erparamedic
Vampire Girl......er Dork
We started the vacay with the DiveQuest dive. It was just mom, dad, and I... Rod had to stay in Indy for the 1st 4 days of vacay.... obligations he couldn't reschedule. This is the Epcot dive and I highly recommend it! Where else can you hover 3-4 feet away from a 10 ft 500+ lb sand tiger and just stare at it... while the 9 ft sand tiger rests on the other side of the bigger one! Very cool! They also have 3 brown sharks and a smaller (4') brown nose (or was it black nose) shark, multiple HUGE turtles (green and loggerhead), spotted eagle rays, sting rays, spade fish, jacks, tarpon, mula-mula, etc.
We dove off of West Palm Beach with Pura Vida Divers again... they are top notch, and I highly recommend them if you ever scoot down that way. We did 3 days of boat dives (Rod was with us for 2 of those days).
Day 1:
The sites were called The Corridor (3 wrecks strung together... Mizpah, PC1170, and Amaryllis). There were more golliath grouper than you could count! They were about 6-7 feet long, and 600-700 lbs each! We heard a couple of them "sound" their pectoral fins... WOW! It's a thump sound that reverberates thru your body... we never figured out which ones weren't happy (nobody was annoying them) but I think it was probably "thumping" at other groupers. Some were curious of the divers, coming in fairly close to us. We also saw an enormous rainbow parrotfish... at least 4 feet long. My depth was 81 feet, for 27 minutes. Vis was around 60 feet or so and mild to slightly moderate current. Seas were flat as glass.
The 2nd dive on day 1 was "Atlantis/Spudbarge". Atlantis is a trail of massive bridge and road pieces that were dumped offshore many years ago. There's alot of growth on it, with tons of nooks and crannies to peer into. The Spudbarge lies due west of Atlantis, and there are no sides on the barge, making for a nice swimthru. Part of the barge is also lying atop of some rocks, and you can actually swim under it too. I did not do any swimthrus, but I did peer under the barge to see multiple (at least 6-8) golliath grouper. Depth was 76 feet, 29 minutes. Vis was about 60 feet. There was a mild to slightly moderate current. Completely flat seas. Very nice!
2nd Day:
The first dive was to North West Double Ledges, also called Shark Dive. The visibility wasn't great.... maybe 50 feet, but lots of particulate in the water. We were beginning to wonder if we'd see any sharks. We did see 2 golliath grouper under a ledge... but they were not nearly as big as we had seen on the wrecks a couple days prior. Then, out of the blue... we saw 1 nurse shark, and 3 reef sharks. They were all in the 6-7 foot range. They were cruising along, and started circling the reef where we were. They all hung close to the bottom. Depth was 86 feet, 33 minutes. Current was very, very, very mild... almost wasn't a drift dive. Flat seas, no wave action at all.
Then we went back to Atlantis/Spudbarge. We perused a small amound of the "Atlantis" rubble, then went on to look for the Spudbarge, and wound up over sand and a whole lot of nothing. The DM (in training) pulling the float disappeared into the blue/particulate, and we just hung out.... heading west looking for the barge (4 of us). We never found it, and soon our bottom time was up, so we slowly ascended and made our safety stop, and boarded the boat. Dean (PVD owner) felt bad cause nobody found the barge, and the 4 of us still had air... so he had the captain drop us over the site again for a quick 5 minute peek at the barge. For whatever reason, I couldn't get down on that attempt, but I didn't miss anything, as the others still didn't find it... joys of being in the bermuda triangle... LOL. Hey... we got wet, and blew bubbles. Still had fun! Seas flat as glass.
Day 3:
We went to Bath and Tennis... nice reef site! STRONG current. In fact, half the group wound up ahead of the float, which we were told in the briefing may happen. The bottom current was incredibly fast and strong, and the surface current was even faster! Great site though... saw a big green sea turtle, octopus, 2 cuttle fish (flashing purple and yellow), very large porcupine fish (apx 2 to maybe 3 feet), cornett fish, huge brain coral, lots of tropicals of all shapes/sizes, huge schools of fish. Vis was around 50-60 feet. Current.... what a ride! Depth was 53 feet, 40 minutes. Seas 1-2 foot chop.
The last boat dive of this trip was at the Breakers Reef, notably 7th window thru the 1st window. They briefed what would normally be about 3-4 sites as 1 site due to the current. We all made it down as a group, looking at lots of coral and tropicals, then hit a very strong cross-current, and half were "whooshed" west to the front of the reef, and the rest of us were "whooshed" east to the back of the reef. We were comfortable, still over the reef, and continued the dive. There was NO swimming against the current... couldn't even kick against it and hold your place. We took the ride! Wow! What a ride! LOL We saw lots of hard and soft corals, multiple tropicals, christmas tree worms, etc. Towards the end, we wound up over some sandy places with "reef fingers" cropping out, but couldn't even attempt to swim toward the reef and time was up. We made our ascent and safety stop. The boat was right there waiting on us when we surfaced. We must have finished our dive relatively close to the rest of the group, the boat didn't have to do much maneuvering to get to them. Depth was 73 ft, 35 minutes. Seas 1-2 foot chop.
Yesterday, we decided to finish up our trip with a private guide at the east span of the Blue Heron Bridge. What a cool shore dive! We went in just before high tide.... there was still a moderate incoming current. We decended and looked amonst the bridge pillings. There is a HUGE amount of stuff to look at! From the many wrecks, to the tiny, tiny things. We saw tons of arrow crabs, banded shrimp, sand crabs, decorator crabs, huge pilllow starfish, gobies, juvenile drumfish, butterfly fish, angels, barracuda, small lobsters, very large hermet crab, tons of tiny hermet crabs, multiple urchins (black, white, and purple), more stonefish than you could count, nudibranchs (one that was only about 2 or 3 millimeters!), and multiple other things. This was an awesome dive to toodle around and really "look" for the little stuff... especially when the tide went slack. Depth was 23 feet for 70 minutes. Vis was about 30-35 feet. Mom and I went back down to look amongst some shallow rocks after everyone else surfaced.... that was another 12 minute dive.
I know I've said in previous threads that we highly recommend Pura Vida Divers... and I stand by that! They are a very down to earth, safety oriented dive op. They were very accomidating to our needs and desires and I can't wait to get back down to WPB and dive with them again! Thank you, Dean and Shana!
We dove off of West Palm Beach with Pura Vida Divers again... they are top notch, and I highly recommend them if you ever scoot down that way. We did 3 days of boat dives (Rod was with us for 2 of those days).
Day 1:
The sites were called The Corridor (3 wrecks strung together... Mizpah, PC1170, and Amaryllis). There were more golliath grouper than you could count! They were about 6-7 feet long, and 600-700 lbs each! We heard a couple of them "sound" their pectoral fins... WOW! It's a thump sound that reverberates thru your body... we never figured out which ones weren't happy (nobody was annoying them) but I think it was probably "thumping" at other groupers. Some were curious of the divers, coming in fairly close to us. We also saw an enormous rainbow parrotfish... at least 4 feet long. My depth was 81 feet, for 27 minutes. Vis was around 60 feet or so and mild to slightly moderate current. Seas were flat as glass.
The 2nd dive on day 1 was "Atlantis/Spudbarge". Atlantis is a trail of massive bridge and road pieces that were dumped offshore many years ago. There's alot of growth on it, with tons of nooks and crannies to peer into. The Spudbarge lies due west of Atlantis, and there are no sides on the barge, making for a nice swimthru. Part of the barge is also lying atop of some rocks, and you can actually swim under it too. I did not do any swimthrus, but I did peer under the barge to see multiple (at least 6-8) golliath grouper. Depth was 76 feet, 29 minutes. Vis was about 60 feet. There was a mild to slightly moderate current. Completely flat seas. Very nice!
2nd Day:
The first dive was to North West Double Ledges, also called Shark Dive. The visibility wasn't great.... maybe 50 feet, but lots of particulate in the water. We were beginning to wonder if we'd see any sharks. We did see 2 golliath grouper under a ledge... but they were not nearly as big as we had seen on the wrecks a couple days prior. Then, out of the blue... we saw 1 nurse shark, and 3 reef sharks. They were all in the 6-7 foot range. They were cruising along, and started circling the reef where we were. They all hung close to the bottom. Depth was 86 feet, 33 minutes. Current was very, very, very mild... almost wasn't a drift dive. Flat seas, no wave action at all.
Then we went back to Atlantis/Spudbarge. We perused a small amound of the "Atlantis" rubble, then went on to look for the Spudbarge, and wound up over sand and a whole lot of nothing. The DM (in training) pulling the float disappeared into the blue/particulate, and we just hung out.... heading west looking for the barge (4 of us). We never found it, and soon our bottom time was up, so we slowly ascended and made our safety stop, and boarded the boat. Dean (PVD owner) felt bad cause nobody found the barge, and the 4 of us still had air... so he had the captain drop us over the site again for a quick 5 minute peek at the barge. For whatever reason, I couldn't get down on that attempt, but I didn't miss anything, as the others still didn't find it... joys of being in the bermuda triangle... LOL. Hey... we got wet, and blew bubbles. Still had fun! Seas flat as glass.
Day 3:
We went to Bath and Tennis... nice reef site! STRONG current. In fact, half the group wound up ahead of the float, which we were told in the briefing may happen. The bottom current was incredibly fast and strong, and the surface current was even faster! Great site though... saw a big green sea turtle, octopus, 2 cuttle fish (flashing purple and yellow), very large porcupine fish (apx 2 to maybe 3 feet), cornett fish, huge brain coral, lots of tropicals of all shapes/sizes, huge schools of fish. Vis was around 50-60 feet. Current.... what a ride! Depth was 53 feet, 40 minutes. Seas 1-2 foot chop.
The last boat dive of this trip was at the Breakers Reef, notably 7th window thru the 1st window. They briefed what would normally be about 3-4 sites as 1 site due to the current. We all made it down as a group, looking at lots of coral and tropicals, then hit a very strong cross-current, and half were "whooshed" west to the front of the reef, and the rest of us were "whooshed" east to the back of the reef. We were comfortable, still over the reef, and continued the dive. There was NO swimming against the current... couldn't even kick against it and hold your place. We took the ride! Wow! What a ride! LOL We saw lots of hard and soft corals, multiple tropicals, christmas tree worms, etc. Towards the end, we wound up over some sandy places with "reef fingers" cropping out, but couldn't even attempt to swim toward the reef and time was up. We made our ascent and safety stop. The boat was right there waiting on us when we surfaced. We must have finished our dive relatively close to the rest of the group, the boat didn't have to do much maneuvering to get to them. Depth was 73 ft, 35 minutes. Seas 1-2 foot chop.
Yesterday, we decided to finish up our trip with a private guide at the east span of the Blue Heron Bridge. What a cool shore dive! We went in just before high tide.... there was still a moderate incoming current. We decended and looked amonst the bridge pillings. There is a HUGE amount of stuff to look at! From the many wrecks, to the tiny, tiny things. We saw tons of arrow crabs, banded shrimp, sand crabs, decorator crabs, huge pilllow starfish, gobies, juvenile drumfish, butterfly fish, angels, barracuda, small lobsters, very large hermet crab, tons of tiny hermet crabs, multiple urchins (black, white, and purple), more stonefish than you could count, nudibranchs (one that was only about 2 or 3 millimeters!), and multiple other things. This was an awesome dive to toodle around and really "look" for the little stuff... especially when the tide went slack. Depth was 23 feet for 70 minutes. Vis was about 30-35 feet. Mom and I went back down to look amongst some shallow rocks after everyone else surfaced.... that was another 12 minute dive.
I know I've said in previous threads that we highly recommend Pura Vida Divers... and I stand by that! They are a very down to earth, safety oriented dive op. They were very accomidating to our needs and desires and I can't wait to get back down to WPB and dive with them again! Thank you, Dean and Shana!
Photobucket was not working, so I had to upload them all from my computer. Just click on the files and the pics will pop up. My favorite pics are the evil arrow crab, juvenile spotted drum and arrow crab, and crab3.
