Palm Beach Dive Thread

[Scuba_Jenny]

Can I brag for just one minute? I KNOW it's not Palm Beach.. but it is beach.. LOL.
I have only ever limited twice in my life before this year, always off the beach. This year I have limited three times, twice this week! The lobsters on Wednesday night were everywhere! My buddy and I limited in 33 minutes. At 46 minutes we caught enough to switch out the smaller (legal of course!) ones for bigger. And they were still everywhere! Went back out Thursday night same place. Bugs much more skittish and numbers way down. I limited, and my buddy got two
/end brag.

Carry on..

 

[NothingClever]

Our extended range drift dive from Ana Cecilia to Spud Barge was canceled today. No drama - weather happens.

Trip wasn’t a bust since we had a superb technical dive on the Lady Luck yesterday out of the Pompano Beach area. This was a reconnaissance dive and we did it right with multiple laps around the whole wreck over 60 minutes of BT to fully appreciate all aspects of the wreck (how she lay on the seabed, primary and alternate penetration points, cargo hold space vs superstructure and crew space, etc). Great wreck. Looking forward to going back and owning half of the wreck and then returning for a third dive to own the other half. Think we’re going to penetrate at the stern on the next dive. Three GGs were on guard duty patrolling the deck with quite a few mature barracudas loitering about and one really large school of fish above the wreck to keep us company during deco on the upline.

Anyways, back to Palm Beach diving.

 

[PBcatfish]

Do y'all think the upcoming storm from the gulf could affect diving in the WPB area next weekend?

Yes

 

[Johnoly]

And they were still everywhere!

Your report confirms what we are seeing in northern PBC also. The bugs have really moved up to the shallows and probably because of the food source since deep is dusted over. When @scubadada posted he was seeing bugs on top of the shallow reefs, we took his report and moved up shallow to find them.

Last week they never really opened up Lk Okee which would reduce salinity and cause an ICW "walk". Next week might be a different story. Congrats on your "Nice & easy limits". With lots of us contributing conditions reports, it helps all of us find what we are looking for.

 

[CosbySweater]

Do y'all think the upcoming storm from the gulf could affect diving in the WPB area next weekend?

Yes. Significant rain fall runoff, lake O discharges, forecasted 13-15+ foot waves, and swell for several days as the storm moves east off shore are all causes for poor conditions through next weekend. Additionally, an east moving storm is likely to stir up the Gulf Stream for days if not a week or more, further complicating things. I could be wrong but I can’t see conditions being favorable for good diving for at least a week. Likely longer.

 

[MrChen]

I went out Saturday as well on a private boat. It was supposed to be 5ft seas with a 10 second interval. Oh man, it was a ride. We didn't see many charters out either. It felt like 4 second intervals. I'm guessing the secondary wave, or the storm clouds further east were the cause. My cousin was in town visiting and it took him no time to start chumming the water. Yes, I gave him something for the sea sickness in advance. I didn't get sick, but my stomach was in knots. I had no problems drinking liquids and didn't chance eating anything. The radio was really quiet as well, missing all the charter boats asking each other about conditions and organizing diver pick up when they get intermingled.

We planned for 3 tanks, split boat, so 6 dives in total. On my second dive (boat dive #4), my cousin's pole spear broke with a lionfish in the spear prongs. I wanted to intervene, but it was too late, he tried to put the LF in the zookeeper without having the pole shaft and he got poked in 2 spots. It was like watching a train about to hit a car parked on the railroad track. He dropped the LF, so I stabbed it with my speargun and shoved in the ZK. I collected the shaft, and we started our ascent.

While we were down on this dive, a pretty heavy storm blew over us. Those on the boat had decided to call off the rest of the day, they had already limited on lobsters and hogfish. With my cousin getting poked and seasick, it was convenient for him that it be called. We had several LF heat packs and got his hand on them. By bedtime, he said his hand was feeling pretty good at 75% strength. By the morning, he said he only had a little swelling on the top of his hand, and it felt 95%. I gave him a LF patch which was given to me the first time I got poked. My cousin is in the service and the boat owner is former military, so he gave him his LF challenge coin as a souvenir too.

We ended up with 5 lobsters and 10 lionfish. We had a big gag grouper swimming around us, which was crazy.

 

[riceowls]

Yes. Significant rain fall runoff, lake O discharges, forecasted 13-15+ foot waves, and swell for several days as the storm moves east off shore are all causes for poor conditions through next weekend. Additionally, an east moving storm is likely to stir up the Gulf Stream for days if not a week or more, further complicating things. I could be wrong but I can’t see conditions being favorable for good diving for at least a week. Likely longer.

Ok, we are pushing our trip back 4 weeks. Y'all stay safe out there

 

[johndiver999]

Blue water in 112, minimal current, 4-5 ft long period swell, 1-2, not sure of vis on bottom

 

[johndiver999]

100 ft plus vis warm on bottom

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

ugh.. I looked out upon the FLAT ocean this morning and couldn't justify a solo beach dive...