Dive Trip Report to: Florida's Beaches!
Purpose: To Beach Dive for old wrecks, cannon, ships, bugs etc!
Dive #1: Saturday, 24-July, Morning Dive. My Dive #
A. Dive Boat / Location: Beach Dive - Turtle Trail - Corrigans' Wreck, 2 miles south of Wabasso.
B. Conditions:
Visibility: 20'
Seas: Flat
Water Temp: 76 degrees
Skies: Sunny, Clear Blue Skies
Air Temp: 90's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time:
Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - 12 feet for 53 min
Air consumption: Me: 3200 -> 1000 lbs (80 cu ft)
Current: Slight to the north, some surge!
Description: Great Dive! We had a helicopter pilot with us that had said vis was from "Top-To-Bottom" from flying over the area! Well it was, we were at a depth of 12 feet and vis was a little more that 12 feet!
Entry was a snap - no waves, even again the novice's made it OK! We broke up into two groups, headed east to about the fourth reef then South till we read about 1500 lbs of air! The other group saw a snook - I missed it! We say a small turtle - 1 1/2 foot across, about 20 feet in front of us! By the time we got to her, she had disappeared - that was the fastest moving turtle I've ever seen! There was grass all over the place! Ya couldn't see the actual bottom at all - grass 6 inches long! But, the relief was great, large big overhangs in some places. Some bugs - we saw about 4 bigger ones There were a moderate number of fish! No sharks this time! This was a very good dive, no waves for the entry, water temp almost 80, the relief was 2-4 feet in some places. The bad part of the dive, toooo much grass - ya could have passed over a hundred dollar bill and missed it! Most of the dive, we were at 8 - 9 feet, there was enought surge to keep you moving, you had a lot of problems staying in one place to look under a ledge! I had an extra 2 pounds of weight im my belt to try to help hold me down - not enougth! With a full farmer john wet suit, that doesn't flatten at 8 feet, but does increast your floating ability, ya need more weight than for a normal West Palm Beach 65 foot dive!!! On the way out, we found the wreckage of what seemed to be the top of a sailboat, between the 1st and 2nd reef, in the sand - no bugs!
This was a fun dive, great location, easy access. On the way out of the water, we saw two Treasure boats to the North! After dropping our gear, we visited them by the beach. One was about 50 feet of the beach, prop washing mailbox tubes blasting away!! It sure seems a shame to let them blast away at the reef lines!