Best vis you've ever had on a boat dive? (Props to Jamie)

[Empty V]

So here's a spin-off of Jamie's thread on best vis beach divs, so let's hear about your best boat vis experiences. If you can remember specifics like boat, location, depth, approximate date, water temp and whatever else you would like to share.

So here's my best vis day. I was working on the Sunfish as a deckhand under our beloved Rickster two summers ago. We were at Fish Camp off of Anacappa and the water was about 72 degrees. I decided to catch a quick dive while we had our divers in the water. It was warm enough to dive in just boardshorts and a rashguard. Knowing the amount of chain we had on the anchor line and the length of the boat we estimated that the vis was at least 120ft, totally unreal! It was like this the whole weekend, well close to it. I was blown away and on top of that as I was heading back to the boat I was in about 40fsw I saw these 3 huge tails about 50ft away swim over a boulder. I pursued and they ended up being 3 back sea bass, no bs! 2 minutes later as I continued back to the boat I was about 5ft off the bottom and out of nowhere a 5ft bat ray, one of the biggest I've seen, swam right underneath me heading in the same direction, I watched him(or her) swim off into the distance which seemed to go on forever.

So that's the story of my best vis day, sorry it's a little long winded but it was definitely one I will remember for a long time.

Billy

Now let's hear your story!

 

[FishNut]

Hummm...... Last Summer on the Sunfish out at Anacapa at UW arch at least 90+ft viz. water temp was bout 67 degrees. Saw a Big school Of Barracuda as far as the eye could see.

 

[Sideways]

100'+...Playa Del Carmen Water temp 85ish, depth 50'

 

[MaxBottomtime]

A few years ago at the Olympic wreck in 100 feet we could see the wreck and sand from the surface. On the wreck, I looked up at the bottom of my boat. Vis was at least 100 feet that day. I haven't seen close to that in SoCal since.

 

[Walter]

Dive 1161, July 8, 2001, The Crack, 28 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico from Redfish Pass in Lee County, Florida. The water was glassy and the water was air clear. Except when they broke the surface, dolphins riding our bow wave looked like they were in the air. When we pulled up to the dive site, there were hundreds of Barracuda all around as we readied for our dive. They appeared to be hanging in the air. A fishing boat pulled up beside us, it was odd to watch it as it looked as if nothing were supporting it. After we rolled into the water, we felt like we could fly because of the extreme clarity. I can't even guess at the horizontal visibility. Even the best visibility in all my other dives doesn't come close to this one dive. The down side was when we hit a thermocline at 50 feet, the water turned gray and visibility dropped to 30 feet and the second thermocline at 130 feet saw a drop in visibility to 5 feet. On our ascent, a school of Amberjack circled us (pretty common, I know) and continued to circle us, following us up as we ascended from when we crossed into the zone of moderate visibility until we once again entered the amazing visibility, they never rose into the warm clear water.

 

[deeper thoughts]

Palancar wall Cozumel, so clear that you could not even guess if its was 150 or 200 feet

 

[Empty V]

Sorry I should have been more specific, let's hear about so-cal experiences.

Billy

 

[diverrex]

Nov 1, 2008, Great Escape to Santa Barbara Island probably 70+ of viz. The first dive (I can't remember the site) we anchored in 35 feet and when I ducked my head under I could see the bottom and off into the distance all around. I remember thinking this was going to be a great dive and since I was diving with my buddy for the first time was glad I knew I wouldn't lose him on descent. Even with great viz we went down the anchor line due to current. The current was really strong where we anchored but they had told us a wall was straight ahead. After a few minutes kicking hard we dropped over a wall and I thought I was in the Caribbean. This wall dropped straight vertical from 35 fsw to 100 fsw and you could see the bottom. It was an awesome dive and with little current near the wall. We should have stayed on that wall for all three dives, but we moved for each of the next two dives and the viz was a more typical 30 feet at each spot.

 

[JMdiver]

Sorry I should have been more specific, let's hear about so-cal experiences.

Billy

It's in a SoCal thread duh.

 

[Sideways]

It's in a SoCal thread duh.

Guess some of us are slow then John....