JamesK
Contributor
Well, I made a trip down to Florida this past weekend. After MUCH confusion, we finally figured out our dive plan.
Friday and Sunday we went to Vortex Springs, and Saturday we drove to Destin to dive the gulf.
Friday was great! We got to Vortex at around noon. We managed to get 5 dives in that day. Their was only 2 other groups of divers there, so we almost always had the water to ourselves. It was my first time to Vortex, so I had a lot of fun playing around in the tunnels and in the cavern chasing eels. Got some pretty good pictures that day too.
Saturday we headed for Destin. We dove with with the dive shop ScubaTech on their boat the SeaCobra. I just have to say thank you to the crew. These people were extremly nice. They made what could have turned out to be a bad dive a lot of fun. I would highyl recommend using ScubaTech if you are ever in the area. Anyway, onto the trip. It was a pretty windy day, and the water was anything but smooth. The trip was almost called off. However, they decided to go. We went out to the bridge rubble to play around there for our first dive. The visibilty was less than 15ft, and the water was near 60degrees F so it was a little chilly. We did a nice relaxing 35 mintue dive before I called it due to getting slightly chilled. Did not see much for marine life besides angle fish and a lot of jellyfish.
The second dive was on a sunken fuel barge. The water at 75ft was 58degrees. After 20 minutes we called the dive and surfaced. Poor vis, but we saw a dolphin, a headfish, and a bunch more jellyfish.
On Sunday we almost called the dive because of the air temp. However, cooler heads (no pun intended) prevailed, and we dove again. So we headed back to Vortex. WOW! talk about a bunch of classes! I counted four classes, and close to thirty students. So needless to say the water was crowded. We decided to finish off one of our tanks from the day before that still had 1750psi in them. Took some pictures, but the vis was pretty bad so i don't know if they turned out or not. We decided to just do one more long dive, and then leave. So the last dive we spent pretty much goofing off. We chased each other around the tunnels, into the cavern, and through any crack we could fit through. The vis in the cavern was about 5 feet when we entered. We also spent a lot of time doing somersaults, swimming on our backs, and standing on our heads during safety stops. Like I said, just goofing off. After 50 minutes with 1250psi left we called the dive and went home.
Anyway, it was well worth it. The weekend was a lot of fun.
Anyone else do any diving this weekend?
Friday and Sunday we went to Vortex Springs, and Saturday we drove to Destin to dive the gulf.
Friday was great! We got to Vortex at around noon. We managed to get 5 dives in that day. Their was only 2 other groups of divers there, so we almost always had the water to ourselves. It was my first time to Vortex, so I had a lot of fun playing around in the tunnels and in the cavern chasing eels. Got some pretty good pictures that day too.
Saturday we headed for Destin. We dove with with the dive shop ScubaTech on their boat the SeaCobra. I just have to say thank you to the crew. These people were extremly nice. They made what could have turned out to be a bad dive a lot of fun. I would highyl recommend using ScubaTech if you are ever in the area. Anyway, onto the trip. It was a pretty windy day, and the water was anything but smooth. The trip was almost called off. However, they decided to go. We went out to the bridge rubble to play around there for our first dive. The visibilty was less than 15ft, and the water was near 60degrees F so it was a little chilly. We did a nice relaxing 35 mintue dive before I called it due to getting slightly chilled. Did not see much for marine life besides angle fish and a lot of jellyfish.
The second dive was on a sunken fuel barge. The water at 75ft was 58degrees. After 20 minutes we called the dive and surfaced. Poor vis, but we saw a dolphin, a headfish, and a bunch more jellyfish.
On Sunday we almost called the dive because of the air temp. However, cooler heads (no pun intended) prevailed, and we dove again. So we headed back to Vortex. WOW! talk about a bunch of classes! I counted four classes, and close to thirty students. So needless to say the water was crowded. We decided to finish off one of our tanks from the day before that still had 1750psi in them. Took some pictures, but the vis was pretty bad so i don't know if they turned out or not. We decided to just do one more long dive, and then leave. So the last dive we spent pretty much goofing off. We chased each other around the tunnels, into the cavern, and through any crack we could fit through. The vis in the cavern was about 5 feet when we entered. We also spent a lot of time doing somersaults, swimming on our backs, and standing on our heads during safety stops. Like I said, just goofing off. After 50 minutes with 1250psi left we called the dive and went home.
Anyway, it was well worth it. The weekend was a lot of fun.
Anyone else do any diving this weekend?
