2009 DIVE & TRAVEL HIGHLIGHTS
Dive & Travel Log
Nov/Dec - After a planned trip spearing in
Marathon was blown out with 12ft seas, took my new S90 camera out for a day of diving in Boynton before a post-Thanksgiving trip to the
Cayman Islands on the Agggressor - lots of diving and eating in nice warm waters
(on a very luxurious boat)...i'm definitely suited to luxury liveaboards!
Oct - Making the most of diving while the water is still warm (will have to fight my way into a shrinking wetsuit soon) - a few dives in the
Bahamas saw lots of turtles, sharks and lionfish. I had a housing issue which meant the last 2 dives were sans-camera...of course that was the dive where i saw about 20 sharks and had photogntic (although invasive and ecologically damaging) lionfish...oh well. Camera was not damaged though and i am trying to fix the housing while waiting to get one for my new camera ! A day over in Boynton at the end of the month (without camera) was a good pre-birthday day
Aug/Sept - Some fun shore diving (Venice, Pompano and LBTS) and a 5-tank day the water in Boynton Beach on Kevin's boat (www.diveboyntonbeach.com) seeing turtles, squid and a dozen large goliath groupers on the wreck of Capt Tony. Spearfishing in Marathon
was fun (although fish-less) but more than made up for it with a couple of dives
with Florida West up in Venice where I found a perfect 4.5inch megalodon tooth +
3 nice smaller ones !
July - Some diving on wrecks and reefs in Key Largo
for Scubaboard's annual "Invade the Keys".
June - A trip to Marathon early in the month was followed by a day diving in the Gulf on the wreck of the Bayronto.
The Bayronto, a 400ft British freighter, sank in a hurricane in 1919 on it's first voyage after being repaired after being damaged in a torpedo attack by the German submarine UB-88 in 1918. She now sits in about 100ft of water 30 miles offshore. Calm warm seas with excellent visability made for 3 excellent dives - 2 on the Bayronto and one on the Shrimp boat.
May - The long Memorial weekend was spent
in the Dry Tortugas doing some spearfishing - calm seas (after the initial rough
crossing), sunshine, some big snapper and monster hogfish made for a
successful & fun time. Even got to see some dolphins (and a few sharks
interested in the fish !). Earlier in the month had some spearfishing fun in Marathon (complete with a nice Red Grouper) and then wreck-diving and BBQing
in the Keys for the annual Sink-O de Mayo festivities.
Mar / Apr - After a spearfishing trip to Marathon headed off to Thailand for a couple of weeks. A few days of diving on Koh Phi Phi (where they filmed The Beach) with Moskito Divers
followed by a luxurious trip on the MV Philkade to the Similan & Surin Islands (Richelieu Rock) in the Andaman Sea.
Saw my first whaleshark - a baby 21 ft (7m) long one that came to play for 5 mins. Mantas, leopard sharks and lots of cool small things like sea horses, nudibranches and harlequin shrimp, ghost pipefish and ribbon eels !
Food and company were most excellent as well !
Feb - The Florida weather is getting better - dived Boynton on Kevin's Boat (www.diveboyntonbeach.com) and looking for
lemon sharks in Jupiter (no lemons though)
Jan - A New Years Day dive in Venice looking for Sharks Teeth - only found a few as the viz was rubbish, but still a good way to welcome in 2009 !
Dives made in 2009: 146 (which takes the total to 759)
Tentative Plans
Dec - UK for Christmas festivities, pork pies
and twiglets