Welcome
from the Jacksonville Scubanauts Dive Club!
Download our
most recent newsletter in Adobe PDF format. (If you cannot
yet
read Adobe's PDF format, get the reader here).
April
Meeting
Normally our meetings
are held the second Wednesday in each month. Please note
that our meeting place has changed from past years and
our meetings are now at the Mediterrania
Restaurant at 3877
Baymeadows Rd. They do have a private room reserved
for us that suits us well. Socializing begins at 6:00pm
with the actual meeting starting at 6:30pm. Visitors are
always welcome!
Please
note: Because of the effects of the
resurgence of Covid-19 in Florida our
scheduled April 14th meeting will again be a hybrid of
an actual physical meeting and a Zoom meeting. The Zoom
meeting will be shown at the physical meeting, the physical
meeting can be seen on the Zoom video and the sound on
both sides can be heard on both sides.
The link
to join the Zoom side was mailed out by Beth
earlier this month. If
you
didn't
get it,
contact
Beth or any Scubanauts officer. (We are not
posting the link here to avoid the possibility
of "Zoom
bombing" incidents).
Our program
for the April meeting will be a short presentation
on seahorses; a webinar produced through Sea Grant.
If the
following report is correct, buying new Luxfer aluminum
80 tanks may be at risk sometime in the future:
Non-profit
Undercurrent.org's
March 12th "Update for Non-Subscribers" is reporting that
"Luxfer has announced it will no longer be producing cylinders
in the
United
States
and
that the existing Luxfer Aluminum Division has been sold".
As the newsletter
says: "We are waiting to learn if the company that buys
the business continues producing scuba
cylinders
or
if
another
aluminum
producer sees a business opportunity in the scuba world.
If not, we traveling divers may have to adapt to those
heavier steel tanks widely used in Europe".
Don't forget our
2021 trip to
Roatan, Honduras: May
15th - 22nd, 2021. Deposits will only be
$50 for 2020 to hold your 2021 spot and favorite
room!
Rates for Cabanas and
Bungalows are $1704.76 PP. Our beach house peeps already have
their rates. I will have flyers at the meeting with
the specs! Please note
that the room
rates
are
up
a little due to how they calculate the taxes and discounts now.
All the folks
going on this trip should be careful to re-check their
flights; which may have changed. At least American and
Uniited have changed their flight schedules to Roatan for
this period and your original flight numberers, departure
times, etc. are likely to have been affected.
There have been significant changes to new Covid
testing requirements
to
re-enter the U.S.
after this trip. On
January 12, 2021, CDC
issued an Order requiring all air passengers arriving
to the US from a foreign country to get tested no more
than 3 days before their flight departs and to provide
proof of the negative result or documentation of having
recovered from COVID-19 to the airline before boarding
the flight.
When we contacted CoCoView about this, they
said they were aware of this new requirement and would
provide
a way to handle compliance. You can get the blood
for this test drawn right there on CoCoView's property and
they'll handle
getting
the
blood
transported to an approved facility for the tests to be
done.. And they'll provide that service for $85 per guest;
a cheaper rate than otherwise
expected.
We'll update this issue when more information is available.
Also due to the
recent Covid-19 spike, Delta will not be flying to Roatan
in May as previously scheduled. They claim they'll resume
flying June 1st; which will be too late for this trip.
Even should members decide to delay their trip farther,
Delta has changed their mind on flying into Roatan many
times already
in this
past year
so
most
Scubanauts are rescheduling with other airlines for this
trip.
We've worked with CoCoView to provide
a bit more wiggle room to accomodate those changes. As a
result we were granted bit
of
extra
time
before
the
final payment for
this trip
must
be made. It will now be due by February
20th instead that payment being due by tonight's meeting.
Coco
View's Facebook page ("CocoView Divers")
recently said that the resort has now
re-opened from
their Covid-19
suspension
in August.
Since they are still not hosting a normal number
of guests
due to Covid, the Scubanauts had established
a fund to donate
money for
those laid-off
at CoCoView due to reduced guest numbers.
Donations can be sent via our PayPal account
(see Vicky for details).
You can donate through Vicky and the donation
will be recognized as associated with the Scubanauts.
(We've
had
a long-time relationship with CoCoView going
back to our first trip there in 2007). Or you can
choose to donate
directly to the resort's GoFundMe "Covid-19
Crisis Fund".
Rob and Kathy
are encouraging fellow Scubanuts to join them at the Suwuannee
River Rendevous for the Annual Poker Run on Sept. 19th.
The idea of the poker run is to kayak
or canoe down the Suwuannee River; stopping at several
spring locations
to draw a card.
Prizes are awarded for the highest poker hands at the Rendezvous
afterwards and are awarded . The cost is $10 a
ticket
with the proceeds going to benefit the 7 Gables Food Pantry.
The starting point is at the Highway 51
bridge
near Luraville.
Rentals are available and include a shuttle.
New
ways to get Offshore Jax! While out at Divers
Supply getting some equipment serviced
we saw notices for two different 6-pack dive boat outfits
that are now operating in this area: Florida Man Fishing
Charters and Due East Chartering Services.
We have not yet dove either
operation so we can't provide any informed opinon on these
boats.
But this
could be great news for local divers without access to
a private boat. (Without such access it's been very
difficult
to
get
offshore
here
since
Capt. Dan Lindley's "Diamond Diver" dive boat ceased
operation). See our Jacksonville
Area Diving page for more information on these new
options.
Florida's scallop
season is open now and runs through September 24th. Full
lobster season this year is also running now.
We do need a couple
of smaller trips throughout 2019.
Some
suggestions we've been kicking around:
- West Palm Beach—easy to get to and there is always
a Blue Heron Bridge
dive!
- Pompano beach
- Keys with Florida Keys Dive Center?
- Kayaking trip
Please
consider running a club trip; it is fun diving with your
friends! Be thinking about what trip destinations you'd
like to see in the coming year. At our last meeting, members
had tentatively volunteered to organize trips to Palm Beach
and the northern Florida Keys, but it is too early for
anything specific regarding those destinations. See
the Activities
Page for
information on all Scubanauts activities! Don't
let the best of club diving pass you by!
Our
Photo Gallery has portfolios from members as
well as photos from our contests and arties. We're still
looking
for more material for the Photo
Gallery. Check
out the submissions so far! Members, send
in some for your own page.
There
are still some Scubanauts logo shirts and caps
left from our last order. So if you didn't get want you
wanted, check
with Scott to see what stock remains.
The coveted
Golden Copralite award is being held by Bill "CrawDaddy"
Crawford. Please pass word of any future discretion
to Bill
so
he can help others experience the pleasure of
this award.
We could
find no Offshore Jax dive report that was current
enough to be of use.
For our
members who like to spearfish, there is important
news. The group "Our
Florida Reefs" is pushing very hard to
near totally prohibit all spearfishing while on
scuba. (The sole exception is to hunt lionfish).
This proposal is very near being passed into formal
regulation. So any members who have a strong opinion
on this need to get involved very quickly and let
your state representatives know how you feel. Click here to
see a .PDF of their draft proposed regulation.
We've
all been following the OCEARCH Great White
Shark satellite radio tagging
program which has been operating in the waters offshore
Jax periodically for some time now. News reports are
saying that the Jacksonville's Mayport docks will
become the home port for their research boat. The
city will build new docks for their vessel and will provide
two historic buildings that will become the organization's
home base.
In
honor of this decision, a great white recently
tagged 40 miles off Mayport was given the name
"Miss May" in the Ocearch registry.
If you want to follow
one of the specific tagged sharks which has been
in the local news
recently,
here is the procedure. This example is for following "Katherine",
the large female that has been sighted multiple times
recently by divers off the Florida Keys; including being
video'd
by a dive team off the wreck of the Duane offshore Key
Largo. At
this
writing,
her satellite tracker's last "ping" was
near the edge of the Continental Shelf east of the
border between North and South Carolina.
To
follow Katherine's - or any other tracked
shark's - travels:
- Open your
web browser and point to the OCEARCH Global Tracker website
- Enter
the shark's name (“Katherine”) into
the field titled “Sharks” in
the filter box to the left
- Click the blue “Update” button
- View
where Katherine is in realtime
Newcomers, come check
our membership
pages to find out more about joining the Scubanauts!
If you have any ideas for speakers, please
let your officers know. We always need new ideas!
Missed the last meeting? See the minutes of
last month's meeting.
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