March 26 2005
Boynton Beach Florida
Double header (two 2-tank dives)
Low 80’s partly cloudy 2-3 foot seas 45 foot viz, 73 degree water temp. 100 cu ft nitrox bottles Last week of lobster season. Left the dock at about 8:30. First dive was on the Fingers. South side of the reef on the outside edge, and are literally fingers that point out to the sea like the teeth of a comb. We swam over the top of the fingers instead of going around them so we went up and down a lot. Kind of cool, a few overhangs in the pockets of the fingers. Found one area about 100 x 150 feet that was dominated by a dense thicket of some type of pencil coral. No other type of organism was present with in the thicket. This is odd in that it is the only place on the entire reef that is like it. This was our (Shaw and I) first dive with full face masks. We also have a communication package so that we can talk to each other under water. Diving with a full face mask is VERY different……. We were not prepared for how different it was at first and had a little trouble with it.
Second dive was at Black condo. The name is taken from sections of the reef where large overhangs had broken off. It has a high relief to 15 feet or so on the inside edge. The broken pieces provide for additional habitat. Very cool section of the reef. Reminded me of the Delray ledges only better. We found a grouper holed up in a barrel sponge. He had a triple set of single hooks in his mouth. We couldn’t get the hooks out but we did cut the line that was hanging off. A few large green eels. I would have to say that it is one of my favorite sections of the reef. This dive went sooo much smoother than the last, in regards to the new full face masks. We had no problems on this dive like we had on the last. It was like a new hat. We were familiar with the nuances of the mask and had no troubles.
Second trip left after 1:30 and was running late. Conditions were about the same. Had to make a quick stop on the way out so that a student could do his skills test for certification. We stopped at some bridge rubble in about 20 feet maybe 700 yards off shore. We snorkeled there for about ½ hour while he took his test.
Third dive started after 3:00ish. We dove on casino. It is a section north of the inlet. It was the first time I dove north of the inlet. I think that in the past I wrote about diving on casino but I must have been wrong about that…. The dive started of pretty cool. 6 foot relief on the outside ledge in about 45 feet. Saw two large nurse sharks and a huge cobia about 4 feet long. I wasn’t paying attention and looked up and saw the two sharks. I was startled at fist but realized they were only nurse sharks. Later we ran across a school of about ten cobia maybe two and ½ feet long. Wish I would have had my spear gun. They swam right by us and I could have likely gotten a shot of. We would have been eating cobia for a week…..
Later, we got of the reef some how and thought we were supposed to go to the NE but that was wrong. Swam across a small patch reef for a while and ended up in 70 feet (should have not gone past 50 feet to stay on the reef) ((found that out after the fact)).
Started out good but the last half of the dive was pretty lame.
Fourth dive started about 5ish???? Dove on Horseshoe. It was getting late and was cloudy so the light was not very good. Swam north on the inside edge. Saw large sting rays and several turtles. Lots of speckled eels. Swam to what I thought was the shoe and I thought “this is lame” however we were not there. We kept moving on. When we got there, you knew you were there. High relief to 15 feet or so hooking back toward shore. Very cool inside the shoe! This place just seems to attract life and has that feel about it. The first part of the dive is the same old same old, but the shoe is worth going. It is maybe 100yards or so and crescent shaped like a horse shoe, hence the name. Saw large schools of fish, and every kind of tropical you can think of, and some you can’t.