3 Mile Barge 7-24-8 Dive Report

I'm like 3 weeks backed up on cave diving reports, but Ima go ahead and post this evenings dive real quick and dirty like...

Grabbed some gear after work and met up with a buddy of mine before heading to Orange Beach for a quick boat dive. My boss had his boat out, his son, and another co-worker would be coming along to enjoy the gulf from the surface. Seas were running around 2-3' and choppy making the quick ride over the dredge and over to 3 Mile Barge a bit bumpy in the 19' boat loaded with 5 peeps. We had hoped to get luckier with conditions and get further out, but it wasn't happening on this trip.

Surface was warm, mid-upper 80sF, and slightly clearish with about 10-15' visibility. Some jellies in the water and a decent surface current(diving about 2 hours after low slack tide). I dove in my trunks, hit a thermocline dropping temps to 75F and visibility down to 5'. Jellies were easily avoidable at depth. We circled the wreck several times and enjoyed watching the boat fish, soapfish, angels, mangroves, and spades cruising around. We had gone out with the intention of plinking a couple fish, but no joy on this trip as nothing was really big enough to take short of possibly one mangrove(not enough to worry about though). Hit 39' for a dive lasting 40 minutes before meeting back up with the surface crew before heading in at sunset. Got hit by a couple jellyfish on exit, no biggy - I'll probably still just dive trunks next time. Still had fun.

Hopefully tomorrow I can make a report to cover the last 9 cave dives I've done and neglected to report on...

Looking forward to the cave reports Matt. You got some pictures to share?

Ken

Glad you were able to get wet Mat. Never heard of this site....is there much structure left on the wreck?

Its your typical 200' barge, there's also a large concrete culvert off to the side of it(about 50 yards away) thats big enough to swim through. The whole thing is still there, so anywhere between 3-5' of relief in typical barge fashion. Holds alot of pretty fish, just not so many big ones as its a pretty well known spot and gets fished often.

I dove that once... well tried. All we saw was sand.

About time Mat. I was wondering if you were still diving. It's been a while sence we got a good report from you.

c'mon now, where's the rest of it?