Drift Dive - Lousy drop - what do you do?

[hammet]

I did Ft. Lauderdale/west palm a couple winters ago. Very unimpressed with the drift dives....all of them.

why?

 

[Tom Winters]

In 2006, I had a couple of lousy drops in WPB so I bought a 30’ center console Century with twin 250’s. I did that for 10 years, and it was ok but it was not a gentle tow at 6gph with my F-150.
The boat is now in Tobago, the truck got traded in on a Mercedes, and I’m back to the tender mercies of commercial dive boats again. I had forgotten all about diving with other people near me. Not that wild about it...
The waters off south Florida have just gotten so lousy over the past 15 years...better to just fly somewhere with nice water. One good thing about crappy water is that it is a snap to justify leaving the camera gear at home.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @Tom Winters

Where are you doing your local diving now? I dive solo, rarely see another diver. What is lousy water, viz? Where do you fly to do most of your diving?

 

[tekkydiver]

Viz has varied from good to spectacular so far this summer. It's so easy to find knowledgeable boaters and divers to join us. I would sooner give up diving than get rid of my boat and resort to cattle boats. So it's not cheap to own a boat but there are endless advantages. Silly to be towing a 30' boat around (your F-150 was way over matched) when you could just keep it at an indoor storage place and have it sitting in the water ready to go with a phone call.

 

[Ana]

In 2006, I had a couple of lousy drops in WPB so I bought a 30’ center console Century with twin 250’s. I did that for 10 years, and it was ok but it was not a gentle tow at 6gph with my F-150.

What a coincidence... also in 2006 after dealing with a ridiculous amount of BS from operators off Panama City in the panhandle my husband and I got a shiny 23' Parker. The best purchase I've ever made in my life. Been diving off that little vessel for all these years and it never gets old, if anything I now enjoy diving AND boating, which before was just a method of transportation in order to get to the diving.

Hi @Tom Winters
Where are you doing your local diving now? I dive solo, rarely see another diver. What is lousy water, viz?

Very similar for me, the only limitation is rough seas.
I don't consider our average visibility bad, but I suppose that is relative, The water temp is high enough that I got rid of all my dry suits, as far as the water quality (contamination) when it seems suspicious close to shore or there are notices of problems I go out farther east several miles and just do blue water drifts.

Having a stranger who may or may not know jack about diving, telling me what I can or can't do during my dives is no longer acceptable for me. Will miss exotic sites but just as well, because I wouldn't enjoy them with a crowd of divers around me.

Viz has varied from good to spectacular so far this summer. It's so easy to find knowledgeable boaters and divers to join us. I would sooner give up diving than get rid of my boat and resort to cattle boats. So it's not cheap to own a boat but there are endless advantages. Silly to be towing a 30' boat around (your F-150 was way over matched) when you could just keep it at an indoor storage place and have it sitting in the water ready to go with a phone call.

Nothing is cheap, I believe having a boat is cheaper than therapy sessions, keeping up with fashion or regularly eating in fancy restaurants. I did the indoor storage for a couple of years and it wasn't terrible, but after concentrating on our priorities we found a way to have the boat in the backyard, this way the gear is on board all the time and all you need to do is decide to go.

After the initial expense, good maintenance can provide very many years of satisfaction cheaper than paying charters for the same amount of dives. Having the boat accessible 24-7 actually contributes to having it configured exactly how you want it, and also detecting and fixing issues as soon as they happen.
We can tailor how much to expend by diving close to Hillsboro Inlet for the cheap dives, crossing over to Bimini for more fuel consumption and expenses, or a million options in between.

 

[aiian]

We dropped in on a sandy dessert my last time in, buddy’s fault - not the boat’s.

I’m pretty new to diving so admittedly I wasn’t sure what to do but I’ve done enough fishing to to realize we needed to head west to find the promise land.

However my even newer buddy had other plans it seemed. He was intent on riding the gulf stream north at I-95 speeds so away we went.

It felt like we’d been drifting over the Sahara for hours until we saw it.... a beautiful oasis on the horizon in the shape of a rusty old car hood with about sixty bigs huddled underneath.

Sometimes things just work out I guess.

 

[Texasguy]

Well, the way I look at it. It is what it is.

If you are a guest with a limited time, every dive counts. You want to maximize that potential experience of your vacation. I understand that.

However, if you are a local. Well, you can well manage to have a so-so dive. Next weekend you can have another experience.

So, yes, being a tourist it can suck. I remember I came to Ft. Ltd and with another insta-buddy got off course and spent 80% of the drift dive over sand. Not me or him knew which way is the reef.

Now I wouldn't mind it. Dive is a dive.

 

[scubadada]

Well, the way I look at it. It is what it is.

If you are a guest with a limited time, every dive counts. You want to maximize that potential experience of your vacation. I understand that.

However, if you are a local. Well, you can well manage to have a so-so dive. Next weekend you can have another experience.

So, yes, being a tourist it can suck. I remember I came to Ft. Ltd and with another insta-buddy got off course and spent 80% of the drift dive over sand. Not me or him knew which way is the reef.

Now I wouldn't mind it. Dive is a dive.

When you know the territory, you can nearly always find the reef. Yesterday, I volunteered to take 2 first time visitors to Boynton Beach with me. We were dropped on the west facing reef. One of the divers had a lot of trouble descending. We spent a fair amount of time drifting. Finally, I went my own way and the two of them were to sort through the problems and get redropped. I found myself in 65 feet of featureless sand. I swam quite a distance east, found the reef, and enjoyed the rest of the dive. A compass is very useful, the current can be tricky, it was quite strong west, northwest on this day.

 

[Texasguy]

If and only if you know the territory. It is great to bring as an example the best case scenario, it is very comforting and agreeable, almost a cuddly factor to it.

 

[Tom Winters]

Hi @Tom Winters

Where are you doing your local diving now? I dive solo, rarely see another diver. What is lousy water, viz? Where do you fly to do most of your diving?

Now I dive mainly off Boca on Tony’s boat Diversity, but Boynton, Riviera Beach and Jupiter all always possibilities.
I haven’t bothered with Broward county for a long time...I would dive with Parrot Island or American Dream at Pier 66, but that’s been years and years now.
Even when I lived in South Beach, I never dived in Dade county.
Mile Marker 100 is exactly 90 miles and 90 minutes out the door. I like the smaller ops. This Rainbow Reef biz just took over everything. They’re proud of pumping out 500 divers/day, and that is just too big an op for me. Others love ‘em, and that’s good for them.
When I bought the boat, I kept it in the water in north Boca for $300/month. The dry storage guys at Pennell’s wanted something like $800/month to store it on a rack since it was so big. I got tired of the lady with the dock, and I did get a good deal on a new triple axle trailer so I did that.
A 250 would have been better than the 150, but damn those are big trucks.
Flying...now the coast of Egypt/northern Sudan has been looking interesting. I looked into Palau, but even when I lived in Honolulu, it was a long ways away.