Palm Beach Dive Thread

[Divin'Papaw]

oh, small world, i was on that boat.
i was the guy sitting port side at the stern. now that you mention it i can recognize mr chen from his profile photo.

so that was mr chen i was asking about his handy compact reel, right?

i was on the other side of your turtle until some other people jostled in:


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Small world indeed! Were you diving with a slung pony? I was the other guy with a slung pony.

 

[bassplayer]

Small world indeed! Were you diving with a slung pony? I was the other guy with a slung pony.

yes i was - nice to have met you, see you guys around hopefully!

 

[scubadada]

How timely you got to do both the southern and northern sections back to back in one day!

Connecting them in one dive is what I’m aiming for on Sun, 06 Oct with PVD.

Below is the profile with considerations:

Plan for a depth no greater than 24m / 80ft. Much of the time we will be a bit shallower than that. Standard banked EANx mixes above 30% will keep you out of an obligation.

Concept of the dive:

1) START POINT: Ana Cecilia - Provided there is good current, folks can spend 10-15 minutes on this first wreck, the flagship wreck on this dive. If the current is weak, we will need to refrain from eating up backgas inside the Ana Cecilia in favor of having plenty to kick our way to the Spud Barge, the destination objective of this dive.

2) Mizpah - no penetration required to appreciate, slow drift over recommended

3) Rock Pile (aka Habitat Corridors South) - slow drift over recommended

4) Amaryllis - very large wreck, primarily exposed hull down to the keel and ribs, nothing to penetrate but there are some structural walls at the northern end of the wreck with spaces where goliath groupers may be occupying so keep our heads on a swivel

5) China Barge - lays flat, no penetration required to appreciate

6) Brazilian Docks - nothing to penetrate, large dock pilings strewn about. Groupers, barracudas and sharks frequent here

7) Danny - this wreck can be penetrated in the pilot house with an exit through the stern (natural direction of the dive)

8) Tug and Small Barge - OPTIONAL - Mike will make the call based on current and general progress - penetration NOT recommended, the barge sits partially on top of the tug (unstable) so dropping low and looking in with a powerful light may reveal some sealife hiding out

9) Atlantis - remnants of the Royal Park Bridge placed for artificial reef, rubble gets larger and larger as we continue drifting north

10) END POINT: Spud Barge - penetration is possible here but is tight

I have done some nice penetrations of the Mizpah with an experienced guide (Finch on Narcosis). I don't know if those routes currently exist.

 

[NothingClever]

I don't know if those routes currently exist.

They do now. It was a profile a DM and I developed and that I scheduled with Pura Vida. The BT requires a twinset. I’m working on another extended drift that connects a couple of ledges. I’m excited about the extended wreck corridor dive but the extended drift on the ledge really gets my interest.

I’m hoping @Divin'Papaw comes out of twinset retirement and signs up.

 

[MrChen]

@MrChen and I dived this morning with Pura Vida. We were on Marin with Capt. Dean and crew Lucas and Quin. We dived the Corridor Wreck Trek dive #1 and Danny-Atlantis-Spud Barge dive #2. We had beautiful sunny skies, no storms, light winds and comfortable 80s air temp. Seas were 1-2' with a moderate north current. Water temps were 84-85 and we had decent 30-40' viz on the bottom with greener water in the top 30' of the water column.

On Corridor we saw a beautiful green turtle on the Ana C along with a Loggerhead on the way to the Amaryllis, several reef sharks, and a few large barracuda along with all of the tropicals. On the Danny-Atlantis-Spud Barge we had plentiful schooling fish, all the usual tropicals, a few sharks including a bull with jacks in tow as we were ascending from the Spud Barge. @MrChen nabbed a couple lobster on the 2nd dive. We got in the full 60 minutes on dive #1 and 56 minutes on dive #2.

Here was the green turtle on the Ana C

When we did the Corridor, we finned all the way to the Brazillian Docks. Jim, correct me if I'm wrong, on the China barge, we saw a couple of GG's. We also saw a couple on the spud barge and I could hear barking at the Danny, but I didn't see any.

 

[MrChen]

@MrChen and I dived this morning with Pura Vida. We were on Marin with Capt. Dean and crew Lucas and Quin. We dived the Corridor Wreck Trek dive #1 and Danny-Atlantis-Spud Barge dive #2. We had beautiful sunny skies, no storms, light winds and comfortable 80s air temp. Seas were 1-2' with a moderate north current. Water temps were 84-85 and we had decent 30-40' viz on the bottom with greener water in the top 30' of the water column.

On Corridor we saw a beautiful green turtle on the Ana C along with a Loggerhead on the way to the Amaryllis, several reef sharks, and a few large barracuda along with all of the tropicals. On the Danny-Atlantis-Spud Barge we had plentiful schooling fish, all the usual tropicals, a few sharks including a bull with jacks in tow as we were ascending from the Spud Barge. @MrChen nabbed a couple lobster on the 2nd dive. We got in the full 60 minutes on dive #1 and 56 minutes on dive #2.

Here was the green turtle on the Ana C

That green turtle was pretty cool. Other divers were on the outside of the wreck taking pictures of it, which eventually prompted it to seek some alone time. It swam down to the sand to get away from the crowd.

 

[MrChen]

oh, small world, i was on that boat.
i was the guy sitting port side at the stern. now that you mention it i can recognize mr chen from his profile photo.

so that was mr chen i was asking about his handy compact reel, right?

i was on the other side of your turtle until some other people jostled in:


View attachment 862341

That's funny, I mentioned divers on the other side taking pics and there you are

I don't have the advantage of a profile pic, which person was you? I had 2-3 people asking about the AP reel.

 

[MrChen]

I went out Jim Barry Park on a private boat yesterday. We had 7 divers doing 2 tanks. We split the boat 3 and 4. @Scuba_Jenny joined me and she brought some friends. Seas were great. Though the forecast showed higher season, the long interval cancelled it out and conditions were better than Saturday.

Dive 1:
Visibility on the top 20ft was probably less than 10ft. It was brown and full of particulates. Below that was just green limited vis. Once you hit 85 ft, it opened up to a hazy blue, maybe 40-50ft of vis. We dropped on a barge, I'm not sure of the name. I need to find it on a map. It was loaded with fish. I didn't find anything to shoot, and I moved on to a patchy area to the NE while all the fin divers went west (too far west ). I picked up a few lobsters and headed NW over the sand, expecting to find the fin divers, but never did. In the end, I picked up 5 lobsters. I saw a few gag groupers on this dive and was disappointed that none of them were blacks.

Dive 2: Vis conditions were the same as dive 1. We dropped on a sport north of black rock. I had a nice yellow jack swim right up to me and he'll be dinner. As I was trying to get a handle on it, I look up and a school of them were in shooting range, some of them larger than the one I caught, but I'm not complaining. I couldn't get a second, the one I shot, I missed the stone shot by inches and he spun my line up in knots, so I had to undo my rigging to free my spear. Not long after that, I saw some small hogs. I decided to keep my distance and observe. Eventually they paired up with a larger one which looked legal, so I shot it, and he too will be dinner. Fish were everywhere, and I was looking for a grouper or mutton. All the mangroves were small. Eventually I was running out of time and wanted to get that 6th lobster, so I moved on. The scooter allows me to maneuver east/west. I saw a patchy rock to the east and found 2 lobsters in it. One had eggs and the other got bagged.

In total, limited on lobsters and caught a couple of fish. Not a bad day.

 

[MrChen]

yes i was - nice to have met you, see you guys around hopefully!

Oh cool, I wish we chatted more. I had the back mount pony.

 

[MrChen]

Jim and I made it onto PV's FB page which is a rare achievement.