First Time at St. Andrews. Dive plan questions

This being my first post on the board, perhaps I should introduce myself!

I completed my OW back in 2000 while living in north Alabama. Other than the time spent in my local quarry, most of my experience has come from shallow dives in the Keys as well as a handful of dives on the reef in Belize. I moved to Mobile in 2001, and unfortunately my BC was on the shelf by the beginning of '04 due to 'life' setting in. :shocked2: Over the past three years or so, I've been introducing my girlfriend to snorkeling and helping her overcome some fears with her ability to equalize. We finally got her ears taken care of, and she has been one of the most excited OW students i've ever been around. Some refreshers for myself, and we dove last weekend at vortex and Ft. Pickens, completing her checkout dives.

This Friday it looks as if high tide is about noon, so we're looking to drive over that morning. Right now we're planning on two tanks, shooting for about 10:00 for the first. We've both been over to St. Andrews several times, and have spent many hours in the water at the jetties- - - but only snorkeling.

I've snorkeled over the jetty through the kiddy pool, and all along the channel to the southernmost tip, and then back up the other side. We're thinking about this for our first dive- - - - is this going to be too much? Other plans include going north and south a short distance along the channel adjacent to the kiddy pool, as well as getting in on the south beach and going out to the tip and back. We'd sure apprecieate some advice, and some company if anyone is going to be in the neighborhood!

Here's the three plans we're looking at. Thanks for your help!


Carl

You can go around the point if your SAC is good enough, but thats probably not gonna happen with a new diver unless you guys stay relatively shallow.

I would do the yellow route, or cross over and head north, then backtrack(or round the point on the northside and come back up the kiddy pool).

I wouldn't get near the point (underwater) your first time. The current can do crazy stuff, and the jetties are less well defined under the water. You can find yourself either off into the gulf or in the channel quick and w/o knowing it.

With the tide coming in, Id do what BuGmAn suggests. Swim out to the point, go around and drop down. Drift dive...

Thanks for the suggestions!

Had a great time Friday. We decided to do the drift dive for our first, surface swimming out to the point about an hour and a half before high tide. The incomming current wasn't too bad as we leveled off around 55'. About halfway in the current let up considerably, right about where we encountered a juvenile golaith grouper hanging out under a ledge. We ascended right in the middle of the 'crossover' point from the kiddie pool. Fun first dive, with viz around 10-15. Got caught up in a massive bait ball while hanging out around 20', very cool.

We followed the 'yellow' plan for the second dive right after noon, when everything was slack. Excellent dive. Vis cleared up to around 30-40 with tons to see. I was pleasantly suprised to find as much hard coral as we did, but upset to see maybe 20% bleached. One 'whoops' though: My old point-n-shoot 35mm camera floated off my wrist about halfway through. Neither of us noticed it until I reached to take some pictures. We were about 40' out in the bottom of chanel at that point, and the tide had just barely started to turn. That camera is probably halfway to cuba by now (that'll teach me to put a lanyard on things. . .).


All in all a great day, and we can't wait to go back!!

Carl