Dive Trip Report to:
, Wabasso (The end of RT 510),
04-Aug-2002
Purpose:
To Dive the Reefs & Wrecks of Florida (and start scouting for bugs)
PICTURE
of the
Beach Dive Team
PICTURE
of
Disney & Wabasso Park
from the dive reef!
Dive #1:
. My Dive #402
A. Dive Boat / Location:
, Beach Dive at Wabasso Park
B. Conditions:
Visibility:
Not the greatest! 20 ft on the 2nd reef, 25 on the 3rd reef. Capt Bob of
Rampage in West Palm said they've opened the gates to drain lake Okeechobee.
This lets out a lot of brown water from West Palm Inlet - the currents then
take it north. So, even though we've had great wind conditions, the poor vis
is at least partially due to the lowering of the inland lakes!!!
Seas:
Flat. Although there were some small swells at the shoreline giving maybe 6
inch waves and breakers.
Water Temp:
82 deg. Yep, it's nice. I'm wearing a skin and a shortie.
Skies:
Sunny, Clear Blue Sky's - Typial of Florida!!
Air Temp:
high 80's - it's hot if your not in the water.
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time:
Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - 18 feet for 48 min
Air consumption:
Me: (80 cu ft of air), 3200 lbs to 1500 lbs. I had a lot of bottom time
left, unfortunately one of our New-Bee's was running low so we all headed in.
Current:
Very slight to the north. But, three was about a 5 foot surge. The surge was
interesting, we had it on the third reef - sometimes it was there, sometimes it
was not. It was cool to watch the divers in front of me moving first to the
right then 5 to 6 feet to the left. They had no control over the situation!
Description:
Well, it was an interesting time. A phone call to the various parks up the
coast the day before showed at Wabasso, the lifeguards could see the reefline.
The next park to the north, they only had 8 feet of vis. So, as the summer
goes on and the vis improves to the north, we like to take advantage of it and
dive the various parks north of Pepper Park. We were only diving one park as
Laura, Jake and the Irishman were going to some Kayak Demo's in Vero later in
the
morning. So, that narrowed it to a one tank dive which narrowed it to a park
with showers. Wabasso it was. We had two divers with new dive
DIVE KAYAK
,
some
New-Bee's and some experienced divers. Snorkeling was put on hold for this
dive due to the long day that was expected.
One diver forgot his BC and another had a leak on the high pressure guage hose. With those fixed, we headed to the water just before 9. With the slight wave action, we entered the water breathing tank air. At knee depth, we put on our fins, flopped on our backs and started the 15 minute swim out to the 3rd reef line. On the way out, we could see the vis was poor - our fins were almost a blurr in the water - not a good sight. Just past the 2nd reef line, we headed down. Vis was poor - about 20 feet. We headed south towards Disney. The vis was enough to keep going, but not the greatest. There were no bugs, few fish, not much relief. After about 30 min headd south and one diver down to 1500 lbs of air, I headed the crew out further to the nex reef line. We stopped at the 3rd reefline. Depth was 12 - 15 feet. The reef consisted of some boulders 5 - 10 ft in height. The broken reefline was nice and kind o made up for the lack of bugs and fish. We also turned back to the north. The boulders were about 10 - 20 feet in size with some nice releif. Unfortunately, there were only a few fish and no bugs. The vis picked up some to 25 to 30 feet. There was a nice surge. It was cool to watch the divers in front moving 5 - 8 feet to the left then the right due to the surge. They had no control of the left / right movement.
With one diver down to 1000 lbs of air and us now being north of the Wabasso Park, we headed straight in. Aroung the second reef line, there was about a 1 foot ledge. Yep, we finally saw some bugs - 2 bugs, about 2-3 lbs each. As with most parks, divers are not to enter or exit at the park. So we went just south of the park area and exited. With the showers, we were able to wash our gear prior to putting it away. It's good to get some of the sand out ASAP. We had some lunch and a toast.
We headed to a park in Vero for some Kayak Demo Days. A local Kayak Shop brought about 30 different kayaks to the park. You could try out any and all for as long as you liked. We tried several. LAURA is interesed in a Sit-On-Top with a rudder. JAKE wants one he can handle and I'm interested in a dive kayak.
Last Updated: 05-Aug-2002