RaginCajun
Contributor
Belated Florida Panhandle post…. Destin, Vortex & Panama City beach
Just getting back to Houston and back to my PC, so I figured I’d post some comments on a few recent Florida Panhandle dives:
Friday July 20th: Destin –
I dove with Scuba Tech on the SeaCobra and had a good time. I buddied up with a very nice gent named Randy from Alabama, an experienced diver and an excellent dive buddy. We dove the Airforce Barge & Miss Louise. The vis at the barge was fair to decent at the time (early afternoon) given the tide and its proximity to the pass. (est ~20 on the bottom and 40 towards the surface). The vis at the Miss Louise was better and there was a more defined thermocline at depth.
Dive 1: Airforce Barge – Max Depth 67 ft, min temp 78F; time in 12:43 pm, time out 1:25 pm. 42 min dive; sac rate: 48 psi/min
Surface Interval 50 minutes
Dive 2: Miss Louise – Max Depth 55 ft, min temp 78F; time in 2:16 pm, time out 3:03 pm. 47 min dive; sac rate: 44 psi/min
Although my computer says the temp was 78F on the Miss Louise on the bottom it sure felt colder in my 1 ml suit.
Looking back at my logs, the jellies were out, and I got hit on the face at the Barge. We saw a lonely remora hanging out with us on our safety stop. There was one group of spear fishermen on the boat, but they didn't spear any fish.
On the Miss Louise the vis was better, and saw lots of fish (mostly smaller ones). I can't remember which wreck it was but somebody bagged a lobster (not a spiny).
All in all I think that ScubaTech & the SeaCobra run a safe & tight ship. They are on time, and you know what to expect each time. This was my second trip with them in 2 years.
Saturday – Monday July 21-23rd Vortex Springs
Part of the reason for my trip to Florida was that my son wanted to goto Vortex for his birthday so he could hang out with his redneck cousins and swim in the freezing water. Since my wife is a newly certified diver, I figured that Vortex would be a nice easy segway into diving being about as safe as you can possibly get without being in a pool. Saturday turned into a wash, we forgot her reg in Niceville and by the time I got back with it it was already getting dark and I didn’t want her first dive to be a night dive. So on Sunday we got two quick dives in just to help her get used to the water, and finally finished up with a dive Monday morning.
I won’t even bother with the details, the dives were shallow and short, but hey at least we were blowing bubbles.
Vortex was crowded over the weekend. The typical unlimited vis turned to pea soup with the 9 million students in the basin over the weekend. However, it did clear up a bit each morning, for the first 20 divers, but after that it was a wash again. I must say that our Monday morning dive was the best in terms of visibility and we basically had the entire basin to ourselves. There was one guy who seemed to be vacuuming the rocks…I swear I don’t know what he was up to but he was there for as long as we were and he seemed to dive about 10 times a day.
I did overhear Doc, the former owner mention something about the flow being blocked off for some reason and that it wasn’t where he would like it. You’d see him there each morning taking a dip or a bath in the basin from his private dock.
Tuesday night dive: Pensacola beach old pier rubble –
I was in Florida for a week and will look at the tides before I come next time. The tides were goofy for shore diving which I had hoped to do as well (high tides early in the morning). We did make an attempt at a night dive in Pensacola however.
Hooked up with some super nice locals and attempted a night dive on the old Pensacola beach pier rubble. When the LSU flags are up, you should know there will be trouble. With yellow and purple flags the jelly fish were indeed present. We decided to give it a try anyway but were met with jelly fish galore. A sting or two on the face and we called the dive. It’s too bad though, because the water was a tosty 81 F and very inviting. Nonetheless, it sure made the beer tastier afterwards.
Wednesday July 25th: Panama City Beach --
On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to dive in Panama City with a local shop and it was different than my Destin experience to say the least. First, that Operation has you meet them at the shop, then load up in the parking lot, then stop for gas, then drive to the boat launch, then you pay to get into the park, then park, then board the boat.
They were pretty easygoing about when they tell you to show up and when things get kicked off. However, they were very laid back and it was a true 6 pack so less divers on the wreck. If I had 5 friends I'd consider booking the whole boat with these folks if we could dictate our dive sites. They were very nice and did offer fruit and complimentary beverages during the trip too.
I ended up getting paired up with some nice folks from Arkansas who were down getting their 5th family member certified. I was the 6th of the 6 pack and buddied up with dad & son on the first dive. Dad was a self proclaimed Hoover. He was sucking fumes ~500 psi @ 12 minutes into the dive and wanted me and his son to return him to the anchor line/boat and go back down and finish our dive. I should have asked the boat Captain about this before, because when it was time to let him surface without us, I got nervous and ended my dive early. He totally blew past the safety stop and just surfaced, so we finished our stop, then hung out at 15 feet for another 10 minutes just looking around until the next group came up.
The first dive was the Omnipresent Black Bart. For a twist, I decided to dive Nitrox this time just because..(I really wanted to see if I would feel any different than my previous dives.) To each his own, but I felt better after. The Bart had plenty of fish, a small school of angels and baitfish in the wheel house looked like they were driving the boat. We hung out near the wheel house and didn’t circle the wreck.
The second dive was one of the old bridge spans: (Span 14 I think..) This was a more comfortable dive. I ditched the 1 ml wetsuit since it was toasty and there were no jellies. This time I buddied up with one of the sons. We circled the span several times and surveyed it from top to bottom. There was a ton of life on and around it with schools of spade fish and several tropicals. If my fish identification is correct we saw: pinfish, angle fish, queen angle fish, one of those hog nose fish dudes, a barracuda and some others..(I’ll get better on my fish ID in the future!) I must thank the dive operator/DM who must have gotten freaked after we were still down at 35 minutes into the dive, because he came back in to find us and told us to surface. I was fine with ~900 psi but my buddy had ~500 psi. I was mistaken and should have been more vigilant with our air consumption. We surfaced without incident and I was back on board with 650 psi and he was closer to 250 psi.
The folks I was diving with had a blast checking out a few remora hanging out under the boat as we surfaced. A couple dove back in with snorkels to check it out. One of the other folks on the dive even found a nice titanium dive knife in the sand off the wreck.
The profiles were:
Dive 1: Black Bart – Max Depth 75 ft, min temp 83F; time in 10:54 am, time out aa:22 am. 28 min dive; sac rate: 52.5 psi/min
Surface Interval: 42 minutes
Dive 2: Old Bridge Span #14? – Max Depth 75 ft, min temp 83F; time in 12:26 pm, time out 1:08 pm. 42 min dive; sac rate: 61.4 psi/min (avg depth 52.2 ft)
Well that’s about it for now, and it’s back off to work. I’m happy to have gotten several good dives in and will be back to the Florida coast as soon as I can. For now I’m relegated to the usual Houston muck pits for bubble blowing practice and I hope to get a dive in on the Flower Gardens before the season is over!
Later
RaginCajun
Took a few pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7488226@N02/sets/72157601080649566
Just getting back to Houston and back to my PC, so I figured I’d post some comments on a few recent Florida Panhandle dives:
Friday July 20th: Destin –
I dove with Scuba Tech on the SeaCobra and had a good time. I buddied up with a very nice gent named Randy from Alabama, an experienced diver and an excellent dive buddy. We dove the Airforce Barge & Miss Louise. The vis at the barge was fair to decent at the time (early afternoon) given the tide and its proximity to the pass. (est ~20 on the bottom and 40 towards the surface). The vis at the Miss Louise was better and there was a more defined thermocline at depth.
Dive 1: Airforce Barge – Max Depth 67 ft, min temp 78F; time in 12:43 pm, time out 1:25 pm. 42 min dive; sac rate: 48 psi/min
Surface Interval 50 minutes
Dive 2: Miss Louise – Max Depth 55 ft, min temp 78F; time in 2:16 pm, time out 3:03 pm. 47 min dive; sac rate: 44 psi/min
Although my computer says the temp was 78F on the Miss Louise on the bottom it sure felt colder in my 1 ml suit.
Looking back at my logs, the jellies were out, and I got hit on the face at the Barge. We saw a lonely remora hanging out with us on our safety stop. There was one group of spear fishermen on the boat, but they didn't spear any fish.
On the Miss Louise the vis was better, and saw lots of fish (mostly smaller ones). I can't remember which wreck it was but somebody bagged a lobster (not a spiny).
All in all I think that ScubaTech & the SeaCobra run a safe & tight ship. They are on time, and you know what to expect each time. This was my second trip with them in 2 years.
Saturday – Monday July 21-23rd Vortex Springs
Part of the reason for my trip to Florida was that my son wanted to goto Vortex for his birthday so he could hang out with his redneck cousins and swim in the freezing water. Since my wife is a newly certified diver, I figured that Vortex would be a nice easy segway into diving being about as safe as you can possibly get without being in a pool. Saturday turned into a wash, we forgot her reg in Niceville and by the time I got back with it it was already getting dark and I didn’t want her first dive to be a night dive. So on Sunday we got two quick dives in just to help her get used to the water, and finally finished up with a dive Monday morning.
I won’t even bother with the details, the dives were shallow and short, but hey at least we were blowing bubbles.
Vortex was crowded over the weekend. The typical unlimited vis turned to pea soup with the 9 million students in the basin over the weekend. However, it did clear up a bit each morning, for the first 20 divers, but after that it was a wash again. I must say that our Monday morning dive was the best in terms of visibility and we basically had the entire basin to ourselves. There was one guy who seemed to be vacuuming the rocks…I swear I don’t know what he was up to but he was there for as long as we were and he seemed to dive about 10 times a day.
I did overhear Doc, the former owner mention something about the flow being blocked off for some reason and that it wasn’t where he would like it. You’d see him there each morning taking a dip or a bath in the basin from his private dock.
Tuesday night dive: Pensacola beach old pier rubble –
I was in Florida for a week and will look at the tides before I come next time. The tides were goofy for shore diving which I had hoped to do as well (high tides early in the morning). We did make an attempt at a night dive in Pensacola however.
Hooked up with some super nice locals and attempted a night dive on the old Pensacola beach pier rubble. When the LSU flags are up, you should know there will be trouble. With yellow and purple flags the jelly fish were indeed present. We decided to give it a try anyway but were met with jelly fish galore. A sting or two on the face and we called the dive. It’s too bad though, because the water was a tosty 81 F and very inviting. Nonetheless, it sure made the beer tastier afterwards.
Wednesday July 25th: Panama City Beach --
On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to dive in Panama City with a local shop and it was different than my Destin experience to say the least. First, that Operation has you meet them at the shop, then load up in the parking lot, then stop for gas, then drive to the boat launch, then you pay to get into the park, then park, then board the boat.
They were pretty easygoing about when they tell you to show up and when things get kicked off. However, they were very laid back and it was a true 6 pack so less divers on the wreck. If I had 5 friends I'd consider booking the whole boat with these folks if we could dictate our dive sites. They were very nice and did offer fruit and complimentary beverages during the trip too.
I ended up getting paired up with some nice folks from Arkansas who were down getting their 5th family member certified. I was the 6th of the 6 pack and buddied up with dad & son on the first dive. Dad was a self proclaimed Hoover. He was sucking fumes ~500 psi @ 12 minutes into the dive and wanted me and his son to return him to the anchor line/boat and go back down and finish our dive. I should have asked the boat Captain about this before, because when it was time to let him surface without us, I got nervous and ended my dive early. He totally blew past the safety stop and just surfaced, so we finished our stop, then hung out at 15 feet for another 10 minutes just looking around until the next group came up.
The first dive was the Omnipresent Black Bart. For a twist, I decided to dive Nitrox this time just because..(I really wanted to see if I would feel any different than my previous dives.) To each his own, but I felt better after. The Bart had plenty of fish, a small school of angels and baitfish in the wheel house looked like they were driving the boat. We hung out near the wheel house and didn’t circle the wreck.
The second dive was one of the old bridge spans: (Span 14 I think..) This was a more comfortable dive. I ditched the 1 ml wetsuit since it was toasty and there were no jellies. This time I buddied up with one of the sons. We circled the span several times and surveyed it from top to bottom. There was a ton of life on and around it with schools of spade fish and several tropicals. If my fish identification is correct we saw: pinfish, angle fish, queen angle fish, one of those hog nose fish dudes, a barracuda and some others..(I’ll get better on my fish ID in the future!) I must thank the dive operator/DM who must have gotten freaked after we were still down at 35 minutes into the dive, because he came back in to find us and told us to surface. I was fine with ~900 psi but my buddy had ~500 psi. I was mistaken and should have been more vigilant with our air consumption. We surfaced without incident and I was back on board with 650 psi and he was closer to 250 psi.
The folks I was diving with had a blast checking out a few remora hanging out under the boat as we surfaced. A couple dove back in with snorkels to check it out. One of the other folks on the dive even found a nice titanium dive knife in the sand off the wreck.
The profiles were:
Dive 1: Black Bart – Max Depth 75 ft, min temp 83F; time in 10:54 am, time out aa:22 am. 28 min dive; sac rate: 52.5 psi/min
Surface Interval: 42 minutes
Dive 2: Old Bridge Span #14? – Max Depth 75 ft, min temp 83F; time in 12:26 pm, time out 1:08 pm. 42 min dive; sac rate: 61.4 psi/min (avg depth 52.2 ft)
Well that’s about it for now, and it’s back off to work. I’m happy to have gotten several good dives in and will be back to the Florida coast as soon as I can. For now I’m relegated to the usual Houston muck pits for bubble blowing practice and I hope to get a dive in on the Flower Gardens before the season is over!
Later
RaginCajun
Took a few pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7488226@N02/sets/72157601080649566
Maybe next time the jellies won't be present in masses.
