As the ultimate scuba diving gift, any toy loving scuba diver would find it tough to be unimpressed when presented with their own personal submarine. Being able to dive as deep as you want for as long as you want … well, at least as long as the batteries hold out – is something we all covet. Just a few years ago, a personal submarine was something that only the richest of the rich could conceivably afford. More recently, owning your own personal submarine has become attainable – at least for the moderately rich and even us more plebian types can conceivably have a personal submarine experience. Read the rest of this entry »

My husband loves to dive but even more than that, he loves to teach other people to do it. This is why my birthday dive to the wreck of the MV Castor this year was such a treat – no students! We went out on Saturday morning on the Lady Go Diver for two great dives. Despite the great conditions, the dive boat was practically empty. I think maybe Dixie Divers had had some cancellations. Our dive trip was unusual too – we were scheduled to dive the MV Castor – a wreck off Boynton Beach – about a 45 minute boat ride from Deerfield Inlet. Nobody on board would ‘fess up to having requested that dive but apparently, Dixie Diver owner Arilton Pavan had extolled the virtues of this dive so some of our fellow divers to such an extent that although they hadn’t requested the dive, they were now anxious to go.

As a result, we all settled in for a nice long trip up the coast and when we got there, we were not sorry. The MV Castor is a great dive.

As we arrived at the dive site, our divemaster spent a few minutes finding the wreck. Apparently, they don’t get up this way too often. Once we located it, we were warned that the current was a little strong so we should take care to hold on to the line all the way down so as not to miss the wreck. This is not an uncommon instruction on a Florida wreck dive so we were familiar with it. As we reached the bottom of the line, we were greeted with the site of several large fish off the north side of the wreck – giant groupers.

Although the current was a little strong, navigating the wreck was not difficult and Dave and I made our way along the starboard side towards the front. The ship was covered with beautiful blue tunicates.

as well as some beautiful hard corals. These two shots show how different they look depending on the light.
Besides all the giant groupers and the beautiful tunicates, the wreck was alive with dozens of beautiful fish and lots of gorgeous coral. The water was warm and the visibility was great. All in all it was a great birthday dive and I definitely want to dive the MV Castor again.

Today is a great day in Florida for a dive. Too bad we didn’t get around to it but we’ll be off to Key Largo next weekend for sure so stay tuned.