Dive Report 23 August

The sea lice are still a problem! Carrie and I conducted a Discover Scuba with two students; one student for whom we had a dive skin only experienced mild discomfort with stings to her face. Her brother, in only a t-shirt, experienced many stings to his body. I was wearing a rash guard and found it uncomfortable, to say the least. Carrie was wearing a fleece dive skin and a hooded vest; she experienced no stings! The water temperature was 88! Vis was about fifteen feet. There are still moon jellyfish, but no where near as many as there were a week ago. We saw octopuses and a big mantis shrimp along with the usual suspects, but the sea lice took the lazy comfort out of the dive for me. Get in the water (fully covered as Carrie was), Ham

Dive Report 16 August

The water temperature was eighty-four and the vis was between fifteen and twenty feet, BUT diving at the Bridge right now, and for the past week, is an unpleasant experience as there are countless moon jellyfish and sea lice. By the boat channel it was almost impossible to avoid the thousands of moon jellyfish. The sea lice are invisible, but their sting is very noticeable. My very tough thirteen-year-old Discover Scuba student and I did a forty-eight minute dive mostly dodging the jellies and enduring the sea lice. We did see a batfish and played with an octopus under the blue sailboat in twelve feet of water where the sea lice and jellyfish were tolerable. Unless a diver is COMPLETELY covered (impossible to do for anyone other than a hazmat diver) he/she will experience the unpleasantness of the "stingies" at the Bridge right now. Hope for better conditions so we can "Get in the water" comfortably, Ham

Dive Report 4 August

The vis was twenty feet today and the water temperature ranged from a low of eighty-four at the boat channel to eighty-six off the beach. The highlight of our one hour, twenty-two minute dive was a medium-sized spotted eagle ray that delighted my two students and excited me so that I couldn't deploy the camera in time to catch it. Octopuses are still in the neighborhood, but not in the numbers they were a few weeks ago. It was a nice way to spend a hot day. A note to goliath grouper enthusiasts is that we saw many BIG goliaths on the Zion Train and the Esso Bonaire yesterday. It appears the aggregation is starting. Play hooky on a Wednesday; the Jupiter Dive Center is diving the wrecks every Wednesday. Get in the water, Ham

Dive Report 2 August

The temperature was eighty-four today and the vis was a milky fifteen feet, quite a change from a few days ago. I don't know if the southwest wind has anything to do with it, but it was certainly different. At the boat channel we could see a thermocline-like shimmer and we could feel colder water mixing with the warmer water. Something is brewing it appears. Even with a couple of degrees colder, my three students and I were quite comfortable for our one hour, twenty minute dive. Two of my students wore shirts, one wore a three millimeter wetsuit, and I wore a dive skin. The octopuses entertained us and we found the batfish about one hundred feet west of where it was on Sunday, if it is the same one. There were very few divers at the Bridge today which made it all the nicer for us. Get in the water, Ham