Dive Trip Report to:
Florida's Beaches!
Purpose:
To
Beach Dive Florida
for old wrecks, cannon, ships, bugs etc!
Dive #1:
Saturday, 14-May, Morning Dive. My Dive #315
A. Dive Boat / Location:
Beach Dive - Boiler Wreck (Vero Beach)
B. Conditions:
Visibility:
20 to 25 ft on the wreck, 10 to 15 ft on the reef
Seas:
Very FLAT
Water Temp:
82 (Time to switch from a farmer john to a shortie)
Skies:
Sunny Clear Blue Skies
Air Temp:
80 - 90's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time:
Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - TBD
Air consumption:
Me: 3100 lb to 1300 lb (120 cu ft)
Current:
Mild
Description:
Well, this dive was to be the same profile as last week was suppose to have been. The weather from Wed on showed winds out of the West - great for beach diving. Vis reports at the local parks on Friday showed great vis in the area. So, the team met at the end of RT 60 in Vero. We entered the water for the long swim (300 yards so they say) to the wreck. It's off of the Ocean Grill restaurant. On the way out to our dive location, we swim on our backs, BC's inflated and breathing air - not tank air! This saves a lot of dive air and your looking at the shoreline for navigation. We swam and swam and swam. First time divers really need to see the wreck from shore at low tide so they are aware of it's distance out! There was a group of divers ahead of me, they could see the bottom from the top. No ship. Out we went. Swam and swam and swam. Well, I finally gave the signal to group up, dive to the bottom and we would swim east until we found the wreck. We went about 100 ft and there was the first sign of the ship - an encrusted pipe. Just over the next reef line, was the wreck of the Breconshire (Boiler) Wreck. Its a steel ship, sunk in the early 1900's. It's well broken into pieces. There are some large "Boiler" type structures, lots of ship ribs and deck structure, and pieces that come close to the surface. These are visible at low tide, it was high tide now! We swam around the wreck twice, across and all around. There were the normal assortment of Tropicals! We did see one school of about six 3 - 4 ft snook! They sure looked good! After about 25 minutes on the wreck, we met at the surface and discussed heading north on the reef line. Again, a few bugs, and the typical tropicals. One diver was down to 1500 lbs of air, so we headed back to shore. Great dive, good vis, lot's of visibility on the wreck!
Dive #2:
Saturday, 14-May, Morning Dive. My Dive #316
A. Dive Boat / Location:
Beach Dive - Pepper Park in Ft. Pierce.
B. Conditions:
Visibility:
10 to 15 ft!
Seas:
Flat
Water Temp:
82 deg
Skies:
Sunny Clear Blue Skies, TBoomers to the west.
Air Temp:
80 - 90's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time:
Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - TBD
Air consumption:
Me: 3600 lb to 1700 lb (120 cu ft)
Current:
mild
Description:
Well, as we had several new members to the group, we decided to show them the old standby - Pepper Park. If there's any beach diving, it'll be in Pepper Park. So, after the 15 minute ride south, we all gathered by the showers and suited up. It's a 100 yard walk to the beach then a several hundred yard swim out to the 3rd reef. While helping some other divers get ready, I forgot to put on my weight belt. This was realized as I was entering the water and held up the dive for a few minutes. Again, we swam out on our backs, BC's inflated, watching the shoreline for navigation. After 10 minutes of swimming, under we went. We continued East to a good reef line then south. My goal was to show off as much of the reef as possible. After a short while, we decided to continue East to the fourth reef. This reef line has lots of big boulders (10 - 30 ft) and a max depth of 22 ft. We could not find this structure, so I turned north. Again, we continued till the first diver hit 1500 lbs of air. Then we turned west. There were lot's of reef rock structure, moderate good vis, some bugs, and some fish. No nurse sharks or rays were seen.
As tradition, the Bacardi Beach Dive Team cleaned up, had lunch and some Limon and Coke at one of the Pavilions! Fun day, long day, hard workout!!