Palm Beach Dive Thread

[MrChen]

30 years of mistakes, wrong turns, sand drops, & lost gear. But nothing hurts more than riding home 2hrs with an empty dry cooler.( or a flooded camera)

A flooded camera hurts much more than an empty cooler!

 

[MrChen]

Here's a video short of my second dive on Paul's Reef from Sunday.

 

[MrChen]

I went out Saturday and Sunday this past weekend. Both days with Luke on Neptunus (Shellback Scuba).

Saturday we went to Pauls Reef and Bath & Tennis. We had 1ft choppy seas, 60-80ft vis, light north current, and warm water.

Sunday we went south, but on a lesser known reef they called Shooter's Alley and the Princess Anne. We only had 40ft vis, light north current, and cold water. The water temp had a direct relation to your depth.

 

[NothingClever]

Out with Pura Vida Divers yesterday.

First drop was Mid Reef. Sharks and turtles. North current. 1.5mm WS and great viz.

Second drop was the Wreck Corridor (Ana Cecilia, Mizpah, Amaryllis). I was first on the wreck and dive bombed straight into her guts, coming to a smooth hover above big pillowy mounds of silt in the bilge with nary a particle disturbed like I was some kind of dive boss. I explored stem to stern with ultra-Gucci positional kicks, came up in bad ass trim, pointed out a hidden GG to somebody struggling with the current and then thought I’d get on with a solo drift to Brazilian Docks. Confidently departed the stern like I was some kind of frog kicking track star, spotted the temp probe at the halfway point as a navigational check and then promptly found myself flying over the desert, blissfully lost. It’s good to be a sucky diver every once in a while to stay humble.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Out with Pura Vida Divers yesterday.

First drop was Mid Reef. Sharks and turtles. North current. 1.5mm WS and great viz.

Second drop was the Wreck Corridor (Ana Cecilia, Mizpah, Amaryllis). I was first on the wreck and dive bombed straight into her guts, coming to a smooth hover above big pillowy mounds of silt in the bilge with nary a particle disturbed like I was some kind of dive boss. I explored stem to stern with ultra-Gucci positional kicks, came up in bad ass trim, pointed out a hidden GG to somebody struggling with the current and then thought I’d get on with a solo drift to Brazilian Docks. Confidently departed the stern like I was some kind of frog kicking track star, spotted the temp probe at the halfway point as a navigational check and then promptly found myself flying over the desert, blissfully lost. It’s good to be a sucky diver every once in a while to stay humble.

All of us have had a dive start out in a stellar fashion ... then we get cocky ... then it all goes to pot!!

 

[Johnoly]

... found myself flying over the desert, blissfully lost.

I usually try to find a fish or group and follow them to a reef. It took me years to learn that fish LIE and try to trick you into following them. Nice report!!

 

[MrChen]

spotted the temp probe at the halfway point as a navigational check

Is that what that thing is? How does it report back the temp to someone, or do they have to manually retrieve it?

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Is that what that thing is? How does it report back the temp to someone, or do they have to manually retrieve it?

I'm not aware of any temp sensors deployed on the bottom, but there's a bunch of VR2 acoustic monitors and (at least during goliath grouper aggregation season) hydrophones on the various Palm Beach/Jupiter wreck corridors.

https://www.innovasea.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Innovasea-Fish-Tracking-vr2w_69khz-data-sheet-0621.pdf

 

[NothingClever]

Is that what that thing is? How does it report back the temp to someone, or do they have to manually retrieve it?

I honestly haven’t ever gotten confirmation of what it is. I’ve heard others refer to it as a temperature logger but it’s always been crew chatter, not a meteorologist or marine scientist.

 

[Johnoly]

do they have to manually retrieve it?

Many years ago we helped with acoustic monitors on the lionfish that researchers were tracking movement patterns(but it captures all fish pings too). Since we dove the same deep spots they had placed a few, we just sent emails back to their team that the monitor(s) was still in the same place, flashing, and was buoyant and not laying down on the reef due to leaks. It was the same receivers that @HalcyonDaze posted and they left them in the water for several months, then moved them north & south trying to match up fish ID movement pattern pings. Their receivers had to be brought back to the surface to be downloaded and the results were published at the lionfish summit in Cocoa Beach.