The Boynton Dive Chronicles (new and improved)

[jupitermermaid]

Yes, I know you would have, and I appreciate it. I can't blame the boat slave, though, since he just starting working on the boat and didn't want to get in trouble with his boss by helping a half naked lady....LOL. A good time was had by all, and the weather was so very accomodating to us. "The girls" appreciated the warm water. :eyemouth:

Say hello to my new boyfriend turtle if you run into him again on another dive.

 

[Scubakevdm]

Yes, I know you would have, and I appreciate it. I can't blame the boat slave, though, since he just starting working on the boat and didn't want to get in trouble with his boss by helping a half naked lady....LOL. A good time was had by all, and the weather was so very accomodating to us. "The girls" appreciated the warm water. :eyemouth:

Say hello to my new boyfriend turtle if you run into him again on another dive.

Just so you know, we allow those special dives all the time on the Explorer.

Alright! I'm back with pictures and stories. I'm pretty tired though... I'm not sure if I can make it all the way to the hammerhead part. That happened on Sunday. I'll do Saturday tonight, and then Sunday tomorrow. Don't worry, Saturday had terrifying marine life encounters as well.

Saturday, 19 April. The water has been quite clear and warm lately as Mermaid has attested to. A Balmy 25.6 ºC (78ºF) from top to bottom, with viz in the 37 m (120') range. Friday was similar, but I forgot my camera, and have since forgotten what we did on that day. I remembered it Saturday though! Seas were pretty manageable, after we got out of the inlet. There was a 3 or 4 foot groundswell and about a 1- 2' chop. The water was Tidy bowl blue. We dropped in at a a super secret location out on the second reef in about 100' of water, and then swam back over to the main reef and finished up on Gulfstream. There was a slight south current. We saw a medium sized bull shark out deep. He came over to check us out, but didn't get close enough to attempt a shot. By the way, we have seen sharks (non-nurse) on almost every dive lately, often multiple sharks.

The visibility was very good. To give you some perspective, this ledge pops up about eight feet out of the sand, which is 63' deep here. The water was clear enough that you can see the ripples on the surface quite clearly.

Francois on the ledge.

The south current persisted, so we headed up to The Jump for the next one. Conditions were generally the same. This is where I ran into a little snag while trying to get a shot of Ron, and a spotted moray he had found out and about. At first the animal was quite cooperative, and let me get three shots off (which can take some time with the camera I use). He even Vogued in one of them. At some point I must have annoyed him with my Pavaratitude and he started chasing me across the reef. I swam backwards and got a couple more shots of the chase, before finally I decided that it was best to just move along.

Ron and Spot.

Ron and Spot again.

Ron and Spot one more time, with Spot really cheesing it up. I was delighted.

Spot.

See Spot run.

Run Spot run!

 

[jupitermermaid]

Great report (and pics), Kev! Must have been something in the water on Saturday to make the creatures amourous toward divers. On our second dive, a hawksbill came swimming toward me, and I reached out to pet it's shell. He looked at me and kept trying to come closer. I had to hold him at arm's length and he kept pressing against it to get closer. I finally decided to move on and had to push him away several times and he kept coming back. I finally gave him a final hard push and finned away. That's why I mentioned previously to Debi to say hi to my new boyfriend (with the turtle avitar). It's good the eel didn't catch you.....LOL

 

[Scubakevdm]

Great report (and pics), Kev! Must have been something in the water on Saturday to make the creatures amourous toward divers. On our second dive, a hawksbill came swimming toward me, and I reached out to pet it's shell. He looked at me and kept trying to come closer. I had to hold him at arm's length and he kept pressing against it to get closer. I finally decided to move on and had to push him away several times and he kept coming back. I finally gave him a final hard push and finned away. That's why I mentioned previously to Debi to say hi to my new boyfriend (with the turtle avitar). It's good the eel didn't catch you.....LOL

It was probably due to your exposure suit.

 

[Randy43068]

Kev you are a lucky dude!!

 

[deepstops]

"The girls" appreciated the warm water.

Pictures of "the girls" would probably make you real popular here on SB.... :14:.

 

[Randy43068]

Pictures of "the girls" would probably make you real popular here on SB.... :14:.

I don't know how I could agree with this more!! :14:

 

[jupitermermaid]

Pictures of "the girls" would probably make you real popular here on SB.... :14:.

.......or scare everyone away. If the hawksbill had bit off a nipple it would have been very hard to explain how it happened in the emergency room. OR clawmarks on the shoulders.

 

[Scubakevdm]

Okay... hey, I just realized with all of the commotion I forgot to mention the hammerhead that had to slam on the brakes when I popped up in front of him. I don't know if he was aware of me or not, but I was busy with my face buried in the reef trying to take a picture of something. I leaned up to get a glance around only to see a shark very similar in appearance to the very brown eight foot hammerhead we saw a few reports back was on a collision course with me, about 4 feet away, and moving at a pretty good clip. The thing slammed on the brakes and turned 90 degrees, to my left. I had the camera pointed right at him, my finger on the shutter release, and all I could thin of was "My strobe's not set up right." As soon as I touched my strobe... he was gone. Rick Scott had a similar story a couple of weeks ago.


As for today's report... no hammerheads, but a nice day.

Seas were fairly agreeable, mostly 1-2' small swell, small chop. The vis was absolutely booming when we first got out, definitely more than 100', however about 10 minutes into the dive I saw some eggs coming from a barrel sponge. The water temp was 79, and this is a pretty busy time of year for alot of the stuff out there on the reef.

A sponge releasing eggs.

A sponge releasing sperm.

Sometimes the sponges can reduce vis to 10', but today wasn't too bad, vis at the end of the first dive was still about 60-70'.

This picture was taken about 2/3rd's of the way through the first dive, on Black Condo at a depth of 62 or 63 feet. Even with the spawning, you can still see the boat in the background.

We found a beautiful loggerhead chillin' under the ledge.

Usually when the sponges go off (at least in my experience) it's an all day event, but for whatever reason, down on Gulfstream the sponges weren't spawning at all. There was a smattering of eggs in the water, but nothing actively going at it. The vis improved to 70 -80' down here.

The water was still pretty clear on Gulfstream.

A nurse shark found a good hiding spot on Gulfstream. I couldn't fit my camera in to get his entire head in the shot.



That's it for today! Tomorrow is the Castor, and maybe another wreck, depending on the sponges.

 

[Randy43068]

A few more pics.....

I love Scorpian Fish too!! This one was on the Capt' Tony on Sunday.

This was a wierd close up of him.

This was my shot of the Midnight Blue Parrot ... unfortunately, I missed Kev.

A spincter says What??

Cool pictures!!