Pampano Dive Report

[pdoege]

Hello guys -

I just got back from a weekend of dives in Pompano.

I had fun. The vis sucked. I had tons of equipment problems.

We went out on with Parrot Island Scuba aboard their "big" boat.

The crew was quite nice. The boat sits 22 and is a bit cattle-boaty.

I arrived at the hotel (The Sands Marina?) late on Thursday night. I had dinner at the attached restaurant. Pricey. I had the blackened tuna. That was without a doubt the best tuna I have ever had. Incredible and worth the price.

The rest of the group started to arrive about 2 hours later and we sat around and drank and talked for a long time.

I went for a morning jog to work off the Capt'n'Cokes. The beach was very pretty. I tried to run down to the lighthouse. Quite a distance! I turned around about .5 miles short. I had to be at the boat at 1 and it was around 12. So I ran back for about 45 minutes and all of a sudden I was lost. WTH? So I asked around to find myself and learned that I had ran about 1.5 miles past the hotel.

I had about 15 minutes to make it back. I had already run for about 2 hours and was in no mood to do that. No choice really, so off I went. I got to the hotel, sucked down some water, and put my gear in the car.

Got to the boat exactly on time. Yay!

My regs free flowed really easy as I set them up. I had just gotten them back from service, so I didn't think too much of it. More on that later.

The seas were really heavy and about half of the group got sick. What a mess.

I dove the wrecks Tracy and Jay Scutty. They are two artificial reefs. The Scutty is a barge and the Tracy appears to be a tug of some sort. They are connected via a chain.

The boat dropped our group on the Tracy. I lost the line on the way down in what must have been 5 foot of vis. Decent current too. I did a square search and found the Scutty. No other divers..... Hmm.. So I follow the chain out into the sand and found the Tracy and the rest of the group. Gotta love big tanks.

The Tracy allows some nice penetration. I still cannot back up in my splits. Dammit. There was a huge school of baitfish on the wreck with some jacks chasing them around. After everyone else ascended, some black fin tuna arrived.

Tuna are awesome predators. They would blow through the school, taking whichever fish they wanted too. The jacks would follow, batting cleanup. A barracuda joined in too. The poor baitfish where schooling around me, perhaps in the hopes that I would scare off the tuna.

No way I was going to chase off a tuna though.

That was really neat to see. I had never witnessed that sort of cooperative behavior before. I think Jacks are pretty social. I've seen big schools of jacks chase off reef sharks.

During the surface interval my safe second started acting up. Grrr. It had been mis-adjusted earlier. The tech apparently was not familiar with a long hose / safe second config. and thought it was my primary. I had put it back into the shop so they could do the job right..... I removed the safe second and capped the port for the next dive.

Next up was the Oakland ridges, a fairly shallow reef. My dive buddies found an itsy bitsy moray and played with it for a bit. The reef was really pretty. No current. Bugs everywhere. We did some catch and release. Good clean fun. Those lobsters were pretty pissed though. We found one spot where the lobsters would back away from my buddy right into my hands. Poor lobsters. We let each of them go. Can't wait for the season to start.

The next dive was a night dive on the wreck Hog's Heaven. This is a barge and debris field sitting on the bottom. There were some really big thermoclines here. My computer says it got down to 71 degrees. I froze my butt off on this dive.

I was partnered with a new girl. Her boyfriend was sick on the boat so I took her down. We did one circuit of the wreck and when we got back to the line she called the dive because she was cold. She made a big deal about me coming up. I could stay down! Really! Hell No! I was cold too! So we came up after about 30 minutes.

Nice wreck, but I really needed a hood.

After this dive we watched the fireworks. We could see about 6 different fireworks barges and it was a lot of fun.

There was a big wreck on the drawbridge, blocking the inlet to the intercoastal. We got to wait an additional 20 minutes or so for that to clear. A pain, but we all got home safe and sound.

It turns out that the lighthouse that I had tried to run to in the morning is on the other side of the inlet. Oops! It is a pretty lighthouse.

The next day the group did a 2 tank afternoon dive.

I brought my reg into Fill Express that morning so that they could take a look at it. They attached it to a tank and it seemed to work OK. No free flows and the IP was right on the money. Strange. Well, maybe there was some grit in there?

So I bought an H valve to install later and went to the boat. It turns out that I should have rented one of their regs! More below.

Of course, I forgot to bring my wetsuit. It was very dry and very much back at the hotel.

One of the group had a 5mm shorty and I had my beanie, so that was Ok.

The seas were really heavy. A camera landed on my foot and took out my little toe. Ouch!

I rigged my gear and my regs were free flowing like there was no tomorrow. I swapped the safe second out for a scubapro reg and it still free flowed. What the hell?

Of course, all my tanks are HP DIN, so no one else had a reg for me and there were no spare tanks. Crap! No amount of fiddling would make my regs behave. Man was I ticked off.

The rest of the group went in and I sat around moping. Dammit. The crew got tired of me biting their asses and dug a spare AL80 out of the hold and scrounged up a reg. Given the depth and new equipment I decided to call this dive and do the next. Not so bad. The crew went out of their way to help me out and I appreciate it.

The next dive was the Lighthouse Ledges. Nice reef. We never found the ledges. The current was ripping and the vis was bad. I stuck close to my buddies and fumed about the days events.

The guy with the flag was kicking with the current and he wasn't heading west to the ledges. What the hell? So he would disappear into the murk and then grab onto whatever he could until the other 2 of us caught up. I wasn't going to leave my buddy behind just to catch up with him.

My buddies reg was giving off bubbles and we called the dive when I had 1700 PSI. Arrgh!

I'm afraid that I was pretty mean to my buddies on the surface after that. It was uncalled for. Considering the conditions the flag carrier did a decent job. He certainly didn't deserve to be chewed out. I'll have to apologise next time I see him. The other buddy had equipment problems and her extra air usage wasn't her fault.

I am a complete putz. utz:

That wrapped up the diving for the day. Everyone was tired and I was looking forward to putting the day behind me.

The group went out to Flanigans on Atlantic Blvd. That is a really fun place.

I took my reg back to Fill Express the next morning (Sunday). The IP pressure was off the scale on a full tank and just right on a mostly empty tank. They'll go back in for service tomorrow. I hope they come out better this time. I am getting tired of luck-of-the-draw regulator maintenance. It would be nice to have it done right the first time.

Anyway, I learned a lot of lessons. Test the gear alot before going on a trip. Bring all of your equipment to the boat. Wear a hood when it is cold. Be nice and patient with your dive buddies.

I think that is it. Whew!

Peter

edit: Fixed stupid grammar error and replaced ***** word with "chewed"

 

[pdoege]

They actually have two boats. Big and small. The smaller of the two is probably what you want, although I've never been on her.

The big boat holds 22 and that is a lot of divers in the water.

They do not have a storefront. So, if you rent a tank or equipment they contract the rental out from another shop somewhere. So you pay whether you use the gear or not.

This is sort of a pain if you have a cancelation in your group, as you get to pay for their equipment regardless.

You will have to deal with some "interesting" characters in order to unload your gear, see the PS for details.

The crew was really good and the captain was very personable. I'm not sure whether that makes up for the minuses.

I'll dive some of the other boats in the area and report back.

Peter

PS. One thing to watch out for. They dock in a marina that is populated by fishing boats. The boats have a deal to reduce competition. Here is the deal. If a customer parks in front of a boat's slip, that boat gets first crack at the customer. If you park in front of boat, and the captain is there, he will ask you to unload your gear and move. Fair enough.

There are no signs that explain this and there are no "unloading zone" signs.

If you park in the space in front of Cat. Tony's "Killin Time" business, he will threaten to have your car towed. He will yell at you for an extended period of time. After you move your car he will still yell at you. He will offer to sell you his boat and business for $750k. He will threaten to have you removed from the premises, whether you are in front of his boat or not. He will demand to know your name and whether or not you own the vehicle in front of his slip. Ignoring him makes him even more belligerent.

There are two ways of avoiding this situation. The first is carry your gear from a good distance away. The second is to not use Parrot Island Scuba. I did #1 and I am pretty tempted adopt approach #2.

edit: Added the PS

 

[pdoege]

I visited a few scuba stores while I was in the area.

There are scuba stores everywhere and I couldn't make it to all of them.

First was Force-E. They are on Atlantic Blvd about 2 miles from the beach. I think this is part of a chain. Very well stocked. Lots of cool stuff to look at. They do not seem to be all that familiar with large tanks. My 120s were off by about 2%. The staff was friendly and eager to help.

Next up was [Insert actual name here when I remember it]. This shop is right next to the Sands Marina off of Atlantic Blvd. Maybe 1/4 mile from the beach. I believe that they are associated with the dive boat that calls the marina home. Maybe. (Perhaps you were expecting some actual hard data in this post? Hah!) The proprietor is a grumpy older fella. I talked to him until he gave up the act and what-do-you-know? He actually is a really nice and knowledgeable guy under that exterior. The shop is pretty typical. I bought a really cool dive site map. I'll post a report on it later.

Next, Fill Express. They are on Dixie Highway, about 2 miles from Atlantic Blvd. Maybe 10 minutes from the beach. This is a great shop. They only carry the technical Dive Rite stuff as far as I know. They do fills. Lots of fills. Extreme Exposure has a bigger and better fill system. Fill Express has really nice and knowledgable employees that go the extra mile for the customer, and their fill system is indoors! The fills are right on the money too. They bank EAN32, 36, 40. They do 100% O2 and they do trimix fills. Great place to spend money.

I talk with one of the other customers for a while. He was a great guy. A real character. He seems to be a professional dive bum. He has short bus full of technical gear with a bed in the back and fridge where the passenger seat used to be. What a great toy! I was amazed. We had a lot of fun talking and swapping stories.

Last, but not least is Anchor scuba. They are at the intersection of Atlantic Blvd and US 1. About a stone's throw from the beach. This is a very different shop. It seems to be a husband/wife team setup in a little dinky strip mall. Very cluttered. A strange mix of gift shop and scuba store. Really sort of neat. They seem to be mainly interested in teaching technical courses and running technical trips in their little 6pack and less interested in making bucks off of the store.

I confess to having a weakness for these little shops. They are sort of a romantic throwback to the past and it is a lot of fun to poke through them. I bought my beanie here and it worked great! If you need a beanie I highly recommend them. The wife part of the team is really nice and fun to talk too. Lots of stories there.

That is it! Hope you enjoyed my synopsis.

Peter

 

[Wendy]

pdoege once bubbled...



I talk with one of the other customers for a while. He was a great guy. A real character. He seems to be a professional dive bum. He has short bus full of technical gear with a bed in the back and fridge where the passenger seat used to be. What a great toy! I was amazed. We had a lot of fun talking and swapping stories.

Peter

So you met my friend Cliff. Did you notice that under the bed in the back of the bus are huge tanks so he can do his own fills on the road? Well at least they used to be in there. Anyway, Cliff recently bought some land in Panama and has been diving up a storm down there. He is a very rich, crazy dive bum.

Oh and speaking of my freinds, a little history note on the wreck od the Jay Scuttie. Jay Scuttie was fairly young (in his 20's I think) when he dies tragicly, so the family bought this old tug and had it sunk in his memory. One of my friends/dive buddies is a Scuttie and she told me about it.


I always use Parrot Island Scuba and I have never had a problem with parking.

I hate to ask this, but were you comfortable with diving with no backup reg on that one dive, especially when you were diving with someone fairly new that by the sound of it, you hadn't eer dived with before? You must have had some good karma stored up that nothing happened, or maybe it was bad karma since you had so many problems. I personally would have called the dive and just worked on my tan on the bow of the boat.

And about having people cancel, we I dive with a group and someone cancels they are responsible for paying for their space and rental gear whether they show or not, so that way the rest of us don't have to pay more. You could always rent the gear yourself if you use Parrot Island Scuba, isn't the dive shop right across the street that they rent the gear from?


Did you go by Brownie's? Didn't see you mention that dive shop.

 

[pdoege]

I was running low on time towards the end of the trip.

I didn't see any big tanks in the bus. Doesn't mean they weren't there. Heavens, I'm pretty sure he has a full brass band packed into there somewhere.

I was amazed at the way the parking Gestapo acted. He gave us guff both days. Bad luck combined with the wrong phase of the moon?? I thought that I should warn people as it was a pretty unpleasant experience.


Peter

edit: Link to Brownies website http://www.yachtdiver.com/

 

[MSP Rescue Diver]

pdoege once bubbled...
Next up was [Insert actual name here when I remember it]. This shop is right next to the Sands Marina off of Atlantic Blvd. Maybe 1/4 mile from the beach. I believe that they are associated with the dive boat that calls the marina home. Maybe. (Perhaps you were expecting some actual hard data in this post? Hah!) The proprietor is a grumpy older fella. I talked to him until he gave up the act and what-do-you-know? He actually is a really nice and knowledgeable guy under that exterior. The shop is pretty typical. I bought a really cool dive site map. I'll post a report on it later.

Lighthouse Dive. Owned by Nye and Linda Woodhouse. If it was an older guy with gray hair, it was Nye. If he wore glasses and a hat, it was Ken Cassady, who works there when Nye and Linda are off.

Marc

 

[pdoege]

I dug out the receipt and the shop's name is Lighthouse Dive Center.

Thanks for the names to put with the faces!

Peter

 

[JazzyM13]

I was on the Pompano Trip with Peter and wanted to tell you all about the wreck dive he sat out on. Saturday's first dive of the day took us the the Sea Emperor wreck, an upside down barge where you descend to the bottom and follow the wreck through the large holes in the walls at the bottom of the sea. Once you’ve explored the wreck, there are a group of large culverts covered with marine species of all types. I felt like I was in an aquarium of tropical reef fish, then I turn and got a glimpse of a Goliath Grouper that must have been at least 400lbs, he was a monster. On to a different part of the wreck and we see a free swimming 6ft green moray affectionately named “Baby” that just wanted come out to play and get his back rubbed. My buddy decided to try and get Baby’s attention and well, boy did he ever. Baby made a quick turn to approach my buddy, which by the look on his face took him a little bit by surprise. BOO!
Did you know when you laugh hysterically underwater, your mask floods?
I ended the dive with a beautiful Southern Stingray so adjusted to divers that he just came straight at me looking for a little pat on the wing. This wreck, by far, was my favorite and I can’t wait to dive it again.

By the way, Parrot Island SCUBA is awesome, they were friendly, extremely helpful and didn't regulate the dives, which is a major petpeave for me. The parking thing was a joke but I would never let some old man with a gripe about parking keep me from diving.

Marta

 

[MikeJacobs]

Marta - Marvel & I were on that boat! Nice wreck dive, and those were some BIG fish. Agreed, PI did the best they could under the circumstances, and Mike the DM was terrific as usual.