Palm Beach Dive Thread

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Wishing you good and safe diving! I look forward to seeing your report.

I'm diving Jupiter this weekend. JDC AM Goliath Grouper dives both days.
are a lot of groupers showing up now?
 
A friend told me about a woman who died during a dive about 2 weeks ago off of Singer Island. I've been diving West Palm Beach for over 20 years and figured I'd have seen something mentioned on SB, but haven't. Anyone heard anything? She was 30 yrs old and apparently they found her dead at the bottom, reg still in mouth. My friend missed the trip himself, but his 5 other buddies were there so details are a little sketchy. He didn't even know which boat it was.
 
First dive: Ana Cecilia, Mizpah and Amarillis wrecks today.

Sealife: Coupla groupers (one female), big ray, large nurse shark, juvenile reef shark and a moray eel.

Second dive: Mid Reef

Sealife: All the usual beautiful, colorful reef fish. No big boys of any type.

I’m sure some folks might complain the visibility was poor. I acknowledge viz was degraded but I thought it was still pretty darn good.

Very little current today so the Guide definitely had to work today.
 
Out with Pura Vida today.

First dive: Flower Garden

Sea life: Tons of schooling fish of all regular sizes. Barrel sponges, fan corals, some whip coral. Really healthy reef. Almost no current.

Second dive: Dive-O-Rama

Sea life: Saw the tail end of a large lemon shark that got everyone's attention, a baby ray and tons of schooling fish. More barrel sponges and fan corals. Really impressed with the health of the reef. Current was better and provided for a decent drift.

Visibility: Horizontal and vertical visibility were about 10m / 33 feet. Pretty darn good, IYAM! Is it normally better? Sure but I think even on a bad day, the viz is better than a lot other places so I don't feel the urge to complain.

Depth for both dives: 15-18m / 49-60ft.

Temperature: 29*C / 84* F - Shouldn't need more than a 1mm. Lycra protection suit's a great option for summer sea dives in Florida. There ARE thermoclines periodically so have a plan to stay warm (face down snow angels) should you find yourself floating through one.

General comments: NICE boat! Like a theater stage on the swim deck. I always request to sit furthest aft so I can jump first (alongside the DM). While I was waiting on the dive command, I was tempted to break out into a karaoke version of "Cool Change" by Little River Band but I didn't want all the women on the boat to fall madly in love with me and forget to do their pre-dive equipment checks. Captain Jason and Nicole did a great job.
 
Visibility: Horizontal and vertical visibility were about 10m / 33 feet.
Temperature: 29*C / 84* F - ...... There ARE thermoclines periodically ....
Thanks for the conditions. Many similar reports with deeper being colder.
 
I went out Saturday for a 2 tank trip departing from Jim Barry Park. We went north of the inlet.

Seas were bumpy, every bit of 3ft and the interval was shorter than the forecast. Even though I took something for sea sickness, I was feeling it.

First dive, deep red colored bugs everywhere. Visibility 40ft, light current. There was a slight thermocline around 85ft and the temp was still in the 80's. Right on the drop, I landed on 5. One of my buddies came over and accidentally scared one back in a hole that we couldn't get it out of. I caught 3 (one had eggs) and he caught 1. I took a NW heading and wasn't finding many holes, so I veered back east and started finding lobsters again. The problem was, there were a lot of eggers.

We split our dive group in half so that someone is always someone on the boat. The divers coming up reported a really fishy spot, so we jumped in on that spot.

Second dive, visibility is a little lower, maybe 30-35ft, light current. We wanted to hit the fish spot that the other group mentioned. I knew one of the guys had a better idea of exactly where to go, so I was going to follow him. I forgot to put my gloves and we called dive dive dive, so I was putting them on during descent. I was keeping my eye on the other guy, got my gloves on, still could see him, loaded my gun, and lost him. I took a NE heading and needed to go directly East. I was in no man's land, so shot my DSMB around the 10 min mark and surfaced.

I had plenty of air for another drop.

Third dive, I dropped in after the other group. I first helped them all gear up so I would have room to gear up. I got dropped around the same area. Visibility was around 40ft, light current. I kept finding eggers. I ended up on a really fishy spot and couldn't find anything worth shooting. I tried throwing sand up, hoping something would be attracted by it, but no luck. I ended the day with 5 lobsters, one of them was really big.
 
Today in 100 40-50 ft vis, maybe 76 on bottom slight to moderate current, did 1.1 miles and got zero lobsters on first dive. I did get a Lionfish!!!

North of MacArthur… freezing cold dirty less current in 85-90. Like a different day
 
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