SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
Destin's high tides were forecasted for 5:30AM today, so that meant that Mikey Paul and I had to leave around 3:30AM. Our little departure time came around damned quick without any real sleep(I hate you FloraBama! - the bar, not the SB poster 
) but we were on our way anyways. Getting to the parking onsite and in time was almost as nice as it was having ample parking without adding to an already long walk with gear. There were like 3 other cars there, I counted 3 divers and 2 fisherman, so we'd have plenty of room diving the site.
The water was as calm as could be and nice and warm. Mikey's computer read 86ºF and we had 40-50' of visibility. There was a ton of fish in the water including all the normal inhabitants along with schooling mackarel, southern rays, and the biggest pufferfish I've ever seen(a good 15" long). The sun hadn't come up yet, but the sky had enough 'glow' to it to light up UW without any real need for the light. By the time we exited the water we had sunshine and clear skies. We worked our way around the finger jetty and across the the shell bed. The sands have piled pretty high between the shell bed and the southernmost jetty but there were also some spots that seemed lower than I remember and a couple new things were uncovered including another huge anchor. I've only ever found one anchor at the jetties, but there was another closer to the channel as well closer inbetween the two jetties and nearly as large as the first(but a different style). We didn't experience much in terms of current. I maxed my depth at 59' and we dove for nearly an hour.
After swapping tanks at the car we were back in the water nearly an hour later. Visibility had gone down to 20-30' and the water was noticably greener with more particulate. There was also an OW class onsite now. We explored both the anchors again and tried making the swim to the southernmost jetty but Mikey hit his turnaround pressure so we turned the dive. The current picked up quite a bit so we had to do a bit of pulling to get around the finger jetty. On both dives we found ourselves in the middle of quite a few jellyfish, but I only got a few stings. Visibility was more than good enough to give you plenty of time to avoid them. Our second dive lasted nearly another hour and I maxed my depth at 58'.
Had a great set of dives and we decided to eat. Its 9AM, Dewey's is closed, so is Hooters, so is AJs, ect. Damnit, what the hell are we doing here so early? Off to McDonalds for some breakfast menu goodies. On the road again by 10.
We hit Morrison Springs by 11AM and the gate is locked so we park on the outside of the defunkt diveshop. The spring is flooded and the water is 3/4 the way up the beach and very tannic looking. D'Oh. Mikey and I both forgot to bring thicker suits so we're stuck with the 0.5mm suits we used for the gulf. Double D'Oh! I end up just going in my trunks, that halfmill ain't gonna do much and we're gonna make the dive short - chances are, we might not be seeing anything until we reach the cavern anyway. Lets just go check out the statues, including the gnome I put down on my last visit. We walk out waste deep and there's no vis, OK, take a compass heading and start forward. Visibility gradually improves and then opens up once we're in 15' of water and in the vicinity of the platform and the basin. We enjoy ~20' visibility through green water with blue water directly over the basin. We check out the cavern and look at all the regular life inside(we didn't see many fish in the basin itself). The gnome and the goose are still in place and I dump $0.03 into the gnomes offering mushroom. The kid with the watermelon is nowhere to be found - what the hell? I hit 95' in the cavern which is deeper than I've ever hit at Morrison thanks to the high water levels and we dive for less than 30min before retreating to the surface for warmth.
All in all, Mikey and I had a great time, despite the fact that we're tired as hell and froze our tails off at Morrison. I forgot my camera at home so no pics, worse part of the entire day.
) but we were on our way anyways. Getting to the parking onsite and in time was almost as nice as it was having ample parking without adding to an already long walk with gear. There were like 3 other cars there, I counted 3 divers and 2 fisherman, so we'd have plenty of room diving the site. The water was as calm as could be and nice and warm. Mikey's computer read 86ºF and we had 40-50' of visibility. There was a ton of fish in the water including all the normal inhabitants along with schooling mackarel, southern rays, and the biggest pufferfish I've ever seen(a good 15" long). The sun hadn't come up yet, but the sky had enough 'glow' to it to light up UW without any real need for the light. By the time we exited the water we had sunshine and clear skies. We worked our way around the finger jetty and across the the shell bed. The sands have piled pretty high between the shell bed and the southernmost jetty but there were also some spots that seemed lower than I remember and a couple new things were uncovered including another huge anchor. I've only ever found one anchor at the jetties, but there was another closer to the channel as well closer inbetween the two jetties and nearly as large as the first(but a different style). We didn't experience much in terms of current. I maxed my depth at 59' and we dove for nearly an hour.
After swapping tanks at the car we were back in the water nearly an hour later. Visibility had gone down to 20-30' and the water was noticably greener with more particulate. There was also an OW class onsite now. We explored both the anchors again and tried making the swim to the southernmost jetty but Mikey hit his turnaround pressure so we turned the dive. The current picked up quite a bit so we had to do a bit of pulling to get around the finger jetty. On both dives we found ourselves in the middle of quite a few jellyfish, but I only got a few stings. Visibility was more than good enough to give you plenty of time to avoid them. Our second dive lasted nearly another hour and I maxed my depth at 58'.
Had a great set of dives and we decided to eat. Its 9AM, Dewey's is closed, so is Hooters, so is AJs, ect. Damnit, what the hell are we doing here so early?
Off to McDonalds for some breakfast menu goodies. On the road again by 10.We hit Morrison Springs by 11AM and the gate is locked so we park on the outside of the defunkt diveshop. The spring is flooded and the water is 3/4 the way up the beach and very tannic looking. D'Oh. Mikey and I both forgot to bring thicker suits so we're stuck with the 0.5mm suits we used for the gulf. Double D'Oh! I end up just going in my trunks, that halfmill ain't gonna do much and we're gonna make the dive short - chances are, we might not be seeing anything until we reach the cavern anyway. Lets just go check out the statues, including the gnome I put down on my last visit. We walk out waste deep and there's no vis, OK, take a compass heading and start forward. Visibility gradually improves and then opens up once we're in 15' of water and in the vicinity of the platform and the basin. We enjoy ~20' visibility through green water with blue water directly over the basin. We check out the cavern and look at all the regular life inside(we didn't see many fish in the basin itself). The gnome and the goose are still in place and I dump $0.03 into the gnomes offering mushroom. The kid with the watermelon is nowhere to be found - what the hell? I hit 95' in the cavern which is deeper than I've ever hit at Morrison thanks to the high water levels and we dive for less than 30min before retreating to the surface for warmth.
All in all, Mikey and I had a great time, despite the fact that we're tired as hell and froze our tails off at Morrison. I forgot my camera at home so no pics, worse part of the entire day.
