Boca Raton and vicinity dive sites

Hi all,

I just bought a small boat and wanted to do some diving from my boat. I live in Boca Raton. Are there some nice sites in my area that you all could recommend? Are there sites with mooring buoys? Last week we found some moorings off Pompano Beach but the diving wasn't too great.


Also, any snorkel sites accessible from a boat. My wife only snorkels.

Thanks,

Bob

There's the Breakers in West Palm that has buoys you can tie off to. It's a pretty nice reef, although one section got tore apart about a year ago. Probably not the best for snorkeling as it's about 50 fsw to the sand.

Where you were last weekend was the Pompano drop which is good for divers and snorekelers alike since you're only about 20-30 fsw. Don't know what else is that shallow you can tie off to. What didn't you like about Pompano?

There are mooring buoys off of LBTS, and 2 more sets further south, but still north of Port Everglades. All are on the first reef line, so not dissimilar to Pompano.

I dive off of my 23' CC, and usually drift the deeper reef lines. Obviously this means that at least one person needs to remain on the boat to follow the divers. Even if you dive off of a mooring buoy or on the hook, it is still a preferred practice to have someone on board the vessel. The current can pick up and/or change direction quickly offshore, leading to an unplanned diver pick-up.

Punch these into your GPS:

bh0526:

Hi all,

I just bought a small boat and wanted to do some diving from my boat. I live in Boca Raton. Are there some nice sites in my area that you all could recommend? Are there sites with mooring buoys? Last week we found some moorings off Pompano Beach but the diving wasn't too great.


Also, any snorkel sites accessible from a boat. My wife only snorkels.

Thanks,

Bob

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A good starting point for building cordinates for S Florida dives sites is the "Diving Locations" manual published by 35 Years Underwater, LLC, which can be acquired in most dive shops in S Florida. It lists most notable dive sites with significant coral/topography and wrecks within recreational limits from Boynton Inlet to Dania Pier. In the past, they published an edition from Boynton Inlet to Jupiter but no longer. If you want the last published edition for that territory PM me with an e-mail address and I will forward.

Like the other poster said, be careful diving from moorings. They were installed for fishing boats not divers. The gulfstream makes diving from a stationary boat all but imposiable unless you are Michael Phelps.

For snorkeling there are the worm rock reefs off Deerfield public beach to the south. The eastern-most ledge is about in line with the end of the Deerfield Fishing Pier. The shallowest rock feature north of Boca Inlet to my knowledge lay in 30 ft. or deeper water and are usually fairly flat in those shallow depths. There is the Delray wreck in about 10 ft. of water about 200 ft. south of Casurina Road and 800 ft. off the beach. About a mile and a quarter north of Boynton Inlet is the wreck of the Lofthus, substantially larger than the Delray wreck and about the same distance offshore. Otherwise for snorkeling reefs you need to go south of Hillsboro Inlet, the first reef goes inland forming the northern jetty there and the second reef occurs in deeper water north of that point.

There are lots of wrecks in deeper water for yourself and reefs too off the Deerfield to Delray area. For starters why not pickup Ray McAllisters diving guide at most any dive shop. It should keep you busy for a while. He even has some less visited spots in there.

"For starters why not pickup Ray McAllisters diving guide at most any dive shop. It should keep you busy for a while. He even has some less visited spots in there."[/QUOTE]

The reference guide I mentioned is Ray McAllister's. I guess he does not have a big ego hence his name is not plastered on the cover...

soamelt:

There's the Breakers in West Palm that has buoys you can tie off to. It's a pretty nice reef, although one section got tore apart about a year ago. Probably not the best for snorkeling as it's about 50 fsw to the sand.

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I was off the Breakers about ten days ago and there are mooring buoys that are in 12-15 foot of water and make for a good snorkel/dive.

ScooterSouthFlorida:

I was off the Breakers about ten days ago and there are mooring buoys that are in 12-15 foot of water and make for a good snorkel/dive.

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Is that part of the main reef line or is that more of a broken up reef closer to shore? I assume it's the west side if the reef?