Did anyone wonder if I was still alive??  :)  

Dive 1:
Buddies:  Ed and my dad Jeff
Waves: 2-4 ft, mild chop
Current: mellow
Bottomtime: 46 minutes
Depth: 64 fsw
gas: Nitrox 28%
Viz: 64 feet at least

Dive 2:
Buddies:  same
Waves: same
Current: brisk
Bottomtime: 53 minutes
Depth: 63 fsw
gas: Nitrox 31%
Viz:  about 40 fsw

Went out of Boynton Beach today for a 2-tank trip. I've looked forward to this trip since I planned it. For one, I'm taking my father diving, who hasn't been under the water in a couple of years. And another, is because I just love Boynton diving. With the great viz, healthy reef, and abundance of fish, it rarely disappoints. Today was no exception.

We descended to perfect viz and mild current. Along this stretch of reef, the relief is well-defined between sand channels and consistently about 6-8 feet, with many crevices perfect for critters to hide. The reef was was absolutely teeming with life, schooling grunts and chubs and tomtates everywhere. I immediately saw a nice spotted drum, one of my favorites. The current gently swept us north, where we encountered a large green turtle. He was friendly, too friendly actually. He came up between my dad and myself, and was basically eye to eye, before drifting back to Ed and showing the same close-up curiosity. Granted, turtles aren't known to be man-eaters, but I have seen them snap at fish before, and give those jaws a wide berth. It would not be the last time my hackles were raised on today's dives.

Drifting further, I caught some movement under one of the crevices and saw the distinctive tails of two large nurse sharks. These are frequently seen on the reefs here, so that's not unusual. What IS unusual was their behavior. Rather than scattering as per usual, they continued to swim under the crevices, obviously feeding. I handed the flag off to Ed and cruised in for a closer look. As I approached within a few feet, they continued to display aggressive behavior, lunging at the reef in search of food. One emerged with the remnants of some unfortunate lesser occupant of the food chain. I couldn't see the type of fish, as it was shredded by this point. Seeing this aggressive behaviour, my common sense resurfaced and I quickly backed off. Nurse sharks are STILL sharks, and I've seen some ugly bites from these predators. One of the boat captains later shared a couple more scary nurse shark stories, and I was glad I thought of better of hanging around.

We continued to drift along the reef ledge for the remainder of our air/bottomtime, seeing a couple more spotted drums, hogfish, black grouper, and the usual south Florida reef suspects in exceptional quantity. We surfaced to calm seas and got back on the boat. Once aboard, we heard the story of the first diver in our group, who was solo diving and hunting. He had descended to the reef and was gathering his gear, when out of nowhere, a pair of sharks appeared and pulled a large green moray eel from it's home "like a worm from a hole." The sharks took a large bite from the eel, blood filling the water. The diver attempted to get as far away from that area as possible. I suspect that the pair of sharks he witnessed feeding were the same ones we encountered later still in feeding mode.

After a surface interval, we descended for the second dive. After the over the top first dive, this one was more mellow.   Current was moving a bit tho, and viz had dropped.  I did see a school of cuddle fish, something I haven't seen out here. Capt. John said later that they are seeing them more and more on the reefs. Ed was nice enough to carry the flag, so I did get a couple of pics that I'll post later. The reef structure on this dive was more meandering, without alot of definition, and I prefer the first. But it was still lovely. No stingrays or eels or lobster, which is unusual. Still very nice tho. Ed and my dad headed up a little before me, and I enjoyed the solitude for another few minutes before heading up. While hanging on a safety stop solo (which I don't really care much for as I always feel like "bait) I was scanning the reef below looking for anything of interest. I had been there 2.5 minutes when a large shark swam along the reef under me. A careful look showed it to be a bull shark, I'd estimate about 7 feet.  And THICK!  Pucker factor 3 for the day came into play. They are so thick and have the most powerful and menacing look.  Even the aerial view scared me a bit.  He didn't hang around and was out of site as soon as my 3 minutes were up, but I opted not to stay for a full 5 minute stop and surfaced. All in all a really amazing day on and under the water. I'm going out tomorrow morning also, leaving the family at home and taking the spear gun. Hmmm...dinner??? :) I'll post pics later.