MRXRAY
Contributor
Met up with NyxTom, Sontex, Recharge and Grouper321 (Welcome back to the water brother) for a night dive at Ft. Pickens. The conditions were beautiful and we were blessed by a real nice sunset as we geared up. We were going to be on an outgoing tide but we were hopeful for the best as we splashed just after 7:30 PM. We all made our way down to the tire in the rebar at around 20-24 feet to tie in the flag, but I missed it probably due to the strong current and I ended up towing the flag with me for a good while until I stumbled across it about 15 minutes into the dive. I had been working my way though the rocks at at about 20 feet when I came across a HUGE Star Gazer. He jumped out in front of me as I set my hand on a rock and I watched as he reburied himself just a few feet in front of me. I got the attention of the others and we all watched as he buried and reburied himself a couple of times. It was a great show and the video below demonstrates just how fun they are to watch. I tried to get a couple of good pictures while he was buried but he was a bit camera shy and I only got a couple of good shots. We are still not seeing a lot of color, but there were some very big spades and a few nice gags swimming about, and oddly no Octopus yet. Viz was only about 8-10 feet so we called the dive a bit early and we made it back to shore after only 54 minutes with a max depth of 36 feet. I had a min temp of 70* and I had some readings around 74* towards the surface.
We opted for a debrief at IHOP and we gulped down some quick food before heading to Recharges house to mix tanks for the next mornings dives.
All in all it was an OK dive punctuated by the gathering of some good friends!
We opted for a debrief at IHOP and we gulped down some quick food before heading to Recharges house to mix tanks for the next mornings dives.
All in all it was an OK dive punctuated by the gathering of some good friends!
