West Palm Beach

[mgersch@cox.net]

Dove West Palm Beach last weekend with the SS Minnow. Had a really great time. The staff was fabulous. Not many lobster left on the reef but I did catch one! There was a pretty swift current on a few dives, but overall the conditions were good. Played with my camera a little bit. See pic below.

 

[WetHoss]

Did Kelly and company finally figure out that people dont like 30 minute air dives, and 45 minute nitrox dives? When I went with them, they limited the dive times as above, and we were all unhappy divers on my trip. The diving was great though.


Hope they changed their policy and to there credit, they had just took over the buisiness, so they were trying to adjust. The divemasters were mostly the same folks that the previous owner had...

I know that all of the people that were with me on the trip will definately not dive with them any more.

Also saw a lot of wildlife harrassment in the interest of showing people the wildlife. I distinctly remember an unhappy nurse shark that didnt like having her(his) tail pulled.

HZ

 

[Orlando Eric]

SS Minnow - They still limit the divers to :30 min and :45 min. That seems to be the norm with many of the boats in that area. The only reason I can think of is that they are trying to keep everyone's SIT time about equal. Personally I am all for bobbing around in the sun, surrounded by beautiful blue, drinking a nice cool bottle of water. I can only then imagine that the rush is so that they can get back to the dock and get ready for another herd.

This can not be the case for the minnow though as they often only run a single trip in a day.

I am diving with them on Sat the 3rd perhaps I will ask why the constraints are in place.

Eric

 

[WetHoss]

I have been on other drift trips and most places let the first person who is low on air surface with their buddy so that 10 people dont have to ascend just for one air hog...

I pay for the below the waterline part of the trip, and bobbing around is not that safe from what I gathered from other people who have had close calls with boaters....

Air at 55 feet with an AL 80 should get 45 minutes easy, unless it is a real air hog. Besides, they have the boat and can pick people up and even require a Sausage or Tube Signaling device...

Tell them a little bird told you that there were a lot of people who werent happy with their limits. One person does bus trips he schedules every year all over and had been on that boat before, and was really P.O.d about the limits.

Check with other shops, you might find out that they dont do those type limits on the diving.
hz

 

[mgersch@cox.net]

Well I think that they said something about those limits. But I was with a shop and the leader from the shop said that did not apply to us so most of my dives were close to 60min on nitrox.

 

[Orlando Eric]

The bobbing around that I am found of is on the boat not at sea waiting for the boat. (see reference to cool bottle of water). I have never been left to pop around like a bait bobber on any boat out of WPB. Now when you do the wreck diving in Pompano the second dive being a reef dive, six different groups or more with their own flags. Some I-Do-It thinks "Hey, LEts head south INTO the current.." That group burns through their gas, the boat goes to pick them up. Then the others. Then I come up.. WAY north of that. I have spent some quality time with my little dive group watching a very small boat.. way over there.

I have dove many of the boats out of the marina and have found all of them to have a bottom time limit in their dive briefings. From the SS Minnow on the left to Diving Solutions on the right and all those boats inbetween.

It does seem funny that a boat out of jupiter says :45 minute BT at 80 ~ 85' for two dives and then the boats in WPB say :45 min at 50'~55'. Hmmmmm

Lets see.. :45 x 2 = 90 minutes. $53.00 plus $10.00 tip = $63.00
that is .70 cents a minute.

So if I could dive :60 minutes and they haul me out at :45 that is :15 minutes x 2 = :30. SO THEY OWE me a credit of $21.00 for each trip.

I could just stop whinning and just keep diving my secret OP north of there. I only go there on someone else's desire.

I am going to inquire about the bottom times and see if we can get a response though.

I do like the boat, crew and service though.. very good drops.. excellent pick=ups.

 

[DennisW]

I certainly will not go out with an operator that limits my dives to 30 and 45 minutes. They should be boycotted for ripping people off like that.

 

[RonFrank]

If memory serves when were were diving Vicky's old OP did we not get 45 minutes on Air? I really can't remember, and the Puter is at home?

I would not mind them limiting it to 45 minutes air in the 55' range... Not sure what to do with those on Nitrox...

Heck, we can take this to another level... I was limited to 60 minutes diving Reefs on the keys. It was a rare dive where after 60 minutes I did not come up with well over 1000psi, and on several I was coming up with closer to 1500psi!! So should I be demanding 90 minutes MINIMUM BT when diving there?

 

[mgersch@cox.net]

So who do you prefer to dive with out of West Palm?

Have you been on the Narcosis?

 

[HowardE]

I frequently dive in Boynton Beach (close to West Palm) with splashdown divers. The DM there is a SB member too... Anyhow, they kindly ask that out of respect for other divers that we keep our dives to about an hour BTW the average depth is 60-70' we usually dive nitrox. However, if we're the only ones on the boat... we can stay down as long as we want.