Weekend Offshore Report - Panama City

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Currents get pretty unpredictable(different directions and intensity) around the Alabama Point Jetties, I'd imagine its the same in PCB. Probably better to let the students swim the surface

 

[jviehe]

Yes, that cut through. I usually go by depth also, but Im not always at the sand. And with students in tow, itd just be much easier to have some sort of landmark to reference. How about painting a big white line from the sand up to the surface

Ive actually seen instructors take a morring bouy to the sand just in front of the cut, and run a line from the cut down the rocks to it.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Our first dive, we tied the flag off to a boulder directly adjascent to our entry. Worked pretty well.

 

[mike_s]

Yes, that cut through. I usually go by depth also, but Im not always at the sand. And with students in tow, itd just be much easier to have some sort of landmark to reference. How about painting a big white line from the sand up to the surface

Ive actually seen instructors take a morring bouy to the sand just in front of the cut, and run a line from the cut down the rocks to it.

I thought about folks putting bouy/marker at that point, but someone could mess with that....

how about seeing if the park service will put in a large painted orange or white rock there..... (of course that will/might get covered with algae also). Maybe a sign is a good idea. Low profile to stand up in high currents. You should be able to pile drive it into the sand on a iron post with damaging anything.

 

[Biggen]

how about seeing if the park service will put in a large painted orange or white rock there..... (of course that will/might get covered with algae also). Maybe a sign is a good idea. Low profile to stand up in high currents. You should be able to pile drive it into the sand on a iron post with damaging anything.

Getting the park to "ok" anything like that could take a year and a day at least. If I was wanting to do something like this, I'd just do it myself without any permission. What about filling a 5 gallon bucket full of concrete and putting the sign and post in that. Let it set, then haul it out there with a couple of people in the evening. You could then even tie or chain off the bucket to a rock to keep it even more secure... Just a thought...

 

[Wayward Son]

You could prolly tie off a thick rope & make a marker that could be found at any depth, so long as you were over the rocks.

 

[Biggen]

I'm willing to help if we figure out a "game plan". I'd be willing to pitch it to get a sign made and even help install it out there... We just need to figure out the best approach to make sure it stays there once it's installed...

 

[Wayward Son]

Take 2 bricko blocks & maybe 30 or 40 ft of white nylon rope at least 1 inch diameter. Put 1 block down on the kiddie pool side of the rocks, tie the rope to it. Take the 2dn block, swim straight out & down until you hit the sand. Set down the block, tie off the rope.

 

[Biggen]

Take 2 bricko blocks & maybe 30 or 40 ft of white nylon rope at least 1 inch diameter. Put 1 block down on the kiddie pool side of the rocks, tie the rope to it. Take the 2dn block, swim straight out & down until you hit the sand. Set down the block, tie off the rope.

I think tourists and other people in the kiddie pool side would screw around with the block there or even cut the rope. I think a better idea would to be just have a sign on the pass side of the rocks. Tourists rarely go out there anymore since they put up those buoys and floats after that little girl got killed there last year. The only people that would even know it was there would be us divers...

 

[Wayward Son]

So put the 1st block on the channel side of the rocks, it's really only important when exiting, not going in. Sometimes the viz is crap, seems like a sign could be real easy to miss when that happens. last dive, the viz down low was OK, but when we ended the dive the last 10 feet at that cut had maybe 10 foot viz at best.