Last Jupiter Dive

And the turtles, of course…. All the turtles are free – As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be. ~ Yertle the Turtle (Dr. Seuss)

Dive two today went much better. My earlier attempt at a 90 foot ledge ended in my sitting on the boat watching the drift flag move along the top of the water. This time I was going to dive whether my computer cooperated or not. And it didn’t…but I dove.

As I giant strided off the back of the boat my finger spool came alive and mad a mad dash for freedom. I “reeled in” the errant line as I descended on a 75 fsw reef called Tunnels. Upon reaching the bottom I had a birds nest of thin braided line and made quick work of securing it in a tight although unusable manner and proceeded to look about. I was searching for shark and I was quickly rewarded with the sight of a caribbean reef shark taking off into the sand. Immediately followed by his best friend. Woo Hoo!

Within minutes my computer proceeded to have its second temper tantrum but this time I was just going to ride it out and see the sights.

Several more reef sharks moved underneath us. The visibility was between 50 and 70 feet and you could look off into the sand as they swam away.

Just off the reef we came across a large hawksbill turtle resting in the sand. These are no small turtles. This one was between 3 and 4 feet in length and just sat watching us as much as we were him. But this is a drift dive and the current was moving along at a good clip so finning against it was tiring and we moved on.

Several large deep ledges appeared on the reefs sides and at times the ledges connected forming short archways which were the inspiration for the reefs name…Tunnels.

We explored under and about and quickly learned to peak before swimming in as several nurse sharks were resting and ultimately rousted from under the ledge by our curiousness. While nurse sharks are the puppy dogs of the shark world….I had been warned top side not to pet them…..does my reputation extend all the way to Jupiter, Florida? Jeesh.
The race of diver and shark to get out of the way did get the heart pumping though and we moved along. But still no lemon shark.

There was a great deal of other life on this reef also. Along with the variety of sponges and soft corals there were goliath grouper and French angel fish along with some hog fish and trigger fish and an assortment of tang, butterfly fish, fairy basselets and other colorful fish I cant yet name.

At 40 some minutes the last diver of the group was heading up and so I slowly followed giving one last look around. A lone nurse shark about 5-6 foot swam lazily in front of me and I finned in place and watched as she gracefully moved about. It was time for me to go though. All the rest of the divers were headed for the surface and I was the last one down. A tap of air out of my wing to start me on my way and as I rose from the sand to the top of the reef I came face to face almost with an enormous.. yellow … shark. I huge deep breath on my part quickly raised me a few feet higher and above my new best friend. This shark was easily 8 or 9 feet long and I was mesmerized by the yellow coloring. They are called lemon sharks for good reason. My friend was not as enamored of me as I of him and slowly swam along ignoring me as I hovered above. When he finally moved off I continued on up to my safety stop and valet pick up by the dive boat.

Gotta love drift diving. Float along…surface….wave and they come to you and pick you up. Think we could get the jersey Captains to do that?

Bananas on a Dive Boat

There is a superstition alive and well among many ships captains that bananas on a boat are unlucky.

The origins of this superstition are not clear. There are many theories.

In the early days vessels would stop at tropical islands to gather provisions for the trip back to Europe and they would pick up wooden crates of bananas. These crates would have all kinds of little surprises in them such as poisonous spiders and snakes. The crew would often be bitten by these poisonous spiders and snakes, some of which were very small, and become ill or die …..hence feeding the thought that the bananas were to blame.

Another theory was that slaves were brought from Africa to the New World in the holds of banana boats. So if you happened to wake up in a dark place and it smelled a lot like bananas... well ….. you were not going to be happy…. very bad luck for you.

Another thought was that bananas ripen quickly and then emit a gas that rapidly rots any other produce nearby, including the limes sailors found essential on long voyages to fight off scurvy and keep healthy. And so it was unlucky to have bananas onboard.

And then there was the simple theory that since in the 1700’s nearly every ship that disappeared and sank was carrying bananas….hauling bananas was unlucky.

Or maybe it evolved because bananas carried aboard slave ships fermented and gave off methane gas, which would be trapped below deck. And anyone in the hold, including the slaves, would succumb to the poisoned air. Quite unlucky.

Or even because some of the boats used to ferry fruit to Europe from S. America were aging wooden sailing ships and the bananas tended to rot in the holds which were not fully cleaned out causing the wood planks to rot out faster. In bad weather, some of these boats would come apart, and the rotting boards would leak faster than could be fixed.Or last but not least because ships following the trade routes would be carrying so much stuff and the ship's manifest would be loaded according to weight...with the heaviest on the bottom and lighter on top. When a ship would be bashed apart on a reef or some rocks...sometimes all that would be found of them would be the cargo of fruits and that were riding high in the holds...hence the only thing surviving was the fruit….lucky for the bananas but not the ship and crew.

Whatever the origins of this superstition…..the question is…… do YOU believe it? Legend has it that and executive from Fruit of the Loom underwear learned of the superstition while on an offshore fishing trip. The fish were in a particularly uncooperative mood, so he stripped off his unmentionables. After that, he considered the banana ban a true taboo, and the banana was banished from the fruity label.

Now me…I don’t know what to believe…but I watched a guy eat a banana on the dive boat this morning….and lost my first dive to my computer going bonkers……hmmmmm……

Jupiter Day One

If I swim in the ocean, I have a shark thought. Not a bad one, but just a little one.

~ Tea Leoni

I am just about done here in Florida, so I decided to take a ride over to the East Coast and try my hand at shark diving. The lemon sharks congregate around this time each year off the coast of Jupiter, Florida, lying along the ocean floor in what is believed to be a mating process.

I went to Tampa and saw the musical Jersey Boys and then returned and left Anna Maria Island at 4AM, heading for the Jupiter Dive Center and a 9AM boat. I highly recommend the musical but can tell you first hand the drive is NOT fun. The trip was long … and upon arriving at the dock I was having some problems with my regulator, so I left it with the shop tech and set up another regulator for the dive. I was leery of putting my Sherwood on the setup so went with my long hose….big mistake…..

I loaded on the boat and set up my tank, with the anaconda of regulators and my little pony….yes Mark, I tightened the bands.

Due to the winds we headed out a little farther off shore looking for some decent visibility and arrived on a reef in about 90 fsw. This was to be a drift dive and everyone launched off the back of the boat one after the other…. almost everyone …..yes …. can you believe it ….. I wasn’t the first one in this time. As I wrestled to make the long hose and the pony play nice, the Captain reminded me that the theory of a drift dive was that you moved along in the water and the other divers were doing just that. I grabbed a handful of hose and bounced my head off the pony’s first stage and jumped in the water. I would manage.

Catching up to the group rather quickly we dropped down to see who was home. There was the usual assortment of colorful fish swimming about while huge sponges and corals swayed in the current. In the sand just off the reef, a huge loggerhead turtle lumbered along, making his way to where ever it is turtles go, while large French Angelfish swam in and out of the coral. And there were sightings of spotted moray eel and white frilly fan worms and a large goliath grouper. One of the other divers had explained to me the difference in the assorted grouper, with the goliath being distinguished by the square shape of their fins and tail. I think their gi-normo size is a dead give away but the square cut of them is quite prominent now that I know what to look for. But, alas, we spent 49 minutes admiring the marine life, but there was not a single shark.

Two of our group were spear fishing and had done well. In the cooler sat a huge red snapper and a Cobia over 3 feet long. What a catch!

We headed on over to Loggerhead Reef, a similar reef although smaller in size and about 75 fsw, to see if we could fair better.

Having spent the first dive absolutely wrestling with the hose constantly catching on the pony, I switched out r my trusty Sherwood and jumped in on schedule with high hopes for dive two.
The colorful fish were large and abundant on this reef. Yellow and black butterfly fish in every pattern imaginable, huge vibrantly colored french angelfish, and hoards of squirrelfish. And again….no shark….Oh well….there is still tomorrow.

We drifted along, taking in the sights. These included an enormous moray eel which I followed for a bit…..until he stopped to take a look at me. So I moved on along, giving him his privacy.

The dive master began pointing at something off in the sand and I moved closer to see what it was. There in the sand was the outline of a manta ray. The biggest I have ever seen. There are first time homebuyers purchasing less square footage than this thing. The Dive master would later mention that he saw the tail first and thought it was a fishing pole dropped in the water before making out the rest of this behemoth. It slowly twitched as we hovered nearby watching, sharpening the outline of its body in the sand before rising up and undulating away.

Around the 47 minute mark the water cooled a bit and began to darken and so we headed on up.

The boat was large and clean and the Captain and crew helpful and knowledgeable. Definitely one I would recommend. I am coming back tomorrow to try again. Maybe we will find the elusive lemon shark then….for now…. I think I will try and find me one of those umbrella drinks…with a lemon in it.

Don't Poke the Scallops

“A lot of this has to do with the (scallop) prices last year. Put them back down to $3.65 (per pound) again and I don't think you'll see this problem any more.” ~ Sam Martin

It was dark, but at least it wasn’t cold this time. And again my dive buddy makes me drive myself to the boat. Uhh…thanks. Using my Garmin, I managed to find the boat, despite the dive shops ominous warning to call them if I ended up at a laundry mat, they swear GPS never finds them.

I was going shark tooth hunting. Last year I did these dives from the beach, but had heard that the big teeth were found in the offshore beds reached only by boat. I was going to find out. The boat was a 31 footer named the Hammerhead out of Venice Beach, Florida. The captain and mate were most helpful and attentive and the boat quite comfortable. There were 12 divers aboard with at least five having done this dive twenty or more times. Some of these people are serious about their teeth.

The day was a bit overcast but 67F as we headed out into the Gulf. Two kayakers rode our wake out to the dive site, about a 20 min ride. We stood on deck and watched them fly along the edges of the boats wake, keeping up with us and only using their paddles for balance and direction. Looked like great fun, but I am sure they had one heck of a long paddle back.

Once out a the site we geared up and stepped off the back of the dive platform into 27 feet of 70F water. Apparently tooth hunting is a solo activity and each diver was handed a flag as they stepped off the platform. A diver from Illinois I had been speaking to on the ride out was a little uncomfortable diving solo and asked if he could tag along with me and I welcomed the company.

Due to some heavy rains yesterday there was only about 20 foot of visibility but we only needed to see about a foot as we began scouring the bottom for teeth. As I looked about I saw rocks and seashells, and coral and sponges, some hermit crabs and colorful sea urchins, but no shark teeth.

Then I began to pick out pieces of sting ray barbs and manta ray dental plate, and my lessons from last year began to come back to me. Some of the rocks began to take shape as petrified manatee ribs and whale bones and I carefully selected a few just to confirm when I got topside.

There were dozens of small scallops scattered about and they hopped away as we skimmed over them. To my amusement, a set of three in a row jumped up in unison under my chin and hopped away like a scene from a Disney movie. I listened a moment, half expecting to hear them singing as they skipped along.

Then I saw one, small…. but the triangular shape was unmistakable, and then another, and then a thin tiger shark one. Shark teeth. It was coming back to me now. I didn’t find many, but I did manage to snag my first meg! Not a 6 inch trophy quality one but a respectable little bugger none the less. Woo Hoo.

As we swam along the pin fish, between 6 and 10 inches long, were abundant and curious. They constantly came up to my mask planting little fish kisses on the lens and straps and hovering directly underneath me as I swam. If I stopped several would come running to take a look and see what all the fuss was about, following my arm as it moved about. I gave a quick shot at snagging one in my little goody bag but they would have none of it. I did poke dozens of them and they immediately came right back, not to be chased away so easily. It was fish pokey heaven.

My fish poking AAD was in full swing when I noted 2 things. One…. my dive flag was no where to be found…..and Two …. I was about an hour into the dive and might just want to surface and see where the boat was. So up we went, surfacing about 20 yards from the boat. My dive flag……oh about a quarter mile away, I am sure. I could barely make it out in the distance. Hmmm, I wonder how that happened.

We collected all the divers and the errant dive flag and spent the surface interval sorting through our finds. The Captain is a wealth of knowledge in this area and explained about upper and lower teeth, why some teeth are brown and some black, prehistoric horses and their teeth, prehistoric scallop casts, and more.

I dropped back in for dive two and immediately found a large piece of broken meg tooth. Unfortunately this was all I would come across this dive and soon became bored with searching for teeth and started searching out the locals.

I came across a large cleaner shrimp hard at work on a large shell and dozens of mini hermit crabs. The pin fish kept me constant company running into and around me. There were pink, red and purple sea urchins everywhere and I occupied myself decorating them by hanging little seashells on their spines. There were several sea robbins swimming about and I pulled on the tail of more than one.

Then I saw him. Just sitting there. I don’t know if he was yawning, or taking a drink of water or maybe even just stretching, but his shell opened up…..and I poked him. AND THE DAMNED THING BIT ME! I now have this scallop hanging off the end of my finger and he is pissed. I smacked him off my finger and as he hits the sand he jumps back up at me several times snapping his shell. It is absolutely comical, like something out of a cartoon and I find myself laughing and flooding my reg.

“Someone” told me this would happen some day. Can’t believe he missed it. _________________