gentlegiant
Contributor
I needed to get wet so I headed down to PCB. Got set up with Hydrospace and was able to get on 2 trips on Saturday. The first trip was a 6 hour offshore and the second was a 4 hour inshore night dive. ydrospace even agreed to let me dive my doubles. I had to treat them as if it were two tanks, no tank switching, but I still got some openwater practice in.
Offshore:
The first offshore dive was the Akokee, a former navy tug used by the salvage school as a class project vessel. The ship is intact and sitting upright on the bottom. Temps were 85 or so topside and 80 on the 97ft bottom. No current and visability was in the 60 ft range. Lots of marine life on and around the wreck including a 150-200lb Goliath Grouper.
The second dive was another, larger, navy tug the Chippewa. She sits at 106ft upright and intact. Another pretty cool wreck to dive. Same vis and temps as the previous dive except vis was interfered with by schools of baitfish at times.
Inshore:
We got a late start to the night dive so we decided to hit bridge span #2 which lies close to the USS Strength for both dives. The first dive was a twilight dive. The bridge spans are very active areas for marine life and this one was no exception. Lots of grouper, another Goliath grouper in the 200lb range, anglefish, a couple of toadfish and some pretty cool soft corals. We got the see part of the transition from day to night and then followed it up with a full night dive.
Overall it was a good trip with great captains and crews on the boats. Neither boat was crowded. I think we had 8 divers on the offshore and 7 on the night dives. The new location at Captain Anderson's marina is very accessable with easy unloading and loading.
Offshore:
The first offshore dive was the Akokee, a former navy tug used by the salvage school as a class project vessel. The ship is intact and sitting upright on the bottom. Temps were 85 or so topside and 80 on the 97ft bottom. No current and visability was in the 60 ft range. Lots of marine life on and around the wreck including a 150-200lb Goliath Grouper.
The second dive was another, larger, navy tug the Chippewa. She sits at 106ft upright and intact. Another pretty cool wreck to dive. Same vis and temps as the previous dive except vis was interfered with by schools of baitfish at times.
Inshore:
We got a late start to the night dive so we decided to hit bridge span #2 which lies close to the USS Strength for both dives. The first dive was a twilight dive. The bridge spans are very active areas for marine life and this one was no exception. Lots of grouper, another Goliath grouper in the 200lb range, anglefish, a couple of toadfish and some pretty cool soft corals. We got the see part of the transition from day to night and then followed it up with a full night dive.
Overall it was a good trip with great captains and crews on the boats. Neither boat was crowded. I think we had 8 divers on the offshore and 7 on the night dives. The new location at Captain Anderson's marina is very accessable with easy unloading and loading.
