Gotta love Florida -- Weekend photos from West Palm and Eagle's Nest

[Dr. Doug Ebersole]

You gotta love the diving in Florida. I had an excellent diving weekend here in Florida. First there were a couple of days of diving the reefs of West Palm with sunny skies, flat seas, and (finally) warmer water temperatures. And the marine life showed up in force. Then it was off to Eagle’s Nest cave system for a fresh water rinse of the rebreather! Here are some weekend photos:

West Palm

Eagle’s Nest
Dropping into the system through the “chimney”

Classic “Grim Reaper Sign” photo

It’s a MASSIVE system

Hanging on deco. There’s the one way out – that little light coming through the chimney

On the way out after a great weekend of diving

Self Portrait

 

[Scott L]

Awesome shots Doug. Thanks for posting!

 

[Revog]

Wow those are awesome pics, what sort of sharks are they?

Eagles nest looks scary, did you go further?

 

[Dr. Doug Ebersole]

The first is a nurse shark. The others are Caribbean reef sharks.

Eagle's Nest is sort of an "Everest" of cave diving. It's about 300 feet deep and goes back a couple of thousand feet both upstream and downstream. A cave only for very experienced full trimix, full cave divers.
Personally, I've only gone down to about 270 ffw swimming about 500 or so feet upstream and downstream as I don't have a scooter. Even that makes for a lot of deco and about a 2 1/2 hour run time on a closed circuit rebreather.

 

[DiverDean59]

What dive site were the shots in West Palm taken?

 

[Dr. Doug Ebersole]

The first day we did a three tank trip to North Double Ledges, the Trench, and then the Playpen/Toybox. The next day was Shark Canyon and Juno Ledge. I really don't remember which shots were taken where except the reef sharks were at Shark Canyon, the Goliath at Juno Ledge, and the Turtle at Playpen/Toybox.

 

[pollywogg]

A cave only for very experienced full trimix, full cave divers.

Sheck didn't use trimix, neither did Frank Martz......real men do deep dives on air alone.

In all seriousness, thanks for the pics, they're great.

 

[DennisW]

Thanks for the pictures. You can keep the deep dark holes, but it is interesting to see inside.

 

[uncleavi]

I live in Palm Beach County and work at a local dive shop and could pinch myself, I love it here!

 

[DiverDean59]

It must be great living in Florida. I can't hardly wait to dive there in June.