Bacardi Limon Beach Dive Team

Beach Dive Florida Florida - Dive the 1711 Wrecks 06-July-2002

Including the Urca de Lima

Dive Trip Report to: Florida's Beaches!
Purpose: To Beach Dive Florida for old wrecks, cannon, ships, bugs etc!

Dive Reports:

Date / Dive #:399 Saturday, 06-July-2002 , Morning Dive. My Dive #401
A. Dive Beach Location: Beach Dive - Urca de Lima (about 1/2 mile north of Pepper Park in Ft. Pierce)
B. Conditions:
Visibility: You ain't gonna believe this, but Vis was about 40 feet!!
Seas: Perfectly FLAT!
Water Temp: 82 deg - getting to my kind of temperature
Skies: Typical Florida Sunny Clear Blue Skies!!
Air Temp: 80's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time: Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - well the computer gave 2 dives of 13 feet for 17 min! I did spend a lot of time on the surface looking for the cannon, but breathing tank air.
Air consumption: Me: Well, I started out with 3200 lbs and ended up with about 1000 lbs in an 80 cu ft tank.
Current: None! But there was a very slight surge of about a few inches!
Description: We had two new diver groups for this dive. After doing Round Island last weekend, we decided to try the Urca this weekend. The conditions were perfect all week long. With permission to use the lot, we meet at an empty lot north of Pepper Park at 7:45 am (UGH - ya gotta be a morning person, not like my EX!!) We all suited up, walked to the beach and did the normal beach entry (mask on, reg in mouth)! After putting on the fins, we swam towards the one buoy - it took maybe 20 minutes. At the buoy, we went down and immediately found the anchor (Pics to follow - see the Urca page). We looked around for some time for the cannon and ships ribs. There were round ballast stone all over. The snorkeler saw loads of bugs - I saw a few. Finally after a lot of looking, we went about 100 feet South East (out further and south) from the buoy. There was the wooden ships parts in the rock and lot's of cannon. This was the clearest I've ever seen the water for beach diving. Laura said the anchor was pointed the other way and in the sand last year - maybe it was moved or a storm moved it?? Jake, Laura's 9 year old, had a blast! Jake was our observer for all kinds of fish et al. After looking at the wreck, we followed the reef line south to our entry point and headed for the beach!

After the dive, we migrated back to Pepper Park for lunch and the traditional toast. The New-Bee's were shown the Pepper Park beach. On the way back, we stopped at several other beach entry points, showing their advantages to the New-Bees!

TWAS A VERY GREAT DIVE

Last Updated: 06-July-2002

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