SFLDiver3445 Trip Report W/ Pics: Wreck Of The Castor & Delray Reef (08-10-2008)

[SFLDiver3445]

Sunday, I accepted an invitation from Jeff (SWADiver) and his wife Daniele to join them for some diving off Delray Beach, Florida. I met Jeff and Daniele at their home in Boca Raton, where we loaded up our gear on their boat and headed out the canal to the Boca Inlet, where we headed North to the Wreck of the Castor. The seas were flat, as they had been for several days, but we did experience a bit of rain along the way.

When we arrived at the wreck, we found another boat with divers below, so rather than dropping an anchor, I took the anchor down and hooked it on the stern section. Fortunately, the current was literally non-existent and the visibility was great. After hooking the anchor, I ascended to dive Jeff and Daniele the all clear and to get my camera and head straight back down to hang out on the wreck with the ten to twelve Goliath Groupers I had seen while setting the anchor. We had a great dive and I got lots of interesting pictures.

After the wreck dive great dive and required deco, we pulled the anchor and headed of to a local Delray Beach Reef. I was amazed at how nice the reef was. We anchored and hit the water in approximately 55' to 60' of depth and spent about seventy to 80 minutes on the reef. The reef was filled with life, so I did manage to get a few nice shots there as well.

Even though we got rained on before and after the dives, the seas were calm and the sites we visited were amazing. Definitely give Delray Beach serious consideration for your next dive trip, because both the wreck and the reef we visited were as good as any South Florida diving I've done!

Here's a few pictures I took throught the dives that should give you an idea of how nice our Delray Beach diving was:

Here's a few shots of the Castor.






Here's a few shots of the Goliath Groupers we saw on the wreck.








Here's a few shots of Jeff & Daniele on the wreck.












Continued on next post...

[SFLDiver3445]

Continues from previous post...

Here's a rare shot of me, taken by Jeff with my camera on the wreck.


While we were on the line completing our deco, I managed to take a few shots of Jeff and Danile and the boat.








Here's a few shots of some friendly angelfish we saw on the reef dive.








Here's a few shots that show some more of the extensive marine life we saw.










Enjoy!

Adrian

[deepstops]

Dang Adrian, once again, awesome job on the pics!!

[Kafer]

Looks like you guys had a great trip

Thanks for sharing the photos

[SFLDiver3445]

Dang Adrian, once again, awesome job on the pics!!

The conditions were pretty awesome, which does make it a bit easier to get good shots, but I was happy with the way the pics came out.

Thanks Brian!

[SFLDiver3445]

Looks like you guys had a great trip

Thanks for sharing the photos

It was my pleasure Kafer, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

I enjoy posting trip reports with lots of pics, because I recognize that not everyone either lives near great diving or has the time to enjoy the ocean as often as they would like, so I figure that by posting my reports, other divers will be reminded of how awesome diving can be and stay motivated to get out there and either dive more often or plan for their next trip.

Adrian

[DebbyDiver]

Great pics, Adrian, and OMG look at that great VIZ!!!!!!

[SFLDiver3445]

Great pics, Adrian, and OMG look at that great VIZ!!!!!!

Thanks Debby!

And btw, the viz was nice, but don't think it was that spectacular, because much of that comes from knowing how to set the ISO on the camera right and knowing how to angle the light correctly to make the water look clearer - SSSHHHHH, but don't give away my secrets to anyone else.

Debby, there were lots of boats out there for the start of the regular season, did you catch any bugs during mini-season and/or this weekend?

Adrian

[DebbyDiver]

Yes I did, both days of mini-season from Donna's boat, and Saturday from my kayak.

[Shangrl]

Wow--great pictures Adrian!! Looks like you guys had an awesome dive