Destin Mega Dive Report w/pictures

[GLENFWB]

Guess I will start the report. Everyone else can chime in when they get the chance. I only have a few pictures to post. I wanted to practice with my pony bottle, so I left the camera in the truck. SeaYoda, KchFla and Jviehe all brought cameras so I knew the picture duties were being taken care of.

Present for the dive was Glenfwb, Seayoda (and Mrs. Yoda), KchFLA, jviehe, a friend of his, Halftime (and his daughter), and SeaAngel.

The weather was pretty nasty when we were heading to the jetties. My drive from Fort Walton Beach to Destin was done in a pouring rain. When I arrived at the Jetty parking area, many of the parking spaces were flooded. When we first arrived, the rain was so heavy that we decided to wait a few minutes for it to slack up.

The radar on my phone was showing that after this cell passed, that things should clear up. After the rain slacked off, we all geared up and made our way to the jetty. The good thing about the weather was that it was easy to find a parking space. Also, as we walked to the jetty it was cool and the beaches were empty. All that changed by the time we headed back to the parking area. It was hot, and the beaches filled quickly with boats and people.

We headed out at around 11 AM for our first dive. In spite of the rain, the water was calm. The tide was still coming in and as usual there was a slight current in our face on the way out. Six of us made the first dive because unfortunately, SeaAngel was having some equipment problems. I buddied up with KchFLA, and we took our time looking in rocks so she could take pictures. I practiced with my pony bottle as we moved out to the end of the jetty. Still no sign of the anchor at this time. The sand has completely covered it up. As I am sure the pictures will show, there was an abudance of tropicals, puffers, a small grouper, and many minnows and schooling bait fish.

My computer showed a max depth of 56 feet, on a 50 minute dive. The water temperature was a nice 83 degrees. After the dive three of us headed back to the vehicles to drop our gear. I was going to head back to the beach after dropping my gear. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of checking the messages on my phone...and I had to take off to fix a problem. I left KchFla a note on her windshiled that I had to head back to FWB to fix a problem at my business. I sure hated leaving because I was looking forward to some good food with everybody. Sorry I disappeared on you guys.....hope the meal was good??? Hopefully, the others will post their thoughts on the dive. KchFLA and Halftime might be diving the Oriskany tomorrow, so probably won't hear from them for a few days. How about it Yoda, any good pictures?

 

[MRXRAY]

Nice report!

 

[SeaYoda]

There were some divers that dove before us that said they had 35' vis with little current. Our dive was more like a hazy 25' with a little June grass stirred up by just enough current to give a little drift to the dive. After the first dive we hung out on the beach for awhile and decided we were hungry. We were going to grab some crabs on the dive but no one got overly excited about that activity (plus I saw about a total of two crabs that could have been harvested for our consumption). We decided to head to "The Back Porch" restaurant instead of attempting a picnic after the morning storms. We missed you GFWB.

Halftime said he heard noises like a camera zooming in and out while we were diving. I finally figured out what he was talking about - toadfish were all over the place and were "croaking" at us. I've gotten so used to them that I hardly hear them any more.

I brought the old C-5050 out to relearn how to use it - boy do I need practice! I left the quality at HQ instead of RAW by accident so the pics are not as good as they could have been. I forgot about how hard it was to take pictures of moving fish with the shutter lag of the old compact cameras. Here is what I could salvage from the day (just click on the picture for a slideshow):

 

[MRXRAY]

Looks like a good dive to me and the pictures are nice SeaYoda!

 

[denisegg]

Wow!! You had a great turn out even with the rain. I'm glad you all had a good dive.

 

[kchFLA]

I just made it back to Port Charlotte. The dive was great. It was greating seeing some of the old gang. When I met up with Glen at The Scuba Shop was worrying that the eight hour drive north was going to be for not. Glen re-assured me that as long as there was no thunder and lightening, we would get a dive in.

The Oriskany on the other hand didn't happen for Halftime and me. With a small craft advisory and 3-5 foot seas, we decided that for two people who do get seasick it would be best to keep our feet on solid ground. Oh well. At least I got one dive in.

And imagine my surprise today when I hear a report on the radio of a tropical storm in the Gulf.

Oh and Suprbugman where were you? I thought I saw your name in the first post for the dive as being one who wanted to get a dive together. I drive 8 hours and you are a no show. hmmmph.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

kch - got me an issue to take care of that will be very costly, I'm in uber-save-mode. Wish I could have made it, but its(diving) just not happenin for a little while.

Sounds like a great report though, glad you guys turned out and got some good dives in!

 

[jviehe]

Im still working on editing video, but me and Jay had a good time also. I saw a baby toad fish, plenty of stone crab, a nice trigger fish that blended in. The current was present the whole time, pulling you out to the point, then pushing you back in after the point. Unfortunately we got a short fill on our tanks from ECS, but we went back and they made it right, refilling our tanks for free. I dont think they see steel tanks with H valves much.

I also tried out the Aeris compumask on the dive, which was neat. It pushes up on your face a bit making it almost hard to see the computer and I didnt account for the glass piece on the computer fask being inside the mask and thus suspectible to fog, plus I didnt read the manual and figure out how to connect to the integrated air transmitter, but otherwise it was cool. I wouldnt pay $1500 for it, but its a fun gadget.

 

[MRXRAY]

Im still working on editing video, but me and Jay had a good time also. I saw a baby toad fish, plenty of stone crab, a nice trigger fish that blended in. The current was present the whole time, pulling you out to the point, then pushing you back in after the point. Unfortunately we got a short fill on our tanks from ECS, but we went back and they made it right, refilling our tanks for free. I dont think they see steel tanks with H valves much.

I also tried out the Aeris compumask on the dive, which was neat. It pushes up on your face a bit making it almost hard to see the computer and I didnt account for the glass piece on the computer fask being inside the mask and thus suspectible to fog, plus I didnt read the manual and figure out how to connect to the integrated air transmitter, but otherwise it was cool. I wouldnt pay $1500 for it, but its a fun gadget.

Looking forward to the video!

 

[kchFLA]

Suprbugman - I forgive ya. I thought you had become afraid of the sun after spending all that time in the caves.