The Boynton Dive Chronicles (new and improved)

[Scubakevdm]

BDC 9 6 07

Okay, When I said I remembered Thursday, I might have been stretching the truth a bit. I know we went diving with a nice couple from Chicago... I think we did Black Condo and then Lynn's. I'm pretty sure about Lynn's.
Seas were a bit on the rough side, mostly 2'-4' with a couple of big sets rolling in time to time. Visibility was about 80' and there was a mild south current on the first dive that switched back to north about halfway through, but was very mild so we pressed on.

Here's what the ledge looks like at Black Condo.

We bumped into a small school of Caribbean reef squid, but I could only get two in the shot.

Next we did Lynn's. The seas were still kinda rough, and the current was still just trickling to the north. Vis was about 70' up here. I think the water temp was 85 or so... I didn't check, but it felt like about 85.
Lynn's was fun. It's a busy place, there's always alot going on up there. The ledge isn't as spectacular, but I think that you see more stuff up there. Things got a little exciting for me as I was trying to get some close-ups of a big green moray eel. I was peering into the tiny lcd screen on the back trying to get the shot when I felt a little tickle on my knuckles. He was laying his little nose tubes all over them trying to get a good smell of me. Luckily I'm a bad smelling guy, and we didn't move on to the taste test.

The eel is about 5 inches away from my lens.

The eel is tickling me with his nose tubes.

A Honeycomb Cowfish. They have weird teeth and mouths.

 

[moneysavr]

Hey Kevin,
Not to steal your thread but NICE PHOTOS!!!Will see you in November!The Jew {G.G.} Fish made me smile
Diving Lake Michigan today 40's top to bottom but the same vis as you had-
The reef looks good keep up with the photos !be safe,
Brad

 

[Scubakevdm]

Hey Kevin,
Not to steal your thread but NICE PHOTOS!!!Will see you in November!The Jew {G.G.} Fish made me smile
Diving Lake Michigan today 40's top to bottom but the same vis as you had-
The reef looks good keep up with the photos !be safe,
Brad

Cool!

 

[Scubakevdm]

Edit: I'm sorry. I forgot to resize one of the pics before I posted it.

So a nice lady came and chartered the boat for the day. I was charged with taking a few photos of her diving, which I cannot share because I am sworn to protect her identity. I did manage to squeeze off a few shots of stuff while she was capturing lobsters, and I will post those.
We did three very lengthy dives, Pit Stop, Table Tops and Lynn's. Seas were rough, at least 3-5', vis was about 70'.

We did Pit-Stop first, which is a string of coral heads east of the main reef in about 95' of water. The current was screaming. We blew through the coral heads in about 20 minutes, then swam back over to the main reef and jumped up top to Gazebo to finish the dive. As soon as we got to the top of the reef, the current died away to nothing, just a trickle north. I found a nice little goldentail moray.

The goldentail from Gazebo

Next we jumped in at Table-Tops, which is similar to Pit-Stop, only more shallow. I don't really have any good pictures of the terrain out there, and I wish I did, because it's kind of interesting. There's one shot of a shark butt and a typical coral head I guess I could put up. It's kinda embarrassing though. Anyway, we meandered through Table-Tops, saw the brand new wreck, and lots of nurse sharks and a lobster.

A Townsend angelfish hanging out under a coral head on Table-Tops. Townsends are a queen/blue angelfish hybrid. if you look
closely you can see evidence of a crown.Well crap. Maybe if I would have forgotten to risize this one instead of the goldentail
you would have been able to see evidence of a crown. If you reall want to see the crown go to DiveBoyntonBeach.com and look
in the photo gallery for this picture and click on it to see it full size.

The embarrassing shark butt shot. This coral head is pretty typical. Imagine lots of them with little rivers of sand in between and you'll get the idea of Table-Tops. If you imagine a string of them, with less light, you're thinking about Pit-Stop.



Finally, we decided to go on up to Lynn's. The current shifted about a third of the way through the dive, but it was so mild that I don't think anyone noticed but me. We pressed onward and had lots of fun.

Oh yeah, water temps throughout the day were about 85 degrees.

 

[lowwall]

Hi Kevin,

I'm half of the "nice couple from Chicago" from Thursday's dive. We had a great time and will definitely dive with you anytime we are in the area. We'll also get a Nitrox cert before we go back, running out of NDL time with 20 minutes of air left is such a waste. Still, the third diver was probably tired of waiting for us anyway.

The water was generally 85. At one spot it was up to 87 for a few minutes.

BTW, for those who haven't tried Boynton Beach, we've mostly dived in Coz and the Caymans. On the day we dove Boynton Beach, the density and variety of fish and coral life was equal to or better than anything we've seen in the Caribbean. Viz wasn't spectacular (is this seasonal?) and the underwater topography less interesting (over 3 dives the lowest bottom of the reef was 63' and the highest top around 43'), but the critters make diving here well worth the effort.

Alex

 

[Scubakevdm]

Hi Kevin,

We'll also get a Nitrox cert before we go back, running out of NDL time with 20 minutes of air left is such a waste. Still, the third diver was probably tired of waiting for us anyway.

Still, you guys managed to squeeze an hour out of each dive... or darned close to it. Not too shabby, but yeah Nitrox would have kept you more towards the middle of the tables. It was great having you guys!

 

[Scubakevdm]

Hey! I have reports from last weekend, starting with Friday's night dives. I was unable to dive the second dive on this night trip, due to ear congestion, but Ryan was along and he can maybe discuss the second dive.

The first dive was Black Condo. We do our night trips with a slight reverse profile because the reef is extremely active at twilight, and there is alot of behavior that goes on specifically during this transition that is interesting to photographers. Typically, after it's good and dark, we do a wreck for the second dive.
Seas were pretty calm, maybe 2' or so. Water temp was about 85, vis was around 60'.The current was strong and to the north.

The most interesting thing, to me was a chain moray. Out of about 3500 dives in this area, I've only ever see a chain moray once before. It is possible that this is the same animal, because it was about the same size as the first one I saw, and it was less than 1/2 mile away from the location that I had seen the first one. My shots were kinda dark, and I couldn't get a good angle on the hole with the flag on my arm, but Ryan got some great shots. Maybe he'll post some.

The chain moray. I don't see them around here, mostly in the Caribbean.

Naoko came along too! She found some coral, I don't know which variety (I'm not a good coral guy) that looked like it was getting ready to spawn.

Naoko's shot of the pregnant coral. I think those green balls are eggs, but like I've said, I'm not much of a coral guy.

Also found nosing about on the reef was this Gold-spotted eel.

Ryan and Naoko found some mating Caribbean Reef squid too! Hopefully he'll share a pic.

I had trouble with my right ear, so didn't make the wreck, which was the Captain Tony. I heard about an octopus they found though.

 

[Ryan]

I got to dive on Explorer twice this weekend.

The Friday night dusk/night trip is one of the best things going in South Florida! The reef is goin' off, with lots of inverts & fish going at it! While I can't prove it because I didn't get a shot, I saw one kind of wrasse, spadefish, and hamlets spawning. I did, kind of, get the squid mating, but not in the heat of the action.

I was testing out an Olympus SP-550 in a PT-037 housing, so I was forced to endure shutter lag and long raw write times. I did take the d200 w/ a 105 macro as well, but it spent most of its time as a stage.

I couldn't believe my eyes when Kevin showed me this Chain Moray. I've seen them in the carib, but NEVER in Florida! They are one of my favorites, and this one was a poser!

The Tony is crazy when the lights go out. All of the orange cup corals open up, and lots of inverts are out running around. I keep meaning to go with a wide angle rig some time. This little octo was out running around for about 15 minutes.

I still don't have an abstract scallop shot I'm happy with, I think I need to get tight on the eyes.

There were lucky crabs too.

 

[Ryan]

The next day we did Castor & Lynn's Reef. Castor was an orgy of predation, with several different kinds of baitfish on the wreck, and pelagics ripping them up. I've seen the baitfish use Gloliaths as shelter before, and the Goliaths had left them alone, but not today. They were taking in huge mouthfulls of bait when they would boom.

I was on open circuit, so I didn't get too close this time, but Will did.

There were so many fish in the engine room that this guy was trying to get in, and the others wouldn't let him!

I was trying out color backing, which involves using a red filter on the lens and a green filter on the strobes. It made the kind of greeny water a nice blue, but I think my green filters were too strong because I ended up with some awkward foreground color at times.

Lynn's would have been a great dive for shooting macro, as I saw tons of small stuff. Alas, I was dragging the flag, so I chose to stay with wide angle and not lose anybody.

Palm Beach County has a few turtles, too...

 

[Jupiter31]

Excellent Pictures - Great Job