Alternate Activity Suggestions

[sportxlh]

clpkab: just thought of one other suggestion if you are staying in Ft Lauderdale, have a rental car, don't mind a bit of a drive and are really in desperate need of a dive.....

Disney's Epcot center in Orlando has the second largest aquarium in N. America and they do dives each day. It is a unique experience: I dove it about a month ago. For me, it was more of a bucket list dive: while I enjoyed it, I won't rush back, but then again, I live near world class diving in Jupiter, WPB, Lauderdale and a short hop to the Keys. While Epcot normally desires you to reserve before you arrive, I simply did a walk up and they included me in a group that day. It is a bit expensive given it is only a 40 minute dive, but since you're not spending a bunch of money on dive boats this weekend, you probably have the coin to spare.

By the way, you don't have to buy Disney tickets to do the dive. Although a bit of time in Disney might be a decent way to spend the day since you won't be diving in the ocean. I am not a big Diseny fan, which is why I did the dive while my wife wandered around Epcot.

Epcot DiveQuest | Walt Disney World Resort

 

[danvolker]

Our alternate this evening, is to do a dive in the palm beach inlet...a place that has had bait balls recently, and is a cool dive are protected from ocean waves ( particularly as you move further into the inlet from the mouth of the inlet).



Sirena ( Pura Vida) is taking us, as beach entry from the other side of the jetty would be problematic with the surf....inside the inlet, by an area called "Annies Dock", is a well protected series of reefs , out of the navigation channel, and typically with great vis at high tide.
It can have tidally based current flow, even at slack tide, so this is for a diver that is comfortable around some current.
Here is a clip of the jetty dive on the north side of the inlet...we would be doing the south side, but it is very cool on the south side as well..this video was shot on a very poor vis day for the inlet, so with today's weather, it would likely to look BETTER than in this video, even witht he weather issue One of Florida's best shore dives...the Jetty at the Palm Beach inlet..The Pumphouse... - YouTube

If you want to do this dive, email me at dan@sfdj.com

 

[danvolker]

Another shot of the palm Beach inlet, and the north and south jetties, plus the pumphouse.....the place we will be diving tonight, would be on the south side of the jetty, pretty far in to the picture you see here.....if you look closely, you can see the ledge dropping off from 6 foot deep depth, to 25-30 foot depth along the middle portion of the south jetty..this is nice diving here, but a little close to boat traffic ( though not really in the nav channel)...as you go further in, the dive area gets further and further away from the nav channel, and becomes much more serene
[ for some reason this does not click and expand...but the image is big, so a copy and paste should provide a good look.]

 

[danvolker]

2nd try with this....

 

[TexasKaren68]

• this week you could learn surfing

clpkab, let me know how that works out for you

The other healthy alternative is just write the weekend off and get hammered at your hotel. The Lost Weekend can be a lot more than an old Billy Wilder movie.

clpkab, let me know how that works out for you

Just hope you don't get hammered, and then go surfing

 

[cloudswinger]

Even my surfer husband didn't want to surf today, it's "washing machine" conditions! Pumphouse is also a great surf spot, when the winds die down in the next day or so it'll be crowded.

I find it bizarre that there are all these suggestions for outdoor stuff to do when the weather is rainy and windy. Like how fun is it to bike, hike or birdwatch in 30 mph winds? And as far as I know all the jai alai places have closed/stopped playing jai alai, which is a real shame.

 

[danvolker]

Even my surfer husband didn't want to surf today, it's "washing machine" conditions! Pumphouse is also a great surf spot, when the winds die down in the next day or so it'll be crowded.

I find it bizarre that there are all these suggestions for outdoor stuff to do when the weather is rainy and windy. Like how fun is it to bike, hike or birdwatch in 30 mph winds? And as far as I know all the jai alai places have closed/stopped playing jai alai, which is a real shame.

It's actually great weather for mountain biking at Oleta or at Amelia Earhardt...pretty much everything else is a a lot less fun with the big wind.....deep in the trails where we mountain bike, there is almost no wind, and what you get, makes you more comfortable

 

[vladimir]

And as far as I know all the jai alai places have closed/stopped playing jai alai, which is a real shame.

I wasn't sure when I suggested it--it's been decades since I've been to a game--so I did a search and came up with some jai alai RESULTS from this site, MIAMI JAI-ALAI:

[h=1]Miami Results[/h][h=2]Saturday Matinee, October 8, 2011[/h]

First Game (Singles, 7 Pts.)

3 Alejandro 7.60 6.00 5.20 7 Arriza 5.00 6.00 4 Aizpitarte —

Quinela 3-7 $24.40

Perfecta 3-7 $115.20

Trifecta 3-7-4 $227.60

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

I think Dania Jai lai is open still..

 

[OneFastEuro]

Perfect day to sit my butt down and actually catch up on getting some work down oh well. We were planned to go on the Spiegel yesterday but it'll wait till next week.