The Boynton Dive Chronicles (new and improved)

[Scubakevdm]

Horay!! the thermocline is gone...back to the nekkid diving
I'll see you Saturday Kevin
kim

Hey, cool!

So, it was absolutely flat out on the water today. We did the Castor and Black Condo reef. We were lucky with our timing on the wreck, because while we were diving it the surface current was building and building. On the way back up, after we passed about 50 feet we were flapping like flags. As usual, tons of Goliath Grouper on the wreck. Vis was about 45 feet on both dives, but I imagine the Gulfstream is swinging in and blasting out the murk.

 

[Scubakevdm]

Okay, sorry, but I have to make this a quick one... I'm pooped and have an early day tomorrow.
We did Black Condo and Clubhouse today. Seas were absolutely flat, and the sun was shining. The thermocline is still gone, and water temps were 86 degrees from top to bottom out on the reefs

The viz on Black Condo wasn't so snazzy, maybe 45' and the current was screaming. I was helping a guy get refreshed after a very long break so I didn't bring the camera on this one. It seems as though the thermocline has caused the lobsters to seek shelter somewhere I only see them here and there now even though it's warmed up. We found a hawksbill hunkered down eating something on the top of the ledge.

Clubhouse had much better vis, something like 70 or 80 feet with nice blue water. The current was a bit more manageable too, but I don't think that it was because it was dying off, I think it was just that the reef blocks it a little better down there. I did take the camera on this one, but mostly shot pictures of maze corals for my GF who's doing a study on them. I did fire off a few frames at a frisky little goldentailed moray as he prowled about.

A goldentailed moray on Clubhouse.

A colony of maze coral (M. meanderites) They bleach every autumn and then quickly recover. I'm not sure I spelled the scientific name right.

 

[Scubakevdm]

Hey, alright! The current mellowed out quite a bit! Seas were calm, water temps were 86, and just a slight south current. We did a Scubaboard MOF/NMOF triple tanker today and had a blast.
Dives one and two both took place on the Delray Ledge. Current was slight and to the south. Viz was probably around 70 feet, but there were times that it faded out a bit. Nice blue water.
We dropped in on the South end of the reef on the first one with just about no current at all and headed North along the outside of the reef, which I guess would technically be the Delray Fingers. These are a series of east-west running ledges and patchy coral heads. There were a few bugs over there and everyone seemed to be having fun, but I decided to relocate to the ledge proper about halfway through the dive, since the reef is pretty skinny there. Anyway, by the time we got to the other side the current was picking up a bit so after fifteen minutes or so we did an about face and put the drift back into drift diving. Its was fun!
We liked it so much we decided to do the other half, except with the current as our friend.

We finished up the day at Lynn's reef where we stumbled onto quite a few more bugs and lots of squid. Viz up there was pretty solid 70 feet, maybe more. The current was still mild, but was stronger than the first two dives and still to the south.

One of our customers gave me a wide angle lens, so the camera is back in action. Here's some pics!

Another goldentailed moray.

Scorpionfish. He was really white.

HowardE with his WongD.

 

[deepstops]

See you at 730am Kev, I hope you like turkey sandwiches

 

[Scubakevdm]

Oops! I fired that one off by accident, I still had more pics to put up.

Joyce!

Michelle on the prowl.

Jenny!

Puff!

I really suck, because somehow I missed getting a shot of Warward. I'm so sorry Dude. Anyway, I have an early day tomorrow with more Scubaboarders. I may come back after the weekend and try to spruce the cronocles up a bit. Thanks everyone! I had a great time.

 

[Scubakevdm]

I left a little gap in there from the Friday and Saturday trips, in case anyone might like to do some reports from either of those trips. Saturday I didn't take the camera in due to pretty strong currents on the wreck, and I only dived on the last three dives in a recon capacity. The boat was entirely Scubaboarders though, so maybe someone will come along.
As for yesterday's trip, we had sunny skies, flat seas and very slight North currents on both dives. The first dive was on Clubhouse Ledge, followed by Lynn's reef. I actually did a third dive on Ragg's Reef on the interval, but it was very short... just to document progress on this very new artificial reef. Thanks to a donation from the Mary and Lupo charitable lens foundation and a grant from REEF photo and Video the camera is back in action. Unfortunately I tried some new techniques with the new lens, and I'm too embarrassed to post many of the creature pics, but I'll throw a couple of the diver pics up so that you can get a sense for the conditions.

Dive 1 Clubhouse. Vis, maybe 60 feet, fairly blue, but with particles suspended in it, especially at shallower depths. I jumped in prior to the drop to verify current and bumped into a scalloped hammerhead on the way back up. He was kinda little though, maybe 7 feet.

Here's a shot of the reef I took when I was setting up the strobe. It's not of anything in particular, I just happened to land there.

Brian C. On the ledge. The diver gives you some perspective for the ledge, in case you've never been here.

Dive 2. Lynn's Reef. Vis was a little less up here maybe 55', but still blue. The current was a bit stronger too, but still mild. Notable on this dive was a Cubera snapper, small... maybe 17 or 18 lbs. He was hiding out under a ledge. My battery conched out halfway through the dive, and this was also where I took my experimental technique to extremes and was rewarded with freakish, barely recognizable pictures. Again, I took a shot of the reef when I got down to set up the strobe, and it's the only one I'm not too embarrassed to post.
Ryan was a bit west of us and saw another hammerhead, also smallish. I bet he has awesome pictures.

Lynn's Reef has less spectacular ledges, but much more activity than the southern sections of the reef.

 

[deepstops]

Kev,

Great pic of Jenny grabbing the reef (running and ducking for cover now)

Everyone from our Saturday trip posted their reports back in our original thread here: http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=195416

 

[netmage]

Kev,

Great pic of Jenny grabbing the reef (running and ducking for cover now)

Everyone from our Saturday trip posted their reports back in our original thread here: http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=195416

She must have been lining up a puffer to molest.....

 

[Scubakevdm]

Hey! I had a passenger that need alot of individual attention today, so I didn't do much shooting, I didn't do too much wildlife spotting either, but I did do some dive helping so it's all good.

Seas were absolutely flat, and there was a very slight south current on both dives. Vis faded in and out with the sun, but was between 50 and 70 feet and blue. There was a thermocline... most pronounced on the second dive right at 60 feet or so, but it was blowing over the top of the reef. I would guess that water in the layer above the thermocline was about 86 and that below it it was somewhere around 70.

Dive 1. Gazebo (backwards). Gazebo is a short Swiss cheesy kind of ledge that runs along the western half of the reef at about 50'. There is usually alot of activity going on up there including large schools of reef fish. I fired up the camera for a few shots, but shut her down in order to be more helpful to one of our divers, and mostly paid attention to him from there on out. Sorry! Here's two of the pics though.

A coney. I love these guys. They're pretty curious.

Ouch! Lobster season is officially open.

Dive 2. Black Condo. Black condo is awesome to do on a south current. I really wish I would have been able to take a few pics on this dive, but I decided that it would be best if I left the rig topside. The thermocline was really kicking on this one and I mostly stayed above the layer.

We had a pair bugging on the trip, however I did not dive with them. I think that they got 7 between them and said that they ran into alot of eggs and shorts.

Tomorrow afternoon we have a trip that I should be able to take pictures on.

 

[teog]

You take some great pics.