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Greetings from Capt. John, Tampa Florida October 2002 Newsletter

This Newsletter contains:

1) Current Conditions Gulf of Mexico ~ Turtles and Dolphins!
2) Skin Diver Magazine folds ~ November 2002 to be last edition!
3) Dive Travel and Classes ~ Trips and Classes October to December 2002
4) Christmas is coming! ~ Let us quote you on your dive gear gifts this year!
5) Cool Websites ~

**CURRENT CONDITIONS**

Forget Golfing ~ Go Gulfing! Every Wednesday with Captain John!

Hurricanes ~ June - Too Soon! July - Fly By! August, September - Remember! November, December - all over! (they are everywhere) ~ Island Saying reminding children that August to December is the hurricane season.

The first two weeks of September brought us rain and high seas due to the hurricaines that plowed through the Florida straights to the Gulf. The last two weeks were great. Water temperature is 82 degrees and viz is 20' to 45' plus.

On the 19th and 20th of Sept. I had a private class and we did our openwater dives in the Gulf. We dove the Rube Allen artifical reef off of Clearwater Beach. It is mostly the rubble of the old Bay Bridge. In 40' of water, the massive rubble climbs within 15' of the surface. It has swim throughs and lots of nooks and crannies to swim and peer into. Lots of large Mangrove Snapper hiding in the holes. On these two days, makerel were crashing the bait pods that were so thick when they were overhead it was dark as night. Tons of bait fish were everywhere, green backs, threadfin, glass minnows all turning as one when approached by a diver or a hungry fish. Above the bait pods were Barracuda, Little Tuney, Blue Runners and jacks of various types. Even more fun were the numerous Loggerhead Turtles that seemed to be surfacing around our boat all day. Two underwater encounters face-to-face with Loggerheads topped off the day.

On the 11th of this month I went out with Ben Pitta and John Erhardt on my old boat (now Ben's) to the Checkerboard area 270 degrees of of Anclote Island in North Pinellas County. The area is called Checkerboard because there is so many areas to dive in that 5 mile square area. Our first dive was in the 70 plus depths, water temp. 82, viz 40' plus. Not many fish here, saw a nurse shark and a few Mangrove snapper.

On the 2nd dive I had to stay up having only 23 minutes of bottom time. While on the boat alone, I noticed a curious dolphin nearby so jumped into the water with mask and fins. It approached with in 3 feet of me and for 30 minutes, mimicked my every activity. If I dove, it dove, when I surfaced, it surfaced. The first diver up was Ben and the dolphin decided he was more fun than I. It circled Ben and Ben never saw him until he was at the back of the boat. I was laughing at the surprise that the dolphin gave Ben, his head snapped back and a cloud of exhaled bubbles covered the water above Ben's head. After a few moments John came up the anchor line and Ben lead the dolphin over to him. When John turned around and saw the dolphin upright in the water, more head snapping and bubbles. I was laughing until my sides hurt. The dolphin played with them in the water for over 20 minutes and came back a couple of times once the boys were out of the water urging them to jump back in and snorkel with him for another 10 minutes...

We took a couple of surface photos of the dolphin: (Click to Enlarge)

http://www.scubatampa.com/images/dolphin11.11.02.jpg
http://www.scubatampa.com/images/jedolphin.jpg

John Erhardt and Dolphin ~ Click to Enlarge!

Our next dive was in the 40' area and there were lots of fish; grouper, snapper and hog fish. I took two 25' grouper, three hogfish and a mangrove snapper. The end of another perfect day on the Gulf!

I will be diving the Gulf off of Clearwater every Wednesday throughout the summer so come join me.
I will be diving Crystal River every weekend and more and more manatees are showing up every weekend.

Please check my 3 month calendar to keep up with what I am doing and plan a dive with me ~ check: http://www.scubatampa.com/calendar.html

**SKIN DIVER MAGAZINE FOLDS**

No doubt many in the dive industry were shocked to learn that Skin Diver went under, but the demise of America’s first national scuba publication came as no surprise to Percy Harrington, Editor of scuba consumer advocate IN-DEPTH.

Over a year ago, as Skin Diver celebrated its 50th anniversary, Harrington predicted it would be dead within 18 months, and that other scuba publications would meet the same fate as the influence of print magazines continues to wane.

"The scuba industry is experiencing revolutionary changes as millions of dive consumers worldwide turn to the net as their primary source of information about diving, their discount scuba equipment store and their 'dive operator direct' travel agent," explained Harrington.

“The future of scuba publishing belongs to those who build the best scuba portal sites, and thus far, there is no indication the print magazines will be a significant part of that future.”

For more of Harrington’s observations on why Skin Diver went under, read “Skin Diver Goes Belly Up” at http://www.cdnn.info/industry/i021009/i021009.html (Reprint Cyber Diver News Network)

**DIVE CALENDAR**

Information on Dive Classes, Dive Trips and related information can be found at my new page at; http://www.scubatampa.com/calendar.html This calendar is up-dated daily so bookmark it an visit often to stay up-to-date.

Open Water Class Schedules for October - December 2002: http://www.scubatampa.com/calendar.html

Manatee Snorkel/Dive $30.00/$50.00 per person, one tank dive and snorkeling with the Manatees. Manatee Dive info at http://www.scubatampa.com/manatee.html

**CHRISTMAS GEAR **

Let us review your Christmas Wish List. We handle Zeagle, Dacor, SeaQuest, US Divers, AB Biller, JBL and many others... we will meet or beat any advertised price on new warranted products, plus we offer a one year in-shop warranty on used gear and customer satisfaction guarantee.

**COOL WEB SITES**

Find the Flaw ~ Go to the website below and a picture of a dining room will appear. Try to find the hidden flaw study each of the objects closely to see if you can spot the hidden flaw. It might take a minute but once you see it you'll feel dumb that you didn't see it right away. Before starting, if you turn your volume up, you can hear clues in the background. Also, if you get close and stare at the screen, it becomes easier to spot. Beat my record of 49 seconds go to: http://home.attbi.com/~n9ivo/whatswrong.swf

Spearfishing Magazine Online ~ for the spearfishing sportsman go to: http://www.spearfishingmagazine.com

The World in Lights ~ Check the link below...The image is a panoramic view of the world from the new space station. It is a night photo with the lights clearly indicating the populated areas. You can scroll East-West and North-South. Note that Canada's population is almost exclusively along the U.S. border. Moving east to Europe, there is a high population concentration along the Mediterranean Coast. It's easy to spot London,Paris, Stockholm and Vienna. Check out the development of Israel compared to the rest of the Arab countries. Note the Nile River and the rest of the "Dark Continent". After the Nile, the lights don't come on again until Johannesburg. Look at the Australian Outback and the Trans-Siberian Rail Route. Moving east, the most striking observation is the difference between North and South Korea. Note the density of Japan. What a piece of photography. It is an absolutely awesome picture of the Earth taken from the Boeing built Space Station last November on a perfect night with no obscuring atmospheric conditions. Go to: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/earthlights_dmsp_big.jpg

PayPAL -- Send money via check or credit cards on-line to any e-mail address. It's easy, free and secure. I am a member. Join now and get $5.00. Contact: PayPal ~ Send and Receive Money On-line:
https://www.paypal.com/refer/pal=john.r3%40ix.netcom.com

Previous Newsletters ~ Last month's newsletter go to: http://www.scubatampa.com/nl.08.02.html Raising the Monitor.

Tanks, BCing you!

SUNSATION DIVE CHARTERS

Captain John L. Russell 3, Tampa, Florida
PADI MSDT 40957, MDEA MI 2098
813-966-6525 (Office)

Please visit my Florida Scuba Diving Website, Bookmark it and Visit
Often! http://www.scubatampa.com

Have a Scuba Website? Join the Promote Scuba Webring!
http://www.scubatampa.com/promote.html

PayPal ~ Send and Receive Money On-line:
https://www.paypal.com/refer/pal=john.r3%40ix.netcom.com

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