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Key Largo with Silent World
City of Washington Wreck and South, South Ledges
About 15 DIGA divers and snorkelers gathered early for a trip out on the water. Saw four nurse sharks, a snook, kingfish, several large grouper and snapper, spotted drums and a few large lobster. Too bad the lobster are protected here. Weather was hot and sunny, seas were 1 to 2 feet, visibility probably about 40 to 50 feet. Seeing as many large schools of fish was encouraging. Also saw many copper sweepers in the dark cavernous areas. We all convened for lunch at Buzzards afterwards.
DIGADivers
Long Key, Tennessee Reef
The first day was very lean, only 1 legal lobster. Almost all shorts were found. The second day was a different story. Four divers brought home the limit with 6 each for a total of 24; found only a few shorts this day and some of the legals were quite large. You just have to find the right spot. The third day was not quite as lucky but we did find 12 legals. Did find a dead hogfish which was fed to a rather large nurse shark. A triggerfish did not like us hunting in his area and had to be chased away after he nipped a diver. A late afternoon storm looked like it was brewing but dissipated. All in all a very nice time on the water.
Donna, Denise, Rich & Brenda
Bimini Trip
About 14 DIGA divers and snorkelers headed for Bimini aboard The Buccanero II captained by Fred . The weather was excellent and the seas forgiving. A very pleasant crossing; it was still good to see the island appear on the horizon. Relax time. We did two dives Sat. morning and snorkeled in the afternoon. Hit the beaches for sea glass which was quite plentiful. Relaxed at the pool and also played at the pool table and the ping pong table. A large stainless steel plow anchor was added to the boat's anchorage equipment; a nice find. A good time was had by all.
DIGADivers
HELLO DIVERS:
DIGA Divers visited Dominica for this year's exotic trip. About 18 divers and snorkelers entered the water several times revisiting the seahorses we had seen in 1999, dolphins were frollicking, whale watching was excellent, and the extra adventure trips were exciting. A few even tackled the Boiling Lake hike, Emerald pool and Ti Tou (sp) Gorge. The waterfalls were really running this time. The underwater life was as good as we remembered; vivid and colorful with lots of creatures and plant life. The snorkeling and diving from the dock showed plenty of life with rather large garden eels and even a Chain Eel.
A few of us went North to see fabulous scenic cliffs and South to visit the quaint little fishing town of St. Mark near Scott's head.
Exotic Trip divers
HELLO DIVERS:
The weather has finally broken and provided the dive community some much needed days of sun and fun. Saturday the seas were light and the water temp @ 74f top to bottom. Me I jumped on Nautilus and dropped down on the Wreck of the Lakeland and then the reef south of the Gov Cut. There were mucho mucho fish - and Wayne IDed a viper moray - a new one on my life list! Many jacks and porgy around the reef. Monday - headed to Jupiter to visit my friends the lemon sharks. What a beautiful day. Seas were flat calm, no wind and a refreshing 75F top to bottom. The lemons were cooperative and made several passes. Juvenile Goliath's were almost every where. I even got so close in the tunnel to stroke one of them. Nurse sharks were abundant, all sizes were resting around the reefs. One was so big that it ignored Randy's attempt to harass it. First ignored the tail tug, then ignored Randy as he pulled on it's pec fin. Randy wisely gave up, He's put his fingers where they shouldn't be and paid the price not too long ago!
Wayne
Diving in John Pennekamp Underwater State Park
I had not been here for many years. We launched and headed out looking for Molasses Reef and found it with no problems. We arrived early to find about nine buoys to tie to. The diving was good, visibility decent and so I took a few pictures. The water was warm and full of schools of snapper and grunts. A green moray and a snook were captured hopefully on film. The snook picture should be good. After half a tank we surfaced to find a lot more boats had found 'our spot'. I guess they find this place every weekend. I had forgotten how popular and colorful this place was.
We soon headed North searching for the Christ statue. Our surface interval became about two hours but we were unconcerned since the diving is in about 25 feet deep. We lucked out getting a buoy this time since another boat was just leaving. A short swim away we found the statue just where Jerry said it was. The plaque attached to the base of the statue has the name of Kevorkian on it and it reminded me of my first dive shop visited in Miami in 1971; he was the owner who died in 1988. There were also more fish but not in schools as on the first dive but larger individuals such as snapper and a friendly Nassau grouper. Finishing up the roll of film we headed back to the boat.
There was the usual incident at the boat ramp but it was not our turn but another boat not from the dive club. Their boat had a rather large crack in the hull and was taking on water; they were lucky to get back to the ramp and get it out of the water in time. All-in-all a rather good day of diving with good friends. Let's not mention anything about flying bimini (that's a small b).
Rich C
The Wall at Biscayne National Park
The weather cooperated and it was a beautiful day, all day, and the seas were virtually flat. The dive boat took us out through Caesar's Creek and beyond to the reef dropoff. There we ( there were six of us in our little DIGA group, and about ten others; the boat had plenty of room ) jumped in and went down in an easterly direction to about 85 feet and then dove along quite a colorful wall. While it was not San Salvador it was better than I had expected. The visibility must have been about 50 to 60 feet. I saw a fairly large turtle with some barnacles attached to his aging shell; one of our divers pointed out a spotted leopard ray. There were several sponges growing out from the wall and wish I had taken the camera. The second dive was called Scott's Reef and it had swim throughs, undercuts, and a lot of relief for only 20 or so feet deep. I spotted a couple of yellowhead jawfish which are not always so common. There were also some copper sweepers in the dark areas and there were plenty of butterflyfish, queen angelfish, margates, porkfish, and others to keep the most ardent fish counters happy.
Rich C
Exotic Trip – Dive Abaco
Edie Goebel, Gordon Stevenson, Scott Prinos, Rich and Brenda Colombo had a great time diving and playing in the Abacos. The first three days were overcast and rainy, but it only rained when we were indoors or underwater, then the sun came out and we were finally able to get warm between dives.
Those of you who thought that the diving wasn’t going to be interesting because of the shallow depths really missed out on some great diving. The deepest I logged was 51 feet, but the coral formations were massive and went from the sand bottom to the surface of the water. There were nice ledges and overhangs, with lots of great caves and tunnels. The caves were filled with thousands of silver sides. In some areas so thick you had to stay very close to the person in front of you so you wouldn’t get lost. The coral formations were so large and spread out that if you didn’t look up you would think you were diving in 60-70 feet of water. We saw sharks on just about every other dive, and were even treated to a shark-feeding dive that attracted six Caribbean reef sharks ranging from 4-6 feet. Since there were only 6 divers we each had a shark of our own. Hopefully the photographers got some good shots.
Above water we managed to find some good food and cold Kaliks, starting Saturday night when Keith (owner of Dive Abaco) took us by dive boat across the harbor to the Rib Room; Sunday afternoon Pig Roast at Nippers; Wednesday pizza night with batches of Goombay Smashes in our condo with Keith and Wayne (our Dive Master); to a nice open air restaurant overlooking the ocean in Hopetown. On Friday we took a ferry over to Elbow Key, climbed the lighthouse and toured the picturesque village of Hopetown. Back in Marsh Harbor that night we listened and danced to music from a local band and got a little happy at Sapadilly’s Happy Hour, some more than others (I say no more).
We all enjoyed the Abaco Islands and the diving; and since it’s so close, only an hour flying time, we would definitely recommend it for a long weekend sometime in the future.
Brenda
This year's exotic trip was with Dive Abaco, Marsh Harbour, Abaco, Bahamas. It took less than an hour to arrive by small plane.We checked in Saturday with the dive operation, filling out the usual forms, showing C-cards, unpacked at the 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo, and organized a trip to the local food and liquor stores to stock up on goodies for the week. After our initial dive on Sunday we headed for the 'famous' Nipper's on Great Guana Cay landing on the beach for an all-you-can-eat pig roast. Monday through Thursday we did 3 dives per day. Most of the diving was done offshore of Guana Cay, Scotland Cay and some in the National Preserve, a totally protected area. The Cathedral was a dive into a large cavernous space with some light shining down from above and the sides through various small openings. There were several tunnels and swim-throughs loaded with hundreds of silversides and glassy sweepers. We did an hour shark dive with a frozen chumsicle; they are always different and somewhat exciting. Numerous marine life were spotted including green morays, butterflyfish, chubs, yellowtail, turtles, peacock flounder, arrowcrabs, tiger grouper, nassau grouper, squirrelfish, glassy snapper, bluehead wrasse, Caribbean reef sharks, and the ever present royal grammas to name a few. On Friday we took the ferry to Hopetown, a picturesque town resembling New England with it's unique wooden house architecture. We had lunch at a small hotel overlooking a beautiful sandy beach with visible coral formations just offshore. The lighthouse was our last stop heading back to the condo. Friday night happy hour and dancing at Sapodilly's with music by Stone McEwan was a very memorable experience.
Rich
The Wild Blue and Freediver went out Saturday with DIGA divers. The skys were clear the water a little choppy, temp. 79 degrees, burrrrrr. We got to see the five cannons that John has told the club about. We saw lots of fish and some nice ledges with lots of copper sweepers.
Brenda
Our intrepid divers once again braved the waters off Key Largo. This time they enlisted the aid of Captain Joe of Dive-In. The skies were sunny as they embarked from the Mandalay Marina. A few minutes later, the fast little 28 ft Pro tied up at the Wreck of the Benwood. Seas were calm as our group back-rolled into the water and began their tour of the Benwood. As always the site was loaded with fish life including a baby nurse shark. Visibility was still less than 35 feet, which has been typical for our entire 2003 spring dive season. Temperatures had warmed slightly, 78F being the average. The group made their way around the wreck photographing the macro subjects, and after 60+ minutes and film dials at 36+, called it quits. Captain Joe said the reports from French Reef indicated clear water, so we motored over to French. With fresh rolls of Fuji Chrome we submerged to the depths of French Reef. Fish life was fantastic, but the report of clear water proved to be an exaggeration as the visibility remained at less than 35 ft. Once again the group scanned the area concentrating on the macro life. Wayne’s dive high came when he found a colony of pike blenny, a very uncommon discovery. Scott made another uncommon discovery, a pair of Red-tipped Sea Goddesses and dragged Kathy over to photograph them with her macro. Our 60 minutes and 36+ came all too soon, and we reluctantly unfinned, and Captain Joe’s craft sped back to the dock. The Mandalay Pub had cold beer and fresh fish served up for lunch. The food quickly disappeared from our plates and our hearty group safely returned to Miami-Dade in time for a nap before dinner.
Wayne
Our little group of Diga Divers headed to Key Largo for another dive with Scuba-do. Plans went slightly awry as we thought we were diving two reefs but turned out we were signed up to dive the Spiegel Grove and a reef. However, it all turned out fine in the end. Capt. Tony put us near a bow drop-line and we hand-over-handed it down through a stiff current to about-30-40 feet, then the current pretty much dropped off and nil current on the wreck. Water temperature is getting warmer – the water’s still a little chilly, but was not uncomfortable with a 3mil suit. We followed the down line to the portside at about 50 feet and just followed along the side of the ship until we got to 95 feet, then turned around and followed the side back to the down-line. It was easy to find our down line as someone has put a toilet there – X marks the spot. Visibility was fairly good, Capt. Tony said 100 feet, but my eyes say perhaps 50-75 was more like it. Lots of fish are inhabiting the wreck. What really caught my attention was the arrow crabs which have made the wreck their home – they are thousands of them and they are huge - the size of dinner plates! Apparently there are no natural predators to eat them so they just get bigger and bigger…..
She resides near Dixie Shoals in Key Largo at a depth of 130 on her starboard side.
About 400 feet of the 510 ft length is accessible at a depth of 48-50 feet. Most of the wreck can be explored at depths of 50-85 feet. Second dive was to 5 Caves, French Reef Buoy #17 – Depth is about 25 feet - Apparently somebody told Capt. Tony that we are PADY Surge Diver certified – and so found a reef with a good amount of surge, just so we could keep our certifications current. Visibility was no more than 30 feet. didn't see any out of the ordinary - just the usual reef fish.
Kathy
The Diga Dive Club kicked off the 2003 season with a day trip to Key Largo. Kelly, Kathy, Carol, & Wayne arrived early Sunday Morning to board a Quiessence 6 pack. Captain Ron steered to French Reef. The foursome dove to the bottom some 45-49 feet of depth to find familiar coral, sand, and critters very much the same as last year. One unique observation was a school of some 22-30 dog snappers. Some of these were hefty, approaching the size of big black groupers. The water temperature which had been unusually low, magically increased as if to accomodate our fearless group. Guages indicated 74F/75F. The visibility however was lacking. Horizontally 25 feet was about the maximium. At about 40 minutes the four began climbing up the back of the 6 pack. Captain Ron pointed the vessel toward the Wreck of the Benwood. As soon as we could change tanks, we made four quick splashes, and dropped to the sand. Twenty kicks put us on the Benwood. The Benwood is totally collapsed. A few vertical ribs remain. Mostly there is a lot of metal providing small critter habitat. The wreckage takes a lot of space. Leisurely swimming the perimeter, taking time for pictures, and stopping for gobies to appear took 50 minutes. Back on board it's a quick trip back to the dock. Lunch at Gilberts, then we called it a day. All returned safe again. Dive one for 2003 is in the books. WM
Yesterday, made a cool dive at Jupiter. Made the afternoon dive. The guys coming off the morning dive were “complaining” about the visibility only 30 (yards).
Klause and I had so much fun last week at the Hole in Wall we went back . Recall that last week I counted 10 Goliath and one baby bull.
Well this week only one Goliath, but one very large nurse, the biggest I’ve ever seen. As I began my entrance into the dark overhead environment, It came straight at me out of the dark. I almost dropped the regulator out of my mouth. It was so big I thought a bull was coming to get me. When it turned away I could then see the profile of a nurse; and I then restarted breathing and heart pump. Going up through the cave the big guys were again out of there before I arrived. But when I exited there was more action.
Two of the divers were using scooters. There was a big shark that seemed to like scooters and came in. After a while it gave up on them and turned to investigate me. This trip I had a camera. Before I could get ready it started a pass. But when I pointed the camera it veered to another direction and passed behind the rocks. It would then reappear targeted at me until I aimed the camera, and would then veer to swim behind rocks. Guess it doesn’t like the camera eye pointed at it. This repeated several times, each time it narrowed the distance and I raised the housing to aim then it would veer and I would lose sight while it was behind the rocks. This continued until I reached my time limit and had to depart. This guy although not huge for bull shark standards was big enough to be intimidating. My guess was some 6-7 feet plus the tail.
Weather has started to change. The day was cloudy, and made it chilly between dives without the sun for a heater. Water has dropped a degree since last week. Now 80F at surface. Maybe able to get in few more good days before the December weather hits.
Life is short, dive it daily,
Wayne Manning
It was a beautiful day to be on the water, and our daring diga divers did it. DIGA chartered the entire Quintessence six pack. DIGA only needed to supplement our numbers with two snorklers to fill the boat. First dropped in on French Reef and then a short ride to Mollasses for the second dive. Seas were near flat, water at 83F, and visibility medium, probably due to the storm activity.
The areas we visited were Marine Sanctuary territory, so fish galore. One of the lesser seen species, I spotted was an Ocean Triggerfish. First I’ve seen in Key Largo for 2-3 years. Dropping down on the ledge from the boat, I hit bottom beside an undercut. Peering out from under was a big black grouper, big is defined as say 4 feet. DIGA spent the afternoon floating around the two sites. There was no current, which made the plunges highly enjoyable.
Casualty report: Both Scott and myself suffered camera breakdown. Both of our cameras failed to function so documentation of this trip is up to Kathy.
I found one of these little papillose blennies staring out of it’s 1/8” diameter hole, and summoned Kathy. She was geared with a 3:1 macro, way to big, but just for the fun of it positioned the framer around the hole and shouted into the regulator “COME ON OUT” several times. She patiently waited some 15 seconds before removing the apparatus from the blennie’s home. The blenny immediately jumped out of the hole grabbed lunch and darted backwards into habitat blenny. Kathy, I’ve seen Paul set up and wait 20 minutes for that shot.
Back at the boat we found a colony of fish, chubs snapper had taken up residence under the boat. Seems they were anxious to have artificial cover and made the Q3 a home in short time we anchored. Two dives over 80 minutes each, I was getting cold and ready to warm up, was glad to get Kathy and Scott to surface.
Back on the boat the snorklers reported seeing 3 turtles, and a yellow fin grouper. The divers were once again impressed with the number of fish in the NMS. From the dock, Gilbert’s was 5 minutes up the road. The dockside bar & food establishment was diver friendly. Suds, food, and diver music was what we needed. Waitress was great, food came fast and drinks came extra fast. The band serenaded us throughout the meal, a great wind down from the exhilarating day. We were all sad to leave after the band played “She Never Spoke Spanish To Me”.
Your humble reporter,
Wayne Manning
With clear skies toward the east even though black clouds hung over the west horizon, our DIGA DIVING GROUP met at Brownie’s to board the FISH FOOD for DIGA’s premier appearance at the world famous Tenneco Towers. Our Diga Diver’s were supplemented with 7 substitutes Barbara rounded up in order for us to receive a group rate. Thank you Barbara.
After braving a long ride from Port Lauderdale in a sea which ranged from 4-8 inches, we made first dive on the Tenneco 110’ site. We dropped down to the mud looked around for muck creatures (found blue gobies) and then moved up to the platform at 80’. It didn’t take but a few seconds of observation to understand why this one is popular. Muck creatures, schooling fish, gobies, goliath fish, - just about every group of fish was represented. Visibility was about as good as it gets around Miami. The current was almost nil at the surface and dropped to less than nil at the bottom. An unusual reverse temperature condition, 83F on bottom but 82F at 20 ft.
Second dive was on the Wreck of the MacKenzie. Current picked up a bit and we pulled ourselves down the line. Again were impressed with fish population. My star siting of the day, was a juvenile yellow fin grouper. Wreck was covered with the damsels, grunts, a few angels. Noticeably absent as usual - no Nassau grouper, in fact very few grouper at all, but a couple of Graysby, and strawberry grouper.
Again a leisurely ascent safely brought diver’s back to the surface, and our boat was waiting to make the pick up. Once we had enough on board to depart Capt Chuck made a swift return to port. Our intrepid DIGA DIVER GROUP has a new dive site to add to their logs. Great dives – would really like to do them again with more bottom time, hint more bottom time can be done with NITROX.
Unloading at Brownie’s is easy, a short walk to an unused parking lot on weekends makes gear transfer fast. Also there is a food place on the dock. The waiter’s were anxious to bring us suds and seafood to refuel our systems for arduous journey back to DADE.
Thanks to KATHY for putting together an excellent trip.
Wayne Manning
The Lime Tree Resort trip was enjoyed by all. The seas were like glass, vis was excellent, lobsters were scarce but a few were found along with some fish by spearers. Rita who hasn't dove in 2 years, and Rich and I who haven't dove since last Sept. enjoyed our first dives in a long time. They were shallow 25-30' dives with lots of fish, and the bridge rubble gets prettier every time I see it. Edie fed us well and the sunset Friday night was awesome.
Brenda
Well, we made it back one more time. 1 extremely eager diver, who has been dry for 4 weeks, 4 hardy divers and 1 courageous snorkler boarded the Quiecence 3, with Capt. Jay in charge one more time. Poor guy, he keeps getting stuck with us. Seas were maybe 1 foot, and vis was quite good, around 40 feet. Both dives were max 25 ft, 26' with that hole in the sand. He dropped us on 2 very nice AARP division wrecks, the first being the City of Washington, the second one only 100 ft away (don't ask me which direction) which was the (sounds like) Tawanna, Buoy E6. Much life both big and small, was on both of them. The photographers were happy anyway. On the City off Wash., luckily, this photog finally took off those macro tubes for one dive and had on the 28 mm, which came in handy when that nice sized nurse shark came swimming straight towards her. I got off a few close shots before it figured out I was in its way and turned off. We also spotted a very big barry-cuda, who we believe was Pyscho, as he was awfully friendly, too friendly, and he stuck around for a few more close shots. Came away with all of our fingers intact. A very big black grouper hung around too. Second wreck also had much big life, Scott and I found an extremely large green moray a 7-8 footer, hanging out under the wreck. Silly me, I had switched back to the 2:1 macro. We also played a little while with a small turtle, probably a baby loggerhead, it was a little too young for me to make out species. In the rubble around the wreck, we staked out 4 pretty yellowhead jawfish. Again, with either no camera or 2:1 macro, fish shots were not happening, but it was still quite amusing to watch them. I did find numerous of my namesakes (seaslugs) which several of which were way too big for my framer. Hopefully I'll have some seaslug head shots. Interestingly enough, Scott and I never saw the other Digadivers that entire dive, they said they did the reef part of it, which we discovered at the end of our wreck dive. Certainly a place to go back to, stay on and just do 2 dives on it.
Kathy
Davis Ledge with Florida Keys Dive Center, Depart 7:30 PM
For those who missed the trip, and have been nervously awaiting word of the outcome you can now be relieved. Yes, Kathy brought us all back alive from another adventure to the outer edges. Saturday evening 7 DIGA regulars were joined by photographer first class Amaury Cruz on loan from SFUPS. The eight departed FKDC with Capt Gary guiding the trusty craft straight out the channel into the harrowing winds and waves across the treacherous trespasses to the infamous Davis Ledge.
Arriving with just minutes left before dark the group hurried into their field gear and quickly jumped into the darkening waters. Having participated in a similar expedition just 3 weeks ago we knew there was no reason to await darkness. A lot of action is at dusk, and the large air cylinders would provide plenty of air supply for as long as anyone would care to stay at the shallow depths. The tropical temperature was at 86F and visibility poor. The Davis ledge was surgy on the ledge and extremely surgy up on the reef.
True to expectations 90 minutes later the weary were climbing back on board with half their air supplies still intack. Tales of shark, octopus, giant eels, mini eels, humongus parrots, and uncommon night fish abounded. Personally I had lost track of the group and was surprised to be approached by an unusual looking sea dweller. While peering through my housing viewfinder I had a feeling I was being watched by something. True enough when I looked to the side there was a 6 foot 200 pound sea dweller which looked curiously a lot like John swimming around the bottom and sending hand signals left over from some 70s tv quiz games. I was glad when he ran out of air and departed so I could get back to stalking the night cardinal which had been elusive for the past hour. A second flyby by breathholding John with more comprehendable signals indicated that some people wanted to go home. OK, a 2 minute drift to the surface from 25 ft after 90 minutes bottom, and when I boarded Capt Gary determined he had enough survivors to depart.
Back on land we headed for Miami Subs where double dips of Edy’s Grand were in order. Another successful mission celebrated by the daring DIGA explorers. Mission complete.
Mission report submitted by WM
I had the pleasure of diving on the Barge last Sunday. I was in Bimini on my boat but went diving with Keefe. Bimini Undersea. The current was about 4 knots. The boat tied to the buoy and a line was tied to the bout and brought to the stern of the boat. The instructions are to drop in the water and pull yourself forward to the buoy line then pull yourself down the buoy line to the 260 foot barge laying east to west from 88 to 100 feet. The barge is less then a half a mile from the range markers at Bimini.
I was the first one in after the divemaster. The pull to the buoy was easy and down to the barge was really easy. WOOOW visibility was about 100 feet down there at about 30 feet over the barge two sail fish came by ( never seen them underwater) then came a Wahoo, king fish, a school of huge jacks, three Caribbean reef sharks and so many other white fish that I could not identify them all. And I had not made it to the barge yet.
I arrive at the west end of the barge and went down to the lee side to hide from the current. It was easy swim there. The barge is full of large holes and a diver can, carefully, enter the barge. Inside is a plethora of fish. Large gray snappers, yellow tails, groupers, and all the other usual suspects but in large quantities. A very large grouper came to check me out. Then other divers started arriving at the bottom and he went away. A few other sharks ware seen in and about the barge. Apparently a lot of fishermen come to fish there ( from the broken lines at the bottom) and the shark are there for easy meal. Going up the line was easy. The second dive was ok but nothing to write home about. I am going back for labor day and plan to take a video of the barge. We need to go as a group. The girl that run the boat said the best diving is in early October. The water is still warm and not many storms screw up the diving plus there are a lot less divers. Sunday there ware 8 divers on the boat that had been diving together for several days.
Fred
Date: Sun, 4 Aug 2002 20:56:42 EDT
Hi,
I could not have described the first dive better than Wayne did in the attached email. On the second dive the boat dropped us almost directly over a fantastic minnow cave. There had to be millions of minnows. You can count them for yourself in the attached picture. The person who gets the exact number of minnows wins! (Only kidding.) For more pictures go to the following web site. http://www.geocities.com/concordia33176/ Hopefully I will have some good shark photos on the web when my slides get developed.
Kathy
Once again our fearsome group headed for Key Largo. We boarded the ScubaDo at 1 PM for the 30 minute trip to Mollasses. Current at Mollasses was ripping, so Capt Tony continued to French reef on a spot Capt Tony called snady bottom cave. There we found a delightful no current situation. I was first down and was on my knees adjusting focus when ahead of me a dark colored nurse shark sped through a gap in the coral. My internal thought of "HMMM" was interrupted by a second nurse shark taking the same path. Again I began my internal "HMMM", but was again interrupted by a cruising shark. This time a real shark, not an overgrown catfish. In hot pursuit of the grey reef shark were two healthy black groupers. They were swimming frenzied, maybe like in competition for table scraps. "Lot of action here, what's going on" I thought. The shark started circling in the sandy area surrounded by high coral. "Hmmm" I thought once again. "Definitely a Kodak moment coming up, I should focus for a shark picture". So I adjusted focus and aimed lights for distance and swam to a point I thought sharky would swim by in his repeated circling of the area. Bingo, didn't have to wait long, flash and the image was engrained forever in Kodak Ektachrome. Reserves arrived. Scott & Kathy both armed with 35 mm began their attempts to ambush the predator. I moved on to the caves. Found some very big fish hanging out in the cave. Dogfish snappers 25#, school of white margates in the 30# range. These guys were not timid and were within 2 arms reach as I laid in the cave bottom trying to frame a 50# black grouper. He was a clever one and kept the margates between us. Maybe I got a shot without the clutter of those other snapper and grunts in the foreground. On to the macro world. The bottom had hundreds of bridled goby. Yellow jawfish were abundant, a couple of blue goby. Looking for the harder to see little bitty critters – found colon goby, roughhead blenny, blackhead blenny, and swarms of infant mask gobies? sometimes clouded the water near cave entrances. After 75 minutes bottom time we met at the boat. I requested of Capt Tony, that since we didn't know that this was to be a shark dive that we not be charged the rate for shark dive. Capt Tony, being the good fella he is complied. So no extra charge for the shark adventures. It was a short move to the next buoy marker. A spot Tony called FIVE CAVES. Again more of the same. Lots of fish. The spot was filled with swim throughs, lots of fish, lots and lots of fish! No current, 83F on top 85F on bottom. An hour later we all met at the boat for the 40 minute ride to land. A few blocks away was a spot with great food, cold brew and cute servers, (sorry forgot the name). Great ending to great day. Thanks again to TRIP ORGANIZER KATHY. You did it again. Could not have been better.
Wayne
A couple of intrepid Diga Divers got up before the dawn and hopped on the Goody III with Florida Keys Dive Center. We dove the horseshoe area of Pickles Reef and then Spanish Lady (?) also near Pickles. Max depth on both dives were 25 feet, if you dug yourself a hole in the sand. Conditions were a little bumpy (2-4) and extremely "surgy" due to shallow depth and the waves. Vis was pretty good on the first dive, but on the 2nd dive, vis got pretty stinky due to outgoing tide. Horseshoe had pretty good life for macro shots. Mystery Goby was sighted, possibly a new species, as I can't locate a photo of it on the internet, and I wasn't deep enough to be narced.
Kathy
Here’s my version of our Sat Night trip.
Eight of the DIGA group and one SFUPS participant met at Florida Keys Dive Center for a short trip out to Pete’s Reef, 3 miles from shore. We had the site to ourselves, not many other boaters out that night. Jumped in at dusk. Water had slight chop from the 10 knot wind. Temperature on reef at 84F and a slight surge.
This little reef was a cornucopia of growth. Brittle stars were moving through the sponges, basket stars came out from everywhere. Little red fish hid from our lights. A squad of jacks circled the reef keeping just out of camera range. I made a first time sighting, for me, of a BLACKFIN CARDINALFISH. Little guy didn’t like the light and quickly went for cover not to reappear. Crabs, eels, shrimp, were on everyone’s list of sightings. Think I heard about an octopus being harassed and a slipper lobster but none of the spiny guys. Think they left for the season opening! Our group surrounded a juvenile squid, which finally in desperation inked the main attacker, Denise. However, little squid didn’t have enough ink supply to do the job and gave up in exhaustion.
A shallow site meant a long bottom time. No need for a second tank, 100 minutes and plenty of air left. Run time only limited by the 36 exposure film running out. I heard talk of returning to FKDC because of their boat’s ample space and short run time to the Davis Ledge area. Seems our members want to make a habit of rubbing the Budha tummy.
Thank you Kathy for arranging trip.
Wayne Manning
Six of our intrepid members met at Quiescence Dive Center Saturday afternoon, MM 103.5 upper Key Largo. The dive operation has 3 boats each a 6 pack. Diga completely filled the first boat leaving no empty seats. A forty minute run brought the group to a popular spot on French Reef, locally known as the CAVES. A mooring buoy marked the spot and held the boat in place while our 6 spent some 60 plus minutes roving the area. Although the visibility was a bit low for Key Largo call it 40 ish, the water was a balmy 83F on the bottom and a hot thermocline on top felt like bath water.
The area was packed with wrasses, grunts, parrotfish, surgeons, and sergeant majors. Noticeably absent was the grouper family.
After gathering our group, Quiescence moved us to the always favorite site of the Benwood. Conditions were the same here, 83F with a slight current, and marginal visibility. Again there was an absence of the grouper family. Joe said he saw one big grouper, but I never even saw so much as a single graysby. One of the most prolific fishies I noticed was the bridled goby. These guys were everywhere,hundreds of them, they were lurking at every piece of rubble. Also IDed a goldspot goby and a spotted goby. After another 60 plus minutes at 40 ft, and enough people found their way back on board for the Captain to head back to the dock.
Our fearsome 6, minus one, (Carol) met for dinner and brew at Snapper’s.. Waiting at Snapper’s were 6 more Diga members. Better late than never. The brew was fresh and cold. Several pints later we were all happily on our way home to make plans for next weekend. Another happy and safe Diga trip for the books.
I dove the Speigel Grove Wednesday, June 26, the day after it was opened to diving. Channel 6 and Miami Herald reporters were on the boat next to us. Current is pretty strong since it's right on the gulf stream--long boat ride out. There are 6 bouys. 60 ft down to the top of the starboard side of the ship--looks like an aircraft carrier laying on its side--its huge. All the superstructure is on the port side at a deeper level. already schools of jacks & other fish, including bigh barracuda have taken up residency. Green algae has already attached itself to the entire surface of the ship. You'll need at least 3 dives to see the whole thing.
Carol
My FISHING buddy and I went chasing some big winter cuda on the flats today. After resuscitating a 22 LB fish and moving it off the flat away from some sharks, with the electric motor, we let it go. Evidently, several shark followed us, and started chasing the cuda,. we tried to intervene, and one of the four sharks attacked my 16 foot alum Lowe. One shark got the entire meal, and the others seemed to go crazy with frustration. The engine was in the raised position with the prop almost out of the water when one of the sharks charged the boat from about 15 feet away and smashed into the prop with its head out of the water, and with the prop in its mouth. The attacking shark was from a 6-7 ft blacktip, there was a much larger shark in the vicinity at 12 feet (400 lb. plus). The flats were crawling with sharks.
Thank you for the update on mean and nasty sharks. I have chased lemon sharks on the flats many times to exhaustion for retrieving transmitters and other stuff. The really big ones frequently turn and rush the boat delivering a hefty bite on the aluminum hull. Recently bull sharks have attacked our skiffs and lower units with no real provocation. It seems like they are protecting themselves from this big thing by launching a preemptory attack.
Did you see any lemon sharks? At present they have assembled in deeper waters (see attached).
Dr. Samuel H. Gruber Division of Marine Biology and Fisheries Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences University of Miami and Bimini Biological Field Station 9300 SW 99 St Miami FL 33176-2050
Dear NIKONOS USERS: Just in case you might want to get a new set of o-rings for that Nikonos 5, I had the unfortunate experience of finding out that the shops here no longer carry them because of the 5 being discontinued. If you don't get from the 2 guys in Homestead, you can order them through Adorama Photo and B&H Photo in NY. In case you have an older Nikonos, (a II, a I, or even a Calypso), I have been looking all weekend for o-rings for the II, and found there is only one place to get them. (southern Nikonos) a note of caution: If you've used your "dive" o-rings for long term storage, or store the lenses with those lens caps on the back, you've probably compressed them into squares (like I did). To preserve the life of your "dive" o-rings, it is highly suggested that you mark an old set and use those when storing, or better yet, it costs money, but Southern Nikonos makes special ORANGE "storage" o-rings for all of the Nikonos.