12/10 Jupiter Trip Report

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Orlando Eric

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Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
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Location
Treasure Coast
This was a great dive! It was a great dive in many ways. The vis was somewhere between 25 and 35 depending on who you spoke with. The seas where a very calm 2-3 swells. The air temp was so nice that many where wearing no shirts and shorts on the SI. I got to don my latest purchase of a 7mm full suit. MAN I SHOULD have done that YEARS ago!

Area 51

This is an awesome Jupiter site. HUGE ledges that are better described as cliffs and valleys. My dive buddy and I got majorally seperated at entry but we swam to the ledge and a few quacks and azimuths later we began our drift. This was a dive looking for Lemmon sharks but any diving is better than not diving. We made our way up the ledge line and my buddy and I played shoot the fish with finger and forefinger whenever we saw a nice size eater. As I peeked around a gigantic coral head I saw a brown VW bus swim under the ledge! Oy Vey! That is one HUGE grouper! I made my way to the ledge and with light in hand looked into a cavern to see the horiszontal tail fin the size of my front door twisting and thrusting to push that mammoth into a hole half it's size. I am always amazed at that skill.
As we made our way through an area that I can only describe as a Colassal Ruins I turned to see a midsection and tail turned and swimming off. That's no Nurse shark! I grabed my buddy by the arm and spun her in a "careless and rude manner" (or so I was told) and it was gone. Oh great my own shark story no one will ever believe. Then I saw it again on and over the reef. Upon closer look this was a lemmon shark and the first one had a unmistakable black trim on the tail and a totally different shape! Two sharks free swimming around us! I was WOWed! We swam on to see a juvenile turtle and spent some time with a resting nurse shark. Then back to the boat to compare stories with the other divers.

SpadeFish Point

Jumped in for dive 2 and man is that 7mm blissful! We descended and found that we had picked up a third diver to our buddy team. I got the forefinger pointed at me from my mentor and a "well lead on look." I looked at my depth gauge and reffered to the compass to expertly lead us right to the ledge. I thought well that would be a five on any other Divemaster canidate checklist but I am under the tutolege of Miss " I expect more from you" herself, even so I think I got a 4 or at least a 3.8
I spotted a nice size drum fish and made the fish sign followed by a drumming sign. Divers would be awesome at chrades. We happened on some more skiff sized grouper that make your whole body jump when you first see them. We came to an area where the ledge drifted back over the reef and our third diver started over the 65' area of coral grasses. I torpedoed to the front of the threesome and lead the group back to the ledge again to see schools of "shooters." We saw one of my favorites a green moray happily staring us staring at him. Vickie and I stayed awhile I really like to watch these guys. The other diver was off and looking around for the ledge again. I swam over to him and he gave me the shoulder shrug and where is it look again. Vickie indicated to me that she only had five minutes left of NDL (that RGBM thing Sunnto uses is REALLY conservative). My Veo 250 bendamatic said I had 'plenty of time, don't worry mon, yo be fine.' I signed to V that "I was going to lead this guy back to the ledge then we would go up, or three minutes whatever came first." We have to start a Conch Divers Professional Chrades team. I lead the diver back to the ledge and signed to him that my buddy and I were going to go up. He nodded and followed the ledge a bit more as we ascended.
We hung at our saftey stop and the other diver joined us so we stayed the extra time to make for a easier pick up and besides who ever wants to end a dive?

The diving was fantastic and everyone was all smiles, wide eyes and excitedly telling tales about the sights we'd seen. The only downside of the day was that more of our friends, sadly could not have been there.
 
Great trip report. Too bad I ran out of kitchen passes. I wish I could have gone.

Al
 
Nice trip report, Eric. We are going up there in Jan. What are the currents like in Jupiter? Who did you dive with? Between West Palm and Jupiter, which has the better diving?
 
That sounds great... so that 7mm - you like eh?

Hopefully we'll get a dive in with you one of these days.
 
Shame on me for not plugging the operators. I would be selfish and keep Jupiter a secret but I get days off during the week and can always get a weekday seat.

I have been diving Jupiter for only a short time (since 09/2003) and find it hard to put words to it other than Majestic! I overheard some old salts talking about Jupiter diving and through extensive prodding found the best boat, finest captain and most professional shop.

When they first started the meet at the shop and ride their private shuttle bus to the dock I did not like the idea but now I have learned to love it. The meet at the shop and short bus ride over gives you a relaxed time to meet the other divers.

The shop is ready with the whips for speedy, accurate, super clean fills when you return so my tanks are always ready to go for that next dive.

The shop owner, Coby is a very enthusastic gas blender. He is happy to explain the workings of his station and will be seen standing with his hand on it with a grin like a car show winner against his pride and joy.

Captain Paul will drop you so that your descent will put you right on the 10' ~ 18' ledges of Jupiter. When you ascend you will see the Boat's shark toothed smile right there and the attentive eyes of Paul looking for that Okay sign. You will be counted and a roll call will be conducted by the captain himself.

The dives are a bit deeper at 80' in Jupiter but the Reef, ledges, predator fish, Game fish, turtles, eels and blinding schools of tropicals are worth the AOW/ Nitrox/ Computer training and cost.

Link to them from here and watch for future Conch trips.

http://www.jupiterdivecharters.com/
http://www.scuba-works.com/
 
Orlando Eric:
As we made our way through an area that I can only describe as a Colossal Ruins I turned to see a midsection and tail turned and swimming off. That's no Nurse shark! I grabbed my buddy by the arm and spun her in a "careless and rude manner" (or so I was told) and it was gone. Oh great my own shark story no one will ever believe.


:05: Maybe it was that Bull Sh..(ark) I had seen some many times before. I did learn a very important underwater maneuver from my dear blessit student. If you want to get your dive buddy to complacently look in the exact direction you want them to, you should grad the back of their arm, ya know, just under the muscle where we have that little layer of fat. One must grab this hard while digging ones own fingers deeply into the flesh of their unsuspecting dive buddy.....

It was, indeed, a fantastic dive. Lots of life on both sites. I truly believe the shark Eric saw was a black tip reef, knowing him though, he'll do a complete through investigation to determine the exact species of shark.

As for that whole grading thing, heck yes I except "better than" average from him.... shhhhaaaaaa. I must say, Jupiter is a little different .... okay, A LOT different from the usual drabby Palm Beach dives. The reefs can play tricks on you if your not paying attention to what your doing. I will give props when props are earned (like now). When we dropped down on our second dive, we were right smack on the reef (Paul's awesome at dead on dropping...woohoo). I gave Eric the right of passage to lead me to the reef's edge. He took his time, checked his depth, looked around at the environment and grabbed his compass. Now I know this sounds easy, but let me set the scene. The viz really was pretty crummy (15-20 feet but improved after we got to the ledge) North current, and when you look straight down, there's rubble at 65+ feet. For the avid Palm Beacher, this would tell us that there's a really good chance we need to swim East to pick the ledge up and then continue North. I stayed behind a bit, beaming with pride, as my protégé made his way West to the actual ledge. You see, in beautiful Jupiter, most of the reefs are deeper then the run down Palm Beach sites and Eric knew that at 65+ feet, he had to be on top of the reef and not on the out skirts of the ledge. Yay Eric!

Back to the actual dive stuff... I was soooo excited we got to see a lemon shark, the nurse shark was an added bonus, and I suppose the unidentified shark may count to. The Jew fish was AMAZING! that dang thing was bigger than one of the women diving. The fascinate me the way they can dip into these little tiny holes that certainly supersede their girth. The green moray was awesome, she kinda just hung out keeping her eyes on Eric (smart girl, one never can be sure when he'll snatch your fin off) I think she was as amused with him as he was with her.

There were hundreds of silver shiny fish (big ones, I'm thinking Jack family) cruising the reef. Nice size hog fish (at least dinner for two), I did see a ton of goat fish, that was actually the first time I had seen that many all together. The reef was full of Pork fish and Damsels, grunts and blennies but we had a wonderful treat to hang out with a very large male loggerhead turtle.. He let us hover for awhile and check him out before slowly boring with us and leaving. Cool for me, as he decide he was leaving in my direction. I just stayed as motionless as possible ,enjoying every second, as he swan straight at me. He was so close that he hit me with his flippers as he passed me.. (So technically, he touched me, not the other way around). We also got to share space with a hawksbill turtle who was less than thrilled with our fascination.

The day was a full one with lots of great stories, some fishing stories too :05: ... We all laid back casually enjoying the ride back to the dock with Temptations new motor and shiny new deck, telling stories of present and past dives. Steve, the divemaster, taking time to help a few new divers id the fish they saw, always taking time for the little things (one of my favorites). The ride back to the shop in the "scubazine" was a continuation of the boat ride. I love that as soon as we hit the shop (figuratively speaking) Coby's right out their ready to fill our tanks with our hearts desired gas mix (within reason of course). He even has a side kick from time to time for all us girl folk to play with (except me, he cried when I picked him up.... *Sobs*, but mom assures me it was only due to hunger pains)..

As for where to dive capybara, Jupiter is hands down a better dive spot.
 
Excellent trip reports! I'm looking forward to venturing that way in February. Anyone know of the temps at that time or a link to temp data? Thanks!
 
It's gonna be chilly Nancy! eric left a web site link for Jupiter dive charter, check it out... Captain Paul even has a link that you can have a lok at the Jupiter inlet. It's a great site. Make sure to post a thread when the time gets closer so we can dive with you..
 
baitedstorm:
It's gonna be chilly Nancy! eric left a web site link for Jupiter dive charter, check it out... Captain Paul even has a link that you can have a lok at the Jupiter inlet. It's a great site. Make sure to post a thread when the time gets closer so we can dive with you..

Chilly as in a 5mm would be fine or go with the 7mm? Thanks for the link - I'm on Captain Paul's e-mail list. :D

I'll definitely let the group know when we're heading over there...looks like mid-February.
 
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