ScubaScott
Guest
March 7-15 provided me with a chance to get away from 6 feet of snow and ice to the warmth of the sunshine state. It was a long, long drive (2150 km or 1335 miles one way) that we split into two days. Destin, Florida is a beautiful city in between Pensacola and Panama City on Florida's northwest Gulf Coast. My folks have been going there for the last few years during the winter, which provides me with a relatively inexpensive vacation.
Aside from 2 hours of rain the first day we arrived, and a shower or two at night, we had sunshine and favourable weather for diving.
Day 1: Dove with ScubaTech - on thier boat the Mongoose. The 42' boat holds a whole herd, but March 10 being the first charter of the season, we had 5 divers, 2 crew, and a bubblewatcher - my wife, Amie.
We were diving Amberjack reef our first dive - about 5 miles off shore. On the boat ride out we spotted some of the largest turtles most of us on the boat had ever seen - these beauties were monsters! Dolphins played around behind our boat and followed us around for a while. I noticed immediately that jellyfish were as thick as a blanket in the top 10-15 feet of the water.
I was buddied up with an older lady, Mary. My initial thought was "this could be painful", but little did I know, Mary could dive. Not only that, she worked for the University of Texas Sciences dept as a diver and had been doing it since 1967. I wasn't born in 1967 - I knew I could learn from this. We started our dive, and as she was taking pictures and I was just pleasure diving, we simply explored the limestone reef and the fish around it. Toadfish, angelfish, damsels, grouper, snapper.... the list goes on..... remember - I come from the lakes of the green and brown fish - anything with colour gets me pretty excited. Viz was kinda crap that day - 10-15', water was 62 degs and depth was about 85'. I got stung across the chin by a jelly on ascent. That wasn't much fun at all.
Our second dive was on some peices of bridge rubble that towed out to make an artificial reef. Viz improved a bit on this dive, saw many of the same types of fish and some others that I have no clue what they're called, but they were PRETTY.....
Scubatech had a pretty nice operation. My thanks to Nancy - the Captain, and Quinn - handler/DM/general fixxerupper.
Day 2 - Through this thing they call the internet, and Scubaboard, I met Genesis. Genesis lives in Destin. Genesis was kind enough to answer a bunch of questions about Destin before my trip, and invite me aboard his baby, Gigabyte. Gigabyte is a 42' fishing boat, that doubles as one sweet dive boat. There were 5 divers, and two bubble watchers headed out to "get away from the other boats" to the Janet Tug and Phoenix Barge.
The Janet was sunk as an artificial reef about 10 miles off shore. depth was about 95', viz was 25' and water temp was 63 degs. All the other guys (Don, Devo, Eddy and Karl) were spearfishing - first time I had seen anyone do it. However, the big ones were hanging off in the distance, and the guys came up without supper. Saw many of the above mentioned fish at this site as well
The Phoenix was another Art. reef around the 75' range. The guys were once again on the hunt for supper, and I just kinda of tagged alongside Genesis and took it all in. Snapper season (for spearfishing
) had apparently just ended, and the big fish were taunting the guys fishing, but the grouper were staying off in the distance.
Genesis - my wife and I thank you for your hospitality and kindness..... its not everyday you meet and dive with someone you met over the internet. Hope all is well with you, and I hope to visit again next year. Tell Eddie and Devo I said "hey" or "eh", and thanks for the cold ones on the ride home.
Yeah, there's better diving in the Keys, and Cozumel and blah, blah, blah..... But anytime I can dive in warm water, see colourful fishes and meet a fellow Scubaboarder..... that works for me.....
SS
Aside from 2 hours of rain the first day we arrived, and a shower or two at night, we had sunshine and favourable weather for diving.
Day 1: Dove with ScubaTech - on thier boat the Mongoose. The 42' boat holds a whole herd, but March 10 being the first charter of the season, we had 5 divers, 2 crew, and a bubblewatcher - my wife, Amie.
We were diving Amberjack reef our first dive - about 5 miles off shore. On the boat ride out we spotted some of the largest turtles most of us on the boat had ever seen - these beauties were monsters! Dolphins played around behind our boat and followed us around for a while. I noticed immediately that jellyfish were as thick as a blanket in the top 10-15 feet of the water.
I was buddied up with an older lady, Mary. My initial thought was "this could be painful", but little did I know, Mary could dive. Not only that, she worked for the University of Texas Sciences dept as a diver and had been doing it since 1967. I wasn't born in 1967 - I knew I could learn from this. We started our dive, and as she was taking pictures and I was just pleasure diving, we simply explored the limestone reef and the fish around it. Toadfish, angelfish, damsels, grouper, snapper.... the list goes on..... remember - I come from the lakes of the green and brown fish - anything with colour gets me pretty excited. Viz was kinda crap that day - 10-15', water was 62 degs and depth was about 85'. I got stung across the chin by a jelly on ascent. That wasn't much fun at all.
Our second dive was on some peices of bridge rubble that towed out to make an artificial reef. Viz improved a bit on this dive, saw many of the same types of fish and some others that I have no clue what they're called, but they were PRETTY.....
Scubatech had a pretty nice operation. My thanks to Nancy - the Captain, and Quinn - handler/DM/general fixxerupper.
Day 2 - Through this thing they call the internet, and Scubaboard, I met Genesis. Genesis lives in Destin. Genesis was kind enough to answer a bunch of questions about Destin before my trip, and invite me aboard his baby, Gigabyte. Gigabyte is a 42' fishing boat, that doubles as one sweet dive boat. There were 5 divers, and two bubble watchers headed out to "get away from the other boats" to the Janet Tug and Phoenix Barge.
The Janet was sunk as an artificial reef about 10 miles off shore. depth was about 95', viz was 25' and water temp was 63 degs. All the other guys (Don, Devo, Eddy and Karl) were spearfishing - first time I had seen anyone do it. However, the big ones were hanging off in the distance, and the guys came up without supper. Saw many of the above mentioned fish at this site as well
The Phoenix was another Art. reef around the 75' range. The guys were once again on the hunt for supper, and I just kinda of tagged alongside Genesis and took it all in. Snapper season (for spearfishing
) had apparently just ended, and the big fish were taunting the guys fishing, but the grouper were staying off in the distance. Genesis - my wife and I thank you for your hospitality and kindness..... its not everyday you meet and dive with someone you met over the internet. Hope all is well with you, and I hope to visit again next year. Tell Eddie and Devo I said "hey" or "eh", and thanks for the cold ones on the ride home.
Yeah, there's better diving in the Keys, and Cozumel and blah, blah, blah..... But anytime I can dive in warm water, see colourful fishes and meet a fellow Scubaboarder..... that works for me.....
SS
