Dive Trip Report to:
, West Palm Beach -
The Rampage
, 03-July-2002
Purpose:
To Dive the Reefs & Wrecks of Florida
Dive #1:
. My Dive #396
A. Dive Boat / Location:
The Rampage
, Wrecks of St. Jacques, Shasha
B. Conditions:
Visibility:
30 feet, not the greatest, but good enough to dive!
Seas:
Almost Flat - maybe 3 - 6 inches!!
Water Temp:
80 deg
Skies:
Sunny, Clear Blue Sky's - Typical of Florida!!
Air Temp:
high 80's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time:
Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer -89 ft for 27 min
Air consumption:
Me: (120 cu ft), 3500 to 1500 lbs, 33% NITROX, PO2 1.25
Current:
Medium to the North - maybe 1 knot
Description:
Well, this was a first West Palm Wreck Dive for my dive partners. This was a
three tank and lunch dive! We
discussed the dive and went down together. Capt Bob decided on diving on the
three new wrecks south of the inlet. These were put down in the past year.
There were three freighters in a row. But now, two were next to each other -
about 50 feet apart. The third was a 400 foot drift. Good old mother nature
moved the ships where she wanted them. We went down on the first near the
stern. Working our way towards the bow, we descended into the holds. They are
wide open - lot's of room to move a bus around in. At the bow, we crossed over
via a linking chain to the second ship. again, we played around the cargo
holds and worked our way to the stern. While looking into the bridge, I
noticed our dive master was on the center of the linking chain getting ready to
drift to the third ship. While drifting, one of our crew got below 1000 lbs of
air. So, we missed the third ship, but all came up. The low air man, did not
have any gloves on and could not hold onto the ship to move about. He used up a
lot of air, just kicking around rather then pulling himself around!! You
ALWAYS need to have gloves on when wreck diving and use your hands to pull
yourself around rather then to kick in the current.
Dive #2:
. My Dive #397
A. Dive Boat / Location:
The Rampage
, Flower Garden
B. Conditions:
Visibility:
30 feet - not the greatest, but better than working
Seas:
Almost Flat - 6 inches to a foot!
Water Temp:
80 - 82 deg.
Skies:
Sunny, Clear Blue Sky's - Typical of Florida!!
Air Temp:
high 80's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time:
Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer -56 ft for 48 min
Air consumption:
Me: (120 cu ft), 3500 to 1300 lbs, 34% NITROX!, PO2 0.91
Current:
Medium to the North - maybe 1 knot
Description:
We all entered and went to the bottom. Rampage's Dive Master led the way.
There were lot's of fish, some color, several areas of Lot's Of Bugs!! They
will disappear come the end of the month. There were a couple of spotted
moray. One was right where I was looking at a bug. Bugs and spotted moray
take to the same type of holes - so always watch out when your going for a
bug. There may be a very mean nasty spotted moray eel around! They don't
brush there teeth very often, so a bite is prone to lots of small holes of
infection! Our dive master tried to coax out one green moray and I did see
several other green moray. And again, there were lot's of fish! This dive, my
partners went up before me, I stayed with the dive master until he called it
quits. Remember, I'm on Nitrox with a 120 cu ft tank. It was a great dive,
great views, great dive boat, great divers!
Dive #3:
. My Dive #398
A. Dive Boat / Location:
The Rampage
, Breakers
B. Conditions:
Visibility:
20 - 30 feet (maybe)
Seas:
Almost Flat - maybe 3 - 6 inches!!
Water Temp:
80 - 82
Skies:
Well, there was a lot of very BLACK sky to the south headed our way. Just as
we were entering the water, there was a hard rain shower close by. While
diving, we could see the flashes of lightening all around. When we got back on
the boat, the storm had passed to the north - lucky us.
Air Temp:
high 80's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time:
Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer -64 ft for 45 min
Air consumption:
Me: (80 cu ft), 3000 to 500 lbs, 35% NITROX!, PO2 1.02
Current:
Medium to the North - maybe 1 knot
Description:
After the second dive, Capt Bob motored over to the Breakers Hotel and anchored
for lunch. Lunch was some ring subs and fried chicken - great lunch. There was
more than all of us could eat. Some decided to snorkel the shallow reef of the
inner Breaker Reef. With almost an hour up, a storm approaching, Capt Bob
wanted everybody in the water. Well, we got in and the vis was bad - maybe 20
feet. I saw the divemaster with the float line while going down, but by the
time I was on the bottom, there was no-one in sight. I almost came up, but
decided to swim around for a few minutes. Yep, found the group. And, as
typical, the Breakers was full of color, fish and reef. This was a nice long,
slow going look-at-mother-nature dive. Even thought the vis was bad, the dive
and sights were great.
Last Updated: 10-July-2002