by Jeri L. Curley

As the temperatures reach triple digit proportion, I thank fate for bringing me to the east coast of Florida where the sea breezes are refreshing and the diving is totally awesome! I am simply going to say YOU MISSED AN AWESOME DIVE! We celebrated our Nation's Birthday in perfect Down Under Dive Club tradition - on a boat diving. Sea Level Scuba booked us on an afternoon dive with Abernethy out of Riviera Beach on a boat aptly named Deep Obsession. We were joined on the boat by our dive buddies from JND Scuba. It was the best dive trip ever. If you haven’t checked out the shenanigans on our Facebook page, come to the meeting and hear the stories. Joining us on this trip were Sparticus the Shark Slayer, the Great White Shark with victim partially eaten, several Lionfish Slayers and of course several Mayhem Instigators. I think that laughing hard actually improved our air consumption. On both dives we ran out of reef before we ran out of air or bottom time. We dove Turtle Mound and Flower Garden. Both aptly named because we saw tons of turtles on the first dive - literally (The loggerheads were the size of VW bugs!) and a very colorful reef with lots of colorful fish on the second. I watched one loggerhead swimming toward the reef as another, trying to avoid the first one, glided over a finger of the reef turning abruptly just before he got into photo range! We watched another Loggerhead tiptoeing through the soft coral to rest his head inside a barrel sponge. Craig whispered into his ear that it wasn't a shot glass and the lush hung his head in disappointment! (the turtle, not Craig) It was a great dive and a great time. Don't miss out. Sign up early for our upcoming dives. You won’t regret a minute.

See you Down Under! (Read more for pictures)

by Jeri L. Curley

NOAA was calling for 2 foot seas. They were right! I decided to head down early and hit the afternoon dive. We had flat seas and little current which picked up for the night dive. Critters were every where. But we came to see turtles and see them we did. Greens, Hawksbills, Loggerheads were all over the place. They even stuck around for photos! One loggerhead was so large it had 2 remoras. The SMALL remora was 2 feet long. The reef started to blossom as we transitioned between twilight and night. Coral polyps opened, Basketstars unfolded. Everywhere I shone my light I could see little dots of light shining back from the eyes of lobster, shrimp and crabs that hide out during the day. I waved my hand in the darkness and a trail of light followed my fingertips - bioluminescence created by the smallest creatures in the ocean-plankton. The reef is a wondrous place during the day but it is spectacular at night. It is well worth the effort to become night dive certified. Jump on in! The water’s warm but the dive is COOOL! (Read more for pictures)

By Jeri L. Curley
5/6/2011 & 5/8/2011

Dianne Bryant went down with us one weekend and couldn’t dive because of a sinus infection.  She learned just how boisterous children can be.  Having sand kicked in your face by unruly children is a good incentive for diving Blue Heron Bridge on a weekday.  She talked to several people at the last meeting and came to me with a plan and the people for the dive.  I applaud her initiative; it is greatly appreciated!!

We headed down as planned.  Bill and Kathy were already there waiting for us.  Bill even had time to tour the park before setting up his gear.  For once I brought down my dive flag and Dianne offered to carry it.  I attached party beads to it to make it easier for my buddies to spot—an idea I borrowed from Bobbi.  I downgraded from my 5 mm wet suit to 3mm and we headed into the water.  The water was initially chilly but we quickly got used to it.  Finally warm water!  We followed my normal circuit—under the sail boats, over to the east and back to the big bridge.  Along the way we spotted not just a few octopi but at least 20.  One was peeking out of a soda bottle.  He disappeared too quickly to get a photo.  A couple were camouflaged very well and when I pointed them out, one inked me.  Under the large bridge I notice a rock that had several Sailfin Blennies popping their heads out of holes in the rock.  We watched a sharp-tailed eel hunt—a spotted eel just looked at us in disdain.  It was an exceptional dive.

Then I got back home and noticed one of my dive buddies who was there the same day had posted photos of sea horses and a frog fish on Facebook.  So when Bobbi suggested we go back on Sunday, I jumped at the chance.  It was Mother’s Day and we knew the park would be busy.  We headed down early to get a parking spot.  The park was very busy but there were only two groups of students in the water with us.  We started to set up and I looked around for my weights.  OH, NO!!  Bobbi split her weights with me and I switched to my shorty to compensate for being light on weights.  Octopi were all over the place.  I noticed an interestingly colored scrawled filefish—the normal colored one was not far away.  Mating colors?  Another unusual inhabitant was a Barred Hamlet.  The Sharpnose Puffers exhibited mating behavior, as did the Harlequin Bass.  It was another exceptional dive.

By Jeri L. Curley
04/23/2011

The week began with iffy forecasts. We sold our slots, then we had cancellations. We ended up with 4 divers from our group and 6 from Sea Level. Not a bad tally and a group of great divers to boot. The boat was sold out despite the forecast for 3-5 foot seas which was downgraded to 2-4 foot the day before with 4 second intervals. Four second intervals—rolling waves. Nothing we can’t handle. I decided to try the dive without my 7mm, so I packed my farmer john and top. I haven’t used that top in a couple of years and it took two of us to zip it up. Now really, I have LOST weight since I last used this wet suit. The first dive was north Breakers (named for the Breakers Hotel which was the back drop in a scene in the recent detective TV series, The Glades) ending at Turtle Mound. Our group was fist in the water—DIVE, DIVE, DIVE! It was easy to spot Bill with his funky looking yellow fins and even easier to spot Don from a mile away with his NEON Yellow, glow-in-the-dark fins. I actually had to hunt for Bob, he blended in with all the other nondescript dive gear toting divers.

For the first time I was able to get a couple of shots of a Coronet fish (two—one about 4 foot long , the other about 2 foot—and they were together) from the front and not side. My wet suit was making it difficult to hold my camera up in front of me!! UGGG!!! We found lots of nurse sharks. For some reason they were stacked like cord wood under ledges. In one ledge, there were four on top of each other. We also found a little 2 foot nurse shark. Awww! We spotted a green moray in a crevice. He started to move away and I started to follow to see where he’d come out. Next thing I knew, he was popping out of a hole heading straight for my camera. My first thought was “Please camera, focus fast!!!” The dive time was approaching the 50 minute mark and the dive master decided to continue since I had requested Turtle Mound. We trekked the open sand to hit our mark. We were swimming against the current at this point and I almost gave up. But perseverance paid off. We did find one loggerhead sleeping under a ledge and we made it to the north end where the dive master requested a special dental cleaning from a couple of Scarlet-striped cleaning shrimp. The second group caught up with us at this time and we started to head up. We reached the surface and saw that the dive boat was still picking up divers. We kicked back and waited, chatting excitedly about all the cool critters we’d seen. The waves had calmed down a bit. I was surprised. The seas are usually calmer in the morning and kick up in the afternoon. For our surface interval, I brought our traditional Oreo cookie treat. I couldn’t find Easter Oreos so I settled for Heads or Tails cookies. Heads or Tails...HMM. That sounds like my photos! Trying to get the heads but sometimes shooting the tails. As usual, Abernethy provided the artfully displayed pineapple and we chatted non-stop about the great dive.

I ripped off that offending wet suit top which was beginning to cut off circulation and decided that I would brave the cold. As soon as I hit the water my weight pocket dropped out. I didn't realize it until I started to list, then I knew exactly what had happened. I shifted weights into my pocket with some help from my dive buddy and continued on. We dropped at Bath and Tennis (named for the Bath and Tennis Club). The current was a little stronger on this dive. The viz a little worse but still a great dive. After we got back to the dock, we got a big surprise. Sea Level gave us a voucher for two free Nitrox fills. What a great gift! Thank You.

We packed up the gear and the kids into the mini-van and headed to Cheeseburger and More in Jupiter for lunch and more discussions about what we’d seen that day. You may have seen my post on Facebook with a snapshot of a snapshot from the restaurant . Drifty McNeally had gotten his photo taken for eating a 3 pound burger and he had the tummy bulge to prove it. What a great place to live and dive! Florida Rocks!