Ft. Pickens this weekend?

[bamaskubacat]

deff. would be cool to tag along with a group that knows the site.

You are definitely welcome anytime. I'm sure we probly saw you and just didn't know who you were. Like you said, there was a LOT of people there. Next time we will have to coordinate better and pm with phone numbers. I have dove Pickens a few times but wouldn't claim to "know" it yet, but I could easily get you to where DocCarl and I dove Sunday and point out all kinds of cool stuff.
Looks like the next decent high tide would be maybe Sept. 9 or 10.

 

[paulwall]

My BIL and I showed up around 8am to find two instructors preparing to do classes. We splashed as quickly as possible, and endured a massive jellyfish colony upon entry. The jellies were being pushed up to the beach entry by the north wind and toward the W jetty by the still outgoing tide. We found 10-15 ft vis, and much fewer jellies below 10'. We puttered around for a half hour, only locating the golf cart frame before the first class came down on our heads (literally) and stirred the bottom up limiting vis to under 10' (tide still going out). Since my BIL is still new, we turned the dive on his air supply and headed back in. Because we couldn't pick up tanks at any of the 3 dive shops we passed, we left after the first tank. Given the density of the jellies, I'm not sure we would have attempted a second dive. The BIL enjoyed it, so that was good.

We drove over to Portofino to find the beach entry for the new Christmas tree reef and saw 3 divers trying to locate the structure off shore. There was no marker buoy, but the sticks were still in the sand near the beach entry.

 

[ReefHound]

We drove over to Portofino to find the beach entry for the new Christmas tree reef and saw 3 divers trying to locate the structure off shore. There was no marker buoy, but the sticks were still in the sand near the beach entry.

We dived there Saturday afternoon and never found the buoy or the structures, but we still did an hour diving sand. A remora followed us around nibbling on us, found a small gunard, occasional crabs, blennies poking up, a dead spade getting picked apart by some fish, and of course played asteroids with the moon jellies.

Yes, we're easily entertained.

 

[amadus98]

Mondays dive report........
After getting T-boned in an intersection on the way to pick up my dive buddy I thought OOOH great what away to start my dive trip. No one was hurt besides my truck and after waiting 40min for the police to arrive i was able to bend some body pannels back into place and continue my trip..... SO i was 40 min late in picking up my dive partner but soon found my self laughing and cuttin up in the car on the drive over to fort pickins.

Arived around 1030ish geared up gave a quick description and lay of the land to my dive partner whos never neen there then off to the stairs.. once on the beach we saw 2 other divers finishing up. They were way over by the jettyrocks so i gave them the customary polite divers gretting nod and fin wave.... a quick look around to see we were the only ones there. No dive flags in the water just a partybarge anchored right over our spot. mmmmmm no worries i just sharpened my dive knife so it will make quick work of an anchor rope...lolol We lined up with the lighthouse and water towers set our compass and headed in. water temp was in the high 70s low 80s so that was good. I was hoping for the 70ft viz that i read about in an earlier post... NOT..lol the water was turned up bit but still good enough to see the big jellies around. No matter the viz the jellies sure did find my dive buddy they fired him up to no end. The viz was around 12-15 ft maybe slightly more enough to have a good time. 15 min into the dive the boat above us decided to vacate the premississ We found the jeep, the 3ft tall rectangle box thingy the pipes, lots of tires the airplane parts and a few other odds and ends and on our way out the golfcart. sealife was abundant with lots of spadefish, crabs, about a 5ft ray and a very lucky flounder ( remember i just sharpened my knife). We did a little exploring and hit a max depth of 58 ft and a dive time of 73 min. once out of the water we stored our gear and headed off to orange beach to dive the whiskey wreck....

After an hour drive to orange beach we arrived at bahama bobs to an amazing only one car in the parking lot...woohoooo first time ive been that lucky. A short recon of the beach showed no waves and a slight breeze good enough for me. geared up and headed out. Once in the water there was a slight current but nothing to worrie about. I gave directions to my dive partner on how to locate the wreck and let him lead the way. He wanted some practice with compass navigation so no better place than here. Once under water the viz dropped quickly to 1-2 ft with clouds of red. My dive partner gave it his best but we gave up 10 min into the dive. 1-2 ft of viz does not make for a plesent dive. We surface swam back to the beach took quick shower and stowed our gear. We grabed a quick bite to eat at bahama bobs which was very tasty and headed back....

 

[bamaskubacat]

Mondays dive report........
After getting T-boned in an intersection on the way to pick up my dive buddy I thought OOOH great what away to start my dive trip.

OMG :shocked2: I can honestly say I've never read a dive report that started like this! So glad you were ok and that you ended up with a good dive.

 

[amadus98]

It was crappy start........ To top it off she tried to say i ran the red light... I said to her how do you run a red light from a stand still. I was stopped and my light turned green.... then in the next sentence she said i looked up andthe light was still yellow... duh!!!! she was in a hurry with 2 kids in the car and tried to beat the light. Lucky my 4runner sits up a bit other wise she would have smacked my right in the back door insted she slid right under me and ripped off my running board underneath the back door. Still i was pissed but glad no one was hurt. In the long run ya just cant keep a diver from his trip..lol

 

[wjefferis]

OMG I haven't heard anything from you Amadus98 in foreva!!! glad to see you are still diving. Hopefully the next one goes a little more to plans.

 

[DocCarl]

OMG I haven't heard anything from you Amadus98 in foreva!!! glad to see you are still diving. Hopefully the next one goes a little more to plans.

Dude, long time no see!

Your schedule allowing you to do some diving?



Carl

 

[amadus98]

yes im back in dive mode....... woohooo all done with school so its time to get my dive on....lol