So I dove BHB yesterday and decided to try bathtub reef afterwards as a second dive.
I read the advice from Scuba Steve and Dan Volker in previous threads. We, JellyFishJoy and I, parked on the south side of the parking lot and walked 100 yards south. We looked for a break in the wave action on the reef and saw a calmer section and went for it.
First off, we noticed heavy equipment further south near the inlet digging sand. There's pipe running along the dune. Beach to reef was zero viz. We went for it anyways with the hope of better viz on the other side. It was maybe an hour past high tide. We swam over the reef without damaging it or ourselves, but it was pretty shallow. On the other side viz was 5 ft. We discussed in our pre dive how to coordinate regrouping if we got split up, which worked out the one time we got separated by 10 ft.
Since viz was so poor, we surfaced and discussed returning to shore or exploring what we could. We felt like the conditions weren't anything we couldn't handle and opted for a 20-30 minute dive since we were out there already. I don't have my computer on me right now, but we reached depths around 12-14 ft. We opted for not going out further and zig zagged around with a north or south orientation. The surge was prominent and made for interesting swim patterns. The surge would literally turn you, so at times we had to watch our compasses to keep our heading.
We had a bottom time just under 30 minutes. I was feeling a little motion sick in the surge. The sun was going down and the tide was receding, so we wanted to back over the reef while we could swim over it. It was a little crazier coming back in, viz was so bad I couldn't see my hands, but I feel the reef within arms reach. We used the waves to swim quickly over the reef and get back into the beach area. We surface swam back in and walked back up the beach to my truck.
We had a nice surprise, we had company waiting for us on shore. Our dive buddies from BHB, DiveDivaDM and Jimw (shout out to bridge trolls), were waiting for us. They knew we were heading to BTB and wanted to get the scoop. They didn't realize we went so far south and couldn't find our dive flag. Diva was going to wait for the sun to set and call 911!
I feel like I have scuba parents, it's so endearing! Luckily we got out prior to sunset.
I really want to return on a day where viz is good. The rock formations looked nice. We saw some tropical fish, but it was hard to make out everything. Sometimes you'd see something move but couldn't catch what it was.
If you've dove BTB, are there any breaks in the reef from the shoreline that can be swam through without going over the reef. Lets say it's low tide, how do you get beyond it?
I read the advice from Scuba Steve and Dan Volker in previous threads. We, JellyFishJoy and I, parked on the south side of the parking lot and walked 100 yards south. We looked for a break in the wave action on the reef and saw a calmer section and went for it.
First off, we noticed heavy equipment further south near the inlet digging sand. There's pipe running along the dune. Beach to reef was zero viz. We went for it anyways with the hope of better viz on the other side. It was maybe an hour past high tide. We swam over the reef without damaging it or ourselves, but it was pretty shallow. On the other side viz was 5 ft. We discussed in our pre dive how to coordinate regrouping if we got split up, which worked out the one time we got separated by 10 ft.
Since viz was so poor, we surfaced and discussed returning to shore or exploring what we could. We felt like the conditions weren't anything we couldn't handle and opted for a 20-30 minute dive since we were out there already. I don't have my computer on me right now, but we reached depths around 12-14 ft. We opted for not going out further and zig zagged around with a north or south orientation. The surge was prominent and made for interesting swim patterns. The surge would literally turn you, so at times we had to watch our compasses to keep our heading.
We had a bottom time just under 30 minutes. I was feeling a little motion sick in the surge. The sun was going down and the tide was receding, so we wanted to back over the reef while we could swim over it. It was a little crazier coming back in, viz was so bad I couldn't see my hands, but I feel the reef within arms reach. We used the waves to swim quickly over the reef and get back into the beach area. We surface swam back in and walked back up the beach to my truck.
We had a nice surprise, we had company waiting for us on shore. Our dive buddies from BHB, DiveDivaDM and Jimw (shout out to bridge trolls), were waiting for us. They knew we were heading to BTB and wanted to get the scoop. They didn't realize we went so far south and couldn't find our dive flag. Diva was going to wait for the sun to set and call 911!
I feel like I have scuba parents, it's so endearing! Luckily we got out prior to sunset. I really want to return on a day where viz is good. The rock formations looked nice. We saw some tropical fish, but it was hard to make out everything. Sometimes you'd see something move but couldn't catch what it was.
If you've dove BTB, are there any breaks in the reef from the shoreline that can be swam through without going over the reef. Lets say it's low tide, how do you get beyond it?
