BHB High slack or Low slack???

[T. Bix]

I am here with my family and we want to dive BHB while we are in the area. I think I have heard you want to be in the water 30 mins. prior to both high and low slack tides. Tomorrow's High slack tide is mid-afternoon and the Low slack is mid-morning. We would like to be in and out before the day gets too steamy. Is there a real difference or reason that high tide may be preferred over low or is the key just to be in at slack tide? We are headed over to the coast this evening to dive tomorrow (6/12/12) and like I said we'd like to do a morning dive unless there's it poses a problem, so if anybody would like to come dive and show us what the bridge has to offer come on down!

 

[danvolker]

I am here with my family and we want to dive BHB while we are in the area. I think I have heard you want to be in the water 30 mins. prior to both high and low slack tides. Tomorrow's High slack tide is mid-afternoon and the Low slack is mid-morning. We would like to be in and out before the day gets too steamy. Is there a real difference or reason that high tide may be preferred over low or is the key just to be in at slack tide? We are headed over to the coast this evening to dive tomorrow (6/12/12) and like I said we'd like to do a morning dive unless there's it poses a problem, so if anybody would like to come dive and show us what the bridge has to offer come on down!

One cool thing about the BHB site, is that there is a huge shaded area under the bridge, and it is normally quite comfortable --even on hot days.
As to the timing....if you are comfortable in currents, then you can get in 2 hours befopre slack hugh tide, and stay in up to an hour after slack high tide. The vis is best the 2 hours leading to, and during slack high tide. As you get to slack low tide, the vis get to be as bad as 10 feet of vis, and while some of the nudibranch hunters swear by this as a good time to be searching for nudibranchs( they seem to be more active then), this is also the time the water is not particularly clean, as the water from the canals and lawn run-off is coming out of the intracoastal, effecting the water quality/ bacteria counts .... when the tide is coming in, the area of BHB is bathed in clean Gulf Stream water, and water quality is excelent.

I would advise against low tide.....

 

[idive2]

The current is not as bad in the flats area off of the beach but if you go in much before twenty
minutes or so before high tide I would avoid the bridges where the current runs pretty strong
until high tide. I'm still trying to find the perfect time to go in to take advantage of the longest
window of good viz yet avoid the stronger currents that occur up to and after slack tides. The viz
will drop off a bit before the end of slack tide which tends to favor getting in a bit before slack tide.

 

[mntlblok]

I'm entering earlier and earlier prior to high tide and enjoying both the viz and the relative solitude. The current, as has been pointed out, isn't so bad if yer not near the pillars. And, whilst I'm told that I'm killing off most of the bottom dwelling critters, using some kind of stick to hold yerself still on the bottom sorta nullifies current problems. AAMOF, I entered so early on my last day of my last trip (in order get back to Savannah at a reasonable hour) that I was exiting as others were entering.

In an effort to get more dives in on trips down to the bridge, I tried several slack low dives. I'm not inclined to try any more of them.

Kevin

 

[DiverDean59]

We tried the bridge last year when we were down and I'm not sure what we did wrong. We went in before high tide and looked around the sail boat for awhile then made our way to weave in and out around the bridge pillars. The current really got strong. Did we go to the pillars of the bridge too soon or too late? We are going to be back down on the 28th and 29th and I thought I would like to try again on the 29th. High tide is at 5:19 PM. So how should the dive be planned?

 

[jimw]

Enter the water 1/2 to 2 hours before high tide depending on how long you estimate your air will last at the approx. 20 ft max depth. Dive the area "out front" ie, mirror wreck, upsidedown wreck, under derelict boats, shopping carts, etc. until about 15-30 minutes before high tide depending on how far to the bridges you are. On the west side, we like to arrive at the west wall at about high slack, on the east we like to be close to the bridge by high slack. We usually get in about an hour before high tide and get 1.5 to 2 hour dives using 67 cu ft tanks.