SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
After failing to get wet on Sunday at the beach(visibility out of Gulf Shores was measured by inches according to a couple divers we ran into who tried the Whiskey Wreck), Judd C and I decided to hit up Cypress today.
Suprisingly, Judd was on time and at my house by 7AM. I had already packed up the Wagon with the Miss Jellyfish and we just transferred his gear into the car and headed out. An early stop for Redbull and another just East of Crestview for gas, and then finally at our location near Vernon. The water levels on Holmes Creek were up, but not too bad. The boat launch was pretty much empty aside from a few kayakers setting up. We setup the boat and loaded her up with, mainly, OW gear(single tank each) and headed upstream. The Miss Jellyfish came alive and screamed upriver on a plane the entire time. I've never made it to Cypress so fast! Already a start to a great day.
There were two canoes onsite when we arrived. Two kids and a really cool old lady who knew damned near about as many of the local springs as I knew! We talked for a bit before she let us gear up and hit the water. Visibility was typical...infinite, air clear, flawless, 200'+, however you want to say OH SO PERFECT. Flow seemed down a bit and I took a quick foray into the cavern, reaching a max depth of 48'. I spent most of the 36 minute dive time in the shallow OW basin(maxes out around 25' in OW). We found many crawfish, bream, bass, pike, and lots of small fry seemed to have hatched recently. Course, there were eels in the cavern itself. It was a great little dive, but we decided to take a little break to warm up. A little over 45 minutes later we were back in the water to do another short dive on our remaining gas. This time, I stayed in OW and only had a max depth of 23' for a dive time of only 20 minutes. Fun set of dives and my buddy had alot of fun getting back in the water.
Once leaving Cypress, we headed over to Becton, via the cut-through in the woods to make the trip shorter. The basin was flooded, tannic, except for a milky blue hole in the center with a small boil. We weren't diving it, just wanted to check it out, so we headed back, this time through the run and back up Holmes Creek proper. After breaking the Miss Jellyfish back down and loading the car back up, we stopped by to look at Brunson Landing Spring. It was looking quite blue and made me regret not bringing a camera onsite! Ugh. I always do this...
Anyway, another fun trip. Should have an even better time this weekend exploring some cave in the panhandle.
Suprisingly, Judd was on time and at my house by 7AM. I had already packed up the Wagon with the Miss Jellyfish and we just transferred his gear into the car and headed out. An early stop for Redbull and another just East of Crestview for gas, and then finally at our location near Vernon. The water levels on Holmes Creek were up, but not too bad. The boat launch was pretty much empty aside from a few kayakers setting up. We setup the boat and loaded her up with, mainly, OW gear(single tank each) and headed upstream. The Miss Jellyfish came alive and screamed upriver on a plane the entire time. I've never made it to Cypress so fast! Already a start to a great day.
There were two canoes onsite when we arrived. Two kids and a really cool old lady who knew damned near about as many of the local springs as I knew! We talked for a bit before she let us gear up and hit the water. Visibility was typical...infinite, air clear, flawless, 200'+, however you want to say OH SO PERFECT. Flow seemed down a bit and I took a quick foray into the cavern, reaching a max depth of 48'. I spent most of the 36 minute dive time in the shallow OW basin(maxes out around 25' in OW). We found many crawfish, bream, bass, pike, and lots of small fry seemed to have hatched recently. Course, there were eels in the cavern itself. It was a great little dive, but we decided to take a little break to warm up. A little over 45 minutes later we were back in the water to do another short dive on our remaining gas. This time, I stayed in OW and only had a max depth of 23' for a dive time of only 20 minutes. Fun set of dives and my buddy had alot of fun getting back in the water.
Once leaving Cypress, we headed over to Becton, via the cut-through in the woods to make the trip shorter. The basin was flooded, tannic, except for a milky blue hole in the center with a small boil. We weren't diving it, just wanted to check it out, so we headed back, this time through the run and back up Holmes Creek proper. After breaking the Miss Jellyfish back down and loading the car back up, we stopped by to look at Brunson Landing Spring. It was looking quite blue and made me regret not bringing a camera onsite! Ugh. I always do this...
Anyway, another fun trip. Should have an even better time this weekend exploring some cave in the panhandle.
