The Boynton Dive Chronicles (new and improved)

[Scubakevdm]

Thanks for the info Kev.

If we don't make it out today, we're definitely going to have to come back to see you guys on the next trip! I appreciate all of the quick responses for my very fair weather buddy

Hey no sweat man!

 

[Scubakevdm]

Okie doke, here's the scoop on diving in Boynton after Hanna passed us by:

We went out this afternoon to see how things were. Seas were calm outside of the swell, which was pretty big but had long periods. The current was just barely trickling west southwest on the bottom, water temps were a comfortable 85º, and visibility ranged between 50' and 70'. The top 40' of the water was a milky greenish layer, but below it was blue and fairly clear. The top layer did block out a fair amount of the ambient light. This was aggravated at times by cloud cover obscuring the sun.

As could be expected, there had been a shuffling of fish, and there were a few groupers down there that acted like they'd never seen a human being before. I'm pretty sure they wont last too long down there. We also found three turtles, two of them local hawksbills, and one loggerhead that I'd never seen before with some kind of a tumor or something growing through her shell. There were also a number of medium sized hogfish. I found one lobster, in the 2lb size range with red coloration.

This gray angelfish has a disease which is causing some concern amongst biologists, and if I remember correctly, the FWC has requested that divers and fisherman remove them from the waters. I don't have the heart to shoot an angelfish, but if you do... and it has this disease, which causes a milky patch with a greenish (at depth) tint to it, they could use your help.

I guess we could get all of the diseased stuff out of the way first... here is the turtle with the tumor. I apologize for the bad angle for showing the tumor, I didn't realize she had it until she was already passed us. In this picture the tumor almost looks like her left fore fin, but it's actually a baseball sized lump of flesh which has split and lifted one of the plates of her shell.

Here's turtle two, up on top of Gazebo. Look at how clean its shell is!

Turtle three out on Jerry's No-Name.

How black groupers hide under a ledge:

The gray one was the smaller of the two, but they were close in size, in the eight to ten pound range.


How a red grouper hides under a ledge:

Here's a better shot of him.

A small and a medium sized hog, 13" and about 15".

 

[brucetrinity]

Thanks for the update! We are hoping to get over to Boynton next week if Ike doesn't turn in towards FL.

Bruce

 

[deepstops]

I'm just finishing cleaning up the gear (and the bugs) from an all-day four tanker.

Anyone who thought today wouldn't be conducive to good diving was wrong. Four dives, 4 hours & 48 minutes of BT, flat seas, 83 degree water, 50-70' of good bluewater viz underneath the top 10' of brownish lake run-off, and five kick butt crustaceans on ice.

The Alex & Kevin show rocks

 

[HilaryRN71]

I'm just finishing cleaning up the gear (and the bugs) from an all-day four tanker.

Anyone who thought today wouldn't be conducive to good diving was wrong. Four dives, 4 hours & 48 minutes of BT, flat seas, 83 degree water, 50-70' of good bluewater viz underneath the top 10' of brownish lake run-off, and five kick butt crustaceans on ice.

The Alex & Kevin show rocks

...and not to mention five kick butt dive buddies and two awesome crew. MAGNIFICENT DAY!

 

[Scubakevdm]

Hey I'm glad you guys had fun, and thanks Brain, for doing the report! I'll throw up some documentation of the dives...

First, the cast:

Here we have Ed the better half, as well as the lower half of of HilaryRN. Sorry about chopping you off Hil!

Here is HilaryRN in her entirety.

Deepstops blowing bubbles.

TasDiver

Hello Kitty, taking a cat-nap. I can tease him with confidence, because he can't read this small print.

He's not a ScubaBoard member, as far as I know, so I can't give you his screen name, but he was very nice.


We found alot of cool stuff today. The Castor was our first dive, and personally my favorite with bait balling all around the Goliath groupers and tons and tons and tons of activity. I didn't take my camera on that dive, unfortunately. We also found the prettiest loggerhead I've ever seen. I didn't see anymore groupers, but we were behind the commercial spearos. We did see a fair number of decent hogfish though. I spooked a 6 foot nurse shark that almost blasted into Netmage. Sorry Tim!

I had alot of fun, it was a great day with a great group!

The pretty turtle.

The shark-missile, T minus ten... nine... eight...

HilaryRN and a pretty good sized hog.


If you guys want the full sized copies of the pics I took of you, email me and I'll reply with them.

 

[Missdirected]

Hil, Brian, Tim, thanks all for the invite :shocked2:

Actually, as I just typed that, I think Hil did tell me 'bout this dive. :doh:

 

[netmage]

Hello Kitty, taking a cat-nap. I can tease him with confidence, because he can't read this small print.

 

[HilaryRN71]

Hil, Brian, Tim, thanks all for the invite :shocked2:

Actually, as I just typed that, I think Hil did tell me 'bout this dive. :doh:

I did.

 

[deepstops]

How about we call him Hanging Chad??

The jewfish aggregation was pretty impressive with the bait balls and the jacks screaming by for outlying snacks.

Hey I'm glad you guys had fun, and thanks Brain, for doing the report! I'll throw up some documentation of the dives...

First, the cast:

He's not a ScubaBoard member, as far as I know, so I can't give you his screen name, but he was very nice.

We found alot of cool stuff today. The Castor was our first dive, and personally my favorite with bait balling all around the Goliath groupers and tons and tons and tons of activity. I didn't take my camera on that dive, unfortunately. We also found the prettiest loggerhead I've ever seen. I didn't see anymore groupers, but we were behind the commercial spearos. We did see a fair number of decent hogfish though. I spooked a 6 foot nurse shark that almost blasted into Netmage. Sorry Tim!

I had alot of fun, it was a great day with a great group!

If you guys want the full sized copies of the pics I took of you, email me and I'll reply with them.