Blue Heron Bridge Trolls

[cocoajoe]

Sounds like it's taking a while for BHB to recover from Sandy. Planning dives Wed 7th -Fri 9th.....looking for dive reports Monday and Tuesday.

Viz? Critters?

Thanks in advance,
Joe

 

[jet126]

Viz a milky 15 ft today. Water temp 80. I was good in my 5mm. The critter du jour is still spotted eagle rays. There appears to be a fine layer of silt over everything so you have to look slowly and carefully for the little stuff.

 

[DiveDivaDM]

Will be back again Monday with Joanne R and Helen B. It is a total chick dive. WhooHoo. jimw will be the shore support.[/QUOTE]

Had a fantastic 2 hour chick dive today with Joanne R & Helen B. Conditions the same as before mentioned. Temp about 80 viz on the west side was a very milky 10 turning to a very milky 5 to 7 heading back east after the tide turned. But, what a great dive! A very cute orange seahorse was out and about feeding. Saw 2 gigantic jawfish ... one with a clutch of eggs in his mouth just showing them off. They weren't the least bit shy. Saw an eagle ray as well. And a monster barracuda! We could almost ride him. Plenty of fish. Sure wish the viz would clear up a tad. But great to say the three of us have really good nav skills, or maybe we just know the area so well. Have to mention we saw a very polite photographer with a very large expensive looking camera rig. Will go again tomorrow or Wednesday.

Jet sorry we missed you.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

If that polite photographer is the same that we saw last July, he gives hope to all the photogs out there. Very gracious, backed away and let us take photos with our little rinky dink cameras and we thanked him and moved on. Saw him in the parking lot later and properly thanked him. And if he is reading this now.. again, thank you.

 

[purepursuit]

I'll be there tomorrow. Really look forward to a nice relaxing dive

 

[jet126]

Jet sorry we missed you.

Likewise!!

 

[jimw]

Walldiver,

Nice to meet you and your partner! divediva,aka Carol sez she and Helen are going again today. btw, I looked that shell up--Amber Penshell on page 255 of my older edition Reef Creature ID book. The book sez rare in Florida, but they are always at BHB.

 

[danvolker]

Sunday I borrowed a standup paddleboard ( my first time using one), and put in at the beach at BHB, and paddled to the inlet for Freedive/snorkeling. This is so easy, and fun, we need to get more BHB divers trying this....

The easy way, is we have Pura Vida drop off a bunch of Paddle Boards( my guess is I can get them to offer a free demo day),
and a good group ( of never before paddleboarders) will just kneel or sit on them, and paddle first to Peanut Island....take a break if needed, then skirt along the beach, and then cross the nav channel to Palm Beach and we snorkel the Annies Dock area of the South Jetty. There is about a half a mile of awesome snorkeling/freediving/scuba in that area, and it is easy to get there now. Depth can be 4 feet along the jetty, or 12 feet along the top of the wall like channel reef, or as deep as 35 feet if you go to the bottom of the wall/reef.
The paddle is easy, and when I say we can rest at Peanut, that is only to keep it fun and easy and not worrysome for anyone. After you have been paddling on your knees for 15 minutes or so, your nervous system figures out the motions of the board without your brain required, and when you try to stand, it is pretty easy....I did standing paddle my whole way back.
We strap the fins and flag to the paddleboard, and we bring Sports Drink/water, and any snacks you might want. We should leave the beach about 2 hours prior to high tide, to allow huge amounts of time to get there...and an hour early is actually a good time to get in over by Annies dock.

So who would like to try this new adventure ?

 

[UforSCUBA?]

Sunday I borrowed a standup paddleboard ( my first time using one), and put in at the beach at BHB, and paddled to the inlet for Freedive/snorkeling. This is so easy, and fun, we need to get more BHB divers trying this....

The easy way, is we have Pura Vida drop off a bunch of Paddle Boards( my guess is I can get them to offer a free demo day),
and a good group ( of never before paddleboarders) will just kneel or sit on them, and paddle first to Peanut Island....take a break if needed, then skirt along the beach, and then cross the nav channel to Palm Beach and we snorkel the Annies Dock area of the South Jetty. There is about a half a mile of awesome snorkeling/freediving/scuba in that area, and it is easy to get there now. Depth can be 4 feet along the jetty, or 12 feet along the top of the wall like channel reef, or as deep as 35 feet if you go to the bottom of the wall/reef.
The paddle is easy, and when I say we can rest at Peanut, that is only to keep it fun and easy and not worrysome for anyone. After you have been paddling on your knees for 15 minutes or so, your nervous system figures out the motions of the board without your brain required, and when you try to stand, it is pretty easy....I did standing paddle my whole way back.
We strap the fins and flag to the paddleboard, and we bring Sports Drink/water, and any snacks you might want. We should leave the beach about 2 hours prior to high tide, to allow huge amounts of time to get there...and an hour early is actually a good time to get in over by Annies dock.

So who would like to try this new adventure ?

I'd love to!

 

[danvolker]

I'd love to!

Anyone that wants to try this on the coming weekend, email me at dan@sfdj.com and I will see how many boards we can borrow. I would say we get the boards at 3pm Saturday, and be paddling by 3:30....be at south jetty by 4, and start east of the now wake signs on the way out of the inlet, and let the tide pull us back in to well west of Annies Dock.....
Only trick to this is Pura Vida will have to have someone around for us to get the boards back, as we would be back to them after closing....but this is workable