Diving in 2021

Based on my last post I figured I would write up my other dives for the year and post any pictures I had. With COVID closing down almost everything last year I didn't have a chance to dive so I tried to make up for it this year.

Derby Dive, Boynton Beach, FL - May 1-2, 2021

This was the Orlando Reef Divers club's traditional first dive of the season. We head down to Boynton Beach and dive early on Saturday morning. When we return in the early afternoon we have a party to celebrate getting in the water again while watching the Kentucky Derby. Others indulge in mint juleps and margaritas and copious amounts of food while the horses get lined up. Everyone that wants to can be involved in friendly betting over the race. Fun is had by all. Sunday morning we return to the Loggerhead Dive Charter and go for another couple of dives. I recall on these last dives seeing a a very large loggerhead turtle chilling at a cleaning station (think of a car wash for fish and turtles but the scrubbers are smaller fish or crustaceans). I had never seen turtle doing that before. It's amazing how things work in nature. I did not have my camera with me on this dive trip.

Riviera Beach, FL - June 19-20, 2021

My second dive trip of the year was to Riviera Beach, FL where we boarded the Pirates Paradise dive boat on Saturday afternoon. This was my first time with this outfit and they were very efficient and professional but the boat could be a bit better. The dives were good but there was a ton of algae growing on the sand, floating in the water, and clinging to the reef. There were tons of fish on these reefs. I appreciated the amount of angelfish and cowfish I saw. Turtles and eels as well. I did have some issues with my camera's battery so I wasn't able to get as many pictures as I was expecting.

I actually don’t know how I put my camera in this mode but it produced something interesting.

Boynton Beach, FL - July 17-18, 2021

The Orlando Reef Divers decided to go back to Boynton Beach as it is a good place to dive and everything is usually good about the logistics. Anyway, we dove Saturday afternoon and again on Sunday morning. The visibility was so so at probably 30-50 feet with a lot of particulate in the water. I think this was due to storms in the area. On the first day's dives we saw tons of juvenile spotted drums. There were also many filefish, spotted and scrawled. On our second day between dives we came across a huge pod of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins. They were hunting in the waters and as we drove around they would play in the wake our boat threw up. It was an amazing experience. I would have taken a video but my battery on my camera had died at that point. Or at least that was what I thought. During the second dive the current was a little stronger and I got separated from the group. I surfaced and the boat picked me up and dropped me back off with the group. Apparently the current had blown them over to the deeper side of the reef. When I dropped back in a remora greeted me and probably wanted to attach to me but I kept it at bay. We did encounter a large goliath grouper on that edge of the reef towards the end of the dive.