Lantana Report, 4/11/04

[cra2]

Just did our OW checkout dives in Lantana, Fl on Horseshoe Reef.
Drive was around 3 hrs from Orlando area.
Boarded the Starfish (www.idivestarfish.com) for afternoon dives. Ride out was about an hour.
Vis was 50+ft. H20 was 77 degrees. Choppy on surface with current. LOTS of swaying.
But Nearly zero current on reef.
Fantastic diving.
Saw THOUSANDS of fish and colorful coral.
Long round trumpets, big angels, huge parrots, damsels, etc.
(sorry, will be able to ID more when I get more experienced)
Saw 1-2' white sea cucumber-looking guys on the bottom.
Came up on a nurse shark resting in reef.
Scared off a large southern stingray.
And peeked in on 2 eels (one moray and one spotted) and a big spiny lobster.
Great first dive!

Anyways, must give credit to the boat captain and crew.
They were WONDERFUL. Couldn't possibly have been more helpful, competent, safe and knowledgeable. They were repairing people's gear, cleaning up puke, assisting in/out of the water, rinsing fins, handing out free weights, giving cold showers to the sickly, etc, etc, etc. All with a smile and they even took time to get to know EVERYBODY's names.

This dive sets the bar pretty high.
One question - are ALL dives going to be like this ???
(hope so)

 

[GrierHPharmD]

Congratulations! Welcome to the group.

-Grier

 

[metaldector]

I hope your just as enthusiastic on dive 50, 100, etc. as you just showed in your 1st dive. I still thrill at being in another world, visiting with alien life forms everytime I dive.
The answer to your question, "are ALL dives going to be like this ???" The answer is "NO". But you will have to dive more to see what I mean. Keep wet!

 

[greyface]

You will most likely always have a great time on the Starfish. Capt. Craig & Miss Linda definately know how to take care of their clients. Their local knowledge is second to none, as well. Always a pleasure to dive with them!

 

[divematt]

I also dove Lantana, but on Saturday 4-10-04. Starfish was a good operator. We dove Delray Ledge and Seagate and saw 3 Cobia, a Goliath Grouper, Logerheads, and the largest 6 or 7 foot fat green Morray Eel that I ever saw in my life. It was free swimming in and out of the ledges. The water was flat and almost no current. I got 68' for 51 minutes and 64' for 56 minutes on air. My only complaint was the 20 people on the 34 foot boat. That's a lot, no? I did the Narcosis Sunday and we had 10 people on a 48 footer and that was REALLY nice.

 

[cra2]

You had 20 ppl on the Starfish?
That's strange - I think their website says they don't take out more than 16. And when we were there, I can't remember more than 12 being aboard.

I also dove Lantana, but on Saturday 4-10-04. Starfish was a good operator. We dove Delray Ledge and Seagate and saw 3 Cobia, a Goliath Grouper, Logerheads, and the largest 6 or 7 foot fat green Morray Eel that I ever saw in my life. It was free swimming in and out of the ledges. The water was flat and almost no current. I got 68' for 51 minutes and 64' for 56 minutes on air. My only complaint was the 20 people on the 34 foot boat. That's a lot, no? I did the Narcosis Sunday and we had 10 people on a 48 footer and that was REALLY nice.

 

[divematt]

I'm glad you doubted me, now I can tell you more. I had two positive remarks about Starfish, both of them right here on Scubaboard. Because of that, I went to their website and saw EXACTLY what you saw. I chose them to dive with last Saturday, April 10th, Easter weekend. I had been hoping for what was promised on the site as I hate cattle boats. I met two very nice people that ran the boat when I got there at 7:00am, Craig and Linda. Their 34 foot Crusader had 14 spaces on each side in the back of the boat for tanks. The inside had 4 more. That means that you couldn't put more than 16 people in the water if they each had 2 tanks right? Well, Linda and Craig did not go into the water, and one person was a non diver. 17 others dove in a very cramped boat and I don't know how they fit the extra two tanks aboard. Several people asked how many were diving as it was very full. Linda mentioned that there were 20 on the boat, 17 divers. I enjoyed the dives very much and I liked Craig and Linda every bit as much, but I chose them based on the promise from their website that I wouldn't be on a cattle boat. That unfortunately was not the case. All I'm saying is that it was too darn full of people for 34 feet of boat. I gave Linda $10.00 bucks for a tip after the dives, and dove the next day on the Narcosis, a 48 foot Pro Diver, custom dive boat with 10 divers, the deck hand, and Captain Ray Davis. That was a more comfortable couple of dives.

 

[greyface]

Sorry to hear that, divematt. Luckily, I've never been that crowded with them. Not being a wise-guy, but on 4/1, we did a 3 tanker with 6 divers. Perhaps the holiday weekend had something to do with it. I haven't had the pleasure with Narcosis, yet.

 

[cra2]

I gave Linda $10.00 bucks for a tip after the dives, and dove the next day on the Narcosis, a 48 foot Pro Diver, custom dive boat with 10 divers, the deck hand, and Captain Ray Davis. That was a more comfortable couple of dives.

how was the crew on the narcosis, and what'd you see?
(did you file a trip report and I missed it?)

 

[divematt]

Easter Sunday I did two morning dives on their huge boat. We went to South Double Ledges first, and then did Bath and Tennis second. My max depth on the first dive was 90 feet and I was under for 50 minutes. The second dive had a max depth of 50 feet and I was under for 1 hour and 7 minutes. I dove air. Visibility on the first dive was 70-80 feet, and the second dive was 50-60 feet. The water was flat, 75 degrees, and we had 10 divers, two of which saw the Whale Shark and got it on video 4 months ago on the same boat. Captain Ray was great and chose South Double Ledges for it's visibility. The 2 dives we saw 4 turtles, both Loggerheads and Hawksbills, Barracuda, a Scorpion fish, a green Morray Eel, 2 18" spotted Morray Eels, a huge Stingray accompanied by 2 Cobias, one 3 foot and one 4 foot long. I saw a small Nurse Shark, lots of cowfish and trunkfish, the usual million large Angelfish and the like, and some big Trumpetfish. I really enjoyed the dives, people, boat and crew. Everyone on the boat was more experienced than me, and half of them were on the Reef team. We were allowed to dive with our computers carrying the dive flag, some surfacing before others. Most everyone dove Nitrox although I did not. Even though the boat was large, it was fast as well. Their prices are reasonable both for air and the dives. I'll be diving with them again the next time I'm in Florida.