Trip Report - Jupiter - August 8, 2014

[SSharkk]

Jupiter Dive Center,daily dive charters, scuba classes, equipment.

Check In - Gerry and Phil

Captain - Mike

Dive Guide - Lester

Deck Hand - Adam

Flat seas, 82 F water temp, 40 ft. vertical vis, slow north current

Special 3 tank Friday dive

Animals of note:

1 bull shark

2 sandbar sharks

9 lemon sharks

1 caribbean reef shark

30 goliath groupers

1 loggerhead sea turtle

Hopefully we will have an outstanding goliath grouper spawn this year. We still have a few weeks before the traditional peak of this activity.

 

[drrich2]

Thanks for the report. I'm hoping to make it down in September. Hope to be blessed with good weather and a great trip.

Do they do anything different on the 3 tank trips vs. the 2 tank? What I mean is, I understand to the difference between 2 and 3, yeah, but do they hit different sites?

Richard.

 

[scubadada]

Often do Deep Ledge as the 1st dive, good opportunity to see sharks. Not often done on a 2 tanker

 

[drrich2]

Sorry to hear that. Because I booked a 3-tank dive for a Sunday, but got contacted & told I was bumped to a 2-tank dive instead, because a big group came along and wanted to book the whole boat. Grrr...I like sharks. Ah, well.

Thanks for the info., Scubadada. My tentative plan now is a 2-tank trip/day, Sunday through Thursday, Friday off to spend the day with family (helps avoid stink eye from wife), then fly back Saturday. Hope 10 dives (if weather cooperates and all goes well) would be a good sampling of the area & diving there in September.

Richard.

 

[scubadada]

I often go down on Thursday and do the 3 tanker on Friday, often not very crowed being a weekday. What time's your flight on Saturday? Maybe you could trade for another day off

 

[drrich2]

I thought about that. I had in mind making the family day an off-gas day, and letting the dive gear dry well after a good rinse, but who knows?

I hope the Jupiter area can keep a wife, pre-toddler and mother-in-law entertained. I think the youngsters area of Dubois State Park (if memory serves) should be nice for our daughter.

I'd like to see a loggerhead sea turtle in the wild, like Ssharkk mentioned. I've seen some in captivity, but not in the wild. And a bull shark; bull shark would be nice.

Richard.

 

[wspalding]

I thought about that. I had in mind making the family day an off-gas day, and letting the dive gear dry well after a good rinse, but who knows?

I hope the Jupiter area can keep a wife, pre-toddler and mother-in-law entertained. I think the youngsters area of Dubois State Park (if memory serves) should be nice for our daughter.

I'd like to see a loggerhead sea turtle in the wild, like Ssharkk mentioned. I've seen some in captivity, but not in the wild. And a bull shark; bull shark would be nice.

Richard.

Have them visit Loggerhead Turtle rescue in Juno. Your family can do Lion Country Safari while you dive. You should Book a dive with Narcosis, they are in Riviera Beach. Scuba Adventures with Jim Abernathy is good. If you REALLY want to see sharks you can book Emerald Charters.

 

[drrich2]

I thought about Emerald Charters; ought to be a lot of fun. But I notice they advertise for advanced divers. I see myself as kinda intermediate; mostly a tropical Caribbean & Florida vacation diver. I've done some deep diving, and I've done some drift diving, but not much deep drift diving, and the 'work flow' of a Jupiter trip will be new to me, so I thought I'd better do something more mainstream 1st, test the waters & get a sense of what it's like, before I encountered a situation with bull and maybe even big tiger sharks coming in for food.

Scuba Adventures makes me think of what I've read about Tiger Beach. The idea of diving with Abernathy's boat someday and seeing Emma, the 14' tiger shark, in close quarters, sounds like a dream! I just think maybe I'd better do something 'growing into' that sort of thing. Some dreams seem different when they're coming straight at you in the real world.

Thought about Lion Country Safari, but our pre-toddler intensely dislikes being confined in a car seat, so a 'walk around' attraction is best. I think McCarthy's Wildlife Sanctuary would be great, but has an age restriction that wouldn't let our daughter in. So right now, I'm aiming for Dubois Park, Busch Wildlife Sanctuary &/or Palm Beach zoo, a tour of Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse & Museum (wife & I did something similar near Daytona Beach years ago), and I'm not sure what else. When we hit Key Largo, we headed up to Jungle Island and paid to do the Lemur Encounter; that was fun (my wife likes lemurs).

Richard.

 

[wspalding]

I thought about Emerald Charters; ought to be a lot of fun. But I notice they advertise for advanced divers. I see myself as kinda intermediate; mostly a tropical Caribbean & Florida vacation diver. I've done some deep diving, and I've done some drift diving, but not much deep drift diving, and the 'work flow' of a Jupiter trip will be new to me, so I thought I'd better do something more mainstream 1st, test the waters & get a sense of what it's like, before I encountered a situation with bull and maybe even big tiger sharks coming in for food.

Scuba Adventures makes me think of what I've read about Tiger Beach. The idea of diving with Abernathy's boat someday and seeing Emma, the 14' tiger shark, in close quarters, sounds like a dream! I just think maybe I'd better do something 'growing into' that sort of thing. Some dreams seem different when they're coming straight at you in the real world.

Thought about Lion Country Safari, but our pre-toddler intensely dislikes being confined in a car seat, so a 'walk around' attraction is best. I think McCarthy's Wildlife Sanctuary would be great, but has an age restriction that wouldn't let you daughter in. So right now, I'm aiming for Dubois Park, Busch Wildlife Sanctuary &/or Palm Beach zoo, a tour of Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse & Museum (wife & I did something similar near Daytona Beach years ago), and I'm not sure what else. When we hit Key Largo, we headed up to Jungle Island and paid to do the Lemur Encounter; that was fun (my wife likes lemurs).

Richard.

I can almost guarantee seeing a shark or two with JDC, most likely reef and nurse sharks. We had a very curious reef shark visit us when I was there in July. A good time to see sharks is in the Spring when the lemons are around.

 

[scubadada]

I'd like to see a loggerhead sea turtle in the wild, like Ssharkk mentioned. I've seen some in captivity, but not in the wild. And a bull shark; bull shark would be nice.

Richard.

You're extremely likey to see several/many Loggerheads in Jupiter. They're quite common on most of the reef dives