SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
My original plans to head into the panhandle to dive various caves fell through by Friday afternoon and my weekend opened up. Three day weekend, with Saturday eaten up by work, Sunday by bad weather. Monday's here, its Labor Day, certainly there's some trouble to get into... for cheap.
DogHouseDiver shot me an email a little while back about another paddlewheeler along the river, not far from Highway 90. Its said to be one of the most pristine and preserved specimens of a "walking beam steam engined sidewheeler" in existance. We loaded up the boat with light gear, as this would be a scouting mission, and we were packed into the Miss Jellyfish with DogHouseDiver as well as his wife Ann and her son Jeff. Four people bloated, the Miss Jellyfish lumbered down the waters, launching on Perdido River and heading downstream, to yet another waterway and back upstream this new watery highway. After a few miles, we passed another boatlaunch(dunno if its private or public), and then DHD spotted the hub of one of the sidewheels. The hub protruded above the water line and made for an easy landmark to spot. We circled the wreckage, which is incredibly intact, then tied into a piling nearby. The freshwater has protected this wreck from corrosion and the relatively calm waters have left it intact, a stark difference to wrecks found in the saltwaters just south of this area. Between the wave action and saltwater eating away at the metals, most of the wrecks in saltwater definately have a smaller, finite, lifespan. We didn't come completely empty handed, so we masked up, and DogHouseDiver and I rolled into the water. We snorkeled around a bit. The water visibility varied on depth, along with water temperture. The first 10' of water had about 4-5' visibility, but below that and the water warmed up noticably and visibility dropped to less than 3'. The steam engine and walking beam are intact. The boilers are intact. The A-frames and paddles are mostly intact. The hull and rudder are intact. There's alot to explore here and we have plans to come back next weekend with tanks to have a bit more fun. The boats better than 100' long and nearly 30' wide.
We left the paddlewheeler, headed off to a nearby island and dropped off some passengers. I took Jeff, then later Ann, for a little tour of the north side of Perdido Bay. The Miss Jellyfish was unleashed, with only two people on her, she can fly. Unfortunately, the clouds were building, and getting dark. We could see rain in the distance, so loaded back up, and headed back to the boatlaunch... at a snails pace.
We've had goodluck this far, why not continue on? After a great lunch at El Rodeo in Robertsdale, we headed South, through several nasty storms. By the time we got to Gulf Shores, we cleared through the rain, but had a nasty rain storm just East of us, and heading our way. We made it to the West Beach Paddlewheeler just in time to see the rains come over, and the torrents started. There was no lightning, so we through the masks back on and hit the water. We probably wouldn't have bothered, but the water was looking quite nice. Great turqouise waters with small shin-high surf beckoned a dip. We only had snorkel gear, but that was plenty. The warm gulf waters offered sanctuary to the chilly rains, and we headed out. We actually overshot the wreck at first, but after a bit of backpedalling, we were directly above it. Visibility was 10', no thermoclines, no nasty layers of crappy water. Lots of fish were swimming around including the usual suspects like spades, flounder, sheephead, mangrove snapper, damsels, and pigfish. We snorkeled until our recent lunches threatened to make a reappearance and we called the "dive".
Ann took these photos at the West Beach Paddlewheeler while we snorkeled out.
Great weekend, two different paddlewheelers, both close to home, and all in a single day.
DogHouseDiver shot me an email a little while back about another paddlewheeler along the river, not far from Highway 90. Its said to be one of the most pristine and preserved specimens of a "walking beam steam engined sidewheeler" in existance. We loaded up the boat with light gear, as this would be a scouting mission, and we were packed into the Miss Jellyfish with DogHouseDiver as well as his wife Ann and her son Jeff. Four people bloated, the Miss Jellyfish lumbered down the waters, launching on Perdido River and heading downstream, to yet another waterway and back upstream this new watery highway. After a few miles, we passed another boatlaunch(dunno if its private or public), and then DHD spotted the hub of one of the sidewheels. The hub protruded above the water line and made for an easy landmark to spot. We circled the wreckage, which is incredibly intact, then tied into a piling nearby. The freshwater has protected this wreck from corrosion and the relatively calm waters have left it intact, a stark difference to wrecks found in the saltwaters just south of this area. Between the wave action and saltwater eating away at the metals, most of the wrecks in saltwater definately have a smaller, finite, lifespan. We didn't come completely empty handed, so we masked up, and DogHouseDiver and I rolled into the water. We snorkeled around a bit. The water visibility varied on depth, along with water temperture. The first 10' of water had about 4-5' visibility, but below that and the water warmed up noticably and visibility dropped to less than 3'. The steam engine and walking beam are intact. The boilers are intact. The A-frames and paddles are mostly intact. The hull and rudder are intact. There's alot to explore here and we have plans to come back next weekend with tanks to have a bit more fun. The boats better than 100' long and nearly 30' wide.
We left the paddlewheeler, headed off to a nearby island and dropped off some passengers. I took Jeff, then later Ann, for a little tour of the north side of Perdido Bay. The Miss Jellyfish was unleashed, with only two people on her, she can fly. Unfortunately, the clouds were building, and getting dark. We could see rain in the distance, so loaded back up, and headed back to the boatlaunch... at a snails pace.
We've had goodluck this far, why not continue on? After a great lunch at El Rodeo in Robertsdale, we headed South, through several nasty storms. By the time we got to Gulf Shores, we cleared through the rain, but had a nasty rain storm just East of us, and heading our way. We made it to the West Beach Paddlewheeler just in time to see the rains come over, and the torrents started. There was no lightning, so we through the masks back on and hit the water. We probably wouldn't have bothered, but the water was looking quite nice. Great turqouise waters with small shin-high surf beckoned a dip. We only had snorkel gear, but that was plenty. The warm gulf waters offered sanctuary to the chilly rains, and we headed out. We actually overshot the wreck at first, but after a bit of backpedalling, we were directly above it. Visibility was 10', no thermoclines, no nasty layers of crappy water. Lots of fish were swimming around including the usual suspects like spades, flounder, sheephead, mangrove snapper, damsels, and pigfish. We snorkeled until our recent lunches threatened to make a reappearance and we called the "dive".
Ann took these photos at the West Beach Paddlewheeler while we snorkeled out.
Great weekend, two different paddlewheelers, both close to home, and all in a single day.
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