DocCarl
Contributor
On Monday, Kmenees, myself, our roomate and another friend drove over to Destin to check out the east jetty. The weather turned out to be perfect: a nice reprive from the rain and wind of Sunday ( http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/deep-dixie-divers/335910-dive-report-ft-pickens-5-16-10-a.html ).
We snagged the perfect parking place about 25 minutes before high tide and excitedly assembled our gear: the water had looked pretty good as we drove accross the bridge from Ft. Walton. Five minutes later I slapped myself in the forehead. I realized that I'd left my wetsuit hanging in the garage, back in Mobile.
Expecting water temps in the mid to low 70's and not wanting to be 'that guy' that thumbs the dive early because he's turning blue, I cautiously asked the girls if they thought I had enough time to zip around the corner and pick up a 3/2 full body (something i've been meaning to do for a long time, anyway). They graciously gave me the OK, and resigned themselves to sun bathing on the grass while I stole the truck and went to visit a VERY helpfull lady and Emerald Coast Scuba. She helped me find a perfect fit in no time flat, and I acutally wore the wetsuit out of the shop!
I pulled back into the perfect parking place (now decorated with the aforementioned sunbathers and their dive gear) EXACLTY twenty minutes later. That has GOT to be some kind of wetsuit shopping record!
Anyway, the three divers successfully completed the death march with minimal assistance from my snorkeling, psuedo- dive sherpa roomate. Started the dive at 1:29, with calm water and 15' viz. I was excited to see 80* temps near the surface, dropping to 76* at depth.
After a breif pause at the box to examine a young blue crab, we followed the contour of the jetty around until we started to turn due south. Dozens of stone crabs, the occasional blue, and one dinner-plate sized flounder had us all craving seafood less than 10 minutes into the dive. We found a couple smallish deceased sand dollars ripe for the picking and a neon yellow 'disc' frisbee which triggered an impromptu game of 'Ultimate Underwater Frisbee'. A few 'shells' which I identified as being of the genus "Natural Light" also made it into the BC pocket.
We later dubbed this dive "The Day of the Wrasse", as the rocks were covered up with dozens upon dozens of the rather fearless little guys. Most of the fauna fell into the smallish vareity: there really wasn't too much bigger than the wrasses. Our thrid diver DID see a juvenile sea turtle, but by the time kmenees and I figured out her rather entertaining 'flipper flopping' dance, he had moved on :depressed:
After reaching the point, we turned the dive back to the northeast and slowly worked our way up the jetty. Max depth 48', TBT 48 minutes. Great dive with great people!
Post dive debreifing took place at AJ's, over great seafood and beer with a few of those weird mokey-head carved coconut cocktail things thrown in for good measure!
Two other things:
This was the first time diving this site for all three of us. I know of the anchor out there, but we didn't see it, and I'm not exaclty sure where it's at. Is it out over the sand a bit more?
Wjefferis, Glenfwb, jahyes75 and paulwall may remember meeting us at jettyfest. Kmenees really made me proud out there yesterday: if that jetty had a butt, she would have kicked it to Cuba. She's really begining to gain some confidence in the water and even managed a small incident exceptionally well: her old hand-me-down dive computer finally gave it up for good: the case cracked at multiple points at around 40', and the LCD display was replaced by slowly darkening sea water. She handled it like a champ, and today purchased a new pro plus 2 for herself which she can't wait to try out.
DocCarl
We snagged the perfect parking place about 25 minutes before high tide and excitedly assembled our gear: the water had looked pretty good as we drove accross the bridge from Ft. Walton. Five minutes later I slapped myself in the forehead. I realized that I'd left my wetsuit hanging in the garage, back in Mobile.
Expecting water temps in the mid to low 70's and not wanting to be 'that guy' that thumbs the dive early because he's turning blue, I cautiously asked the girls if they thought I had enough time to zip around the corner and pick up a 3/2 full body (something i've been meaning to do for a long time, anyway). They graciously gave me the OK, and resigned themselves to sun bathing on the grass while I stole the truck and went to visit a VERY helpfull lady and Emerald Coast Scuba. She helped me find a perfect fit in no time flat, and I acutally wore the wetsuit out of the shop!
I pulled back into the perfect parking place (now decorated with the aforementioned sunbathers and their dive gear) EXACLTY twenty minutes later. That has GOT to be some kind of wetsuit shopping record!
Anyway, the three divers successfully completed the death march with minimal assistance from my snorkeling, psuedo- dive sherpa roomate. Started the dive at 1:29, with calm water and 15' viz. I was excited to see 80* temps near the surface, dropping to 76* at depth.
After a breif pause at the box to examine a young blue crab, we followed the contour of the jetty around until we started to turn due south. Dozens of stone crabs, the occasional blue, and one dinner-plate sized flounder had us all craving seafood less than 10 minutes into the dive. We found a couple smallish deceased sand dollars ripe for the picking and a neon yellow 'disc' frisbee which triggered an impromptu game of 'Ultimate Underwater Frisbee'. A few 'shells' which I identified as being of the genus "Natural Light" also made it into the BC pocket.
We later dubbed this dive "The Day of the Wrasse", as the rocks were covered up with dozens upon dozens of the rather fearless little guys. Most of the fauna fell into the smallish vareity: there really wasn't too much bigger than the wrasses. Our thrid diver DID see a juvenile sea turtle, but by the time kmenees and I figured out her rather entertaining 'flipper flopping' dance, he had moved on :depressed:
After reaching the point, we turned the dive back to the northeast and slowly worked our way up the jetty. Max depth 48', TBT 48 minutes. Great dive with great people!
Post dive debreifing took place at AJ's, over great seafood and beer with a few of those weird mokey-head carved coconut cocktail things thrown in for good measure!
Two other things:
This was the first time diving this site for all three of us. I know of the anchor out there, but we didn't see it, and I'm not exaclty sure where it's at. Is it out over the sand a bit more?
Wjefferis, Glenfwb, jahyes75 and paulwall may remember meeting us at jettyfest. Kmenees really made me proud out there yesterday: if that jetty had a butt, she would have kicked it to Cuba. She's really begining to gain some confidence in the water and even managed a small incident exceptionally well: her old hand-me-down dive computer finally gave it up for good: the case cracked at multiple points at around 40', and the LCD display was replaced by slowly darkening sea water. She handled it like a champ, and today purchased a new pro plus 2 for herself which she can't wait to try out.
DocCarl
