Wow what a trip!!!!

Last week we started looking for a day trip for Sunday, September 5. We started looking a little late and all the local boats were booked up. It was our luck to find three spots with Jim Abernethey's Scuba Adventures, Inc.

I have been diving for over 30 years and I have never felt more welcome on a day trip than I did on "The Deep Obsession". From the greeting to the good bye's we were treated like gold. When we arrived and saw the crowd waiting to board we had our doubts,

but, it just kept getting better. When we started to carry our gear on board we were asked if we needed help. The last trip I was on they didn't offer to help load the gear and getting on the boat was not easy.

From there it just kept getting better. After we got our gear on board we were asked if anyone had a tank that had a bad fill and needed it topped off. This would have been great the time I got really bad fills from Divers Unlimited "2680 and 2740 PSI". They asked everyone to check their gear and make sure they had everything , and if not, explained that they had a gear box with plenty of gear so if you need something, just ask.

After everyone was on board we got under way and was asked to move to the bow so that Jim could give the boat briefing. Jim welcomed us all on board and started the briefing with the normal procedures, like safety gear locations. Jim has a very easy going manner and we were told to treat the boat as if it was our own and feel at home.

Jim told us to go where we wanted and to come on the bridge if we liked.

He added some humor to the briefing, but I'll leave that for you to experience when you try his boat. They split us into two groups and asked if that worked with everyone. Well, some people wanted to hunt lobster while others just wanted to take in the beauty of the underwater scenery. They made everyone happy by adjusting the groups to meet everyone's needs. Unlike some dive boats where they tell you you're going with this group because that's the way they split it up.

We went out the West Palm inlet and looked for the best vis. Jim called the Harbor Master to see what large traffic might be going in and out of the port to help decide where to go. He picked a spot and the A team was given ten minutes to get ready. We got to the spot and just as the group was about to get into the water one of the divers broke a fin strap. He said he had another strap and would wait until the second group to dive. However, the crew said just to relax and got him a pair of rental fins that just happened to be his size and also the same brand as his, so he went in with his group just as planned.

They got in the water and the B team was given ten minutes to get ready. As we were getting ready the A team came up and Jim took the boat over and the dive master explained the vis was really bad. Jim said to get back on the boat so we could move to a better spot. If this has ever happened to you, you know that you now have a half empty tank for when you get back into the water. Well no problem, the crew got out the air whip's and started topping off the tanks so everyone had a full tank to do the dive with.

One of the divers in the A team was a shell hunter and went off by himself to look for shells, bad vis doesn't stop him from looking for shells so he was still down and we had to wait for him. But that was no problem as Jim provided us with a great show of two pods of spotted dolphins. You don't get to see this often on the east coast and we went over and got to take pictures as they played in the bow wake.

Well, that would have been enough right there but Jim got on the radio and asked for a vis report and found that the vis was about 30 feet to the south so after the last diver was up we moved south and the A team got ready again. They went in the water and the B team was told to get ready. Now I was thinking that with this large number of divers we would not see any lobster and that was what we were here for.

Well, to my surprise, when we got down and started down the reef there were indeed lobster. Well I got three keepers and had one get away. There are still lobsters out there with eggs and I found two more with eggs so I left them to drop their eggs. The reef was in pretty good shape with a lot of growth and fish.

Here is my group between dives and you can see we were happy.

The second dive was great also. We did the back side of a reef that was south of the Breakers reef in 60 ft. on top to about 80 ft. in the sand. We saw turtles and morays on both dives. This side of the reef was loaded with lobsters and I came up with 6 on this dive. Even found a hole with three or four and got a double hitter by getting two in the net at the same time. Ok, I know everyone is using buggers these days, but I still prefer to use a net and a tickle stick. We got 11 lobsters on a head boat and I think that was pretty good.

After the last dive the crew cut up some fruit and passed it around.

When we got back to the dock the crew helped offload the gear and made sure no one left anything behind as Jim made sure to tell everyone thanks for coming on board.

Jim and a couple of his crew took a minute to pose for a picture before loading up to take the afternoon group for a wonderful dive trip.

I am looking forward to taking one of Jim's shark dives and trying out his Live-aboard trip on the "Shear Water " which is in the photo at the top of the page. Again, thanks to Jim and his crew for the best day trip I have been on with a dive charter operation.

Check out their page at: http://www.scuba-adventures.com/

This site created and designed and hosted by SieSystems

Advertise your clubs web site on the window of your car. How about you business web site?