esword
Registered
Thanks to everyone for their tips on my WPB vs Ft. Lauderdale diving. My wife and I went out with Pura Vida at WPB last weekend and had an awesome time. Hats (or masks?) off to the crew. My wife surfaced on our first (and only) dive on Friday with a man-o-war on her head and reg. She handled it really calmly and the crew was a great help getting it off, giving her on-board treatment, and cleaning her gear. On the positive side, it turns out my wife's not allergic, so aside from feeling like her face was on fire for about 30 minutes, she was fully recovered after a couple of hours.
As for the rest of the trip - did various spots along Breakers Reef on Saturday (4 dives total). I've never seen so many sharks in a single set of dives as I did Saturday morning. Ditto for turtles. And this was with the vis only being about 30', so who knows what was just out over the edge. Also a ton of lobsters. One guy on the boat brought up 2 of the biggest lobsters the crew had ever seen for the WPB area. The only downside (besides being chilly at 67-68 degrees) was we saw a fair-sized lion fish underneath Ron's Rock. (I think that was the name of the site.)
Sunday started really, really cold (63 according to our computers). Did the reef again and then Toy Box. Very cool hawks bill turtle eating inside the wreck. A few big groupers. In the afternoon did Govs Walk and Mitzpah. There were 2 big groups hanging around outside the Mitzpah which I thought was very cool until the dive master pointed me inside the wreck and I saw about 5 more. I was so excited I could almost see the needle on my air gauge going down. Awesome way to end the trip.
Many thanks again to Dean, Donna, Jake, et al for running a great outfit. Not sure when we'll be able to head down again, but already looking forward to it.
As for the rest of the trip - did various spots along Breakers Reef on Saturday (4 dives total). I've never seen so many sharks in a single set of dives as I did Saturday morning. Ditto for turtles. And this was with the vis only being about 30', so who knows what was just out over the edge. Also a ton of lobsters. One guy on the boat brought up 2 of the biggest lobsters the crew had ever seen for the WPB area. The only downside (besides being chilly at 67-68 degrees) was we saw a fair-sized lion fish underneath Ron's Rock. (I think that was the name of the site.)
Sunday started really, really cold (63 according to our computers). Did the reef again and then Toy Box. Very cool hawks bill turtle eating inside the wreck. A few big groupers. In the afternoon did Govs Walk and Mitzpah. There were 2 big groups hanging around outside the Mitzpah which I thought was very cool until the dive master pointed me inside the wreck and I saw about 5 more. I was so excited I could almost see the needle on my air gauge going down. Awesome way to end the trip.
Many thanks again to Dean, Donna, Jake, et al for running a great outfit. Not sure when we'll be able to head down again, but already looking forward to it.
