Trip report Pensacola 8/19

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RaginCajun

Contributor
Messages
276
Reaction score
25
Location
Panama City Beach FL
# of dives
50 - 99
Ok this is a rather late trip report but I'm just getting back home.

Last Tuesday (8/18) I met up with Standard11 at Fort Pickens (see other thread). We splashed just before 8 am to find nice surface conditions with some particulate and ~10 ft viz at depth. It was my first dive at Fort Pickens and I really appreciate Standard11 leading the dive and showing me around. The current wasn't too bad and we did a few passes back & forth across the rocks drifting back across each time. The water looked a little bit tannic and there was a slight outgoing current despite being there about an hour before high tide. I suppose this was due in part to the rain from the tropical storm.
I definitely plan to dive this site again to explore it in more detail. One of the cool things about this dive was surfacing to the Blue Angels practicing just above. This is probably one of the only sites around with a free air show to compliment a free shore dive. Very cool.

After the dive we visited with David & Morgan two other divers and ended up hooking up for a boat dive with Viking charters the next day. The plan was for a 3 tank dive at the Timberholes, Brass Wreck & Coal barges but due to the seas halfway into the trip the decision was made to detour to Mr. Green's reef a similar natural bottom reef on a slightly different heading. Kudos to Capt Tim for balancing the customer's wishes with safety.

Mr Green's reef was pretty cool. My wife was a bit green from the ride out in ~3-5 ft seas so I teamed up with Destin. Tim couldn't stand it and dove with us pointing out a Moray eel and a few other cool things. The current was slight, and viz was probably 20-40 at depth. This was my first natural bottom reef in the area. There were a few cool overhangs. I'll be sure to bring a bigger light next time to explore under the ledges better and look for some bugs!

THe dive ended with a slight hitch. We ended up losing sight of the anchor line and decided to make a free ascent. I shot my safety sausage up on a line in hopes that we'd be seen before floating too far away from the boat and to aid in the free ascent & safety stop. The crew was watching our bubbles and figured that we were a bit lost and before we made it all the way up the DM was tugging on my safety sausage and tying it to the anchor line. I guess we weren't that far off so we were lucky. Anyhow, great job by Capt Tim & crew for averting a problem before it got worse. Valuable lesson learned on my part too.

Dive #2 was on the Brass Wreck. This wreck was interesting. As I'm told it sunk several hundred years ago and what remains are what look to be the ribs and various encrusted pieces of the wreck. Vis was better on this dive and my wife was feeling better enough to make the dive. We spotted a leopard toad fish and what looked like a grouper type of fish sleeping under a ledge/overhang. I'm not sure what it was but it looked like the tail end of an eel or something. Another cool dive.

The finale of the day was the 3 Coal Barges. Despite its proximity to shore, viz was actually pretty good probably 40 ft plus at depth, with a slight murk layer on top. You could easily see the whole wreck (or the part we were on). The DM tied in and my wife & I splashed first to find that we came untied. Luckily we made it back up before the next group splashed so we motored back and tied back into another part of the wreck. Although not a huge wreck, it was enjoyable with a fairly shallow profile ~60 ft max, if I remember correctly. The wreck was full of life teeming with bait fish and a few reef fish. On the way up I think we got a glimpse of a shark, but he boogied away as fast as he came.

The coolest part of the dive was on the ascent up when we were greeted by a whale shark about midway up the anchor line ~30-40 feet. He was the biggest and most docile sea creature I've ever seen. By my estimate he was about 15-20 feet long, covered with remoras and followed by a heard of cobia. He had what looked to be scar (prop cut) on the rear right side between his dorsal and tail. With the surface murk present he'd come in and out of sight from time to time passing within feet of us. The crew on the boat were oblivious and when I surfaced and told them they thought I was kidding at first, only to jump in with snorkels for a closer look. He stayed with us for at least 30 minutes. Long enough for the second group to also be greeted by him on their safety stop. I took a few pictures with my cheapy camera. If they come out I'll post them here.

All in all it was a great day and despite the recent tropical storm the conditions and diving were better than expected. Sincere thanks to Capt Tim & Viking Dive charters for a great day on the water.
 
Cool that you got a WS sighting in!

Guess one hung around all Saturday on the O. DM told us before we splashed in the pm that one had been hanging around all morning and on of our guys did see it on deco but it was right on the limit of vis and heading out.
 
Got a shot of one on the Oriskany yesterday.
 

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Here are a few photos of the whale shark at the 3 Coal Barges as well as a shot of a Moray from Mr. Green's reef.



ScubaBoard Gallery - Whaleshark5


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ScubaBoard Gallery - Whaleshark21

ScubaBoard Gallery - Whaleshark13

ScubaBoard Gallery - moray25

ScubaBoard Gallery - Message


And some of the Blue Angels air show at Ft. Pickens...

ScubaBoard Gallery - FtPickens2

ScubaBoard Gallery - FtPickens1


:dork2: I'm sure there's a better way to show these images...if I can figure it out I'll edit the post
 
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Great report and pictures. I'm soo jealous of all of these reports of whale sharks. I need to come down and find some.

Michael
 
that was definitely a fun trip, even looking at the pics from ft pickens the water looks so blue. and the boat dives the day after was a lot of fun as well, i need to get out in a boat more often. a spear gun is next on my list of toys haha
 
Thnx for the report
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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