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From The Diving Buckwalters . . .
The "diving Buckwalters" tried a new venue this year, as our January timeshare week in Cayman got blown out by Ivan. Scott McLeod learned of our disappointment, and made available his family's very nice condo in Hobe Sound, FL, 40 min. north of West Palm Beach. We had beautiful weather; 78-80F mostly sunny, very breezy. The unusually breezy weather actually caused us to miss out on some of the diving we had scheduled, as it made the seas too rough (three of our five days of scheduled boat dives were blown out). We missed a call from the dive operator Wed. am, in which they intended to tell us it was still probably too rough for enjoyable diving. But we were there and all geared to go, so they somewhat reluctantly took us.
The issue was not one of safety, but I could see the captain was quietly hoping we hadn't eaten big breakfasts! We did not have a long boat ride, but we did have 4-6 foot waves, with the occasional 8+ footers (captain's assessment, not mine). The kids (18 and 16 year old divers, and 10 year old bubble-watcher) of course thought this was great fun. (well, at least once Emily was assured the waves had nothing to do with the tsunami!) Doug and I were staying very focused forward, and doing ok till time to sit and gear up, and the boat starts rocking all 4 ways. Still, we got in the 73 degree water, if not gracefully, at least without incident! (and I'm happy to say, did not give cause for any unwanted deck-swabbing by the end of the day!)
We were barely down on the reef when we saw a good size nurse shark, large loggerhead turtle, large sea stars, large blue angel fish, and large schools of all kinds of other tropical fish. We saw a lot of the same things we would in Cayman, but many seemed bigger on average. Lots of healthy barrel sponges, so lots of angel fish. To sum up, there is some great diving in this area, and we only got a small sampling of it. But in 4 dives, we saw 9 nurse sharks, 6-7 turtles (3 varieties), 6-7 very large southern stingrays, cobia, numerous eels, scorpionfish, a goliath (Jew fish) grouper probably about 200 lbs., and much more. Vis averaged 60 feet, and it is all drift diving. The current was fairly stiff the first day, and quite gentle the second. There is no wall diving, but plenty of wrecks and small reef systems in the 30 to 130 foot range.
Another highlight was that first day, en route to the second dive site, a school of up to 30 dolphins swam with the boat, jumping along side and playing in the wake. As one of the kids said; "dolphins just make you feel happy inside!" Emily hit it off with the captain and got to drive the boat some too. West Palm is a great (and more affordable) dive destination. If interested, check with Scott or ourselves for dive operator info. Keri, for the Buckwalters
From Darth Vern . . .
Well it would appear it has been left up to me to carry on the torch for the dive report this week. So here goes:
Saturday
I met the other few brave who are not fearful of the cold or ICE. There was a thin sheet of ice across most of the lagoon and about 15 yds out from the bottom of the steep path. Well me and the G Man [Gerhard] left the steep path and were off to the step van [after we made sure we could break thru the ice] We went past Pennsy and dozer and down to the hole. Turned a little right [East] and we were headed out. I took one of my Xmas presents, a 18" long shark [pretty ferocious looking] to deposit near the step van. We had it tied to a 8lb. weight JameZ made. We hit the step van about 15 mins into our dive and wiped off Dan's plaque and hid my shark. We then proceed 180 degrees [or West] back to the deep boat. We made a quick look around for Mayo's lost knife [to no avail] and were headed back up to the dozed. Just passed the doezer we decided to test our "semi-tech" skills.
Our plan was to shoot our liftnags and then practice skills for our upcoming classes [mine Deco Procedures, his Adv Nitrox] while holding our deco lines. Well it seemed like a fine plan on land, in practice, it was VERY UGLY. We went thru shutting our vlaves off and deploying our sling bottles, but by then the temp. had taken hold and we skipped our removal and switching of masks - TOO DAM COLD.
We made it back together [no small miracle] and exited to start playing a
round on the ice. See the video for proof.
Sunday
I left for Baltimore around 7:30am to take my interview and in-water test to become a volunteer diver for the Baltimore Aquarium. They had us do many of the basic skills, plus u/w commo and dexterity. We finished up with
an obstacle course, that was pretty challenging, since you were not supposed to touch anything while going thru. It was kinda tough for me since I am of the "svelte" size. A very good experience, even if I am not chosen to be a diver for them.
Keep on diving and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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