DennisW
Contributor
Ok, Donna and I went diving at the Blue Heron Bridge on Sunday morning. The report is late because Sunday afternoon, I was loading my car and getting ready for a long drive to Williamsburg. On Monday, I drove to Williamsburg.
We arrived at the dive site (also Phil Foster Park) about 10:30am. High tide was 11am and high tide is the best time to dive. The currents can be a bit rough between tides, so for the best conditions, you enter the water about 20 minutes before high tide and exit when you begin to feel the current is going pretty good to the South. There are two dive sites, an East site (a small bridge) and a West site (the bridge over the intracoastal waterway). We had never dived the East site and wanted to check out that area.
We ran into some old dive buddies (Matt, aka SFLDiver and Mardie, aka Sea Dragon whom we met in the Keys during the SB invades the Keys trip) right after we got there. They had dived the East site a lot, so it was very lucky that we ran into them. So, we geared up and headed in the water. There is a bit of a walk to get to the Eastern site, maybe 50 yards or so. We got to the site, put on our fins and dived. On the west part of this site (the small bridge), we saw at least 4 Lined seahorses (the first time I have ever seen seahorses!). Way cool. There is a lot of rubble under the bridge here and there are many blue crabs, decorator sea urchins, arrow crabs, and banded coral shrimp. There are also a lot of juvinile fish here. They congregate in the inshore lagoons to stay away from large predators and then move into the oceans after they get larger. As we left the east side of the small bridge, we moved under the bridge pilings to the western side where there are two sunk sailboats that are wedged under the bridge. They have been there a long time since they have a lot of soft corals and sponges growing all over them. Also lots of sea life. Donna wrote down at least 50 different species that we saw after we finished the dive.
We then moved South of the bridge to some old pilings. Matt said there are usually some Frogfish there. As far as I can tell, he never saw any. They are hard to spot. Donna saw a very young lobster in an old pipe. After running around the pilings we swam back to the bridge. The current was picking up so Donna and I decided to exit. Matt and Mardie stayed for a while longer.
An excellent dive. Max depth 23 ft. Water Temp 87 Degrees F, and viz was 10 to 15 ft.
I hope Matt posts some of his pics. Since this was the first time I dived this location, I left my camera at home.
We arrived at the dive site (also Phil Foster Park) about 10:30am. High tide was 11am and high tide is the best time to dive. The currents can be a bit rough between tides, so for the best conditions, you enter the water about 20 minutes before high tide and exit when you begin to feel the current is going pretty good to the South. There are two dive sites, an East site (a small bridge) and a West site (the bridge over the intracoastal waterway). We had never dived the East site and wanted to check out that area.
We ran into some old dive buddies (Matt, aka SFLDiver and Mardie, aka Sea Dragon whom we met in the Keys during the SB invades the Keys trip) right after we got there. They had dived the East site a lot, so it was very lucky that we ran into them. So, we geared up and headed in the water. There is a bit of a walk to get to the Eastern site, maybe 50 yards or so. We got to the site, put on our fins and dived. On the west part of this site (the small bridge), we saw at least 4 Lined seahorses (the first time I have ever seen seahorses!). Way cool. There is a lot of rubble under the bridge here and there are many blue crabs, decorator sea urchins, arrow crabs, and banded coral shrimp. There are also a lot of juvinile fish here. They congregate in the inshore lagoons to stay away from large predators and then move into the oceans after they get larger. As we left the east side of the small bridge, we moved under the bridge pilings to the western side where there are two sunk sailboats that are wedged under the bridge. They have been there a long time since they have a lot of soft corals and sponges growing all over them. Also lots of sea life. Donna wrote down at least 50 different species that we saw after we finished the dive.
We then moved South of the bridge to some old pilings. Matt said there are usually some Frogfish there. As far as I can tell, he never saw any. They are hard to spot. Donna saw a very young lobster in an old pipe. After running around the pilings we swam back to the bridge. The current was picking up so Donna and I decided to exit. Matt and Mardie stayed for a while longer.
An excellent dive. Max depth 23 ft. Water Temp 87 Degrees F, and viz was 10 to 15 ft.
I hope Matt posts some of his pics. Since this was the first time I dived this location, I left my camera at home.
