West Palm Beach - Dive RAMPAGE! 06-Sept-98

Dive Trip Report to: West Palm Beach
Purpose: TO DIVE WPB!!!

Dive Reports:

Dive #1: Monday, 06-Sept, Afternoon Dive. My Dive #237
A. Dive Boat / Location: Rampage / Juno Ledges
B. Conditions:
Visibility: 25 - 30 ft: Poor Vis, but a great dive
Seas: 1 ft
Water Temp: 87 on the bottom
Skies: Sunny CBS
Air Temp: high 80's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time: Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - 90 ft for 32 min, , Me: Analog 90 ft, Cochran Captain (real bad computer) 86 ft for 32 min.
Air consumption: Me: 3700 - 1300 lb (120 cu ft),
Current: Mild! Damm - ya want a medium to strong current on this dive!
Description: Well, on the way out the inlet, the tide was going out - that killed the Mitzpah dive. It was covered with brown muck from the inlet! Capt started to look over the Princess Ann, but we talked him into trying for the Ledges! The bad water from the inlet was headed north towards the Jupiter and the Juno Ledges , but hopefully we would get there ahead of it! About a dozen divers entered the water and down we went. The vis was poor: 25 - 30 feet, but the ledges is a great dive. The Capt dropped us on an awesome area of relief - about 30' from the top of the reef to the sand! After all the divers grouped, we turned left and started the dive. There was the beautiful ledges, lots of big rocks, canyons - a very pretty view. There were not as many fish as normal for this dive. Usually you run into lots of schools of thousands of fish. I spotted one bug, almost had it, it ducked back into a hole. The rest of the dive group was moving out of site, so I abandoned the bug capture - one lost bug! At the end of the dive period, 25 min, the dive master rapped on his tank with the buoy anchor! Well, we were over a big canyon - 5' wide, 20' deep and 40' long! There was a 6' nurse shark sleeping down there. The noise really scared her! She first went to one end of the canyon, then the other then back and finally out! We watched her from about 15' above! She was moving! If she hit you, that 300 lb fish would really knock the wind out of ya! Great Dive.


Dive #2: Afternoon Dive. My Dive #238
A. Dive Boat / Location: Rampage Barry's Barge and the Rock Pile and Culverts!
B. Conditions:
Visibility: 25 ft
Seas: 1 ft
Water Temp: 86 on the bottom
Skies: Sunny Clear Blue Skies
Air Temp: high 80's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time: Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - 63 ft for 36 min, , Me: Analog 63 ft, Cochran Captain (real bad computer) 59 ft for 36 min.
Air consumption: Me: 3700 - 1700 lb (120 cu ft),
Current: Mild
Description: It's kind of hard to follow up on a Juno Ledges Dive! Well the group descended and had a short swim to the barge - loaded with big rocks. Not many fish, no bugs. There was one 5' barracuda that was chewing on something - later I found out it was a fish hook! Ops - want to stay away from him!! After 10 min, we drifted to the Culverts and Rocks. During the drift, we lost the dive master! I caught two bugs, both undersize! Zero for Three! Not much to see, few fish, no color, etc! After 30 min, we all came up!
This is the second time that I've used on of Eva's tricks! She recommended that I put 15' of heavy string on my sausage! While decompressing at 15, with no dive buoy around, I filled the sausage and let it go to the surface! Capt Bob, then helped keep other traffic away! Eva, thanks for the idea! All divers should have a 15' string on their sausage!!??..

Irishman Software, Satellite Beach, Florida
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Last Updated 06-Sept-99