OP
Dude! Awesome pics... you rule! Thanks for helping out with the reports too.
The Boynton Dive Chronicles (new and improved)
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OP
Hey... just a quicky. We did a crew dive on Thursday. Sorry, I forgot to bring the camera!
Seas were 2-4, current was slight north, vis was 60', we did Pit-stop to Gazebo, to Lynn's and a special op dive way out in the sand.
Of special interest on the first dive, the curly finned bull-shark was spotted again. It looks like she's getting kinda skinny.
The second dive I went out into the sand to look for a watch that one of the our customers lost overboard last weekend. I didn't find the watch, but I did find two giant lobsters hiding under a piece of metal.
Seas were 2-4, current was slight north, vis was 60', we did Pit-stop to Gazebo, to Lynn's and a special op dive way out in the sand.
Of special interest on the first dive, the curly finned bull-shark was spotted again. It looks like she's getting kinda skinny.
The second dive I went out into the sand to look for a watch that one of the our customers lost overboard last weekend. I didn't find the watch, but I did find two giant lobsters hiding under a piece of metal.
OP
Hey! Another report.
Seas were fairly calm today, about 2' or so. Water temps were about 83, there was a moderate north current on both dives. We started out at Clubhouse for a little Meandrina meandrites research action followed by a Briney to Gazebo to Lynn's combo.
Visibility on both dives was okay, maybe 50' or so. I took a crappy shot of the reef at one point that didn't pan out the way I wanted it to, but it represents the vis pretty accurately.
The crappy reef shot that shows the water.
We did some coral studying, which requires a camera and something to reference size with. I decided that a lobster gauge would fit the bill, and away we went. The gauge also came in handy for measuring lobsters in between coral pictures!
The non-scientist portion of the trip (diveMatt and his girlfriend) just did a normal drift on Clubhouse (which is a great dive, by the way) and reported seeing everything... rays, turtles, nurse sharks, moray eels... the works. Hopefully we'll hear from him.
There have been alot of moon jellies lately, sometimes huge ones. They're pretty benign to me, but some folks are sensitive to them I guess and experience irritation if stung, so if you are sensitive to these and are planning to dive in the area anytime soon you may want to wear some kind of exposure suit or skin.
One of the moon jellies near the surface.
I found out later that on the second dive the chain moray was spotted! That's awesome. I would have tried to get some more pics if I had known, but at least I know where to look. I was having a pretty bad camera day anyway though... lot of fish butts, and the only turtle I found, a juvie green, was pretty shy. Oh well. I'll try again tomorrow! Oh yeah, on the second dive, on Gazebo I saw something new (to me)! It has been my experience until today that four-eyed butterflyfish are usually found in pairs, meandering along the reef top. Today I found a pair or regular sized ones, with a third, smaller one. I took a picture, which isn't very good, but does show all three of the fish.
The butterflyfish.
Seas were fairly calm today, about 2' or so. Water temps were about 83, there was a moderate north current on both dives. We started out at Clubhouse for a little Meandrina meandrites research action followed by a Briney to Gazebo to Lynn's combo.
Visibility on both dives was okay, maybe 50' or so. I took a crappy shot of the reef at one point that didn't pan out the way I wanted it to, but it represents the vis pretty accurately.
The crappy reef shot that shows the water.
We did some coral studying, which requires a camera and something to reference size with. I decided that a lobster gauge would fit the bill, and away we went. The gauge also came in handy for measuring lobsters in between coral pictures!
The non-scientist portion of the trip (diveMatt and his girlfriend) just did a normal drift on Clubhouse (which is a great dive, by the way) and reported seeing everything... rays, turtles, nurse sharks, moray eels... the works. Hopefully we'll hear from him.
There have been alot of moon jellies lately, sometimes huge ones. They're pretty benign to me, but some folks are sensitive to them I guess and experience irritation if stung, so if you are sensitive to these and are planning to dive in the area anytime soon you may want to wear some kind of exposure suit or skin.
One of the moon jellies near the surface.
I found out later that on the second dive the chain moray was spotted! That's awesome. I would have tried to get some more pics if I had known, but at least I know where to look. I was having a pretty bad camera day anyway though... lot of fish butts, and the only turtle I found, a juvie green, was pretty shy. Oh well. I'll try again tomorrow! Oh yeah, on the second dive, on Gazebo I saw something new (to me)! It has been my experience until today that four-eyed butterflyfish are usually found in pairs, meandering along the reef top. Today I found a pair or regular sized ones, with a third, smaller one. I took a picture, which isn't very good, but does show all three of the fish.
The butterflyfish.
Ugh! I'm bummed I missed out today -- Gabby is taking pain killers now and will soon have that stupid wisdom tooth out... Then we dive with you!
50' or so... thats great visibility!
50' or so... thats great visibility!
divematt
Contributor
As usual, our dives with Kevin were great today. We did 75 minutes at Clubhouse and saw two nurse sharks both medium sized, two spotted Morays, two green Morays, one huge, three Stingrays, one was gigantic, and a large Loggerhead. Even though my computer read 84 at the bottom, it seemed warmer than that. Then we did a 78 minute dive at Gazebo and it was such a relaxing dive that I could have gone another half hour but my dive buddy was getting low on air. The coral and sponges are always so beautiful at Gazebo. Thanks again to Kevin for one of his great dive trips. I always enjoy myself from the time I get on the boat until I have to drive back to the Daytona area. We'll see you again soon Kevin.
OP
Whoa. I just deleted the entire BDC for today. Oh well. Lets see what it looks like the second time around.
Seas were a little rough at about 2-4 today, but once you got past the pointy part, the diving was fantastic. 75 feet or so of viz was drifting gently to the north on both dives. Water temps were probably 83... I didn't check.
The first dive was Black Condo. We were able to leave a little early, and the skies this morning were a little bit cloudy. The end result was that dawn came a little late on the reef today, which was great for us! There was still quite a bit of transitional behavior going on.
I found a golden tailed moray on the hunt, after a small grasby I think. He would explode out of one hole in the reef, like a gunshot and zip into another. He worked his way south along the ledge this way frustrating me to no end. On the rare occasions that he wasn't too fast for me, he was still too fast for my camera, so I'm afraid I only have a story about the goldentail. SLR camera equipment donations would go a long way in preventing this in the future. Remember, only you can prevent long and wordy dive reports.
There was a ton of cool stuff on this dive, most notable being an octopus that Rick S. found (I'm not sure that I can coax him into sharing pictures with us), a batwing coral crab and a pretty big school of reef squid.
The batwing coral crab. They are pretty uncommon out on the reef, but I do see them time to time up at Blue Heron Bridge on night dives out by the channel.
The squid eventually got tired of me taking their pictures and one of them mimicked the devil to frighten me away. Interestingly enough, this was my last squid picture from today.
Next we did Lynn's reef. Again, very cool stuff going on. I found a spadefish munching on a soft coral. I don't know if they all eat coral, or if this was just one bad apple ruining it for everyone. A crowd of various species of concerned looking grunts and other reef fish had gathered, but none tried to intervene.
The rogue spadefish.
We also found a pretty big midnight parrot munching around on the reef and tons and tons of reef fish.
The midnight parrot-fish.
A Grey angelfish.
All in all it was a pretty good day. There was one guy on board collecting lobsters. He got his limit of Florida spinies and a big shovel nose.
Seas were a little rough at about 2-4 today, but once you got past the pointy part, the diving was fantastic. 75 feet or so of viz was drifting gently to the north on both dives. Water temps were probably 83... I didn't check.
The first dive was Black Condo. We were able to leave a little early, and the skies this morning were a little bit cloudy. The end result was that dawn came a little late on the reef today, which was great for us! There was still quite a bit of transitional behavior going on.
I found a golden tailed moray on the hunt, after a small grasby I think. He would explode out of one hole in the reef, like a gunshot and zip into another. He worked his way south along the ledge this way frustrating me to no end. On the rare occasions that he wasn't too fast for me, he was still too fast for my camera, so I'm afraid I only have a story about the goldentail. SLR camera equipment donations would go a long way in preventing this in the future. Remember, only you can prevent long and wordy dive reports.
There was a ton of cool stuff on this dive, most notable being an octopus that Rick S. found (I'm not sure that I can coax him into sharing pictures with us), a batwing coral crab and a pretty big school of reef squid.
The batwing coral crab. They are pretty uncommon out on the reef, but I do see them time to time up at Blue Heron Bridge on night dives out by the channel.
The squid eventually got tired of me taking their pictures and one of them mimicked the devil to frighten me away. Interestingly enough, this was my last squid picture from today.
Next we did Lynn's reef. Again, very cool stuff going on. I found a spadefish munching on a soft coral. I don't know if they all eat coral, or if this was just one bad apple ruining it for everyone. A crowd of various species of concerned looking grunts and other reef fish had gathered, but none tried to intervene.
The rogue spadefish.
We also found a pretty big midnight parrot munching around on the reef and tons and tons of reef fish.
The midnight parrot-fish.
A Grey angelfish.
All in all it was a pretty good day. There was one guy on board collecting lobsters. He got his limit of Florida spinies and a big shovel nose.
OP
Too funny! Thx as always for yet another colourful installment in the Chronicles.
Hi!!!! I'm glad you liked it!
Here's a quick one... no pics I'm afraid. I forgot the memory card for the camera. Doh!
Anyway, It was just me and a nice fellow from Orlando. Unfortunately Denise GG ran into a little ear barotrauma diving on one of the other boats and couldn't make the trip. Don't worry Denise! We'll get you out there next time, better safe than sorry.
So we did the Castor and Clubhouse today. Vis is not fantastic. It was okay out on the wreck, about 55' or so, but kinda green. Ion the reef it was maybe 40, also green. The current was moderate north on the wreck and slight north on Clubhouse. Water temps were 84 by my computer. Seas were less than 2', completely groundswell. I'm installing the card in the camera for tomorrow right now, but I already know that on one of the dives I have to take mostly coral pictures.
OP
Okay! I'm back. Here's what's going on out there.
Seas were pretty calm, maybe 2' or so, mostly swell. Vis was okay once you got below a layer of ugly brown freshwater. This layer varied in depth at each of the dive sites, but was never deeper than 30' or so. This was at the north end of the reef. At the south end the layer was fairly thin, less than 10' I'd say. We started out with Gulfstream. Current was slight south for the first 2/3rds of the dive and was swinging East at the end. This is usually what happens just before it goes north. I did not take the camera on this dive.
I did a sneaky secret dive on the interval to stay out of the doghouse with the maze coral research project. By the time I jumped in at the survey site (11 minutes) the current was going full on north. I mostly took pictures of maze coral, but did stumble across a tigertail sea cucumber. Somehow I messed up all of the pictures of it though. I'm not sure how, because they really don't move too fast. Anyhow, I'm too embarrassed to post them.
We finished up on Lynn's reef. The current was still pulling east in the beginning of the dive, and was sort of a pain in the butt, but eventually it came around and it was all good. It was mild no matter which way it was going.
Now the layer was thickest up here, and though the water that we were diving in was fairly clear, the layer blocked a good bit of light. This made for difficult (for me) photography, but interesting behavior. Some of the night time fish and creatures were out and about, like glass sweepers and hunting morays. On the way back up I noticed that the monster moon jellies are still around too.
The light was kinda funky today. A diver squeezes off some frames up on Lynn's.
A juvenile gray angelfish.
One of the Big moon jellies just below the murk.
Seas were pretty calm, maybe 2' or so, mostly swell. Vis was okay once you got below a layer of ugly brown freshwater. This layer varied in depth at each of the dive sites, but was never deeper than 30' or so. This was at the north end of the reef. At the south end the layer was fairly thin, less than 10' I'd say. We started out with Gulfstream. Current was slight south for the first 2/3rds of the dive and was swinging East at the end. This is usually what happens just before it goes north. I did not take the camera on this dive.
I did a sneaky secret dive on the interval to stay out of the doghouse with the maze coral research project. By the time I jumped in at the survey site (11 minutes) the current was going full on north. I mostly took pictures of maze coral, but did stumble across a tigertail sea cucumber. Somehow I messed up all of the pictures of it though. I'm not sure how, because they really don't move too fast. Anyhow, I'm too embarrassed to post them.
We finished up on Lynn's reef. The current was still pulling east in the beginning of the dive, and was sort of a pain in the butt, but eventually it came around and it was all good. It was mild no matter which way it was going.
Now the layer was thickest up here, and though the water that we were diving in was fairly clear, the layer blocked a good bit of light. This made for difficult (for me) photography, but interesting behavior. Some of the night time fish and creatures were out and about, like glass sweepers and hunting morays. On the way back up I noticed that the monster moon jellies are still around too.
The light was kinda funky today. A diver squeezes off some frames up on Lynn's.
A juvenile gray angelfish.
One of the Big moon jellies just below the murk.
OP
Hey! The wind curtailed any underwater exploring today (Except for me! I explored the intracoastal at the dock under the boat!) so we caught up on some overdue maintenance. I do have the report from yesterday though and a whole bunch of pictures.
There's a nice guy from the PNW visiting. I feel pretty bad about the conditions we wound up with for his visit, but we did the best we could to find some good water for him. The layer of mud we had yesterday has become thicker and deeper, but there was blue water to be had here and there if you looked for it.
We started out the day with a dive on the Castor. I'm guessing that 99% of the people reading this have done this wreck, and know about the large population of Goliath grouper that live there. I think that the last time I posted a report on the Castor I showed a bunch of Goliath grouper, so this time I'll spare you the big fish pics, but this is certainly not to say that there aren't still there. They are.
Seas started out pretty calm, less than 2' if I recall correctly. The vis for the first 70 feet or so was kinda shaky, maybe 15-30', getting better as you went deeper. At around 70' though it opened up to something like 55 or 60' vis with nice blue water. The current was north, light to moderate. Water temps throughout the day on my machine were indicated to be 84 degrees.
Bill looking for subjects on the Castor. The layer made it kinda dark down there.
A grey angelfish going upstairs on the bow.
Next, we headed up to Clubhouse. I caused a little hiccup in the drop, but eventually we got it ironed out and had a nice drift up the reef. The seas had begun to build by this dive and were about 2-3'. The murk layer reached the reef and visibility was around 35-40 feet here.
This damselfish saw his reflection in my lens and made for easy pickens! You can also see the green water in the background.
The third site of the day was Black Condo. Visibility had improved a bit during the turn around and I would guess that it was about 60 feet or so, and the current had changed to a slight south. The wind had picked up considerably by then and the seas were 2-4'. I think that someone saw a turtle on this one. I haven't seen a turtle in a while... that's kinda odd for around here. Also worth noting was a big school of large blue parrot fish that came marauding onto so sergeant major eggs. I was discussing this at dinner (some of us met up at Hurricane Alley for dinner afterwards) and promised that if the shots I took of the event weren't too embarrassing, I'd put them up. Well... in the excitement I failed to adjust my strobe settings and got some pretty underlit fish, but I'll put it up anyway just to prove that it happened.
The marauding blue parrots.
We finished off the day with a visit to Lynn's reef. The seas by now were 3'5. The current was still slight and south. The muck reached down about 30' from the top, which put it about 10 feet above the reef. There was sure alot going on there though. The reef was literally carpeted with fish of all varieties. I also found a nice little queen conch on the prowl.
The queen conch keepin' an eye out for me.
A juvenile French angelfish. You can see the difference in the shape of the scales, and the yellow margins compared to the juvie grey angel I found the other day.
There's a nice guy from the PNW visiting. I feel pretty bad about the conditions we wound up with for his visit, but we did the best we could to find some good water for him. The layer of mud we had yesterday has become thicker and deeper, but there was blue water to be had here and there if you looked for it.
We started out the day with a dive on the Castor. I'm guessing that 99% of the people reading this have done this wreck, and know about the large population of Goliath grouper that live there. I think that the last time I posted a report on the Castor I showed a bunch of Goliath grouper, so this time I'll spare you the big fish pics, but this is certainly not to say that there aren't still there. They are.
Seas started out pretty calm, less than 2' if I recall correctly. The vis for the first 70 feet or so was kinda shaky, maybe 15-30', getting better as you went deeper. At around 70' though it opened up to something like 55 or 60' vis with nice blue water. The current was north, light to moderate. Water temps throughout the day on my machine were indicated to be 84 degrees.
Bill looking for subjects on the Castor. The layer made it kinda dark down there.
A grey angelfish going upstairs on the bow.
Next, we headed up to Clubhouse. I caused a little hiccup in the drop, but eventually we got it ironed out and had a nice drift up the reef. The seas had begun to build by this dive and were about 2-3'. The murk layer reached the reef and visibility was around 35-40 feet here.
This damselfish saw his reflection in my lens and made for easy pickens! You can also see the green water in the background.
The third site of the day was Black Condo. Visibility had improved a bit during the turn around and I would guess that it was about 60 feet or so, and the current had changed to a slight south. The wind had picked up considerably by then and the seas were 2-4'. I think that someone saw a turtle on this one. I haven't seen a turtle in a while... that's kinda odd for around here. Also worth noting was a big school of large blue parrot fish that came marauding onto so sergeant major eggs. I was discussing this at dinner (some of us met up at Hurricane Alley for dinner afterwards) and promised that if the shots I took of the event weren't too embarrassing, I'd put them up. Well... in the excitement I failed to adjust my strobe settings and got some pretty underlit fish, but I'll put it up anyway just to prove that it happened.
The marauding blue parrots.
We finished off the day with a visit to Lynn's reef. The seas by now were 3'5. The current was still slight and south. The muck reached down about 30' from the top, which put it about 10 feet above the reef. There was sure alot going on there though. The reef was literally carpeted with fish of all varieties. I also found a nice little queen conch on the prowl.
The queen conch keepin' an eye out for me.
A juvenile French angelfish. You can see the difference in the shape of the scales, and the yellow margins compared to the juvie grey angel I found the other day.
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