Yesterday was my second day of diving this week. It was just one of those
wonderful days in paradise. For me, the event started with my decision
earlier in the week, to play hooky to dive with Rec.Scuba friends yesterday.
Old Salt (who is not old) is has been down from the cold, cruel north since
the weekend and is headed back today. Yesterday was my last chance to dive
with her on this trip, making the decision to take a day off an easy one.
One of the advantages to having worked for the same people for more than 30
years is the amount of vacation time one accrues. There's always a chance
that a day off will be wasted due to rough seas and/or bad visibility, but
yesterday was definitely not wasted.
We dove on the Delta Splash, out of Boynton Beach. This time the cast
included ESG, Salty, Mr. and Mrs. Bullshark and me. Limey Dave had other
responsibilities, possibly w$$k. The day was bright, clear and almost
uncomfortably warm. The seas were uncharacteristically calm, a good start
for our diving day.
The plan was to dive the Captain Tony (wreck). The wreck is popular with
the shell collectors in our crowd and, reportedly, has been known to house
its share of lobster, which interests me. The season closes this weekend
and I could afford to stock a few more for the stretch until the season
again opens. Sometimes plans work, sometimes they don't. Another boat beat
us to the site. No problem says Captain Terry, we'll head over to the
Budweiser Bar wreck. The Budweiser Bar wreck is a 167 foot coastal
freighter that was cleaned and made safe for divers before being sunk in
1987 as part of the Palm Beach County artificial reef program. It has held
up very well, including sections that can safely be penetrated by those with
only some basic wreck diving knowledge and skills. Published material
suggests the wreck is at 87 feet. My watch and computer say 93. Mike was
playing DM on this trip, taking responsibility for attaching the buoy line
to the wreck. Normally, when he does this, I drop with him, letting us both
to be first on the site. Since we had Salty with us plus a few in another
group, I played backup DM helping everyone get in, handing cameras out and
the like. Mr. and Mrs. Bullshark had opted for an earlier drop on a reef.
When we dropped, Salty headed for Mike, on the port side, the other group
headed for the bow and I headed for some rubble on the Starboard side in
hopes of catching some lobster unaware. There weren't any lobster there,
but there was a large and apparently quite old loggerhead turtle paying the
wreck a visit. After spending a few minutes looking each other over, he
wandered off to less crowded waters.
A circumnavigation of the wreck turned up no lobster, but lots of fish,
including one of my favorites, a long nose butterfly. Florida reefs,
including the artificial reefs, have several varieties of butterfly fish.
Most are easily and often seen. The longnose butterfly, however, is
normally quite shy. With their longer than normal nose, hence the name,
spiky harcut (dorsal fins) and brown to burnt orange to light yellow
coloring, they're one of the most attractive fish on our reefs, in my
opinion of course. Needless to say, I don't carry my camera when I'm
hunting lobster, so sightings of both the turtle and the butterfly are
preserved only in my mind. As recently as a few months ago, the prop on the
Budweiser Bar was still free and easy to turn. Pretty much everyone that
visits the wreck gives it a spin to keep it that way. Apparently there
haven't been many people on the wreck lately. The prop is now firmly locked
in place.
Somewhere along the line the boat's other customers headed for the surface.
Almost an hour into the dive, Salty began to run low on gas. Her
consumption is similar to what Mike and I enjoy (quite low), but her tank
was 20% smaller than the 100 cubic foot tanks we were using. While
unhooking the line from the wreck, Mike ran his wrist across some fire
coral, obviously realizing his mistake immediately. I helped untie, fouled
the hook higher up the line and we all made a slow, safe ascent up the
hanging line.
Max Depth 93 feet, Average depth 71 feet. Dive time 54 minutes, Water
Temperature 78 F, Visibility greater than 70 feet.
Our full group did the second dive together. The dive was somewhat unique.
We dropped on one of the Boynton area's typical reef structures. We were on
the inside of the third reef at about 50 feet. but soon moved out over the
sand, heading to a separated reef known to Mike. On the way, we encountered
a medium sized nurse shark, a few southern stingrays and something I rarely
see here in Florida, Flying Gurnards. There were four large ones feeding on
the sand bottom. As we approached, two graced us with a full wing spread
(very colorful). Otherwise, they seemed quite unconcerned and went about
their business, as did we. When we reached the target reef, we found it to
be varied in height and shape, full of life and in very good condition. The
usual cast of characters were in attendence, a half dozen kinds of butterfly
fish, fully mature blue and queen angels, golden tail and spotted morays,
the obligatory large green moray, a school of ocean triggerfish, a hovering
shool of barracuda and a few lobster that, this late in the season, were way
to wise to let me get close enough to include them on my dinner menu. A bit
over an hour later, this dive was also ready for the log books. After
another safe ascent, we boarded and headed for the dock and a late lunch.
Max Depth 58 feet, Average depth 49 feet. Dive time 68 minutes, Water
Temperature 78 F, Visibility down to about 65 feet.
I'm part of a team pool tournament on Wednesday nights. I'm a decidedly
average player, but I'm getting better. This Wednesday, I topped off a
wonderful day by winning 3 out of my 4 games, one of which was against the
club's best player. Talk about a great way to end a great day.
Well, my other computer has finished it's task, so it's back to work for me.
Somehow it's a bit easier to work after such a totally wonderful and
relaxing day of diving.
Lee
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