trip report: Jupiter with Captain Sl8r

[Lorenzoid]

Jupiter Dive Center gets mentioned a lot here--and I have dived with them--but I thought I would give a short report on a trip with Captain Sl8r (Jupiter, FL Scuba Diving Charter). They are known as a "valet" operation. The boat, the Kyalami, leaves the dock at a leisurely 10 am (and they add a 4 pm trip on Saturdays). You check in at 9:30 at a folding table they have set up in the marina parking lot. They cart your gear from your car to the boat and load it for you. This includes tanks if you have your own. If you rented tanks, they are waiting for you on the boat. Your gear and tanks are placed together at the seat they assign you. The whole boarding process was as well organized as I have seen anywhere. No feeling of it being chaotic whatsoever. I like organization and efficiency.

I liked that they seemed to sense to what extent each diver needed/wanted assistance--everyone is different--and it seemed to me that if a diver looked like he was the kind who had the "hands off my gear" frame of mind, they kept their distance, yet were ready to help if needed. We had 10 divers on the boat, which can accommodate as many as 20, I believe. In my estimation, more than 16 would feel crowded. There were two divemasters in the water plus one trainee. A divemaster tows the flag and divers generally stay together as a group. It may be possible to make other arrangements, as they seemed eager to accommodate divers' wishes.

For all their apparent flexibility and eagerness to accommodate, the one rule that my wife and I found curious was that divers using air were requested to surface within 30 minutes and maintain a reserve of 500 psi (based, I believe on an aluminum 80 tank), while divers using Nitrox (32) were requested to surface within 50 minutes and maintain a reserve of 700 psi (based, I believe, on their steel 100s, which were available for rental). We weren't aware of this before the trip, so in hindsight I am relieved we opted to rent their Nitrox 100s. My wife and I tend to keep our dives under an hour anyway, so this did not impact our enjoyment, but I can see how those who like to dive to their limits might feel constrained.

They provided sodas and chips as well as a bit of pineapple on the 50-minute surface interval.

It's a first class operation, and we'd use them again.

 

[sportxlh]

The 30 minute limit for air divers is to ensure air divers have a sufficient surface interval before the second dive. Generally speaking, the SI for the nitrox divers is 40-50 minutes around here which gives the air divers a bit more than an hour interval since they are coming up 15-20 minutes before the Nitrox divers. JDC limits air divers in a similar manner on the first dive, but let's air divers dive their computer on the second dive. I'm assuming Sl8r allowed a similar profile on the second dive?? As far as the 50 minute limit for nitrox divers, that's pretty common too. If you were to try to get an hour dive on your first dive, you'd get a short surface interval and your second dive would be cut short by your NDL time.

Thanks for the report: how was visibility? I've read that it has been awful the last few days.

 

[uncfnp]

Thanks for the report. Eric and I keep saying we are going to try that boat but just never seem too. I admit that 50 minute limit gives me pause. With Narcosis its 60 and I usually use every minute of it. May not seem like much but that would be 20 minutes of dive time on a two tanker.

Lorenzoid. Do you know if they welcome hunters?

 

[butterfb]

Yes they welcome hunters, they will usually drop them off further away from the sightseers. I have enjoyed my time with Sl8er and Cole, great boat, very relaxed and fun. They are flexible on how anyone wants to dive, when i was on there they had hunters, a guy with a scooter, couples that did their own thing, and of course the group sightseers.

 

[CptTightPants21]

Thanks for the report. Eric and I keep saying we are going to try that boat but just never seem too. I admit that 50 minute limit gives me pause. With Narcosis its 60 and I usually use every minute of it. May not seem like much but that would be 20 minutes of dive time on a two tanker.

Lorenzoid. Do you know if they welcome hunters?

If you are looking for a hunting friendly boat in Jupiter, you have to use Emerald Charters, the boat was originally a spearfishing boat before the captain branched out to shark dives and spearfishing trips.. The boat was excellently run and full of either spear fisherman or shark lovers.

I saw no hard time limit on the hunters when I dove with them and they were usually the last ones on the boat.

 

[scubadada]

Thanks for the report. Eric and I keep saying we are going to try that boat but just never seem too. I admit that 50 minute limit gives me pause. With Narcosis its 60 and I usually use every minute of it. May not seem like much but that would be 20 minutes of dive time on a two tanker.

Dive times at JDC are the same, for the mentioned reasons. JDC generally uses nitrox 36 except for the Deep Ledge dives. I think they also want to keep the divers relatively close at the end of the dive, this would be complicated by no dive time limit. This might be different if individual divers or groups took their own flags as is common in Boynton Beach. Launching a SMB at the end of the dive is not as simple as following a flag. Some of the dives Narcosis does are shallower than Jupiter, of course, some are the same dives.

 

[uncfnp]

If you are looking for a hunting friendly boat in Jupiter, you have to use Emerald Charters, the boat was originally a spearfishing boat before the captain branched out to shark dives and spearfishing trips.. The boat was excellently run and full of either spear fisherman or shark lovers.

I saw no hard time limit on the hunters when I dove with them and they were usually the last ones on the boat.

I have been following the posts on Emerald and have mixed feelings, especially hunting in the vicinity of shark feeding. I mostly hunt lobster and lionfish but Eric is an occassional spearo.

 

[CptTightPants21]

I have been following the posts on Emerald and have mixed feelings, especially hunting in the vicinity of shark feeding. I mostly hunt lobster and lionfish but Eric is an occassional spearo.

Yeah,

I don't have a lot experience hunting, from what I saw most were on scooters and they were away from the group that was watching the shark feeding. From the stories and chit chat I overheard it seemed like they had to fight off the Goliath Grouper's more than the sharks.

Even if you don't go for hunting, the shark dive was a lot of fun. I wasn't impressed with the dive center the boat uses, Water Works, but the boat was expertly run and I would use them again.

 

[Lorenzoid]

The 30 minute limit for air divers is to ensure air divers have a sufficient surface interval before the second dive. Generally speaking, the SI for the nitrox divers is 40-50 minutes around here which gives the air divers a bit more than an hour interval since they are coming up 15-20 minutes before the Nitrox divers. JDC limits air divers in a similar manner on the first dive, but let's air divers dive their computer on the second dive. I'm assuming Sl8r allowed a similar profile on the second dive?? As far as the 50 minute limit for nitrox divers, that's pretty common too. If you were to try to get an hour dive on your first dive, you'd get a short surface interval and your second dive would be cut short by your NDL time.

Thanks for the report: how was visibility? I've read that it has been awful the last few days.

I figured that with the 50-minute surface interval, it was safety motivating limiting the air divers to 30 minutes of bottom time, but 30 minutes seems AWFULLY short. I mean that is a really short dive even for even the most carefree diver.

No, they impose the same bottom time limit on both the first and second dive. That's cool that JDC allows more time for the second dive. As I said, the limit was 50 mins. for my wife and me, and so it didn't really impact us or bring to mind whatever we experienced at JDC when we dived with them last year. Incidentally, we had no complaints with JDC--we just wanted to give these other guys a try. Spread the love.

I'm not good at judging vis, but I would guess around 20-30 feet. Not good. I hear it can be as good as 80 feet at times. We would have had some good views of sharks had the vis been better. We had hoped to find a goliath straggler or two, but no luck--all gone until next year. My wife is all about the macro stuff, and we enjoyed looking into the cracks and holes in the ledge. Saw an octopus, among other stuff.

Yes they welcome hunters, they will usually drop them off further away from the sightseers. I have enjoyed my time with Sl8er and Cole, great boat, very relaxed and fun. They are flexible on how anyone wants to dive, when i was on there they had hunters, a guy with a scooter, couples that did their own thing, and of course the group sightseers.

I neglected to mention that we had one spearfisher on board, which is what led me to believe they can be flexible about the general rule of following the divemaster with the flag. She went off and bagged a nice-sized cubera snapper.

 

[uncfnp]

Dive times at JDC are the same, for the mentioned reasons. JDC generally uses nitrox 36 except for the Deep Ledge dives. I think they also want to keep the divers relatively close at the end of the dive, this would be complicated by no dive time limit. This might be different if individual divers or groups took their own flags as is common in Boynton Beach. Launching a SMB at the end of the dive is not as simple as following a flag. Some of the dives Narcosis does are shallower than Jupiter, of course, some are the same dives.

Yep, even if I am not hunting, I am not much one for following the flag. But since they are drift dives following a line of reef, we still end up in the same general vicinity.