If I had time I'd go tomorrow, despite the probability of impaired visibility. Sometimes storms like this stir up creatures from the deep & put them into places where they are not normally found. You never know what you might see immediately after a storm. It's one of those roll-the-dice opportunities that comes along every now & then.
Palm Beach Dive Thread
- Thread starter Divin'Papaw
- Start date
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Back when I used to play with Cessnas, I got into such strong headwinds one day that I was able to fly the plane backwards over land at minimum controllable air speed. A real strong headwind like that can make it a easy to get down onto the runway, but trying to taxi around on the ground can be a real roll of the dice in those conditions.
Not sure I want to make the hour commute to take the chance...
I'm desperate for some dive condition reports. If you go out today or tomorrow, please report in.
Heard the bridge was 15-20 very hazy..
johndiver999
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Strong current hazy 35-40, 80 degrees on bottom in 90
Johnoly
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Thanks for the quick post-hurricane report & conditions !!
Lotta work to deal with the brisk current this morning. BTs shorter for everyone, even sippy cup divers.
Vis not its normal brilliance but would still be breathtakingly magical for the quarry commandos and river rats that visit Flor-duh for diving.
Same trip as @Divin'Papaw earlier this week - Ana Cecilia to Amaryllis on first dive, Danny to Spud Barge on second dive.
Captain Jason of PVD provides bombproof drops. Quinne and Jianna earned their tips - hard work today.
Vis not its normal brilliance but would still be breathtakingly magical for the quarry commandos and river rats that visit Flor-duh for diving.
Same trip as @Divin'Papaw earlier this week - Ana Cecilia to Amaryllis on first dive, Danny to Spud Barge on second dive.
Captain Jason of PVD provides bombproof drops. Quinne and Jianna earned their tips - hard work today.
Captain Jason + Dave, Quinne and Mike today with PVD.
Danny to Atlantis on first drop. Moderate current and viz was 10-12m / 33-40ft. Temp was rashie to 1mm. We got pushed to the east edge of Atlantis and missed the Spud Barge. No drama - happens. Curious juvenile reefie loitered around the leading edge of divers.
Second drop was The Corridor (Ana C to Amaryllis). Lone GG on guard duty at Ana C. I broke off from the group at Mizpah to confirm navigational cues from Amaryllis to China Barge and then Brazilian Docks. I shot while amidships on Amaryllis and immediately got pulled east off the wreck. I should’ve waited until reaching the Amaryllis’ stern to shoot to guarantee the jump to China Barge. She’s a long wreck at 134m / 441ft so there was no way I was getting back over the top of Amaryllis once my DSMB ascended, at least not without going Cookie Monster on gas. I missed China Barge but picked back up on the trail on the east edge of Brazilian Docks. When I surfaced I was about 400m further north than the main body. If one wants to detach from the main body, one can grow the gap quickly so I think it’s a good practice to get a DSMB up as early as possible to help the Captain and crew track a singleton.
Saw two reefies (one juvenile) on the port side of Amaryllis then a busy ray at Brazilian Docks.
Important diving skills learned this trip…
1) Tulipan Bakery opens at 06:00 Monday thru Saturday. Early is good because the line grows quickly when the doors open. It’s easy to make initial manifest call at 07:00 and rain breakfast pastries on the crew. I step on the boat like the Pablo Escobar of pastries.
2) On Sundays, Tulipan opens at 07:00. I make initial manifest call a few minutes early at 06:50 then run up to Tulipan to make it back in plenty of time to load my kit, drink coffee, eat pastries and tell lots of the usual diver lies like how supernaturally low my RMV is or how I developed the specialty course for diving inside the species of whale that swallowed Jonah and I'm the only instructor in the world that can teach it.
3) Include Tom the marina manager in the headcount for pastries. This unlocks the bonus scoring feature - every point scored is tripled.
4) Don't dive twinset on a recreational boat. The number of people who want to share with you that they're full cave qualified but then proceed to muck about underwater like complete dorks is inordinately high. Dive ST and spare yourself from other people's diver lies. They'll still dive like dorks but at least that's not prefaced with how they have the C-card to dive the caves on Mars.
Danny to Atlantis on first drop. Moderate current and viz was 10-12m / 33-40ft. Temp was rashie to 1mm. We got pushed to the east edge of Atlantis and missed the Spud Barge. No drama - happens. Curious juvenile reefie loitered around the leading edge of divers.
Second drop was The Corridor (Ana C to Amaryllis). Lone GG on guard duty at Ana C. I broke off from the group at Mizpah to confirm navigational cues from Amaryllis to China Barge and then Brazilian Docks. I shot while amidships on Amaryllis and immediately got pulled east off the wreck. I should’ve waited until reaching the Amaryllis’ stern to shoot to guarantee the jump to China Barge. She’s a long wreck at 134m / 441ft so there was no way I was getting back over the top of Amaryllis once my DSMB ascended, at least not without going Cookie Monster on gas. I missed China Barge but picked back up on the trail on the east edge of Brazilian Docks. When I surfaced I was about 400m further north than the main body. If one wants to detach from the main body, one can grow the gap quickly so I think it’s a good practice to get a DSMB up as early as possible to help the Captain and crew track a singleton.
Saw two reefies (one juvenile) on the port side of Amaryllis then a busy ray at Brazilian Docks.
Important diving skills learned this trip…
1) Tulipan Bakery opens at 06:00 Monday thru Saturday. Early is good because the line grows quickly when the doors open. It’s easy to make initial manifest call at 07:00 and rain breakfast pastries on the crew. I step on the boat like the Pablo Escobar of pastries.
2) On Sundays, Tulipan opens at 07:00. I make initial manifest call a few minutes early at 06:50 then run up to Tulipan to make it back in plenty of time to load my kit, drink coffee, eat pastries and tell lots of the usual diver lies like how supernaturally low my RMV is or how I developed the specialty course for diving inside the species of whale that swallowed Jonah and I'm the only instructor in the world that can teach it.
3) Include Tom the marina manager in the headcount for pastries. This unlocks the bonus scoring feature - every point scored is tripled.
4) Don't dive twinset on a recreational boat. The number of people who want to share with you that they're full cave qualified but then proceed to muck about underwater like complete dorks is inordinately high. Dive ST and spare yourself from other people's diver lies. They'll still dive like dorks but at least that's not prefaced with how they have the C-card to dive the caves on Mars.
I got out on Sunday on a private boat. Top side conditions were amazing. It wasn't too hot, and the wave interval was high. Initial plan was to go north of the inlet and hit a spot where someone recently lost their scooter. We got to the area and the surface current was over 4mph. We opted to try south of the inlet. The surface current was still high, maybe 3 to 3.5mph.
Dive 1:
Visibility was 50ft and very hazy. The spot was intended to be fishy. I saw a nice lobster, it was between me and a dive mate. She had a few feet of a lead on me, so I moved on. It was a monster too, deep red in color. I found a few lobsters, but with the current, I had a heck of a time getting in position and they had deep holes. The holes were facing south and with the strong north current, it was more difficult than it was worth. I found some fishy spots, but nothing really worth shooting except maybe a porgy and the effort for that was too much too in the current. Others came up with lobsters and some hog fish.
Dive 2:
We went pretty far south, still looking for a change in conditions. Visibility was 35ft and the current below was a little slower, but still moving. I'm not sure how else to explain this. The area had a very sandy bottom and with mounds of 50ft x 50ft reef (sizes could be smaller or larger). You had to hop over the sand to the different spots. It was hard to identify where it was best to hop with the limited visibility.
On descent, I'm getting my speargun ready and I see a Tusa scooter sinking down. I hopped on my scooter to retrieve it. I was at depth and ready to either float it or see if I could find my dive mate when I hear some audible yelling. I couldn't find the person making the noise, and they eventually tapped me on the shoulder. It was the happy owner of the scooter. They followed my bubbles down hoping I grabbed it. A few min later, we crossed paths and run into another buddy who's pointing out a nice hog. Since both of them shot hogs on dive 1, they pointed at me to take it. Karma for saving the scooter
. I also shot a yellow jack and had another yellow circle around me, but I couldn't get a good aim on it before it swam off. I caught a few lobsters, but they were short. I did bring one up to the boat to measure again. It was too close, so I tossed it back in. We limited the boat on hog fish, everyone had one by the end of this dive. One buddy landed a 25 inch mutton. A couple came up with a lot of lobsters which were all found in 100+ft. I never navigated east to that depth.
Dive 3:
With the poor vis, we went north of the inlet to try our luck with the current and visibility. Visibility was around 50ft and the current was stronger. I found around 8 lobsters on this dive, a few shorts, 2 in my bag, and a few which the current aided in their escape. The amount of work required to catch some of these lobsters wasn't worth effort in the current. I hit a really fishy spot, and a monster mutton came swimming by and was moving really agitated by my presence. It wanted to swim by me on the ledge. I couldn't stop in the current to setup a shot and it made its move. It was a bad opportunity, and I missed. I see another big fish, maybe a grouper, go into the ledge, so I got my light out and couldn't figure out what magical hole it snuck in to because there wasn't a hole that I could find. It reminded me of Harry Potter movie when they run into the brick wall at the train station.
Dive 1:
Visibility was 50ft and very hazy. The spot was intended to be fishy. I saw a nice lobster, it was between me and a dive mate. She had a few feet of a lead on me, so I moved on. It was a monster too, deep red in color. I found a few lobsters, but with the current, I had a heck of a time getting in position and they had deep holes. The holes were facing south and with the strong north current, it was more difficult than it was worth. I found some fishy spots, but nothing really worth shooting except maybe a porgy and the effort for that was too much too in the current. Others came up with lobsters and some hog fish.
Dive 2:
We went pretty far south, still looking for a change in conditions. Visibility was 35ft and the current below was a little slower, but still moving. I'm not sure how else to explain this. The area had a very sandy bottom and with mounds of 50ft x 50ft reef (sizes could be smaller or larger). You had to hop over the sand to the different spots. It was hard to identify where it was best to hop with the limited visibility.
On descent, I'm getting my speargun ready and I see a Tusa scooter sinking down. I hopped on my scooter to retrieve it. I was at depth and ready to either float it or see if I could find my dive mate when I hear some audible yelling. I couldn't find the person making the noise, and they eventually tapped me on the shoulder. It was the happy owner of the scooter. They followed my bubbles down hoping I grabbed it. A few min later, we crossed paths and run into another buddy who's pointing out a nice hog. Since both of them shot hogs on dive 1, they pointed at me to take it. Karma for saving the scooter
. I also shot a yellow jack and had another yellow circle around me, but I couldn't get a good aim on it before it swam off. I caught a few lobsters, but they were short. I did bring one up to the boat to measure again. It was too close, so I tossed it back in. We limited the boat on hog fish, everyone had one by the end of this dive. One buddy landed a 25 inch mutton. A couple came up with a lot of lobsters which were all found in 100+ft. I never navigated east to that depth.Dive 3:
With the poor vis, we went north of the inlet to try our luck with the current and visibility. Visibility was around 50ft and the current was stronger. I found around 8 lobsters on this dive, a few shorts, 2 in my bag, and a few which the current aided in their escape. The amount of work required to catch some of these lobsters wasn't worth effort in the current. I hit a really fishy spot, and a monster mutton came swimming by and was moving really agitated by my presence. It wanted to swim by me on the ledge. I couldn't stop in the current to setup a shot and it made its move. It was a bad opportunity, and I missed. I see another big fish, maybe a grouper, go into the ledge, so I got my light out and couldn't figure out what magical hole it snuck in to because there wasn't a hole that I could find. It reminded me of Harry Potter movie when they run into the brick wall at the train station.
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