Dive Trip Report to: Florida's Beaches!
Purpose: To Beach Dive for old wrecks, cannon, ships, bugs etc!

Dive Reports:

Dive #1: Saturday, Morning Dive. My Dive #230
A. Dive Boat / Location: Beach Dive - The Pirate Ship. The Pirate Ship is located a few hundred yards south of Treasure Shores Park.
B. Conditions:
Visibility: 5' - Poor Vis
Seas: Flat
Water Temp: 83
Skies: SCBS (Sunny Clear Blue Skies
Air Temp: 80 - 90's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time: Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - 17 ft for 39 min
Air consumption: Me: 3500 - 1500 lbs (120 cu ft)
Current: Slight to the north, some surge
Description: Well, after the troops found that big 1711 anchor and chain last week, I had to see it myself. So this beach dive weekend is a duplication of last weeks. Just south of Treasure Shores Park is a dirt/sand road (???) leading to the beach. It has lots of ups/ downs/turns and is not recommended for a "Good" car. It's narrow, twisty and you'll be hitting some branches. When you get to the ocean, turn left - don't go straight, you'll get stuck in the sand. Well, as soon as you get out, the local mosquito population will quickly start feeding on your body, so be prepared to get suited up and in the water fast! From this location, we walked about 100 yards south, past the "E" marker. There also is a beach access to A1A here a little south of where we turned in, but you must park your cars at A1A and walk in. The dirt path has posts preventing entry. Although we did not use this south most entry, I'd probably want to check it out for future dives.

Some past comments as to the location of the anchor:
1) Just barely north of the E marker. The entrance to the beach is between the E and F, a lot closer to F. I'm pretty sure it was on the 3rd reef out.
2) Just south of the E marker, unknown how far out!

Our goal was to find the Anchor and Chain (from the Fleet of 1711). We headed out about 100 yards - to the first real reef line - lots of 3 ft relief. We grouped up and headed South, then turned around came inland some and headed North. Well, unfortunately, this group was all over the place. Some were in front, some drifed off course, some gave up! We didn't find the anchor! Vis was at most 5 feet! If you went down with a partner and started to move about, by the time you looked for your partner, they were gone due to poor vis! To do the job right, we should have tied ourselves together with about 15 feet of line and then moved in a search box. Some day, I'll do this again - I want a picture of the anchor and chain!

One item we saw a lot of was Treasure Boat Blast Holes. The boats use their prop wash directed straight down to blast a 10 ft deep and 20 ft diameter hole in whatever - sand or reef. They were cool to swim into - big enough to hold a VW Bug!! Their sides are lined with small shells - no treasure!

There were no bugs, very few fish. By the time we decided to wrap it up, a treasure boat was planting itself just off the marker - probably where the anchor was.

Dive #2: Saturday, Morning Dive. My Dive #231
A. Dive Boat / Location: Beach Dive - Breconshire (Boiler) Wreck -
B. Conditions:
Visibility: It improved to at least 10 feet
Seas: 1 ft
Water Temp: 84
Skies: SCBS (Sunny Clear Blue Skies
Air Temp: 80 - 90's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time: Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - 16 ft for 59 min
Air consumption: Me: 3500 - 1500 lb (120 cu ft)
Current: Mild to the North, some surge
Description: Well, most of the group decided not to do the Boiler due to poor vis on the first dive. I have not done the Boiler, so a small dive team set out for this wreck. On our backs, BC's inflated, we sway East keeping in line with the south end of the Restaurant. We swam and we swam and we swam! I was getting very tired! This is not a dive for the weak! It's a long swim to this wreck. Well, we finally made it and descended to find some pretty good vis (10 - 15 ft). There is a lot of wreck to see on this wreck! Big metal pieces all over the place, and it does cover a large area going North and South. We saw some bugs - all under size! There were Baracuda (not the 6 footers from WPB, just 1.5 footers), one big colorful Queen Angel. It was high tide, several times the dive bouy line got caught on some of the ship's super-structure. We made our way towards where the bow might be - to the south. There were some bugs (undersize of course) under a ledge. While catching and measuring them, my dive partner found a BIG Ray - about 15 ft long and 8 ft across. It was just laying in the sand. We didn't bother it! We went over, under, down and through this wreck. This also will take several dives to really understand what is where under the water. Its a beautiful wreck, inexpensive diving - but you get a good physical getting to it.

As we were getting down on air, we started back underwater. There were seveal other reef's on the way in, some fish, no bugs. The area that is marked on the surface with bouys, under water looks like the cement sides rails to a bridge. There also were several objects about 3 ft square attached to 4 legs that were imbedded in the bottom. They looked like small tables under water. As we were putting our gear away, several other divers stopped by and we invited them to our weekly beach dives!