Hetland
Contributor
I met up with Recharge, MrXRay and Ted (tedfirediver, I think) at Team Recharge Headquarters for an early start Saturday. We cleared the pass to find flat calm water. There was hardly a ripple in sight, so we made good time out to the wrecks. Once we got to the numbers we were diving, we figured out that the surface current was screaming. I'd guess it was at least two knots. After some difficulty getting into position, we dropped anchor smack in the middle of the Knicklebine Barge for a perfect set (The Knicklebine is a 117-foot long barge sunk in 2003) Barry and I got busy with the tag line, dive flag, and other pre-dive chores while Larry and Ted finished gearing up.
Everyone had difficulty getting past the current. It was hand-over-hand from dive ladder to about 60ft. This is pretty unusual (but nor unheard of), as heavy currents usually only last for the first twenty feet or so before dropping off. There were layers of bad to worse viz, and a thermocline somewhere around 50ft, but the viz opened up nicely at the bottom to around 50, and despite the muck layers on top, the blazing sun was still able to get a decent bit of light down to us.
This was my first time diving the Knicklebine Barge. It has high sides, but is totally open in the middle, with a single wall open to the Gulf, sort of like a huge bathtub with one end piece missing. The description doesn't sound like much, but I found the habitat rich with life on all sides.
I could have done two dives here, and not been bored, but my mission was to put meat in the freezer, so I made a circuit of the exterior, with one eye on the wreck (looking for shovelnose lobster) and the other eye in the sand (looking for flounder). There really was tons to see, but I had gotten some sunscreen in my eyes, and I spent the first third of my bottom time trying to get my eyes to focus past the irritation. I made it to the open end of the wreck, and saw Barry stringing his third flounder. In my experience, Flounder usually hold on one side of a wreck or the other. I searched the area around Barry, but didn't see a fourth, so I moved on. Once inside the wreck, I shot a bigeye that measured out at 18", and continued (unsuccessfully) to look for lobster. I did see a tiny lionfish, but he was in the wreck, and I didn't feel like I could have shot him in a safe manner. Because I had burned about 800psi getting to the bottom, and because this is a deeper wreck (124ft), the dive didn't last too long. I unhooked us a little early because I wanted extra gas in reserve for dealing with the heavy current. Interestingly, the trip back on board the boat was super-fast and easy, as the current worked to our advantage for the return.
Our next drop was on the Penn Hall Reef. I'm not a huge fan of concrete rubble, but it had been a while since I had dove any, so I was willing to keep my preferences to myself. Everyone thought it was our first time diving this site, but I recognized it once I was down. This is one of the better rubble piles, and we had a fair bit of life in almost every nook and cranny, including two types of moray eels, several frisky octopuses, and fish of all types. We shot flounder, mangrove snapper and a vermilion snapper at this site.
One of the risks of diving large rubble piles (and this is a big one) is that it's easier to get lost on a rubble pile than say, on a wreck, that has a front, back, and two sides. This particular rubble pile has unique features, and so, if you pay attention to the structure, it's not too hard to keep your orientation. You can imagine our surprise then, when Barry and I got to the end of the reef where the anchor was, and found it missing. Usually this means that someone pulled the anchor, but we knew with the current the way it was, that Captain Larry wouldn't have pulled the anchor. We gained altitude, and searched the area, but the anchor was just gone (we found out later that the current had pulled the anchor about 100ft off our original mark).
After a few minutes of fruitless searching, I was starting to get low on gas, so I grabbed my reel, and watched as Barry simultaneously prepped his lift bag for inflation. We got everything set, and shot the bag. The bag would mark our position at the surface so that Larry and Ted could follow. The line would allow us to ascend at a safe rate, and stick together as we performed our stops. Barry made an extended stop because he was approaching deco, and I surfaced because I was lower on gas (but diving a richer mix, so not so close to deco). On the surface I saw that Ted and Larry had already started pulling anchor, and signaled that we were okay, and awaiting pickup.
Back on the boat we put the fish in the cooler, and prepped for our return home. Debrief was at the wonderful Fuji Steakhouse for sushi and a bento box. Despite the open-water ascent and ripping current, it really was an almost perfect day out on the water. I say almost, because it needed to be about 20 degrees cooler
Some Pics:
Everyone had difficulty getting past the current. It was hand-over-hand from dive ladder to about 60ft. This is pretty unusual (but nor unheard of), as heavy currents usually only last for the first twenty feet or so before dropping off. There were layers of bad to worse viz, and a thermocline somewhere around 50ft, but the viz opened up nicely at the bottom to around 50, and despite the muck layers on top, the blazing sun was still able to get a decent bit of light down to us.
This was my first time diving the Knicklebine Barge. It has high sides, but is totally open in the middle, with a single wall open to the Gulf, sort of like a huge bathtub with one end piece missing. The description doesn't sound like much, but I found the habitat rich with life on all sides.
I could have done two dives here, and not been bored, but my mission was to put meat in the freezer, so I made a circuit of the exterior, with one eye on the wreck (looking for shovelnose lobster) and the other eye in the sand (looking for flounder). There really was tons to see, but I had gotten some sunscreen in my eyes, and I spent the first third of my bottom time trying to get my eyes to focus past the irritation. I made it to the open end of the wreck, and saw Barry stringing his third flounder. In my experience, Flounder usually hold on one side of a wreck or the other. I searched the area around Barry, but didn't see a fourth, so I moved on. Once inside the wreck, I shot a bigeye that measured out at 18", and continued (unsuccessfully) to look for lobster. I did see a tiny lionfish, but he was in the wreck, and I didn't feel like I could have shot him in a safe manner. Because I had burned about 800psi getting to the bottom, and because this is a deeper wreck (124ft), the dive didn't last too long. I unhooked us a little early because I wanted extra gas in reserve for dealing with the heavy current. Interestingly, the trip back on board the boat was super-fast and easy, as the current worked to our advantage for the return.
Our next drop was on the Penn Hall Reef. I'm not a huge fan of concrete rubble, but it had been a while since I had dove any, so I was willing to keep my preferences to myself. Everyone thought it was our first time diving this site, but I recognized it once I was down. This is one of the better rubble piles, and we had a fair bit of life in almost every nook and cranny, including two types of moray eels, several frisky octopuses, and fish of all types. We shot flounder, mangrove snapper and a vermilion snapper at this site.
One of the risks of diving large rubble piles (and this is a big one) is that it's easier to get lost on a rubble pile than say, on a wreck, that has a front, back, and two sides. This particular rubble pile has unique features, and so, if you pay attention to the structure, it's not too hard to keep your orientation. You can imagine our surprise then, when Barry and I got to the end of the reef where the anchor was, and found it missing. Usually this means that someone pulled the anchor, but we knew with the current the way it was, that Captain Larry wouldn't have pulled the anchor. We gained altitude, and searched the area, but the anchor was just gone (we found out later that the current had pulled the anchor about 100ft off our original mark).
After a few minutes of fruitless searching, I was starting to get low on gas, so I grabbed my reel, and watched as Barry simultaneously prepped his lift bag for inflation. We got everything set, and shot the bag. The bag would mark our position at the surface so that Larry and Ted could follow. The line would allow us to ascend at a safe rate, and stick together as we performed our stops. Barry made an extended stop because he was approaching deco, and I surfaced because I was lower on gas (but diving a richer mix, so not so close to deco). On the surface I saw that Ted and Larry had already started pulling anchor, and signaled that we were okay, and awaiting pickup.
Back on the boat we put the fish in the cooler, and prepped for our return home. Debrief was at the wonderful Fuji Steakhouse for sushi and a bento box. Despite the open-water ascent and ripping current, it really was an almost perfect day out on the water. I say almost, because it needed to be about 20 degrees cooler
Some Pics:
was hanging on with both hands on the safety stop.My theory is the gravitational
