SeaYoda
Contributor
After an attempt to dive the jetties on Monday was foiled by brown water, Mike_S, GFWB, and I planned a boat dive with ScubaTech for today. I woke up to a small craft advisory and prediction of 4-6 foot seas (I was expecting a cancel call due to conditions). It was soon time to pick Mike up and got a call from GFWB that he could not make it. I got to Mike's condo still waiting for a call. We looked out at the gulf and there were stiff waves about 5 miles out but not so bad between there and shore. We got to the shop and the trip was still on. Nancy had checked things out and was willing to give it a try. She had talked to a fishing boat and with the North wind that was good there was also a southeast swell which was not so good. We loaded the boat and headed to the gap between the jetties. I've been on boats in rougher water through this area but when we got past the transition area there were some larger swells. These were enough for Nancy to call the dives. We turned back and headed home. I think I could have handled the conditions (this would have been the worst I've encountered) but we had some professed pukers and newbies on board so I guess it was a good idea to turn back. Mike and I looked at the jetties as we passed by and they were a lot more blue than the day before. High tide had passed but we could get a dive in right away. We got off the boat and headed straight to the walk of death. The water was fairly clear and only a little green upon inspection so we got to the business of diving. Viz was around 20 feet with June grass throughout - concentration pockets limited viz from time to time. There was no current on the way out and we decided to go beyond the first anchor to look for the second. The second anchor is buried under a mound of sand so we turned back after hitting the wall. We went up the south side of the finger jetty into the shallows. I found a grouper on the bottom that was just sitting there. As I approached, I found fishing line hanging out his mouth and was able to grab it and almost had a prize to take home. He pulled away hard enough to slip the line out of my fingers and keep me from being fined for not having a license 
. As we came around the bend, there was a noticeable green cloud headed toward us from the north --- the bay crud was coming. There was an increase in current and we swam our way back past the point and on to the protected north side of the jetty. We spent lots of time poking around the rocks and during that time the color above us was changing to a brownish green. When we decided to end the dive, we hit a thermocline at 20 ft and went into a layer of cold, 5 foot viz water. Water temp had been 75 on the dive and this stuff was 72. Being at the end of the hour and ten minute dive and not having been swimming much made for a very cold exit. The wind had picked up and it was a toss up of chilling in the wind or chilling in the water. We saw several tourists just arriving to snorkel and we broke them the bad news that the "nice" water was 20 feet below them . We went back to ScubaTech for tank fills and on to Dewy's for stomach fills. Now I can finally say I'm over the diving slump!
No pictures today - didn't take the camera - you've seen green water and Mike before anyway
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. As we came around the bend, there was a noticeable green cloud headed toward us from the north --- the bay crud was coming. There was an increase in current and we swam our way back past the point and on to the protected north side of the jetty. We spent lots of time poking around the rocks and during that time the color above us was changing to a brownish green. When we decided to end the dive, we hit a thermocline at 20 ft and went into a layer of cold, 5 foot viz water. Water temp had been 75 on the dive and this stuff was 72. Being at the end of the hour and ten minute dive and not having been swimming much made for a very cold exit. The wind had picked up and it was a toss up of chilling in the wind or chilling in the water. We saw several tourists just arriving to snorkel and we broke them the bad news that the "nice" water was 20 feet below them . We went back to ScubaTech for tank fills and on to Dewy's for stomach fills. Now I can finally say I'm over the diving slump!No pictures today - didn't take the camera - you've seen green water and Mike before anyway
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