Doll_Fin
Guest
OK bear with me as this is my first dive report, but the task has defaulted to me for reasons that will be explained.
My friend Dave and I arrived in Orange Beach on Saturday afternoon and we decided we wanted to attempt a shore dive. Since I needed to rent gear for the next day anyhow, we stopped by the shop, got everything I needed and took care of all the paperwork for the next day and headed for Alabama Point. We had tried to find someone who knew the area and would be willing to join us, but we were unable to, so because of the strong current and low vis, we played it safe and just explored along the rock wall for about an hour. I still ended up having fun and saw lots of beautiful shells, sea urchins, stone crabs, hermit crabs etc.
It was FREEZING the next morning as we headed for Gary's. We met up with ShagMan, Kris and S&V and everyone headed over to the Marina. As we got ready to board the Cat-N-Around, the weather was starting to warm up a bit.
We started heading out towards the PC Barge site, however the sea had not quite calmed down yet from the previous day, and the ride started to get really bumpy, so Gary decided try a different site called Ivan's Reef instead. We headed for that site, and it did seem a bit less choppy there, however John came back from the bottom reporting that visibility was near zero, so Gary said there was one more site we could try - the Navy Tug, which he said had the best chance of any for having good vis. While the 85' depth was beyond anything I had dived so far, Gary assured me that as long as vis was good, it was a really easy site to navigate and I shouldn't have any problems, so I said I was up for it. Heck, I'd come all this way, I wanted to dive!! We reached the site, John went under again and reported good vis and very little current at depth. Unfortunately, ShagMan, Kris and S&V had all started feeling the effects of the choppy seas and decided not to dive. (sorry guys!!) Dave and I felt fine and were really wanting to dive, so in we went! Dave, John and I started down the line, then noticed something was odd as the line was going straight down! (I may not be a boating expert, but I know enough to know that the line NEVER goes STRAIGHT down) As we reached the bottom, we found out what the problem was - the iron "arm" on the tug that John had tied the boat to had BROKEN! so we immediately (but carefully as we were already at 65 feet) returned to the surface and got back on the boat while John went down and retied in.
After John was able to secure the boat, we went back down. It was absolutely beautiful! Vis was a good 15', amberjack where EVERYWHERE, along with red snapper, flounder, spade fish, one really freaky looking toad fish (we think that's what it was) and more. Gary was right as the site was very easy to navigate. and the 3 of us were able to make 2 full circuits of the wreck before we needed to return to the surface.
Unfortunately because of all the other problems, the plan to do a 2nd dive was scrapped, but I very much enjoyed this dive and I am very happy to now have an 85' dive to my credit! (But one of these days I SWEAR I am going to get back to the Massachusetts and finish that dive I had to abort in January due to being underweighted!)
Thank you Gary and John for not giving up and letting us have a very enjoyable dive!
My friend Dave and I arrived in Orange Beach on Saturday afternoon and we decided we wanted to attempt a shore dive. Since I needed to rent gear for the next day anyhow, we stopped by the shop, got everything I needed and took care of all the paperwork for the next day and headed for Alabama Point. We had tried to find someone who knew the area and would be willing to join us, but we were unable to, so because of the strong current and low vis, we played it safe and just explored along the rock wall for about an hour. I still ended up having fun and saw lots of beautiful shells, sea urchins, stone crabs, hermit crabs etc.
It was FREEZING the next morning as we headed for Gary's. We met up with ShagMan, Kris and S&V and everyone headed over to the Marina. As we got ready to board the Cat-N-Around, the weather was starting to warm up a bit.
We started heading out towards the PC Barge site, however the sea had not quite calmed down yet from the previous day, and the ride started to get really bumpy, so Gary decided try a different site called Ivan's Reef instead. We headed for that site, and it did seem a bit less choppy there, however John came back from the bottom reporting that visibility was near zero, so Gary said there was one more site we could try - the Navy Tug, which he said had the best chance of any for having good vis. While the 85' depth was beyond anything I had dived so far, Gary assured me that as long as vis was good, it was a really easy site to navigate and I shouldn't have any problems, so I said I was up for it. Heck, I'd come all this way, I wanted to dive!! We reached the site, John went under again and reported good vis and very little current at depth. Unfortunately, ShagMan, Kris and S&V had all started feeling the effects of the choppy seas and decided not to dive. (sorry guys!!) Dave and I felt fine and were really wanting to dive, so in we went! Dave, John and I started down the line, then noticed something was odd as the line was going straight down! (I may not be a boating expert, but I know enough to know that the line NEVER goes STRAIGHT down) As we reached the bottom, we found out what the problem was - the iron "arm" on the tug that John had tied the boat to had BROKEN! so we immediately (but carefully as we were already at 65 feet) returned to the surface and got back on the boat while John went down and retied in.
After John was able to secure the boat, we went back down. It was absolutely beautiful! Vis was a good 15', amberjack where EVERYWHERE, along with red snapper, flounder, spade fish, one really freaky looking toad fish (we think that's what it was) and more. Gary was right as the site was very easy to navigate. and the 3 of us were able to make 2 full circuits of the wreck before we needed to return to the surface.
Unfortunately because of all the other problems, the plan to do a 2nd dive was scrapped, but I very much enjoyed this dive and I am very happy to now have an 85' dive to my credit! (But one of these days I SWEAR I am going to get back to the Massachusetts and finish that dive I had to abort in January due to being underweighted!)
Thank you Gary and John for not giving up and letting us have a very enjoyable dive!