Ocean Dives!
31/07/06 13:15 |Personal
Dives
were Thursday, July 27, 2006
USS Strength - 78' deep, vis of 45-50'
Directly off the starboard side of the boat for the giant stride was a large dolphin, looking at us curiously as we each jumped in. By the ship we saw lots of large silver angelfish with blue and yellow fintips. We had a decent number of jewfish and sea cucumbers around the wreck. I was amazed by the number of seashells and sand dollars on the floor - I never expected so many, especially since the PCB & Destin beaches have few shells at all on them. I brought back a number of sand dollars, and am particularly proud of a leopard crab shell that I found. My dive buddy was a single woman familiar with the wreck, so I had a leisurely follow-along dive through inner parts of the wreck and around the hull. It was fantastic.
I participated in a "flip fest" with the folks on the boat during our surface interval, with some of the guys doing triple flips before entering the water. One guy did a belly-flop after the triple, which brought a rather abrupt end to his flipping. :) And no, it wasn't me.
Bridge Span #1 - 73' deep, vis of 50'
About half way down was a roughly 5' barracuda who was swimming in a holding pattern around the span. There were lots of jewfish and angels swimming around, along with schools of baitfish. We found lots of cleaner shrimp and crabs on the bottom, along with a huge number of really large sand dollars. The structure itself was crusted with anemonies and cucumbers, and the metal had degraded down into a rainbow of colors of rust and decay. I was really glad I brought along some dive lights to see better - sunlight was great, but I wouldn't have seen the colors otherwise. One of the more weird things we saw was a toadfish (?) nested underneath the superstructure, which looked as though it was just waiting for someone to stick a finger in his mouth so he could chomp it off. At the end of the dive was my only "whoops" of the day - I didn't have a compass on the rental gear, which meant that me and my buddy went to the wrong end of the span to find the ascent rope, leaving me with a little less air than expected. After the safety stop, I returned to the boat with 400 psi - ok, but pushing it.
The folks on the boat couldn't have been friendlier, the boat itself was large, comfortable and mostly shaded, and the dive staff at PCDC were as helpful as I could have ever asked for.
USS Strength - 78' deep, vis of 45-50'
Directly off the starboard side of the boat for the giant stride was a large dolphin, looking at us curiously as we each jumped in. By the ship we saw lots of large silver angelfish with blue and yellow fintips. We had a decent number of jewfish and sea cucumbers around the wreck. I was amazed by the number of seashells and sand dollars on the floor - I never expected so many, especially since the PCB & Destin beaches have few shells at all on them. I brought back a number of sand dollars, and am particularly proud of a leopard crab shell that I found. My dive buddy was a single woman familiar with the wreck, so I had a leisurely follow-along dive through inner parts of the wreck and around the hull. It was fantastic.
I participated in a "flip fest" with the folks on the boat during our surface interval, with some of the guys doing triple flips before entering the water. One guy did a belly-flop after the triple, which brought a rather abrupt end to his flipping. :) And no, it wasn't me.
Bridge Span #1 - 73' deep, vis of 50'
About half way down was a roughly 5' barracuda who was swimming in a holding pattern around the span. There were lots of jewfish and angels swimming around, along with schools of baitfish. We found lots of cleaner shrimp and crabs on the bottom, along with a huge number of really large sand dollars. The structure itself was crusted with anemonies and cucumbers, and the metal had degraded down into a rainbow of colors of rust and decay. I was really glad I brought along some dive lights to see better - sunlight was great, but I wouldn't have seen the colors otherwise. One of the more weird things we saw was a toadfish (?) nested underneath the superstructure, which looked as though it was just waiting for someone to stick a finger in his mouth so he could chomp it off. At the end of the dive was my only "whoops" of the day - I didn't have a compass on the rental gear, which meant that me and my buddy went to the wrong end of the span to find the ascent rope, leaving me with a little less air than expected. After the safety stop, I returned to the boat with 400 psi - ok, but pushing it.
The folks on the boat couldn't have been friendlier, the boat itself was large, comfortable and mostly shaded, and the dive staff at PCDC were as helpful as I could have ever asked for.
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