West Palm Beach The Rampage 05-Sept-98

Dive Trip Report to: West Palm Beach The Rampage

Purpose:

Dive #1: My dive #148
A. Dive Location: Paul's Reef
B. Conditions:
Visibility: At the surface - 1/2 mile in heavy rain, At the bottom 40'
Seas: Heavy - 4', whitecaps, choppy
Water Temp: 87 at the bottom
Skies: Poor vis, heavy rain, lightening, wind, heavy seas
Air Temp: 80's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time: Me - Genesis Dive Computer - 51' for 46 min, Analog 54', Dive Partner - Cochran Dvie Computer (UGH) 49' for 46 min, analog 46'
Air consumption: Me - 3750 - 1200 (120 cu ft), Partner 3200 - 800 (80 cu ft)
Current: Rip Roaring - Strong - Like FLYING on an airplane, and it was a BLAST!
Description: The surface trip was rough, wind, waves and rain. The dive was great - very strong current. We saw lots and lots of fish, spotted eel deep in it's hole, small turtle (2' across), 2 very big deep blue parrot fish - about 40 - 50 pounders, several schools of small fish - all types, and 1 well hidden octapus. And on the way down and up - lots of BIG JELLYFISH! The jellyfish were about 1 - 1 1/2 ' across and you really had to look out where you went. The 3 minute safety stop was a nightmare of looking out for and dodging up, down our away from them. Fortunately, we did not get stung. One diver did get hit on his neck and it left a very big welt!

Dive #1: , my dive #149
A. Dive Location: Breakers (where else for the 2nd dive)
B. Conditions:
Visibility: same - about 40'
Seas: Same as the first - very heavy, 4' waves, whitecaps, rain, lightening et al!
Water Temp: 86 deg on the bottom
Skies: Dark, Gloomy, Rain, Wind, Lightening, low clouds!
Air Temp: 80's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time: Me - Genesis Dive Computer - 61' for 35 min, Analog 62', Dive Partner - Cochran Dvie Computer (UGH) 58' for 35 min, analog 60'
Air consumption: Me - 3200 - 700 (80 cu ft), Partner 3250 - 800 (80 cu ft)
Current: Again very strong, it was even stronger than on the first dive. Again, at times it was like flying in an airplane. We started at the South end of the Breakers and we ended up in the sand past the north end of the Breakers! A real fun dive!
Description: Again, there were a lot of big jellyfish on the way down and back up. We really had to dodge them - like flying an aerobatic airplane in a spin! Again, decompression at 15' was dodging the jellyfish. The boat pickup was in very rough seas - but Capt Bob's Rampage with the stern ramp made it easy - you waited for the ramp to go under the seas, crawled on, when the ramp was out of the water, you stand up and walk off!
There were not as many fish on this dive as the first. The best part of the dive was flying across the bottom and diving into some of the canyons that were loaded with small fish!

Last Updated: 10-July-2002

The Irishman Software's, West Melbourne, Florida
Irishman@SpryNet.Com - http://www.IrishmanSoftware.com/