SeaYoda
Contributor
It was a bright sunny day and had the promise of being the best dive in a while since the rain, clouds, and wind had stopped behaving badly. I drove down to the Destin bridge to check out what I was about to get into. Crab Island was a light green-blue, not as brilliant as when viz is a clear 40' but blue enough for me to rent an extra tank to try a second dive. I stopped off at ScubaTech and rented the tank and then on to the jetties to meet mike_s and paulwall. Parking was more full than it has been. I parked a good way down from the entrance and geared up. Walking back to the entrance, I met up with Paul and Mike. They finished gearing up and off across the sands we went. The Aquanaut from Emerald Coast Scuba and the Mongoose from ScubaTech joined us as we entered the water. The Mongoose was loaded with snorkelers and the Aquanaut had an OW class aboard. We started the dive and viz was about 30' with haze. Temperature at 50' was 68 degrees. Very little current on the whole dive. Spadefish, Puffers, and the usual small fish were sighted. The most impressive thing about the dive today was the number of crabs out there. There were blue and stone crabs all over the place. The blue crabs were very large and aggressive. Paul kept picking them up and checking for eggs. Many were females with eggs and we didn't keep any crabs at all for lunch. The crabs got back at Paul a couple of times by putting the squeeze on his fingers - I actually heard him yell from 10' away one time on our second dive! We went past the anchor a little way (Bugman's bike is still nearby) and then turned the dive. The way back was uneventful. We dragged ourselves back across the sand to swap tanks for dive number two. I geared up first and went back to the water and floated around until Mike and Paul arrived. As we were about to dive in what looked like the same conditions as the first dive, the water started feeling a little warmer and looking down we watched as our fins disappeared in murky brown liquid. I thought someone had flushed a boat nearby. We braved the brown water to find a halocline with hazy viz. Once passed the fog we found darker, tannin colored, slightly lower viz than first dive conditions. Temperature went up a degree to 69 but viz went to 20' with floaties. There was a slight current out as we headed toward the anchor. We investigated the rocks and played with crabs and then it was time to go home. By the rocks there was a nice small current flowing North so we got to drift dive back around the point. On the way, Mike found a toadfish on a steel line that had swallowed a hook and was caught on the rocks. I tried to get the hook out but he had it too far down. I carry some shears so I got them out - I hope I never get tangled in steel, the shears were useless. I took a glove off and tried to unhook the swivel - impossible with current, wiggly fish, and cold fingers. Mike and I were at about 500 lbs in our tanks so I decided to bring the fish to the shallows to work some more. When we got in the shallows I held the fish as Mike unhooked the swivel. I don't know if he will make it but he has a much better chance than he did before. I saw him slowly swim away into the brown murk. We drudged across the sand one last time to the cars and went to ScubaTech to drop off gear and air up my tanks. Mike left in search of steamed shrimp, Paul and I headed to Dewey Destin's for lunch (hey Mike, we found your shrimp 
). After lunch we parted ways - thanks guys for the great company today. Here are some pics:
). After lunch we parted ways - thanks guys for the great company today. Here are some pics:
