Johnoly
Contributor
- Messages
- 4,564
- Reaction score
- 6,594
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
Last Wednesday the wave models were saying 4-6 foot waves for today. I am so happy they got it dead wrong. Their was a strong cold front that produced some tornados in Orlando last night, but the strong front stalled a little south of O-town, and Jupiter/WPB ended up with one of the best dive days I have ever seen. It turned out to be just glass flat.
Todays dives were with a new dive boat! Chuckitall, Amazz, Doug and myself had the entire Emerald Dive Charters boat to ourselves! Emerald Dive Charters is the new boat run by Randy Jordan in conjunction with and docked at the Jupiter Dive Center. This now gives JDC, 2 strong dive boats since they are that busy. The Emerald dive boat is geared towards hitting those farther out special dive sites and typically doing 3 tanks instead of 2.
On todays dives the boat was wide open and we had enough room to put a bowling alley down the middle. Dive seats are wide and equipped with roll control tank racks and a unique bungee system that doesn't go over your valve but rather hugs your whole BCD and holds everything tight and in front.
Since we could pick where we wanted to go, we said let's hit the Loran Tower reef system. Our first dive was on a ledge called Nine Steps. It has a series of ever increasing ledges that finally platteau to the top of the reef then fall off on the other side. 8 out of 10 times the Loran Tower has viz of less than 10 feet and its a gamble to try it. As soon as we dropped down, we could see some of the best viz that I have ever seen here, with an easy 50 feet. As I can clearly see the bottom coming up to me, I notice there is almost no current.
I look at the first ledge as I near the bottom and I start shaking uncontrollably. Is it Ox-Tox at 75 feet?? Hell no, its monster bug city!! And these bugs are huge. Their legs are as long as their antennas! They're monsters, and they are walking out of their holes because they want to show how tough they are. I grab a full bag of them, and keep moving down the reef system.
All the sudden I see this big southern stingray buried in the sand and it's not moving even an inch. With the whole Steve Irwin event, I took a couple of minutes to closely examine the barb on its tail. This one looked every bit of a full size 8" long spike and it was easy to see that it could kill you instantly, I of course kept my distance. Right after that, I saw something I have never seen in Jupiter, it was a Helmet crab, that was very cool to see. I'm touching NDL and my bag feels like a Im carrying a bag of bricks.
Since our dives were so good, we decided to barely overlap and repeat the tail end of where we got out and back dive the rest of the reef. Again, just bugs all over the place. Amazz saw a huge black grouper zip across the reef, behind both Chuckitall and myself, knowing that it would never have a chance if both of us stalk it. Again, the bag's full after 15 minutes into the dive and were done lobstering for the day.
We see the sister boat, Republic IV and swing close to drop off some lunch for Capt Mike and Ms Heather. The divers on their boat are asking us how its going , and we tell them were done and just playing around.
Our last dive is not really a named dive site, its kind of between a couple of places. I headed east and everyone else headed west. I dont have any lobster tools with me at all just a gun. I shoot a nice sheeps head and while stringing it, This really nice sized lobster is checking me out. So I reached over and blocked his rear legs with my gun then grabbed his antenna, but I have no where to put him. I see some bubbles about 100 feet away and think its my buddies. As I get on top of them, its someone unknown and looks like a father and son team with a pole spear and they are trying to get a lobster, but miss. I motion to his catch bag and offer him my lobster, but hes completely confused and asking What? What? I point to my bug, then to his bag and he understands that I want to give him my bug as a present. As I leave them, they are both looking at each other dumbfounded and wondering why some guy swimming around the ocean by himself just comes up and puts food in their bag. Pay it forward!!
I shoot another sheeps and hit a nice mutt. Back up top, Chuckitall has the meanest Mutton snapper in the ocean and had to shoot it twice, it was so mean! He picked up a couple of really nice fish along with a great yellow tail and we managed to pretty much fill up the cooler with dinner.
Jupiter is my home turf but it still continues to just amaze me at everything it offers with the new siting of the Helmet Crab, Great Viz and always sharks, sharks sharks. Another great day on the water!!
Todays dives were with a new dive boat! Chuckitall, Amazz, Doug and myself had the entire Emerald Dive Charters boat to ourselves! Emerald Dive Charters is the new boat run by Randy Jordan in conjunction with and docked at the Jupiter Dive Center. This now gives JDC, 2 strong dive boats since they are that busy. The Emerald dive boat is geared towards hitting those farther out special dive sites and typically doing 3 tanks instead of 2.
On todays dives the boat was wide open and we had enough room to put a bowling alley down the middle. Dive seats are wide and equipped with roll control tank racks and a unique bungee system that doesn't go over your valve but rather hugs your whole BCD and holds everything tight and in front.
Since we could pick where we wanted to go, we said let's hit the Loran Tower reef system. Our first dive was on a ledge called Nine Steps. It has a series of ever increasing ledges that finally platteau to the top of the reef then fall off on the other side. 8 out of 10 times the Loran Tower has viz of less than 10 feet and its a gamble to try it. As soon as we dropped down, we could see some of the best viz that I have ever seen here, with an easy 50 feet. As I can clearly see the bottom coming up to me, I notice there is almost no current.
I look at the first ledge as I near the bottom and I start shaking uncontrollably. Is it Ox-Tox at 75 feet?? Hell no, its monster bug city!! And these bugs are huge. Their legs are as long as their antennas! They're monsters, and they are walking out of their holes because they want to show how tough they are. I grab a full bag of them, and keep moving down the reef system.
All the sudden I see this big southern stingray buried in the sand and it's not moving even an inch. With the whole Steve Irwin event, I took a couple of minutes to closely examine the barb on its tail. This one looked every bit of a full size 8" long spike and it was easy to see that it could kill you instantly, I of course kept my distance. Right after that, I saw something I have never seen in Jupiter, it was a Helmet crab, that was very cool to see. I'm touching NDL and my bag feels like a Im carrying a bag of bricks.
Since our dives were so good, we decided to barely overlap and repeat the tail end of where we got out and back dive the rest of the reef. Again, just bugs all over the place. Amazz saw a huge black grouper zip across the reef, behind both Chuckitall and myself, knowing that it would never have a chance if both of us stalk it. Again, the bag's full after 15 minutes into the dive and were done lobstering for the day.
We see the sister boat, Republic IV and swing close to drop off some lunch for Capt Mike and Ms Heather. The divers on their boat are asking us how its going , and we tell them were done and just playing around.
Our last dive is not really a named dive site, its kind of between a couple of places. I headed east and everyone else headed west. I dont have any lobster tools with me at all just a gun. I shoot a nice sheeps head and while stringing it, This really nice sized lobster is checking me out. So I reached over and blocked his rear legs with my gun then grabbed his antenna, but I have no where to put him. I see some bubbles about 100 feet away and think its my buddies. As I get on top of them, its someone unknown and looks like a father and son team with a pole spear and they are trying to get a lobster, but miss. I motion to his catch bag and offer him my lobster, but hes completely confused and asking What? What? I point to my bug, then to his bag and he understands that I want to give him my bug as a present. As I leave them, they are both looking at each other dumbfounded and wondering why some guy swimming around the ocean by himself just comes up and puts food in their bag. Pay it forward!!
I shoot another sheeps and hit a nice mutt. Back up top, Chuckitall has the meanest Mutton snapper in the ocean and had to shoot it twice, it was so mean! He picked up a couple of really nice fish along with a great yellow tail and we managed to pretty much fill up the cooler with dinner.
Jupiter is my home turf but it still continues to just amaze me at everything it offers with the new siting of the Helmet Crab, Great Viz and always sharks, sharks sharks. Another great day on the water!!
