Dive Trip Report to: Stuart / Jupiter Reefs
Purpose: To Dive in Florida for Lobster
Dive #1: Saturday, 12-Aug-2000, Morning Dive. My Dive #325
A. Dive Boat / Location: Lo Kevin (Off the Loran Towers, Kevin's spot)
B. Conditions:
Visibility: Top-To-Bottom = 80 ft!
Seas: FLAT
Water Temp: 84 deg
Skies: SCBS (Sunny Clear Blue Skies)
Air Temp: 80 - 90's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time:
Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - 81 ft for 35 min (computer time limited),
Air consumption:
Me: (120 cu ft) 3500 lb to 1200 lb (Air)
Current: Strong, estimated at 2 knots. But, since this was a drift rather then a boat anchor dive, it was not as hard as some of the previous dives!
Description: Well, we jumped in and saw the bottom. The water was nice and blue. The reef structure was series of 2 - 5 ft ledges. There were lot's and lot's of bugs - all Females with eggs. Three males were lost - went way back into their holes and one bug was brought to the surface. Lot's of fish, pretty reefs, good vis, great temp, the current was strong - but managable - but no big legal bugs!
Dive #2: Saturday, 12-Aug-2000, Late Morning Dive. My Dive #326
A. Dive Boat / Location: Lo Co
B. Conditions:
Visibility: 50 ft! - not as good as the first dive
Seas: 1 - 2 ft, the seas are a building some, the wind out of the west is picking up.
Water Temp: 84 deg
Skies: Thunder Boomers and dark clouds are to the north. There's some cloud structure building up all around!
Air Temp: 80 - 90's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time:
Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - 81 ft for 28 min (Computer time limited),
Air consumption:
Me: (120 cu ft) 3500 lb to 1200 lb, (air)
Current: Same as above, strong to the north
Description: Well this second locating had a little less vis. The wind had really picked up and mixed with the strong north current, out drop to the anchored bouy was about 100 yards away. By the time we were 20 ft off the bottom, we met the anchored bouy line. This reef structure was similar to the above. There were some ledges about 10 ft long and 1 ft high opening. Well, no females were found, but there were lot's and lot's of shorts! Six shorts were pulled out of the first hole! Not one legal size was found. Half of the dive time was spent on this first ledge. By the time we started to drift, I was starting to run out of computer time. While holding onto the drifting bouy line 20 ft off the bottom, one bug was spotted to the side. Close observation showed another short. By now, I was down to 3 min of bottom time at 80 ft, not enough time to dig out a bug. So, I held onto the drifting bouy line watching the scenary!
Dive #3: Saturday, 12-Aug-2000, Afternoon Dive. My Dive #326
A. Dive Boat / Location: Random Reef locatoin near #2 above.
B. Conditions:
Visibility: 30 ft, vis was a going down!
Seas: 2 - 3 ft with some 4 + footers, the wind was also generating waves. The wind was estimated a a minimum of 15 knots out of the west.
Water Temp: 84 deg
Skies: T-Boomers and very dark clouds to the East and South, North and some to the West. The ones to the east were very big and dark and building to the West (against the wind).
Air Temp: 80 - 90's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time:
Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - 80 ft for 29 min
Air consumption:
Me: (80 cu ft) 3300 - 700 lb, (36% Nitrox, PO2 1.24)
Current: Very Strong See Above. The current seemed to pick up some as it was much harder to hold onto the bottom to look for bugs.
Description: Again, we had a long leadin to the anchored dive ball. It took some time to find the anchor and yellow line in the poor vis. It was one a 10 ft reef line. There were lot's of area for bugs - but no bugs! Lot's of fish, lots of big reef structure, one snook about 5 ft from me, and a very strong current. We did some drift, looked at various potential good location, but no bugs! Guess I'll classify this as a pretty dive, not a bug dive!