever and I flet like I had to watch them in case they had a problem. Maybe I just have a natural DM outlook. Just like making sure everybody is ok, solo divers make me nervous.

There was probably about 12 to 15 dives on the boat, I didn't count them. It had to be at least 90ºF outside, sunny, just a great day. I had heard the water temp was around 75ºF, so I opted to dive a skin and a long sleeve shorty. I don't like to get hot on the boat, gives me that icky sick feeling and makes me unmotivated to dive. The water wasn't cold at all. My instructor and other buddy were wimps and dived in dry suits! My max depth on this dive was 81'. The ledge started at 60' and most of my dive was at 72'. The vis was about 40'. I never saw the DM with the flag and because the vis wasn't great me and my buddies decided to deploy a lift bag so the boat knew where we were. I saw the biggest turtle I've ever seen! Saw the biggest spotted moray I've ever seen! Saw one of those flying gerand things. And saw this huge trumpetfish that was yellow with these bright glowing blue spots. Very cool dive!

The plan for this dive was to work on navigation, checking compass headings, do some OOA drills on the safety stops and then surface rescues back to the boat. However one of my buddies had some weight/over bouyant issues at the end of the dive got kinda floaty. Maybe needed more weight or had some air trapped somewhere in the drysuit. I did my safety stop and headed back to the boat.

I ended up not wanting to do my second dive and the buddy that had the problems decided to sit out, so the instructor did the second dive with the rest of the group.

So that was my boat dive. It was nice. I had developed a shark phobia from being out of the salt water for so long and I've taken up shark fishing, so I was afraid of having some bad shark karma, but I didn't get eaten and didn't see any, so that's a good thing.
 
Wendy

Nice trip report. I will have to check out Jupiter.

mike
 
My wife and I spent a day with Jupiter Dive center and had a great time. We had done a bunch of dives in West Palm and needed a change. I do remember the "group dive" feel though. There is a couple of dive operations out of West Palm that I would recomemend (can't remember the names right now, but I'll ask the wife). Did you see the porpose that lives in their cove?
 
Wendy -
I'm glad you had a good trip - I was in the keys in Nov to dive the Duane - but got blown of the ship - with the NE wind... so much for luck.

Big T
 
The Duane is a great dive, there was a strong current when I dived it a year ago, but still really great. Hope you get another chance at it.
 
Oh - I'll be back - I really wanted to see the 5 bull sharks living on it though... better luck next time - what surprised me was how many operations were willing to go out there even with the seas they had... somehting about money that seems to skew people's judgement...

The end of April I will go to Canada and dive the Chaudiere again - that is a very cool dive as well. Its just not that warm... ;-)

I'm looking forward to it.
Big T
 
Just I must have missed the bull sharks, never heard of any there. There was rumor of a hammerhead feeding around there when I was there, but no bull sharks. There were a mess of baracudas though, over 50 at least.
 
When I was there a couple of the operators told me of 5 bull sharks - since I didn't get to look for them I can't tell you if it was true -
I do know that I will be diving that wreck again sometime in the future - but for now I'm going to Dominiica for warm waters as soon as I get back from Canada.

I would have loved to see a hammerhead in the water - they are SO cool... I know - keep my fingers to myself...
:)

Big T
 
My first day on the board and I have learned a great deal. I have been diving for 8 months and 90% of the dives have been fresh water in the north of Florida. I have a horrible fear of sharks.(too much tv) last weekend my buddy and I dove off Ft Pickens in Pensacola. our first salt water dive. it was great. but i spent most of my time looking over my shoulder and my buddies for sharks. Can anyone suggest a cure. thanks
 

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