Snorkeling Peanut Island

South of the Blue Heron bridge in Riviera Beach, there is an island called Peanut Island it used to be a Coast Guard station during the cold war. At that time the tensions were high with Cuba and JFK used to go to the Kennedy's property in Palm Beach. So the secret service had a bunker built on Peanut Island so that the President could be transported fast by helicopter to a protected environment. Today the Island host a Museum about the Island and the bunker. The island is surrounded by a shallow beach very popular on the week end by the local boaters. It also has a protected area for snorkeling complete with an artificial reef. The water is clear and frequented by many fishes. To get to the Island it is possible to take a water taxi from the 13th street marina.

So we checked the tide table an got to the island an hour before the high tide, got into our wetsuits and got in the crystal clear water. The first look under water reveals an environment rich in fishes and an irreproachable visibility. There was some current so we burnt some calories while taking around 200 pictures.

Advanced Open Water Certification

Well it seems that I haven't posted in a while, I have been down here in Florida since the beginning of the year. This year I decided to do my Advanced Open Water Certification for SCUBA, the advantages of such a certification to name a few are more control, more knowledge so in consequence you gain confidence and comfort. Also it allows you to dive deeper and since I'm already planning my trip for next November to Florida I know that I'm going to the north shore of the Gulf of Mexico where the main diving interests are ship wrecks that are to deep to dive without an advanced certification.

With our camera gear at Phil Foster Park

So I hocked up with Force E in Palm Beach a dive shop I had used last year and liked and was given my friend Mark as an instructor and once again I was lucky enough to get a private class. So the first part was to study the book and do the theory exercises, you have to study 5 subjects but I was told to do 6 or 7 in case that the ocean conditions do not permit a particular dive.

The Fish Market :)

So the Advance class requires that you learn 5 skills some are compulsory such as Deep Diving and Navigation others are chosen so I ended up doing Deep Diving, Underwater Photography, Advanced Buoyancy Control, Wreck Diving and Navigation. I also added NITROX so I can dive with enriched air.My instructor Mark is an accomplished Underwater Photographer an he evens lends me his mom's camera.

Fish Stick in it's Natural State

So I get there for my first dive and I find out that I need a paper from my doctor. So after 2 days of pacing in the Condo I finally got the fax and was able to resume my diving. The first place we went was a beach dive where we had went he previous year to take pictures, it's under a bridge so that is why you see the shopping carts in the picture above. We did some of the navigation and worked mostly on buoyancy. At the end of the dive it was very windy and the surf was choppy so I started to get seasick. Again the dreaded nausea, make me anxious about the next day boat dive.

Another Diver in the Water

So the next day after a good night sleep, motion sickness pills, ginger in all known forms, lavender essential oil behind the ears and having eaten a breakfast that would have made my doctor proud of me, I'm ready to head for the boat and face the demon of sea sickness. Lucky enough the ocean is as calm as a lake and my concerns disappeared with the gentle breeze.
So I can concentrate to the task at hand. The first dive is mostly about buoyancy control and a bit of navigation. The second dive is mostly about photography and we finish all the navigation exercises, the photography part is both a familiar concept but in a different world with it's own constraints.

Governors River Walk Reef (The St-Jacques)

The next day are the two final dives and lucky enough the surf conditions favors my resistance to the dreaded sea sickness. Today the dive are deep but my confidence level is high with my increased control on my buoyancy. The first dive is a wreck at 90 feet and on the way up we do a half stop at 45 feet and a safety stop at 15 feet for 3 minutes. At he safety stop I'm very low on air about half of what I'm supposed o have on the boat. I'm not worried both of the divers I'm diving with are informed of my situation and we also discussed properly the alternate air sources in the briefing, so it's kind of a good learning experience to ha to deal with more then my staying at 15 feet. The dive went great and I took lots of pictures including some barracudas at the wreck.

Barracudas

The last dive is also very good allowing us to tweak my weights even more precisely in the course of the certification I went from 22lbs to 11 lbs quite an improvement. So I am now a PADI Certified Advanced Open Water Diver and I only have a theory class on tuesday to finish in order to get my Nitrox Certification.