The Bacardi Beach Diving Team kicked off the new season on Saturday, May 29th at Pepper Park in Fort Pierce. Vis was only about 8-10' with quite a bit of suspension, but with flat seas and no surge to speak of it was worth doing....especially to this Scubagirl who hasn't gone diving since just before she became pregnant with her now 9 month old son.
Total dive time was about 1 hour and 10 minutes. I was joined by my good horseback riding buddies' husband, Lance. Lance and Lisa (who will be joining us on future beach dives) are very experienced divers, but haven't had the pleasure of beach diving much in these local waters. Lance was an excellent buddy and great diver despite the fact that he too, hadn't gone diving in quite awhile.
Despite the low vis, we did see quite a bit of wildlife . First we spotted a shark fin or two on about the 4th reef as we were entering the water...the lifeguards made us wait a few minutes before we headed out. In the water we spotted a guitar fish, 2 nurse sharks, lobster, a creature I want to call a Spanish Dancer but I'm not sure if I'm right on that one, a good sized snook , a nice school of spade fish and the usual blennies, french angels, porkfish, snapper, etc. The great find of the day was a HUGE sea turtle ...the biggest one I've ever seen locally. I'd say it was easily half the size of my car, at least!
The weird moment of the dive was when we kept hearing a boat buzzing around us, making us *very* nervous. Finally we stop hearing the engine and a boat shaped shadow goes right over us! Son-of-$$!!!***! I pop up out of the water and sarcastically say, "Uh heelllloooo??" and the guy (who had scuba gear and you would think would know better) says, "Oh hi! We just wanted to let you know there are sharks in the area. Do you want a ride back to shore?" Us- "Uh, no." Dork-"By the way, do you know the best places to dive around here?" I was polite as I could be, but I couldn't help but say to Lance later, " Ya know, I'd rather take my chances with the sharks then have that dude running his damn boat over my head." Argh!
Anyhoo, it was great to get wet again after such a long dry spell. (pun intended) Despite now being a member of the Mommy militia, I am available to dive quite a bit. I only work 25 hours a week now, my mom (who lives in Vero, closer to the beach then I do) watches my son while I am at work and at the drop of a hat at any other time as well. In fact, I'm probably going to start keeping my gear at her house, that way if anyone wants to dive right after work or on a weekday afternoon I don't have to run all the way back to Vero. If the vis is better then the surge, I'll be up for diving, just drop me an e-mail or call my cell. (Scubagirl/Patti
My Dive # 463
Last Updated: 23-July-2004