Anyone dived at a site with no land visible in all directions?

[mcohen1021]

Texas Flower Gardens

 

[diversteve]

Some of the SC wrecks are by themselves in the open ocean - they're found by GPS. Not especially far out - one is called 6 mile something..but definitely no coastline in sight when you jump off the boat. Any of the further out Gulf Stream wrecks they regularly visit would be also. Nothing is very high in that area - why it's called the Low Country.

Cay Sal in the Bahamas was like that - years ago on the Nekton - the boat was the tallest thing for miles - often the only thing. Sometimes w'd see a glow on the horizon that was Cuba. Once a Coast Guard cuttter followed us for an hour,

IIRC you don't see any land if you go lobstering at Cortez Banks which is a boat ride from SoCal,

I believe some of the seamounts off Roatan - probably mostly visited via liveaboard - are out of sight of land also,

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I think this has been mentioned already, but most of the NC wrecks out of Morehead City are well off short. Certainly far enough that you don't see any land.

 

[Kharon]

I'm planning whale shark diving from Placencia next spring and I expect it's far enough that no land will be visible. The shop says it's open ocean with no bottom in sight. I believe it's with a DM and group with no chance of getting lost. At least I plan on sticking close.

 

[CuzzA]

We rarely dive close enough to see land. The shallow slope of the Gulf Coast of Florida around Tampa Bay pretty much guarantees any good diving will require a minimum 15 mile trip. Too far to see land most of the time. 100 miles to the Florida Middle Grounds is the farthest offshore I've been diving. Hell, not only is there no land at that distance, there's no radio reaching land either.

 

[Bob DBF]

Yeah, the easiest way is when there is visibility. I was diving about 100 yards offshore and came up to fog that dropped the viz to 100 feet. Had to navigate my boat out of the cove and back to the launch ramp before gps. Had the same thing happen when shore diving, the NorCal coast is whimsical.



Bob

 

[drbill]

ive always wondered what it would be like to dive far enough offshore where you cannot see any land?

Day or night? Tee hee. Yes, of course I've done open ocean dives well away from shore when you can't see land. It can be done even here in SoCal.

 

[KathyV]

...Cay Sal in the Bahamas was like that - years ago on the Nekton - the boat was the tallest thing for miles - often the only thing. Sometimes w'd see a glow on the horizon that was Cuba. Once a Coast Guard cuttter followed us for an hour...

When I read the OP's question, the first thing I thought of was liveaboards in the Bahamas, too. We also did the Cay Sal Bank trip on the Nekton and that big boat looked like a square building sitting on the surface when you came up, there was nothing else around; but I was also thinking about the Exumas on a different boat.

One time in the Bahamas the US Coast Guard stopped our LOB and searched our cabins (for drugs I guess?) but they didn't find anything and left - I think that we were near Bimini. They didn't have warrants and we weren't in US waters but they had guns and so they did it anyway. The Captain just shrugged and said "it happens".

Another time, this was in the Exumas, we were moored near the wall and a US naval boat that turned out to be a sub tender was hanging around when a submarine suddenly erupted out of the water near near us - that was a surprise!

We also once got buzzed by US navy jets while on a LOB in the Bahamas.

I am sure that Cuba was the reason for all the attention given to LOBs in the Bahamas, and probably smuggling, also. I wonder if it is still the same, we haven't done a trip to the Bahamas in awhile.

 

[GreggS]

As someone mentioned earlier, you don't have to go very far out on the NC coast to be out of sight of land. There are not very many tall buildings along our coast to see once you get 7 or 8 miles from shore. I've been out numerous times well out of sight of land. As we say here..."Ain't no big deal."

 

[hroark2112]

I actually thought it was weird the first time I went diving in south Florida. The captain was giving us the 10 minute call and I think I could have snorkeled to the beach.

In NC you get told when you’re 30 minute to the wreck sometimes, and then you still have to wait for the DM to go tie in to the wreck.