SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
Philmotrek and I intended on diving the Whiskey Wreck in Gulf Shores(AL) with a possible dive at Alabama Point Jetties afterwards, but conditions didn't exactly allow. Conditions were great Friday evening with >5' visibility and little surf, however, the winds poured in from the East and the surf was running chest high by Sunday morning with the bottom turned up nicely.
Off we went to Morrison to salvage the day.
We arrived onsite around Noonish to find a few classes in the water along with a few dive groups already diving. There were also a half dozen boats trolling around the spring basin and spring run. There were atleast 4 dive flags out and it seemed to have gotten the boaters attention as they were trolling around slowly.
We headed into the cavern right off the bat during our first dive and explored it until we killed a third of our tanks. We maxed out at 89'. The cavern gnome had been moved, but I put him back in his place. The bowling ball is no longer bobbing in the fissure, its now half buried in a bunch of rubble within the fissure. Dunno if the bobbing of the ball itself caused the cave in or if there were some forcefull helping involved. We checked out the smaller cavern breifly and explored the basin before heading the easternmost portion of the basin and worked our way counterclockwise to the entry point. Dive lasted a bit over 30 minutes and visibility was anywhere between 30-50' depending on how many people were in the water and what part of the basin we were in. The cavern was gin clear as always.
philmotrek had an icechest full of munchies, so our hour long SI was enjoyable. Bananas, oatmeal cookies, Gatorade, and Mountain Dew - good stuff.
Our second dive started off in the cavern as well, again exploring around until a third of our tanks had been used up. Once we finished up in the cavern we headed down the spring run and almost immediately got buzzed by a motorboat racing by, yeah, we were towing a flag. After a few hundred yards down the spring run we turned the dive and headed back in. I saw a school of striped bass about 150 yards from the spring, a first for me at this site. We also saw pike, carp, and the other more common residents(bass, bream, ect). We were buzzed by atleast one other boat on the trip, they were moving pretty fast too. I maxed out at 90' in the cavern and the entire dive lasted a bit short of an hour.
We had alotta fun despite not diving our intended sites. No UW pics, I had planned on spearing a few flounder in the gulf so I didn't bring my UW camera case. I do have a few surface shots I'll post later.
Off we went to Morrison to salvage the day.
We arrived onsite around Noonish to find a few classes in the water along with a few dive groups already diving. There were also a half dozen boats trolling around the spring basin and spring run. There were atleast 4 dive flags out and it seemed to have gotten the boaters attention as they were trolling around slowly.
We headed into the cavern right off the bat during our first dive and explored it until we killed a third of our tanks. We maxed out at 89'. The cavern gnome had been moved, but I put him back in his place. The bowling ball is no longer bobbing in the fissure, its now half buried in a bunch of rubble within the fissure. Dunno if the bobbing of the ball itself caused the cave in or if there were some forcefull helping involved. We checked out the smaller cavern breifly and explored the basin before heading the easternmost portion of the basin and worked our way counterclockwise to the entry point. Dive lasted a bit over 30 minutes and visibility was anywhere between 30-50' depending on how many people were in the water and what part of the basin we were in. The cavern was gin clear as always.
philmotrek had an icechest full of munchies, so our hour long SI was enjoyable. Bananas, oatmeal cookies, Gatorade, and Mountain Dew - good stuff.
Our second dive started off in the cavern as well, again exploring around until a third of our tanks had been used up. Once we finished up in the cavern we headed down the spring run and almost immediately got buzzed by a motorboat racing by, yeah, we were towing a flag. After a few hundred yards down the spring run we turned the dive and headed back in. I saw a school of striped bass about 150 yards from the spring, a first for me at this site. We also saw pike, carp, and the other more common residents(bass, bream, ect). We were buzzed by atleast one other boat on the trip, they were moving pretty fast too. I maxed out at 90' in the cavern and the entire dive lasted a bit short of an hour.
We had alotta fun despite not diving our intended sites. No UW pics, I had planned on spearing a few flounder in the gulf so I didn't bring my UW camera case. I do have a few surface shots I'll post later.
Didn't dive it, but I've seen it! I have dove it in some pretty flooded conditions and still had a blast there. Its gotta be my favorite single spring.
