Dive Trip Report to: West Palm Beach - Memorial Weekend
Purpose: To Dive in Florida

Dive Reports:

Dive #1: Saturday, 29-May-2000, Morning Dive. My Dive #295
A. Dive Boat / Location: The Rampage / Flower Garden
B. Conditions:
Visibility: 20-30 ft (not the greatest)
Seas: calm
Water Temp: 78 - 80
Skies: SCBS (Sunny Clear Blue Skies
Air Temp: 80 - 90's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time: Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - 52 ft for 43 min , Analog - 45 ft, Cochran Captain (Very Unreliable Dive Computer) - 50 ft for 43 min.
Air consumption: Me: 3500 lb to 1500 lb (120 cu ft)
Current: Mild
Description: Well, on this dive, I compared all three depth gauges several times. In general the Cochran read 2 ft less than the Genesis (43 ft vs 45 ft). Two big turtles were seen. There were lots and lots and lots of very very tiny speck size fish in and around the holes in the reef. They almost looked like small shrimp - thousands in each location! After spotting a bug, I let myself down and put my hand on some rocks to stabalize myself. The other hand was used to fan water over the bug to see if it would come out of the hole. The corner of my eye, spied something not quite right! I looked and it didn't register. Faned the bug again! Then looking down again, my hand on the rock had a thumb on one side of a hole and the rest of my fingers on the other side of the hole. Well, inside the hole was a 2 inch diameter spotted moray! It was going back into it's hole with it's mouth showing displeasure. I did let out with a screem and pushed off! That was a very very close call! Spotted moray's give very nasty multiple teeth and multiple bites!

Dive #2: Saturday, 29-May-2000, Afternoon Dive. My Dive #296
A. Dive Boat / Location: The Rampage / Flower Garden North & the Trench
B. Conditions:
Visibility: 20 - 30 ft
Seas: Calm
Water Temp: 77 -78
Skies: SCBS (Sunny Clear Blue Skies
Air Temp: 80 - 90's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time: Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - 61 ft for 48 min , Analog - 58 ft, Cochran Captain (Very Unreliable Dive Computer) - 59 ft for 47 min.
Air consumption: Me: 3500 lb to 1500 lb (120 cu ft)
Current: Mild to medium
Description: Again, with not the greatest vis, we dove the Flower Garden - just north of the Breakers. There was only one small turtle and several bugs. This area did have quite a bit of relief - lots of ledges and boulders - a very pretty area! Again, there also were a lot of the small shrimp like life in many of the holes!

Dive #3: Sunday, 30-May-2000, Morning Dive. My Dive #297
A. Dive Boat / Location: The Rampage / Mispah and the Corridore Drift
B. Conditions:
Visibility: 30 - 40 ft
Seas: flat to 1 ft
Water Temp: 77 - 78 deg
Skies: SCBS (Sunny Clear Blue Skies
Air Temp: 80 - 90's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time: Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - 87 ft for 33 min, Analog - 87 ft, Cochran Captain (Very Unreliable Dive Computer) - 83 ft for 33 min.
Air consumption: Me: 3600 lb to 1300 lb (120 cu ft)
Current:
Description: Well, the normal Mispah dive is go spend 10 min on the Mitzpah and then meet at the bow or north end of the ship. The dive then turns into a drift. Kicking east while the curent takes us north, we come up the a PT landing craft boat, then the rock pile and the Amarilys. When we descended on the Mispah, we were about 100 ft away - the current carried us into her. I decided to visit several of the compartments - go in the broken off front area and out the holes in the deck. There was one monster cuda inside! The drift was normal, lot's of fish, no bugs.

Dive #4: Saturday, 30-May-2000, Morning Dive. My Dive #298
A. Dive Boat / Location: The Rampage / Breakers Backside
B. Conditions:
Visibility: 20 - 30 ft
Seas: 1 ft
Water Temp: 78 to 80 deg
Skies: SCBS (Sunny Clear Blue Skies
Air Temp: 80 - 90's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time: Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - 79 ft for 42 min, Analog - 80 ft, Cochran Captain (Very Unreliable Dive Computer) - 75 ft for 42 min.
Air consumption: Me: 3600 lbs to 1200 lbs (120 cu ft)
Current: Mild to Medium
Description: The Backside of the Breakers is the Eastern side of the reef. The normal 65 ft dive is on the Western side of the Breakers. The backside consists of a series of fingers that jut out a hundred feet to the east, 50 ft N/S and are 20 ft above the bottom. While drifting north, kick to the east till ya come to a finger. Follow the finger to the east till it meets the sand then follow it back to the west. The later fingers are have much more releif then the beginning fingers. The vis wasn't the greatest for this dive. There was some life, but not as much as I've seen in the past. All in all it was a different dive!

Dive #5: Monday, 31-May-2000, Morning Dive. My Dive #299
A. Dive Boat / Location: The Rampage / Juno Ledges
B. Conditions:
Visibility: 30 ft
Seas:
Water Temp: 78 deg
Skies: SCBS (Sunny Clear Blue Skies
Air Temp: 80 - 90's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time: Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - 91 ft for 26 min, Analog - didn't use, strap broke, Cochran Captain (Very Unreliable Dive Computer) - 86 ft for 27 min .
Air consumption: Me: 3700 lb to 1500 lb (120 cu ft)
Current: Mile - we had to kick on this dive
Description: Well, after we dropped to the reef, I spied a 4-5 ft nurse shark. I went to the bottom of the ledge and slowely kick to the north - reef to the right, open water to the left! The group was going very slowely, so I poked my light into every hole there was. I only saw one bug. At least 4 nurse sharks were spotted. With about 5 min left on this dive - by dive computer, a diver came down to me and put her pressure gauge in front of me! It showed less than 500 lbs of air left at 85 ft! The diver's mask was full of water! Well, up we went! I had 2000 lbs of air left, so there was plenty of air, but I did not know the diver or how she'd respond to running out of air!?.. We stopped at 15 ft for only a minute - her air was almost gone! The dive did end on a safe note, but that was a close call. I'd estimate there were only half a dozen breaths left in the tank at 85 ft! Not a good place to run out of air! Juno is my favorite reef dive in the state! Divers should use a computer, this will allow for two dives on the ledges.

Dive #6: Monday, 31-May-2000, Afternoon Dive. My Dive #300
A. Dive Boat / Location: The Rampage / Jolly Roger
B. Conditions:
Visibility:
Seas:
Water Temp: 76 deg (twas a little cold)
Skies: SCBS (Sunny Clear Blue Skies
Air Temp: 80 - 90's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time: Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - 79 ft for 34 min, Analog - broken wrist strap, Cochran Captain (Very Unreliable Dive Computer) - 87 ft for 26 min.
Air consumption: Me: 3500 lb to 1500 lb (120 cu ft)
Current: Mile
Description: Not much to see, some relief.