DennisW
Contributor
Ok folks, I am finally getting around to filling out my log book and doing a trip/dive report.
Donna and I got up early on T-Day and left the house at about 5:30am to drive the two hours down to Boca Raton for the 9th annual Turkey Dat dive and dinner. We didn't go to the first couple, but we have been going for a while now, I know we missed a few in the middle there, too. These started with a few people that were members of the very first moderated SCUBA forum, Diverlink. Unfortunately, the forum no longer exists. I've met a bunch of great people on that board.
We left our part of the pot luck dinner at the host's house in Delray and then headed to the dock. We dived with the Diversity and Captain Tony out of Boca Raton and based at Pennel's Marina off of Hillsboro Blvd. If you ever get down that way, I highly recommend his charter. I have beed diving with him for a few years now. After we loaded up and got under way, we headed out to the first dive site, the Ancient Mariner. As we were heading out to the dive site and going out through the inlet, I was a bit worried because the surf coming in was pretty high, at least 6 ft. However, after we exited the inlet the waves settled down to less than 2 ft. Another cool thing was that as we headed out, a pod of Bottle Nosed Dophin came over to the wake of our boat and played in the wake for several minutes. A very good omen.
BTW, several people from this board and others were on the dive. Hopefully they will chime in. Zendiver, Walter, Matt, Mardie, Seadragon, MB, Jo, etc, etc, were all there.
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The Ancient Mariner
Formerly the USCG Nemesis and ex-Fort Lauderdale restaurant, the Ancient Mariner was sunk in June of 1991 in 70 feet of water.
When the Ancient Mariner was first sunk she looked more like a junk heap than a ship wreck. But hurricane Andrew fixed that by tearing off all the additions that had been made to convert the ship into a restaurant. Today, this 165 foot long ship again looks like the ship she was.
Because of the relatively shallow depth of this wreck there is plenty of time to see this wreck and explore some of the more accessible interior compartments.
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This is always a good dive, however, the normally present Jewfish was not there on this dive, at least I did not see the big fella. There was a fair current on this dive, when you got out of the shadow of the wreck, you had to be carfeful you didn't get blown off the dive site. This wreck is really wide open and a good wreck to penetrate for novice wreck divers.
Max Depth: 78 fsw
Total time: 37 min
Water temp: 75 Degrees F
Viz: 60 ft
After about an hour surface interval, we went down for a float dive (most people would call this a drift dive, but it is the wrong term). We dived a nice reef off Hillsboro Inlet called Moray Reef. The current was blowing us South, so after we entered the water we joined up and took a nice ride. The current made it a nice calm and easy dive. The current was not too hard that you could not swim against it, but it was a fair current. We saw a nice size sea turtle and it was startled enough that when it backed out of it's hole in the reef, it took off and immediately ran into a coral head. Just too funny. There was also a nice size Green Moray on the dive and a Basket Star in a large Barrel Sponge. Very nice dive.
Max Depth: 62 fsw
Total time: 50 min
Water temp: 75 Degrees F
Viz: 40 ft
After this dive we headed in and after getting cleaned up we went over the host's house for dinner, which was wonderful.
Donna and I got up early on T-Day and left the house at about 5:30am to drive the two hours down to Boca Raton for the 9th annual Turkey Dat dive and dinner. We didn't go to the first couple, but we have been going for a while now, I know we missed a few in the middle there, too. These started with a few people that were members of the very first moderated SCUBA forum, Diverlink. Unfortunately, the forum no longer exists. I've met a bunch of great people on that board.
We left our part of the pot luck dinner at the host's house in Delray and then headed to the dock. We dived with the Diversity and Captain Tony out of Boca Raton and based at Pennel's Marina off of Hillsboro Blvd. If you ever get down that way, I highly recommend his charter. I have beed diving with him for a few years now. After we loaded up and got under way, we headed out to the first dive site, the Ancient Mariner. As we were heading out to the dive site and going out through the inlet, I was a bit worried because the surf coming in was pretty high, at least 6 ft. However, after we exited the inlet the waves settled down to less than 2 ft. Another cool thing was that as we headed out, a pod of Bottle Nosed Dophin came over to the wake of our boat and played in the wake for several minutes. A very good omen.
BTW, several people from this board and others were on the dive. Hopefully they will chime in. Zendiver, Walter, Matt, Mardie, Seadragon, MB, Jo, etc, etc, were all there.
************************
The Ancient Mariner
Formerly the USCG Nemesis and ex-Fort Lauderdale restaurant, the Ancient Mariner was sunk in June of 1991 in 70 feet of water.
When the Ancient Mariner was first sunk she looked more like a junk heap than a ship wreck. But hurricane Andrew fixed that by tearing off all the additions that had been made to convert the ship into a restaurant. Today, this 165 foot long ship again looks like the ship she was.
Because of the relatively shallow depth of this wreck there is plenty of time to see this wreck and explore some of the more accessible interior compartments.
************************
This is always a good dive, however, the normally present Jewfish was not there on this dive, at least I did not see the big fella. There was a fair current on this dive, when you got out of the shadow of the wreck, you had to be carfeful you didn't get blown off the dive site. This wreck is really wide open and a good wreck to penetrate for novice wreck divers.
Max Depth: 78 fsw
Total time: 37 min
Water temp: 75 Degrees F
Viz: 60 ft
After about an hour surface interval, we went down for a float dive (most people would call this a drift dive, but it is the wrong term). We dived a nice reef off Hillsboro Inlet called Moray Reef. The current was blowing us South, so after we entered the water we joined up and took a nice ride. The current made it a nice calm and easy dive. The current was not too hard that you could not swim against it, but it was a fair current. We saw a nice size sea turtle and it was startled enough that when it backed out of it's hole in the reef, it took off and immediately ran into a coral head. Just too funny. There was also a nice size Green Moray on the dive and a Basket Star in a large Barrel Sponge. Very nice dive.
Max Depth: 62 fsw
Total time: 50 min
Water temp: 75 Degrees F
Viz: 40 ft
After this dive we headed in and after getting cleaned up we went over the host's house for dinner, which was wonderful.
