West Palm Beach, Coral Island Charters by Aquadog

West Palm Beach
Coral Island Charters, 1999
Author: Aquadog

West Palm Beach,Fl. the city of Kennedy's winter homes, political and financial power, shipwrecks drifting up onto millionaire's backyards....swimming pools and movie stars. Only a 1hr. 50min. drive from my humble town of Ft. Myers. On arrival we noted we could see a storm front already brewing to the east. While it did'nt approach us, it did churn up the waters into seas hitting the 5-6 ft. range. The dive outfit was Coral Island charters. An amiable crew and Captain Jay did a good job in tough conditions.

The 50ft. Newton Special was loaded to the rafters with divers, approx. thirty (30) (Cattle jokes, would apply here). I met with Moo and we made due with the tiny amount of room we had left to stow our gear. Once we got out of the inlet to the ocean, the waters (see above) began tossing people side to side, knocking bungeed tanks over and it wasnt long till the first diver "fed the fish"....on the main deck, all over his buddies weight belt. I thought it was funny till I looked over at my buddy (Ryan), saw that he did'nt look too good and I said "Don't throw up on my gear, please toss your cookies overboard"(smile). Ryan, a novice diver, expertly tossed his portion of the cookies overboard in a timely and neat fashion. All in all, I counted 6 divers, some veterans, green around the gills. Even I came kinda close but held my mud. Watching the horizon and diet pepsi helped. Oh yeah, we went diving too! hehe Both dives were drift dives on "The Breakers Reefs" with average viz approx. 40 ft.. Although as usual, dive captains always say things like, you should've been here yesterday, we had 80 ft. viz.. Yeah, right! On the first dive we saw a tons of marine life, highlighted by a Hawksbill turtle the size of the average dining room table, and I got a great pic of it to boot.

For the second dive on the Breakers reef, my buddy Ryan was definitely on the ill list and smartly aborted any attempt to dive. Moo and I teamed up and hit the reef. WE came across the cable crossing which evidently is the telephone line for the Bahamas....Moo and I looked at it and I jokingly pulled out my Sea Snips and thought to myself, there'd be some ticked-off Bahamians if I really did this. Coral Island is probably a fine dive charter, but this was not the day to show their stuff, too many divers, too cramped, bad seas, and two open water checkout classes on-board kept us from diving anything challenging. All in all, I still had a great time.

I'll try Coral Isaland again but next time, I'll go on a weekday. Captain Jay says they do run during the week and there many LESS divers on the boat. I'll be able to give a better assessment then. Till next time. Dive hard, AquaDog

Dive 1: The Breakers Reef(south end) Viz -40ft. Water Temp.- 82 deg. Max Depth - 66 ft. Bottom Time - 39 min.

Dive 2: The Breakers Reef(north end) Viz -50ft. Water Temp. - 82 deg. Max Depth - 61 ft. Bottom Time - 40 min.