104 replies to this topic

[jesterdiver]

Sounds great Kamala! Any idea when you're planning this trip for next year? Yeah, I'm already trying to plan out 2014 dive schedule! LOL

So far its been a wonderful trip! I am VERY surprised at how amazing the diving has been... THIS CLOSE TO HOME...or as Orcaman would say... "in my backyard". />

The dive sites this week were:

Sunday:
Delray Ledges
Tumbling Rocks
Blue Heron Bridge night dive

Monday:
Capt Tony wreck
Grouper Hole
Gazebo

Tuesday:
Castors Wreck
Seagate
Boynton Ledges

We are transferring today to our 2nd hotel and dive operator in Jupiter. Hammerheads here we come!!!

[WreckWench]

Just wrapped up the final days in Jupiter... learned LOTS of things to do differently for next year and yes we are planning a next year. We ended up paying for some services that a larger group like ourselves REALLY need...but in the end they will be worth it. We also got some introductory pricing this year...which won't be available next year but it will STILL be a very reasonably priced trip for the area and for what you get!

We'll be looking at dates for next year in the next few weeks. It has to be in conjunction with a trip via MIA to another destination in order to offset the costs of this trip. (It is a loss leader but people really want to dive FL and this combination is NOT THE KEYS...but a better combination in my opinion! So next year's trip will also be Boynton, Jupiter and the bridge!)

Stay tuned....

p.s. spots will be limited to only 13 divers AND due to the advanced nature of the dives we will require AOW plus a sufficient number of dives to truly be considered a solid diver capable of changing and sometimes challenging conditions.

[WreckWench]

It was very flat... so the real question is...how 'un-normal' are flat seas like this???

[WreckWench]

Now that the trip is officially over...I hope others share their experiences here and on facebook! But I wanted to take a moment to thank several people for whom this trip would not be possible. At the top of the list is Gabrielle aka Sunshine Diver. She did all the leg work for this trip and the setting up of the logistics, lodging and diving. She worked very hard to promote the trip and help fill it and she also recommended our 2nd dive operator whom we enjoyed very much. We couldn't have done it without her!!!

Secondly I would like to thank Alan aka Racer184 for setting up our arrival Happy Hour and get together AND for all the weather updates and helpful tips etc. Hopefully the fact you had to work had nothing to do with the weather because we'd love to have you join us diving next year!


Thirdly I'd like to thank Brad, Ed, Matt, George, Tim and Greg for driving each day and keeping up with dive gear, tanks, and the like. A trip like this can't be run without this sort of assistance and you all did it with big smiles and 'can do' attitudes.

I'd like to thank Michelle and Vanessa for being not only helpful and delightful additions to the trip but also good tank analyizers and overall Gabrielle "mini-me's"

Special thanks goes to Barbara aka DiverBabs who made a surprise visit and supplied beer and snacks for a impromptu "Happy Hour on the Dock"!

I'd also like to thank Larry aka orcaman for introducing me to the first dive operator Craig and for pushing me to 'dive Florida' for the past 8 years... yeah I know... I'm a bit slow in figuring out how to do some things but once I do... well lets just say I make up for lost time!

And finally I would like to thank Gary aka Island HQ for helping to fill the boat out and for being the most gracious host the last night supplying his home for our 'group dinner' and for fixing a delicious paella and wonderful dinner!

It was a great trip... a great group of divers and an experience I think we all will remember. Thank you all!!! kamala

[georoc01]

What a trip. Orcaman calls Boynton Beach the ‘Dominca’ of Florida, and he wasn’t kidding. First dive of the week – Shark-check, Large Spotted Eagle Ray-check, Free swimming Moray Eel-check, Large sea turtle-check. Nothing like getting all of the big stuff you want to see knocked off right away. And it only got better from that.

I flew into Ft. Lauderdale. Given that everyone else was driving in from north of the area, I was on my own to get up to Deerfield Beach and Jupiter. Its about 20 miles north of the airport to the former and 50 miles to the latter. I ended up getting a rental car through Hotwire at a rate of $16 a day.

The first thing about diving along the gold coast. This is challenging diving. Its all 'Cozumel like' drift diving, only with lower visibility, and they don’t put a divemaster in the water with you. You and your buddy are responsible to get back. With starfish we broke into 4 groups, with each one getting a dive flag at the surface. Given the surface current can be stronger than the bottom, the flag bearer could by moving much quicker than the others in the group. We started using reef hooks to slow our progress on some dives. So in planning a trip there, I would be sure you pack your reef hook, safety sausage and reel. The other thing to remember is that these are deeper divers, much of the time in the 60-90 ft, especially latter in the week. Nitrox was a must as I was up against my NDL limit as much as air consumption.

We dove a few wrecks over the week, and all of them were covered in huge goliath groupers the size of small cars that were gatherings for mating season. The only other place I have seen fish that large was their cousins, the potato cods in Australia.

Want to get in the small stuff like frogfish and seahorse? Our shore night dive, Blue Heron Bridge, had the macro life. The key is to enter the water at high tide as the fresh water coming in gave decent visibility to see the marine life.

Then after the great diving with Starfish, we headed up to Jupiter FL to dive with Randy of Emerald Divers. Nicknamed the shark whisperer, he did a couple of shark dives with us where we saw duskys, silkys and my first hammerhead. Our first day on his boat was the first day of the two day lobster season, where lobster hunting was the name of the day. Equipped with my tickler and bag, I made an attempt, with little success. Those with snares were doing much better. Randy and a couple of guys who made their quota helped me with 3 lobsters that we cooked up at the end of the trip. They were actually very tasty, the best Caribbean lobster I have had.

One thing that is different with the Florida dive ops is that tanks aren’t included with the dive trip. We were able to rent tanks through Starfish for the beginning of the trip. When we switched to the Emerald and for the Blue Heron Bridge, we had to rent tanks through a local dive shop and bring them to the boat. Lead was also limited. For those driving, some brought their own tanks and weights.

Our accommodations were at two Doubletrees and were nice. The 2nd hotel had balconies so you could dry your gear. Had a hot breakfast buffet included as well as free wifi. Emerald Divers provided a gourmet box lunch on the boat, which was nice on a 3 tank dive trip when you are on the boat for 6-7 hours.
The diving was great and I’d certainly do it again. But as I said above, this isn’t the trip for beginners.

Special thanks to Gabrielle, our co-host/trip coordinator, Michelle, our trip massage therapist, Ed and Brad, my door-to-door drivers to and from the boats, and Gary, who was our host for dinner at his place on Friday night. You all made this trip special. And of course Kamala. I had my 250th dive which was a special as all of the other trips I’ve done.

[ScubaTurtle]

Thanks for the thorough report George. It was great to read about the trip. Wish I could have made it.

Congrats on your 250th!!!!

[jesterdiver]

Great report George! I'm definitely interested in doing this trip. And to echo Mike, congrats on 250!

[Diver Ed]

I will start off by saying that I was wrong. When I initially looked at the trip, I saw that an advanced cert was required. I mentioned it to Kamala, and fully expected her to say, " Don't worry. You are fully qualified and I will vouch for you ", as she has done in the past. Instead she told me that it was required, no exceptions. I joked about making up a T shirt that read that I was qualified to dive the San Francisco Maru, but not dive Florida. As the lovely Gabrielle was offering Nitrox and advanced classes, I opted into the trip. My limited Florida diving had me expecting dives similar to the Keys, only a bit deeper. What I found was fabulous diving, with conditions that were unknown until you got there. We had dives with almost zero current, and a dive that I aborted due to too much current. The vis ranged from 25 to 70 feet, and the temps had a 15-20 degree swing on some days. The basic dive instruction starts with Plan your dive, dive your plan. The diving here requires some adjustment on the fly, as the conditions may not be what you expected when you prepared for the dive. This was a wonderful trip, and I will partake again, but I recommend the trip for divers that are comfortable with adjusting their dive plan after they are in the water. Be comfortable if you plan on diving with a group, but you get separated. Be familiar with deploying your safety sausage from depth, using a reel of some sort. Expect that you will be floating on the surface for a while waiting for the boat to pick you up. I have a 10 foot sausage. It is difficult to keep upright on the surface. The three foot ones are too small. I would recommend a six foot sausage for the trip. I am an unusual diver in the sense that I have been diving for more that 35 years, but never went past my open water cert. I have around 500 dives logged, having experience in rivers with a couple of inch vis to wrecks to the depths of Truk lagoon, and much more. This was probably the first trip that surprised me in how it really differed from my expectations. The diving was so much better that I expected, and I will definitely be back. The diving was also a lot more advanced that I expected. What I learned from the trip is that I need a better way to deploy my sausage. I was using a finger spool, and had it get stuck on my finger a couple of times. One time I managed to get it unstuck, and another time, I pulled it off and let it go. I will probably switch over to my small wreck reel for the next time. Again, it was fabulous diving, BUT it is best suited for divers that are comfortable and experienced at the advanced level. Ed

[WreckWench]

Thanks Ed...I think you summed it up really well when you said that divers must not only have an advanced diving certification but must also have the dives to back it up. Things did change often mid-dive and sometimes rapidly making it very fun for serious divers. It kept is interesting but it would have been a nightmare for new divers or divers that have not experienced a wide range of ever changing conditions. I would also re-iterate that you not only must own a smb/safety sausage (big) and reel but you must be very efficient in its use and proper deployment. These are drift dives on steroids and in some cases dives with currents if diving one of the wrecks where the massive Goliath Groupers (formerly known as Jew Fish) aggregate. One operator used dive flags that dive teams carried and as George said...required that the flag carrier also use a reef hook to slow the drift so that photographers in the group did not lose the flag. The other operator did not use dive flags and you needed to stay close to the dive guide in the water. Same state...radically different diving.

So yes our plan is to offer this again but to position it as an advanced diver's venue. So if you haven't gotten an advanced diving certification and want to be challenged in your diving...consider this venue. But PLEASE make sure you get enough dives to back up that advanced diving certification...it is not enough to just have the card. And we'll require that you have the dives AND the experience to go along with the dives to ensure you fully enjoy this diving venue.

[dive_sail_etc]

Thanks Ed aka Diver Ed for a near perfect summary of a) diverse and dynamic conditions and b) the training and and experience required for diving the Southeast Florida Coast. In particular I echo your point of the need for flexibility with day to day changes in the current with emphasis on having the confidence and equipment to cope with separation from the group.

I would only add that as a CWW (cold water wuss) I as well as many locals we had aboard were shocked to discover the ice like thermocline of 62F below 60fsw that appeared on 25 July, just 24 hours after several days of enjoying mid 80's Fahrenheit "wetsuit free" diving all the way to the bottom which sometimes reached 100 feet. The only thing that saved me from aborting all three dives on Thursday after an offhand remark from a couple of the morning divers "damn cold below 60 today" was the full 5mm I had left packed in Gabrielle's truck which just happened to be part of the caravan to the dock that day. Darned good thing too, since that included the "3 Wrecks dive" where I spent the last half of that dive recording clips of 20 seconds to 3 minutes of sharks no turtles no Goliath grouper no more turtles look more Goliath grouper another huge turtle look good grief a SCHOOL of Goliath grouper all over one wreck - and all below the thermocline!


And for all those CA (state and country) and PNW divers prepared to scoff at low 60's, I am the first to admit I prefer warm seas for diving; my point is how fast and severe even the temperature changes in the Gulf Stream along the MIA / FTL / WPB corridor can occur.

[scubaclint]

As a fellow CWW Brad, I applaud you. Sounds like interesting diving!

[Racer184]

I need a better way to deploy my sausage

Make a 15 or 20 foot long rope with snap hooks on each end, normally hooked to the surface marker buoy.

At your safety stop unwind the rope, make sure it is clear of everything, then inflate buoy. Now you can hang at safety stop, gently pulling on rope which will make the buoy stand up.

I have a reel just in case, but do not use it for normal buoy deployment.

Cold water? Thermocline? That happens very frequently near Jupiter. It is very very rare this far south.

[Diver Ed]

I have a six foot sausage that I use when river diving, and it is set up with twenty feet of line and clipped off to my BC. I was figuring that I would use that one the next time, as it deploys very easy. Thank you for the similar thoughts.

I need a better way to deploy my sausage

Make a 15 or 20 foot long rope with snap hooks on each end, normally hooked to the surface marker buoy.

At your safety stop unwind the rope, make sure it is clear of everything, then inflate buoy. Now you can hang at safety stop, gently pulling on rope which will make the buoy stand up.

I have a reel just in case, but do not use it for normal buoy deployment.

Cold water? Thermocline? That happens very frequently near Jupiter. It is very very rare this far south.

[BeachJunkie]

Still bummed I missed this trip... in my back yard no less. Sadly got a call from the State Attorney and had to ensure drug dealers ended up in jail instead of diving. Less than ideal but, maybe next time. Sounds like it was a good dive.

[WreckWench]

Still bummed I missed this trip... in my back yard no less. Sadly got a call from the State Attorney and had to ensure drug dealers ended up in jail instead of diving. Less than ideal but, maybe next time. Sounds like it was a good dive.

And WE missed you! However we'll be back next year so hopefully the criminals will cooperate and you can join us!