Pensacola Shore Dive trip: a new diver seeks advice

[Michael Gtr]

Hello Scuba board & Deep Dixie Divers,

I have a diving trip planned for the last week of March to Pensacola and the surrounding areas with my girlfriend. I've found a lot of great resources and references for planning this trip. I was hoping to get feed back on the places I was thinking about diving and also see if there were any groups planning a charter or any Lionfish hunts or anything cool like that.

A little background. The last time we were in Florida the weather didn't corporate and we were only able to dive at Jenny Springs. (wonderfully clear water!) so this will be me and my girlfriends first ocean diving experience! Since then we have about 15 freshwater dives in lakes and abandoned rock quarries since getting our open water dive certs.

What is the boards thoughts about new divers and the following? Any I should reconsider

Morrison Springs- freshwater I know, but looks rather stunning
Destin Jetties
Fort Pickens Jetties
Shiskey Wreck

and maybe also,

Pensacola pier
St Andrews Jetties
Navarre Pier


Lastly l made Sushi for 7 years and was hoping to spear enough Lionfish to make a meal out of! Would any of those sites be more likely to have lionfish?

Thank you

 

[Skeptic14]

Morrison and Vortex are nice for a tank each and only 10 minutes down the road from each other. The vortex cavern is very open so taking a peak in it and doing some of the swim throughs is always fun. Vortex is dammed so the visibility is always good (unless a class has it stirred up) whereas for Morrison you'll want to look at this website: National Weather Service Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service . If the water level is below 5 feet conditions will probably be decent. We've gotten a lot of rain in this area lately so it's up right now but maybe by the end of March that will have changed.

The Destin Jetty is a nice dive, but it is a heck of a walk (mostly in sand) geared up, it's referred to as the "death march". I just did it last weekend, water temp was 67 and lots of the usual critters, time a high tide for best vis and current.

I've never done any of the Pcola dives, so I can't comment but you should definitely try to do St. Andrews Jetty. Much easier walk than Destin Jetty, nice facilities and the dive is great, time a high slack tide of course, can reach depths of 70 feet but so much structure you can do whatever profile you like.

I don't think you can dive the Navarre Pier (rubble?) anymore, but in Navarre there is an artificial reef 100 yards off the beach that is a nice fun dive. There are resident turtles, typically you can find octopus in the pods if you look closely and lots of fish, stingray and flounder on the bottom. It's shallow, so it might be a good check out type dive for your first "ocean dive". Light north wind will be the best, and you can look at this webcam to get an idea of the water conditions: Navarre Beach Live HD 1080 Zoom Cam

As far as lionfish, there can be a few at the jetties, but as far as my experience, I've seen more at the offshore sites. Speaking of which, will you have time to try any boat dives, some of the area's best dives are offshore about 5-7 miles.

 

[JIMMY PHILLIPS]

Good info Skeptic14. I am saving the link you provided as I plan to do some dives in the area in a few months. Thank you!

 

[Skeptic14]

Your welcome Jimmy.

One thing I just thought to mention to OP, the visibility of the springs is typically pretty awesome, like you described your diving in Jenny Springs.

But depending on the conditions, you could have visibility of only 10 feet for some of these jetty/shore dives. It could be great, still not like the springs but nice, or it could be poor so just keep that in mind.

 

[JIMMY PHILLIPS]

I second that. Tried to dive the jettys at Panama City Beach last week and had visibility of less than 5', had to change plans. The Gulf was even worse near the shore.

 

[Michael Gtr]

Thanks for the reply Skeptic14!

I'm in the process of selecting a dive charter, I want to do at least one of the offshore dives but I'm a little... I'll call it.... concerned. Last time I was in Florida we went on a fishing charter, the waves were in the 5-7ft range, to make a long story short I was told I was the first person they had on the boat to get repeatedly sick and keep fishing.... .. The waves on the lakes around here have nothing on that!

As far as visibility I'm used to 10-15 feet on a good day, Around here in Mo it's pretty much just muck-diving or the occasional spring fed quarry.

I found a tide predicting website and am using it to try to plan my scheduling too.

I'm glad you said something about the depth at Morrison, this is the first I'd heard of that!

I'm very open to suggestions for wrecks or reefs i should hit up... and maybe a favorite sea-sickness remedy just in case...

 

[Skeptic14]

I'm lucky not to get motion sick but my wife does so I definitely understand the concern. People keep telling her to try bonine so that might be a good one to try.

As far as sites; I haven't done any diving out of Pcola, but for Destin I would suggest Scubatech and some of the fav sites are Whitehill, AmberJack and while it's sorta a fallback site I've enjoyed the bridge rubble sites that are just a mile out of the pass.

For Panama City, I've only used Divelocker and they were good, but there are several other ops that I haven't so I can't compare. I really enjoyed the blackbart wreck. The strength is also a good one and they have some bridge spans as well that are pretty nice.

 

[flyingDiver75]

Most of the local dive operations won't go out in seas over 4'. Your biggest issue with March is that it is still windy season so trips will cancel more often due to conditions.

 

[red_tide]

Visibility is tied directly to rain. Between the Mississippi, Alabama and other rivers, we have lots of runoff that kills visibility in the bays, passes and miles offshore too. As everyone has mentioned, we have had a bunch of rain recently so visibility everywhere is low. We need 2 – 3 weeks of little to no rain to clear the water.

Both St. Andrews and Destin Jetties are great dives if the water is somewhat clear and you dive at slack high tide. We try to time it so we enter 30 minutes before high tide but the charts can be off sometimes, so be prepared in case you hit current towards the end of the dive. Both places are excellent for fish and other sea creatures. St. Andrews is a much closer walk and has pavilions, bathrooms and indoor changing areas. Both can get crowded on the weekends and you will need to watch out for the occasional fisherman.

I’ve also done the Whiskey Wreck shore dive and the jetties in Orange Beach. The Whiskey Wreck is mostly covered with very little above the sand right now.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I might be taking a trip down there next month. Let me ask a question I think I know the answer to. Since there is only one high tide during daylight hours, then I could only dive one site--either St. Andrews or Destin Jetties but not both--in one day? In view of the "death march" in Destin, I'm leaning toward St. Andrews.

From the tide tables (Navarre Beach NOAA station?), it looks like Sat. March 18 or Sun. March 19 might be a good choice for an afternoon dive.