SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
With a meet time of 7PM, I was onsite at Bahama Bobs by 6:20PMish to find cmufieldhockey8 already onsite as well. Amadus and Halftime weren't far behind and it seemed as though everyone would be ready for an early start. It was a bit stormy earlier, but the clouds cleaned up a bit and stuck to the higher altitudes by the time we were ready to dive. Air temps in the upper 80sF, the rain earlier helped cool things down. The gulf was glassy and smooth, and the sandbars were easily visible from the surface. Also noticable were the thick lines of seaweed and algae along the surfline.
Once we hit the water, visibility seemed quite good and the seaweed wasn't nearly as thick past the surfline. Water tempertures were around 80-82F, quite comfortable in a dive skin. Early on in the dive, visibility was a solid 15' with stretchs of 20' in areas. After about an hour of diving, visibility dropped to 10-15' or so, nothing to complain about. There was quite a bit of life out. Pinfish, pigfish, and spadefish were the most prominant schooling fish on the site. Blennies covered the barnacles, damsels, sandfish, kingfish, filefish, flounder, searobins, catfish, and mangroves were also seen around. Couple of rays were onsite, the southern rays and electric skates, some with their own remoras. There were atleast 3 dinner plate sized octopii on the wreck, out in the open and hunting. Amadus and I also witnessed two of them interact(maybe getting it on?). There were also several smaller ones to be seen. A high point for me was spotting another stargazer, crazy looking fish, I don't run across them too often. Jellyfish were present, but not entirely too thick to avoid for the most part.
Sand has washed into the entirety of the inside of the wreck, covering the ballast stones that used to make up its inside bottom. The southside(port) of the hull is nearly completely covered. Sand has also pushed into the East side(stern) section and filled in the rudder to where it connects into the hull. We didn't venture much on the West end, but there is still a few pieces of rubble visible, but not as much as 6 months ago. The northside(starboard) of the wreck is still very much uncovered, maybe a bit more-so than my last dive there in early July.
It was a great dive. Amadus and I ended up with a 2 hour and 7 minute bottom time with a max depth of 14'. The spearfishing bug has also hit Amadus after he knifed 3-4 flounder onsite.
Post dive debriefing took place at Hooters over some wings(or burgers) and coldbeer. Great times with great dive buddies, I can't wait for the next dive!
Once we hit the water, visibility seemed quite good and the seaweed wasn't nearly as thick past the surfline. Water tempertures were around 80-82F, quite comfortable in a dive skin. Early on in the dive, visibility was a solid 15' with stretchs of 20' in areas. After about an hour of diving, visibility dropped to 10-15' or so, nothing to complain about. There was quite a bit of life out. Pinfish, pigfish, and spadefish were the most prominant schooling fish on the site. Blennies covered the barnacles, damsels, sandfish, kingfish, filefish, flounder, searobins, catfish, and mangroves were also seen around. Couple of rays were onsite, the southern rays and electric skates, some with their own remoras. There were atleast 3 dinner plate sized octopii on the wreck, out in the open and hunting. Amadus and I also witnessed two of them interact(maybe getting it on?). There were also several smaller ones to be seen. A high point for me was spotting another stargazer, crazy looking fish, I don't run across them too often. Jellyfish were present, but not entirely too thick to avoid for the most part.
Sand has washed into the entirety of the inside of the wreck, covering the ballast stones that used to make up its inside bottom. The southside(port) of the hull is nearly completely covered. Sand has also pushed into the East side(stern) section and filled in the rudder to where it connects into the hull. We didn't venture much on the West end, but there is still a few pieces of rubble visible, but not as much as 6 months ago. The northside(starboard) of the wreck is still very much uncovered, maybe a bit more-so than my last dive there in early July.
It was a great dive. Amadus and I ended up with a 2 hour and 7 minute bottom time with a max depth of 14'. The spearfishing bug has also hit Amadus after he knifed 3-4 flounder onsite.
Post dive debriefing took place at Hooters over some wings(or burgers) and coldbeer. Great times with great dive buddies, I can't wait for the next dive!
