I would ask Paul if he got home ok but since I am on his ignore list, he wouldn't know anyway.
3-11-07 DutchBanks &3 Mile Barge Report
- Thread starter GulfDiver77
- Start date
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frankc420:
My vision was just fine until you put that avatar up there and blinded me....
GulfDiver77:
Shhhhhh......don't say that too loud around Paulwall; it makes him think of an unpleasant experience he had one time,
wjefferis
Contributor
denisegg:So jefferis, how much booty did you salvage from the bottom of the ocean? In laymen's terms...how many shells did you collect?
I got a couple sand dollars and a couple large shells (not sure their name).
paulwall
Contributor
Ok, here's my take:
It was really great to dive with some of you again, and to meet those whom were on the first trip with yours truly via the Cat-n-Around.
It was a truly beautiful day, with a stiff breeze, but not too cool. No blazing sun beating on us, and a cool splash of water on the face upon entry.
Dive 1 - I was fortunate enough to plunge in and turn around just as I passed over the descending line from the marker buoy. Being an extra 5lbs negative got me out of the (apparantly) wind-driven surface current below 10 or 15 ft. Descended into great (for March in Orange Beach) 40+ feet of visibility. I saw wjefferis and will fiddling around the weight on the bottom, and looked behind them and saw huge tracts of land and snapper as far as the eye could see. Swam the 30 or so feet over to the ledge, and began my Southerly? trip along the ledge shining my light looking for the elusive shovelnose. Apparently, they knew I was coming and skedaddled over to the Trysler Grounds.
So, I watched Snappers, and spadefish, Sheephead and Triggers. I saw the coolest anemones (white with bright orange-red tips), blennies, Angels, soapfish, and grouper hanging out under the ledge. Continued all the way down the ledge until it petered out, and turned to head back.
Alas, when I returned to where I thought the float should be, I found only drag marks. Whether they were from the weight on the float, or the attempts to anchor, I know not, but the buoy line was not to be seen. Thus, I unclipped my Trusty sausage, attached my spool, gave it a puff of air and let it rise to the surface, marking my safety stop. I did 2 mins at 30 ft, and 3 more at 17 before surfacing. The boat was no more than 10 ft away. Thanks Gary! Bottom Temp: 66*, Dive time 30 mins or so, and vis as I said was 30-40ft. Back on board with 750 lbs.
Dive 2 was the infamous 3-mile barge. Max depth 40ft, bottom time 1hr plus, water temp 62*, vis 25-30'. I spent most of this dive getting familiar with my new gear. I ran a line from the barge to the culvert, and tried to entice divers over there to explore. wjefferis spend a minute or two wondering about my line tied off on the barge, until I 'fessed up, and told him it was mine. I ran a valve drill with my main and pony tank, and did a light penetration into the hull of the barge. It was tight, but I made it all the way to the stern?Bow? end of the barge. Still no sign of the Goliath. I miss him/her. Played hide and seek with Anthony, did some "Man from Atlantis" swimming and generally just chilled out underwater.
Then, Anthony and I tried to meet up with Gary and Linda at Tacky Jacks, but we didn't see Linda, and there was an hour wait, so we trucked over to Calypso Joe's for sanwiches before I dropped him off at Gary's, and went to meet Mat for the Shrimpboat dive.
What I learned: Do not set a Mosquito or a Aeris Atmos computer's Nitrox setting too early. By the time I splashed, they had both reverted back to air (21%) instead of the 37% I was using.
Thanks Gary for such a Varied, affordable, and enjoyable trip!
It was really great to dive with some of you again, and to meet those whom were on the first trip with yours truly via the Cat-n-Around.
It was a truly beautiful day, with a stiff breeze, but not too cool. No blazing sun beating on us, and a cool splash of water on the face upon entry.
Dive 1 - I was fortunate enough to plunge in and turn around just as I passed over the descending line from the marker buoy. Being an extra 5lbs negative got me out of the (apparantly) wind-driven surface current below 10 or 15 ft. Descended into great (for March in Orange Beach) 40+ feet of visibility. I saw wjefferis and will fiddling around the weight on the bottom, and looked behind them and saw huge tracts of land and snapper as far as the eye could see. Swam the 30 or so feet over to the ledge, and began my Southerly? trip along the ledge shining my light looking for the elusive shovelnose. Apparently, they knew I was coming and skedaddled over to the Trysler Grounds.
So, I watched Snappers, and spadefish, Sheephead and Triggers. I saw the coolest anemones (white with bright orange-red tips), blennies, Angels, soapfish, and grouper hanging out under the ledge. Continued all the way down the ledge until it petered out, and turned to head back.
Alas, when I returned to where I thought the float should be, I found only drag marks. Whether they were from the weight on the float, or the attempts to anchor, I know not, but the buoy line was not to be seen. Thus, I unclipped my Trusty sausage, attached my spool, gave it a puff of air and let it rise to the surface, marking my safety stop. I did 2 mins at 30 ft, and 3 more at 17 before surfacing. The boat was no more than 10 ft away. Thanks Gary! Bottom Temp: 66*, Dive time 30 mins or so, and vis as I said was 30-40ft. Back on board with 750 lbs.
Dive 2 was the infamous 3-mile barge. Max depth 40ft, bottom time 1hr plus, water temp 62*, vis 25-30'. I spent most of this dive getting familiar with my new gear. I ran a line from the barge to the culvert, and tried to entice divers over there to explore. wjefferis spend a minute or two wondering about my line tied off on the barge, until I 'fessed up, and told him it was mine. I ran a valve drill with my main and pony tank, and did a light penetration into the hull of the barge. It was tight, but I made it all the way to the stern?Bow? end of the barge. Still no sign of the Goliath. I miss him/her. Played hide and seek with Anthony, did some "Man from Atlantis" swimming and generally just chilled out underwater.
Then, Anthony and I tried to meet up with Gary and Linda at Tacky Jacks, but we didn't see Linda, and there was an hour wait, so we trucked over to Calypso Joe's for sanwiches before I dropped him off at Gary's, and went to meet Mat for the Shrimpboat dive.
What I learned: Do not set a Mosquito or a Aeris Atmos computer's Nitrox setting too early. By the time I splashed, they had both reverted back to air (21%) instead of the 37% I was using.
Thanks Gary for such a Varied, affordable, and enjoyable trip!
The same thing happened to me with my sunnto cobra. I set it for nitrox 32 before I hooked all my gear up. I didn't realize until I was logging my dives that it had reverted back to air (21). Andy and I followed your line from the barge to the culvert also. It was fun exploring.
We did have a great day of diving.
We did have a great day of diving.
BTW Paulwall, since you call yourself the "thread killer", does that mean that you always have to have the last word or does that mean that people run when you come around??
paulwall
Contributor
And, another thread bites the dust. Why does no one follow up on my posts?
wjefferis
Contributor
I can't figure how to shrink my pics of the dive to upload onto my post (any help would be appreciated) I instead placed them in my gallery. they did not turn out very well ( I need a digital camera) but enjoy.
SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
When you click on the picture while its in your gallery, scroll down a bit and it will give you the link to the picture itself with img tags around it. It also has a button to copy link to clipboard.
Just click that button, or copy the link(including img tags) the oldfashion way, and paste it in your message.
I'll post one of your images below for you.
Cool pics.
Just click that button, or copy the link(including img tags) the oldfashion way, and paste it in your message.
I'll post one of your images below for you.
Cool pics.
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