wjefferis
Contributor
Today (September 10th) I made it out to Ft. Pickens and met up with Denisegg, DocCarl, and GlenFWB for a dive at low tide. This was Denises first dive back since her incident at Jackson Blue and I was really happy to get to dive with her again. Glen wasnt diving today due to sinus issues so we just shot the bull for a while and caught up.
We soon geared up and made it to the water and I was happy to see that the water was quite clear with only a slight brown tinge to it. Visibility averaged 15 feet throughout the dive (nice for a low tide dive). I kept an eye on Denise and gave her an ok check here and there. Denise looked great during the dive and appeared to be very relaxed. We took the grand tour of the site and had a nice relaxing dive lasting right at an hour.
We took an hour surface interval and splashed for dive number two. Visibility averaged 10 feet, but was a little better in spots. This time we started off going to the West. I was taking my time and looking amongst the rocks and found an octopus hanging out. We stopped there for a while and checked him out. From there we pretty much followed a similar route as dive number one. On the way back to the tire/cage I was checking out the nooks and crannies of the rocks and wasnt paying much attention to my surroundings. When I picked my head up just a bit to see what was ahead I saw that I was right next to a southern stingray. The ray must have noticed at the same time and shot off (startled the heck out of me). I dont think I have cursed that loud through my regulator in a while. After retrieving my dive flag we took our time checking out the shallow part of the rocks on our way up. We ended up with a dive lasting 71 minutes.
After the dive he headed over to Peg Leg Petes and had a great Cajun grouper sandwich. I was really happy for Denise that everything worked out so well and that she had no problems what-so-ever on her first dives back (the egg is back!!!). You go girl!! :wave:
On the drive from Ft. Pickens to Peg Leg Petes I noticed that the gulf looked really nice and flat as well as had a pretty emerald blue hue to it. I really wanted to check out the Pensacola Pier Rubble, but just didnt think I would have the time. After saying goodbye to Denise, Doccarl and I were going to head back towards Pensacola for some fills. I couldnt resist parking in the beach parking lot to check out the conditions. DocCarl was smiling when he got out of his car and was thinking the same thing as me. After checking out the conditions we decided to make a go of it. We entered the water and surface swam out to the site. The water at the beach was crystal clear, unfortunately there was an algae bloom on the bottom of the water between the first and second sandbar that was mucking the water up. We however still had at least 5 to 7 feet of visibility. The rocks are still covered (except a few here and there), but the pilings are nice and exposed. We saw three Southern Stingrays as well as some Blue Crabs, Rock Crabs, Sergeant Majors, Beaugregories, wrasse, a Robin Fish, and a few others I cant remember. Although the highlight for me was seeing this one piling that had the most amount of blennies on it that I had ever seen. It looked like this piling was the blenny hotel. We didnt stay too long as I had some errands to run, but we ended up with a 30 minute dive. It was great to get another dive in and definitely cool to dive with DocCarl today. I had a wonderful time today and look forward to getting over to Morrison Springs this coming Friday.
Thanks Denise and DocCarl for a great day of diving!!!!! :scubadive:
We soon geared up and made it to the water and I was happy to see that the water was quite clear with only a slight brown tinge to it. Visibility averaged 15 feet throughout the dive (nice for a low tide dive). I kept an eye on Denise and gave her an ok check here and there. Denise looked great during the dive and appeared to be very relaxed. We took the grand tour of the site and had a nice relaxing dive lasting right at an hour.
We took an hour surface interval and splashed for dive number two. Visibility averaged 10 feet, but was a little better in spots. This time we started off going to the West. I was taking my time and looking amongst the rocks and found an octopus hanging out. We stopped there for a while and checked him out. From there we pretty much followed a similar route as dive number one. On the way back to the tire/cage I was checking out the nooks and crannies of the rocks and wasnt paying much attention to my surroundings. When I picked my head up just a bit to see what was ahead I saw that I was right next to a southern stingray. The ray must have noticed at the same time and shot off (startled the heck out of me). I dont think I have cursed that loud through my regulator in a while. After retrieving my dive flag we took our time checking out the shallow part of the rocks on our way up. We ended up with a dive lasting 71 minutes.
After the dive he headed over to Peg Leg Petes and had a great Cajun grouper sandwich. I was really happy for Denise that everything worked out so well and that she had no problems what-so-ever on her first dives back (the egg is back!!!). You go girl!! :wave:
On the drive from Ft. Pickens to Peg Leg Petes I noticed that the gulf looked really nice and flat as well as had a pretty emerald blue hue to it. I really wanted to check out the Pensacola Pier Rubble, but just didnt think I would have the time. After saying goodbye to Denise, Doccarl and I were going to head back towards Pensacola for some fills. I couldnt resist parking in the beach parking lot to check out the conditions. DocCarl was smiling when he got out of his car and was thinking the same thing as me. After checking out the conditions we decided to make a go of it. We entered the water and surface swam out to the site. The water at the beach was crystal clear, unfortunately there was an algae bloom on the bottom of the water between the first and second sandbar that was mucking the water up. We however still had at least 5 to 7 feet of visibility. The rocks are still covered (except a few here and there), but the pilings are nice and exposed. We saw three Southern Stingrays as well as some Blue Crabs, Rock Crabs, Sergeant Majors, Beaugregories, wrasse, a Robin Fish, and a few others I cant remember. Although the highlight for me was seeing this one piling that had the most amount of blennies on it that I had ever seen. It looked like this piling was the blenny hotel. We didnt stay too long as I had some errands to run, but we ended up with a 30 minute dive. It was great to get another dive in and definitely cool to dive with DocCarl today. I had a wonderful time today and look forward to getting over to Morrison Springs this coming Friday.
Thanks Denise and DocCarl for a great day of diving!!!!! :scubadive: