GREAT PICNIC! The diving was pretty good, too. The north wind really stirs up the intracoastal so the vis was a short eight to ten feet, and that's BEFORE the open water students entered the water. No two ways about it either, it's winter and the water temperature was a wintry sixty-eight. My student in a 3mm fullsuit and a hooded vest was fine, but his girlfriend in a 2.5 was very cold at the forty minute mark. I would not have lasted half as long as she did if I were in my wetsuit. Carrie did pretty well in her 5mm fullsuit and 3mm hooded vest. She did a sixty-three minute dive. The tough part, of course, for the wet divers is getting out into a stiff breeze from the north. It helps to have a strategy for getting into dry clothes quickly. The divers from the Jupiter Drift Divers reported sighting a northern stargazer, several batfish, an octopus, a pipefish, and a seahorse among many others. The only manatee sighting was from the seawall as the vis was so short they could have been close and we would not have seen them. Eating hotdogs and hamburgers and salads and dessert goodies with the Jupiter Drift Divers after the dive is always a good time. For such wintry conditions the club had a pretty good showing with about twenty people. It was nice to catch up with friends and meet new divers. That's really what the club is all about, and the diving. Get in the water, Ham
