Panama City 22nd or 23rd?

What do you guys think conditions will be like in Panama City this weekend? I was going to be down there with family and thinking about diving. The two dive shops I called had different opinions. One said there is no way it is going to happen they are expecting 6-8' seas. And the other one was booking trips and saying maybe. It is very hard to believe that when the hurricane is off the tip of cuba sat about 650 miles from PC that it will cause seas to get 8'. Is anyone else thinking about diving this area this weekend?

Doesn't look good, might turn out better. Depends on what Wilma does.

You can check NOAA here:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/zone/south/taemz.htm

Click on the pink section. Right now it says:

SATURDAY
NORTH WIND 10 TO 15 KNOTS INCREASING TO 20 KNOTS.
SEAS 5 TO 7 FEET. PROTECTED WATERS CHOPPY. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS
AND THUNDERSTORMS.

SUNDAY
NORTH WIND 20 TO 25 KNOTS DECREASING TO 20 KNOTS. SEAS
6 TO 8 FEET. PROTECTED WATERS ROUGH.

Small sets are already rolling into the northern Gulf Coast, it may interupt my beach dive tonight already.

Anytime a swirly thing gets anywhere into the Gulf, it affects the entire coastline. These are big storms, with big waves, and big inconveniences.

Hold off a week and goto the Megadive in High Springs on Halloween weekend.

Ninja Edit: Called the surf report this afternoon and they updated the report saying there is chest high sets with occasional head high peaks. Its only Thursday and the 'cane is near Cancuun - it'll only get bigger this weekend when it actually gets further into the Gulf.

The surf report also mentioned that there has been more symptoms of red tide showing back up since this morning as the surf has been building(getting blown back inland after the north wind had blown it out?). Visibility off the beach has dimished obviously.

No beach dive for me tonight - damn!

Suprbugman,

I have seen you make a couple of posts about cypress. Where is it located and is is accessible by car?

Its located in between Vernon and whatever town is North-East of Vernon(can't remember off the top of my head - couple beers aren't jogging my memory either). Its no longer accessible by land, which has been bought up by a water bottling company and they keep it private. You gotta get there by small boat or canoe/kayak. Its off of Holmes Creek.

I can give you fairly specific directions to the nearest boat launch and landmarks to get you to the spring itself - if you're interested.

That is what I thought. We do not have a canoe or boat. What is the closest spring to morrison besides vortex? I will be visiting morrison tomorrow morning and wanted to dive another spring down that way that I have not been in yet.

Have you ever been to Magnolia (Becton) Springs. This is supposed to be downriver from cypress.

What about these other locations?
Merrit's mill pond
Twin Cabes
Shangri La Spring
Indian Washtub
Gator Spring
Blue Hole
Bozell Springs
Gadsden Spring

Most of these locations are pretty close to Marianna. Which ones have you dove? What do you know about each site? Thanks for sharing the info.

You can rent canoes from Vortex. $10 for 2 hours or $50 for the day.

I have dove Becton Springs a handfull of times, its relatively clear at the moment(or atleast last weekend - waters are lower now, I'd expect better visibility this weekend than last weekend). It is infact, downriver from Cypress. Depths at Becton goto 30 in the main fissure. There is nothing big enough to squeeze into for an overhead environment. A few trees lay across the basin bringing in fish. A large bass has been in the spring the last two times I was there and its seems very curious of divers and has approached within inches of me on the last two occasions. I think I will name this Bass, Bassy.

Twin Caves, Shangri La, Indian Washtub, Gator Hole, Hole in the Wall, and Jackson Blue Hole are all located in Merrits Mill Pond near Marriana, FL. Jackson Blue Hole is the only one thats accessible by land, but to do that, you have to goto the Sheriff's Office and prove you're Cave certified(depending on who's at the Sheriff's office, you have to show either Intro or Full cave certification).

I've dove the caverns of both Jackson Blue and Shangrila, they have rocky bottoms and don't kick up much. Shangrila's cavern max's out at like 13' of depth before turning cave. Jackson Blue's cavern has quite a reach before turning cave. I wouldn't recommend doing either unless you are comfortable diving in an overhead environment - a cavern course wouldn't hurt. Don't dive past your limits.

We tried and failed to locate Indian Washtub.

I dove the outside of Hole in the Wall and Twin Cave but didnt' do any penetration. I was told these caves were very dangerous and silted out easily. A couple of the people in the group I was with silted out the entrances to both quickly. I wouldn't recommend doing anything but looking at them from above.

I'm not sure we were in the 'right' to dive anything in the Mill Pond since we didn't check in with the Sherrif's Office - I'm not cave certified. However, it is a navigatable waterway, so... I dove it.

I have not dove the Bozell Springs or Gadsden Spring. Definately on my list though.

Thanks for all the info.

So technically you are suppose to get a pass to dive. Is there a gate at blue hole. How are people suppose to find out about this sort of stuff?

Its like a state park rec area, there is a gate. I believe they give you a key to get in at the Sheriff's Office, but I dunno for sure, since I didn't use the land entrance.

Its kinda nice owning your own dive yacht, even if its small