My first day in the USA

Saturday was my first day in the USA, so I thought I'd make the most of it.

I got up early and headed out diving in West Palm Beach with James. The diving here is fairly average, but I had a great time shooting fish I'd never seen before. We saw reef sharks and turtles too. So it was pretty good fun. The viz wasn't great and the sea was pretty rough, which had the bonus that I got to taste my breakfast twice. Nice.

After diving we went out to lunch and socialised with some of the uw photography community down here. Then at dusk James and I joined Laz for a cheeky shore dive. This was great and despite being cold I stayed in for 1.5 hours. Loads of cool critters - 3 seahorses, batfish, mantis, scorpionfish, bumblebee shrimp, bobbit worm. And awesome fun diving and shooting with the lads.

Then on to dinner with the gang, which was awesome. Much banter and far too much food. Also my bright red face indicated that it was a darn sight sunnier here than in England.

I like America!

Alex

attached are a few pix from the day

... This was great and despite being cold I stayed in ...

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Wow. We here on the Left Coast think of this area as being downright balmy

Plan on doing any Cave Diving while in Florida? I understand it is awsome!

Hopefully they took you to the Reef Grill for dinner. Great place and I am pretty sure Eric has it high on his list.

Was that shore dive the Phil Foster Park by the Bridge. Amazing much dive before the Hurricanes. Laz would be the guy in the know for sure. He was there last time I dove it.

Hi Todd,

The park is closed for "repairs" so you sort of have to jump the fence for a "guerilla dive."

Cheers

James

In 1999 there was a fantastic French Restaurant about 1 mile north of the bridge at Phil Foster park,

it was on Federal highway just west of the bridge. I don't recall the name but I bet those that dive around there know the place.

It was in an old house on the west side of Federal and had been there quite a few years.

DebF and I ate there several times when I lived just south of there in Boynton Beach

Yes diving under and around the Blue Heron Bridge where Phil Forster Park is located is really cool at the right conditions. That is also where we have heards of flying gunards, fifty and more, during the right moon phases and that is also the place I've repeatedly found the striated frogfish, male and female and juveniles, but they move around a lot and you have to know where to look.........

It will be good when the park construction is done in a month or so and it won't have to entered clandestinely "over the fence" or enter where the boats launch with lots of swims against the tidal current changes. I'm glad though that the place has had a quiet time to recover, let's hope another storm doesn't impact it this year for sure!!!

Also Alex I must absolutely differ with you that the diving is "average". I've dove a lot of places in the world and I still find Florida diving amongst the best in the world, far above the average of the world and especially this part of the world. For one thing our reefs aren't so fished out like most all of the Caribbean, and I've seen as many as 20 sea turtles on one dive this time of year, green, loggerhead and hawksbill, probably just north of where you dove yesterday. Also I told James to get someone to take you to Hole in the Wall, one of the top dive sites on the planet as far as I'm concerned, but deep of course and you must have a good captain for a good drop or you will miss it as the reef doesn't even start till 120'. Still an amazing dive with prolific marine life and gorgeous viz as documented by Walt Stearns in your "One Best Shot 05" thread, I was right behind him when he took that photo. And rare small fish down there too. Just FYI, can't judge Florida diving or diving anywhere with just a few dives...... And of course Florida also gets whale shark, salifish, mahi, mola & all sorts of sharks, etc if you are lucky and diving in the right place at the right time!!!

Glad you had a good time and you like America!!!!!!!! We aim to please you Brits of course!!!! B)

Thanks for all the shots of the seahorses and the shortnose batfish! Glad to see the usual suspects are still congregating there! I'm off to find even more unusual members of our Florida fish community in a few days with our "cryptic" species surveys for the Biscayne Park Service, I'll let you all know what more we find!! Have fun with your Bahamas sharks with all the chum............

Carol B)

no matter where you go alex your shots are a cut above, nice

Hi Todd,

 

The park is closed for "repairs" so you sort of have to jump the fence for a "guerilla dive."

 

Cheers

James

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LOL i cannot imagine jumping over a fence with close to 100lbs of scuba and u.w. photo gear!