Blue Heron Bridge on Friday the 17th?

[dwatts]

OK, I'm going to be in West Palm next weekend. In fact, we're staying within walking distance of the BHB. Anyway, we're still newbies so I have questions.

High tide (for the 17th) is at 4:54PM. If we start our dive around 4:00PM would that work nicely? Does anyone have a "beginners" guide to diving the bridge?

Any advice/recommendations/thoughts would be helpful. Thanks.

[sportxlh]

If you stop by Force-E scuba to rent your tanks or any other gear, they can provide you with a photocopy of a hand drawn map of the dive area of the bridge. Its pretty rudimentary, but helpful. If you jump in at 4:00, I'd swim due south of the playground area first and examine the mooring ball anchors for a few minutes. Sometimes there are really interesting things around them. There used to be a bunch of sunken sailboats in this area, but last time I swam out, I could not find any and only found craters in the seafloor where I assum the wrecks used to lie.... the county or maybe corp of engineers must have hauled most of them off. After 10 or 15 minutes of this, swim to the west or east span. I think the west span is easier for newer divers since there is not as much venturi effect of the tide squeezing around the island (phil foster park) and the land on either side of phil foster park. I like to swim to the fishing pier on the west side first (the fishing pier is just north of the main west span) and head west once you get to it. There is a debris pile half way down the fishing pier (on the north side) that houses all sorts of tropical fish, a spotted moray or two, arrow crabs, lobsters, blennies and all sorts of interesting critters. Examine all the fishing pier's pilings as you head west, the last couple sets generally have a lot of spadfish, filefish, angel fish, etc. feeding. A few dives ago, I saw a swimming frogfish near the last set of pilings. Once you get to the end of the fishing pier, head southwest to the main portion of the west span (don't go on the other side of the boat channel wall!!!!) and examine the huge pilings and the sand between each piling on your way back in (east). Go slow and take your time. A week and a half ago, my buddy and I got a little over a two hour dive following the plan I just suggested.

Remember to bring a dive flag with you. If you don't own one, you can rent one at Force-E

This site has some helpful tips, but the tide calculator is incorrect.... everything else on the site is top notch info.

Blue Heron Bridge

If I can scoot out of work a bit early on Friday, I plan to dive the bridge too.

[dwatts]

If you stop by Force-E scuba to rent your tanks or any other gear, they can provide you with a photocopy of a hand drawn map of the dive area of the bridge. Its pretty rudimentary, but helpful. If you jump in at 4:00, I'd swim due south of the playground area first and examine the mooring ball anchors for a few minutes. Sometimes there are really interesting things around them. There used to be a bunch of sunken sailboats in this area, but last time I swam out, I could not find any and only found craters in the seafloor where I assum the wrecks used to lie.... the county or maybe corp of engineers must have hauled most of them off. After 10 or 15 minutes of this, swim to the west or east span. I think the west span is easier for newer divers since there is not as much venturi effect of the tide squeezing around the island (phil foster park) and the land on either side of phil foster park. I like to swim to the fishing pier on the west side first (the fishing pier is just north of the main west span) and head west once you get to it. There is a debris pile half way down the fishing pier (on the north side) that houses all sorts of tropical fish, a spotted moray or two, arrow crabs, lobsters, blennies and all sorts of interesting critters. Examine all the fishing pier's pilings as you head west, the last couple sets generally have a lot of spadfish, filefish, angel fish, etc. feeding. A few dives ago, I saw a swimming frogfish near the last set of pilings. Once you get to the end of the fishing pier, head southwest to the main portion of the west span (don't go on the other side of the boat channel wall!!!!) and examine the huge pilings and the sand between each piling on your way back in (east). Go slow and take your time. A week and a half ago, my buddy and I got a little over a two hour dive following the plan I just suggested.

Remember to bring a dive flag with you. If you don't own one, you can rent one at Force-E

This site has some helpful tips, but the tide calculator is incorrect.... everything else on the site is top notch info.

Blue Heron Bridge

If I can scoot out of work a bit early on Friday, I plan to dive the bridge too.

Thanks for the tips. I already called Force-E. We're going to do a boat dive in the AM and rent a flag (and other gear) for the afternoon bridge dive.