Diving the Yankee Clipper Jacks

I left for the South Beach parking lot at about 7:30 am.  I was the first one there, then Luis came at 8:00 am and Leo came at 8:12 am.  Air temperature was 61 degrees.  I was cold.  Nonetheless, we geared up and got in the water. I suggested swimming out to the Jacks, or at least to the sand.  I wanted to maximize my photo time on the Jacks. We descended at the sand and I drifted a bit South with the current, but Leo and Luis were soon out of sight. I didn't see them again until they got back to the cars.

I got this picture of what I think are Cottonmouth Jacks a little South of the Yankee Clipper Jacks.

 Took this shot of a French Grunt on what must have been the 3-tiered reef, but South of the Jacks.

 Got this shot of a Hogfish.

and this shot of a Juvenile Beaugregory

This Spotfin Butterflyfish was on the reef to the South of the Jacks.






I never saw any single Jack, which seemed strange.  The cutouts in the reef were not familiar, either.  I assumed I had gotten set to the South by the current, so when I got to the sand after the reef, I headed North.  I found the Jacks but did not see Luis or Leo, so I decided to surface and look for them.

The Dive Time was 45 minutes; consumption was 28.56 psi/minute at an average depth of 19 feet; my SAC rate was 18.12 psi/minute and the RMV was 0.47 ft3/minute.


I looked but could not find Luis and Leo, so I decided to descend and take some pictures and just wait for them. As I went down, however, I spotted something shiny to the North. I left the Jacks to see what it was.  Turned out to be an aluminum Danforth anchor with about 3 feet of chain. I considered marking it and coming back for it, but decided to just carry it in. I ended up swimming it into about 3 feet of water when a wave somersaulted me.  I had my fins on, my camera in my left arm and the flag attached to my left side and the anchor in my right hand.  My mask strap came over my mask and I dropped the anchor in time to save my mask, but I was sitting in about two feet of water nearly on the beach. I got my fins off and managed to stand up and walk out, but I was dragging the flag.  I headed up to the truck and rinsed and stowed my gear.  Luis and Leo got there shortly after I did. Once we compared stories, I decided to head back into the water to see if I could find the anchor.

I spotted it in about two feet of water in between breaking waves that almost pushed me face down in the sand. The flukes were buried in sand, but I managed to grap the anchor and extract it and take it back to the truck.

Dive Time was 35 minutes; consumption was 34.06 psi/minute; SAC rate was 22.94 psi/minute and the RMV went to 0.59 ft3/minute.