DocCarl
Contributor
Despite the nasty weather, I got together with a couple friends (not scubaboard members) and headed to Ft. Pickens Sunday morning. As we crossed the bridge from Pensacola into Gulf Breeze, we apprehensivly watched the most recent storm roll off to the east and decided that it did, in fact, look better towards the fort in the west.
Driving onto Santa Rosa island we were greeted with partially flooded roads and 4-5' surf, making us think we should have brought surfboards instead of dive gear.
The drive down Ft. Pickens road was extra slow due to water, sand, and the shorebird hatching taking place.
We finally arrived on site about 20 after 11, right on top of high tide. I was somewhat surprised to see relativly calm water at the dive site and even the occasional break in the clouds! Needless to say, we decided to give it a go.
Got in at 11:44, and enjoyed slack water with 8-10' viz. Right off the bat I was pleased to discover three fire worms writhing around next to a rock. There was a bit of a tense moment though. Our third diver, the brother of my buddy, aparently had not taken too many notes from his marine biologist sister. As I tugged his fin tip to draw his attention to the fire worm display, I just about spat my regulator out when I saw him turn with another fire worm bouncing around in his un-gloved hand. Fortunately we got him to drop it before he became intimately familiar with why they're called "fire" worms. There were some pretty creative charades going on trying to illustate the point!!
The usual suspects of spadefish, toadfish, arrow crabs and sheepshead greeted us down to about 45'. At that point we hit a layer of algae or something that dropped the viz down to 3-5'. As we turned and worked our way back up the rubble, we discovered a nice sized southern stargazer! A glimpse of a small stingray and a rather friendly sheepshead rounded the dive out. Water temp 75*, max depth 45', 42 minutes before one person started to get a bit chilled, causing us to come on up.
All in all a great dive especially considering the weather!
DocCarl
Driving onto Santa Rosa island we were greeted with partially flooded roads and 4-5' surf, making us think we should have brought surfboards instead of dive gear.
The drive down Ft. Pickens road was extra slow due to water, sand, and the shorebird hatching taking place.
We finally arrived on site about 20 after 11, right on top of high tide. I was somewhat surprised to see relativly calm water at the dive site and even the occasional break in the clouds! Needless to say, we decided to give it a go.
Got in at 11:44, and enjoyed slack water with 8-10' viz. Right off the bat I was pleased to discover three fire worms writhing around next to a rock. There was a bit of a tense moment though. Our third diver, the brother of my buddy, aparently had not taken too many notes from his marine biologist sister. As I tugged his fin tip to draw his attention to the fire worm display, I just about spat my regulator out when I saw him turn with another fire worm bouncing around in his un-gloved hand. Fortunately we got him to drop it before he became intimately familiar with why they're called "fire" worms. There were some pretty creative charades going on trying to illustate the point!!
The usual suspects of spadefish, toadfish, arrow crabs and sheepshead greeted us down to about 45'. At that point we hit a layer of algae or something that dropped the viz down to 3-5'. As we turned and worked our way back up the rubble, we discovered a nice sized southern stargazer! A glimpse of a small stingray and a rather friendly sheepshead rounded the dive out. Water temp 75*, max depth 45', 42 minutes before one person started to get a bit chilled, causing us to come on up.
All in all a great dive especially considering the weather!
DocCarl
