Dive Trip Report to:
Stuart - Loran Towers, 24-Aug-01
Purpose:
To Dive for Florida Lobster
Dive #1:
. My Dive #366
A. Dive Boat / Location:
It's U & I / 5 miles east of the Loran Tower between Stuart and Jupiter -
Location called "Lo Fat"
B. Conditions:
Visibility:
30 ft on the 1st dive. The water was a slight brownish with some floating
whale snoot.
Seas:
Flat to 1 foot, great sea conditions. There was a slight wind, the current was
out of the North!
Water Temp:
85 on the top and 69 on the bottom! There was a sharp thermocline at about 50
ft with COLD water on the bottom!
Skies:
Sunny, Clear Blue Florida Skies. There were no T-Boomer's all day, even
along the coastline.
Air Temp:
80 - 90's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time:
Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer -
82 ft for 30 min, PO2 1.28
Air consumption:
Me: (80 cu ft) , 3400 to 700 lb, 37% NITROX
Current:
There was a slight to medium current to the South.
Description:
Well, as my second Loran Tower Lobster Dive of this season, we were very
interested in gettting into the water and getting some bugs! With the flat
seas, the trip out of Stuart Inlet to the area 11 miles to the SE went fast.
Backflipping over the side, down we went. We hit the poor vis immediately and
the thermocline at 50 feet. With 30 ft of Vis, it wasn't the greatest, but
good enough to get bugs! The ledge was about 1 ft with some minor
undercropping. On the way down, I spied a bug and went into attack mode.
This little critter could feel I was there and as my bug stick approached him,
he retreated to the back of a very deep hole. I spend several minutes trying
to catch this bug. Result - Bug 1, Irishman 0! I followed the reef line to
the south, and my dive partner to the north. No bugs, but I did find one
anchor and attaching chain in very good shape. Vis wasn't the greatest, and
there was some current, so I didn't want to venture tooo far away from the
anchor line, although I was out of site of it for most of the dive.
Dive #2:
. My Dive #367
A. Dive Boat / Location:
It's U & I / 5 miles east of the Loran Tower between Stuart and Jupiter - same
location as the 1st dive
B. Conditions:
Visibility:
20 ft on the 1st dive. The water was a more brownish with some floating
whale snoot.
Seas:
One foot, great sea conditions. There was a slight wind, the current was
out of the North!
Water Temp:
85 on the top and 69 on the bottom! There was a sharp thermocline at about 50
ft with COLD water on the bottom!
Skies:
Sunny, Clear Blue Florida Skies. There were no T-Boomer's all day, even
along the coastline.
Air Temp:
80 - 90's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time:
Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer -
85 ft for 39 min
Air consumption:
Me: (120 cu ft) , 39% NITROX, 3500 lbs to 500 lbs, PO2 1.39
Current:
There was a slight to medium current to the South, a little weaker than on the
1st dive.
Description:
Well, we continued where left off on the 1st dive. This time, we agreed to go
west and cross the reefline to the edge on the other side. The edge on the 1st
dive was less than one foot. The other edge, to the west, was suppose to be on
the order of
2 to 5 feet. On our arrival at the anchor, we went to the other side. There
were
several bugs that were seen - they were all shorts. Then, down some cracks
about 3 ft deep, 1 ft wide and 10 ft long there were some bugs down about 2 ft.
We just couldn't get to them. The were just on the outside limit of our reach
with the bug sticks! Again, we played for 5 minutes in this area then decided
to drift the anchor. No more bugs were seen. The relief was 2 - 5 feet and
the reef line was very pretty (for a uncolored rocklike edge), with lot's of
well hidden bugs!
Dive #3:
. My Dive #368
A. Dive Boat / Location:
It's U & I / 5 miles east of the Loran Tower between Stuart and Jupiter, a
little further south of where we started.
B. Conditions:
Visibility:
10 ft on the 3rd dive. The water was very brownish with some floating whale
snoot. Vis was very poor!
Seas:
1 to 2 foot seas, good sea conditions. There was a slight wind, the current
was out of the North!
Water Temp:
85 on the top and 69 on the bottom! There was a sharp thermocline at about 50
ft with COLD water on the bottom!
Skies:
Sunny, Clear Blue Florida Skies. There were no T-Boomer's all day, even
along the coastline.
Air Temp:
80 - 90's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time:
Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - 85 fto for 36 min
Air consumption:
Me: (120 cu ft) , 38% NITROX, 3600 lbs to 1200 lbs [I got bored and decided
to cancel the dive], PO2 1.39
Current:
There was almost no current at all on this dive. That's probably why the vis
went down!
Description:
Well, down we went, there were some real pretty 3 to 10 ft relief edges. BUT -
the vis was much worst - about 10 ft! I lost my dive partner within a few
minutes, but since there was no current, I decided to go for bugs. It was eary
in the low vis, brown water loaded with whale snoot [That's 1/4 to 1 inch white
long white particles floating in the water]. Several fish were seen, but not
a one bug. After a while, with some of the Tiger Shark stories from last weeek
floating around, and no bugs to keep up my interest, I decided to call it
quits. I still had plenty of air left - 1500 lbs of NITROX and plenty of
available bottom time. But there were no bugs and it was an awful eary
feeling.
I had been out of sight of the anchor line for some time. I swam south first
then worked my way back north going from east to west. On the way up, about
half way up, I ran into the anchor line. Good old Instrument Pilot Rated
navigation kept me close to the boat. This dive resulted in no bugs for the
divers!
Last Updated: 10-July-2002