Our
September meeting will be on Wednesday, September 14th. Our
meetings are always the second Wednesday of each month with
socializing
starting at 6:00 pm and the actual meeting beginng
at 6:30 pm. The meetings are at Athen's
Café Greek
Restaurant at 6271
St. Augustine Road. They have a private room reserved
for us that has accommodated us nicely. Socializing begins
at 6:00pm with the meeting starting at 6:30). Visitors are
always welcome!
We have another great speaker for Wednesday night's
meeting.. Our featured speaker is Chuck Meide from LAMP
(ST. Augustine
Lighthouse
Archaeological Maratime Program).
Chuck came
to LAMP in March 2006 and is the acting director. He
has worked on archaeological projects all over the world.
He is currently completing his PhD through the College
of William and Mary. He is also an active NAUI scuba
instructor!
(A continuing vote of thanks is due to Nadine, who is
doing a wonderful job in finding us new and interesting
speakers
and topics!)
We also look forward to dive reports from our club trip
to Pompano, FL. this past weekend. There were a few complaints
that the dive operation put too many divers
on one boat, but everyone seems to have enjoyed the actual
diving. The new 326 ft. long casino-themed wreck "Lady
Luck", which was recently sunk offshore Pompano Beach
on July 26th, had
some
entertaining things to see!
Annual dues for Scubanauts membership are due so please pay Vicky at the meeting and don't forget to bring a few dollars for the 50/50 raffle! You may go home with half the proceeds!
This year's Scubanauts
Board of Officers was elected at our May meeting.. Here
are the new board members:
- President - Rob
Hagen
-
Vice President -
Nadine Norton
- Secretary - Peggy
Barnes
-
Treasurer - Vicky
Tyde
At
this month's meeting we'll continue to discuss our next
return dive trip to CoCoView Resort in Roatan, Honduras.
If you're interested in this popular destination, there
are a few slots left. Non-refundable deposits of $50 are
due by January's meeting. But it will probably be full
long before then. (One year it completely filled in two
hours). Some years Nica has later been able to ad a few
more slots late, but there are no guarantees.
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 parties. 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 Vicky Tyde.
Please
pass word of any future discretion to Vicky so
she can help others experience the pleasure of
this award.
Off-Shore
Jax dive reports still speak of visibility in the
40' to 50' range at 70+ feet to 110 feet. Temps
are still around 84 degrees on the surface but
there is still a sharp thermocline at depths
near 40' with temps in the
low 70's below the thermocline to the bottom..
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 Great White
Shark satellite radio tagging
program which has been operating in the waters offshore
Jax periodically for some time now. If you want to follow
one of the specific 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:
Welcome
from the Jacksonville Scubanauts Dive Club!