Palm Beach Dive Report

[baitedstorm]

Another gorgeous day out on the reef. First drop was on the Flower Gardens (outside ledge) seas were calm with a mild breeze. Bottom temp was 75f with a amazing 60-70 foot of viz.. (Nothing better than looking up from the bottom and being able to see the boat) Second drop was on the Trench. Same conditions with a very mild current. Tons of grunts in the Trench today, they almost look like wild flowers hanging around.
We haven't seen our beloved Hammerhead hanging around in a few days. Hopefully she'll return soon.


Three new divers joined our community of divers by finishing their certification dives today.... :cheering: wooohoooo!!!!

 

[Orlando Eric]

So you break out the great diving conditions for everyone but your closest friends huh? 70' and 75 degrees.... what's up with that man?
Glad to hear that the summer diving is starting to come around.

I am going to write a petition to get that renamed to Vickie's trench. You should get a mailbox there since you are there like 5 days a week now.. geesh.. it must be nice to dive so much that you start naming the fish and reconize them on sight!

Say hello to the baby eel for me eh?

Eric

 

[baitedstorm]

:laughing: I'll tell him hello tomorrow when I'm there... It was nice to get some great conditions.. You need to just dive more Eric!!

 

[JustJoe]

You need to just dive more Eric!!

Don't we all? Except for those spoiled brats who dive everyday..............not to mention any names.....................Vicki.

Joe

 

[baitedstorm]

May 7th

Today was no where near as awesome as Wednesday. Seas were still pretty flat with a small surface chop. Bottom temp still holding at 75. This viz was pretty sucky. It looked more like a dive at Venice Beach instead of the Flower Gardens.

Today was Captain Mike's birthday (woohoo), for his birthday pleasures the boat decided it was time for a new fuel pump. I just want to thank my fellow Conchs for a great sense of humor in dealing with this matter. We had to have the Tow of shame back into the Marina, but not before our Comrades from Diving Solutions picked up our divers for us and brought them back to our boat, KUDOS Captain Doug and DM Mike Law for getting our guys safely to us.

Our boat was fixed today before the sun ever went down (yay ) , and we will be back out there again tomorrow.

 

[baitedstorm]

May 8,2005

Another day in paradise. Our boat ran like a charm, thank you Mark for quickly changing out our fuel pump. Today was a treat. We had students from C&N divers out of Orlando go out with us today. Every student on the boat were deaf making this a first for me. What a blast! The kids got a really great treat today (as did I).

The seas were flat, little bit of surge on the bottom kicked stuff up but we still had about 30 feet of viz. Almost zero current with a bottom temp of 77°. The wildlife was out and willing to put on a show for our newly certified divers. We had a pod of dolphins swimming with the boat, shortly after dropping down, a few of us had the privilege to share space with a couple of the very curious little critters. Absolutely amazing. We saw all the normal residence out on the reef including a nice size southern sting ray. The kids were all smiling from ear to ear! On the way back into the marina the Captain stopped the boat so we could all take a good look at the largest Loggerhead turtle he had ever seen. Looking down into the water, I first thought it was a big manatee because of the size of the big dark blob just a few feet below the surface. When she finally came up to take a breath I couldn't believe the size of that turtle. Her head was as big as a human head, absolutely incredible.

Here's a picture of all the students, 3 Instructors, 2 DM's, the Captain and Lil Mikey our beloved boat hand.

 

[blondey]

I'm distressed that a certain someone left their shirt on for that picture.

 

[baitedstorm]

I'm distressed that a certain someone left their shirt on for that picture.

:laughing: sorry Blondey, I had to.....

 

[CBulla]

Ah well, the good thing about diving with deaf divers is you don't have to hear that one "idiot on the boat" talking about their world wide dive ventures and how great a diver s/he is.... on the flip side, you'd better have your hand signals DOWN PAT or they'll eat you alive! Remember the sign for nurse shark?!

Vickie, thats awesome that you had the opportunity to dive with this group of divers... I'm sure their experience diving will be hard pressed to be surpassed after having you DM for them!!

 

[baitedstorm]

May 10th

Seas were once again flat with a topside temp of 81. On the surface we had 77° on the bottom 75°. This viz was decent around 50 feet on the first stop known only as 112, we saw an array of life down there including a few Lemon sharks and a reef shark. There was a school of about 6 big grouper (Jew Fish) just staring us down laughing at my spear gun carrying dive buddy. I love this site. The current was about a knot and a half, with no bottom surge.
The second drop was on the Barge right next to Lobster Ledges. This was a cool little dive, we got to see another nurse shark, judging by her size, I'd say there was a pretty good reason why there were only a few lobsters hanging out (they were laughing at us too) The viz here was min. 70 feet, same water temp.
I got to try out a DPV on this dive, dang those things rock. I felt like I was flying..

The other group (crew dive, so we do 2 up 2 down) got some pretty close encounters with some hungry sharks looking for a free meal. As the last diver (the one with the icky murder bag...hehehehe, sorry) came up to the boat, he said there was about 4 sharks beneath him, just circling. A couple Lemons, and a 8 foot bull shark (no thank you). For the record (ahemm, Eric) I didn't see the Bull shark. This time , someone actually has pictures. As soon as they are sent to me, I'll post them