Destin Jetties report (6/17/2006)

[mike_s]

Well we had a good day at the Destin Jetties again today.

Joining us today at the Jetties was Mike_s, SeaYoda, PhotohikeDive, Tsunamigav, and "MDB"

The fun started out with the parking spaces.... or lack thereof... Gotta hand it to Photohikedive for his "parking space sharing program" that he did, creating me a nice new parking place for me to "squeeze" into.

As for the dive, as we were walking to the jetty, a diver walking aways just mumbled something like "the diving sucks... bad vis"... well he was right. The vis was bad. real bad in parts.

We got in to what appeared to be either June grass or a large algae bloom had been sucked in by the high tide. Vis was poor working our way down the rocks an was 10-15 feet, with a few spots dropping lower than that. All the sudden on our way down, we got "ambushed" by a huge school of Jack Cervelles that were swimming in circles all around us feeding on I guess small bait fish. This happened to us back in May and was impressive, but was just surprising this time in the low vis as we didn't "see them coming"

As we got out to the point, the vis got worse.... down to about 5 feet I'd say. at the very end of the point, all the aglae just "swirled around in one large area. vis easily got under 5' and was hard to keep up with the other divers.

This is one trip that I didn't mind not taking my camera on, but SeaYoda took his and I'm sure he'll share some of the lovely algae pics.

We still had a good dive... 55' for about 52 minutes. We opted not do do a second dive based on the poor vis.

We picked up some shells and sand dollars. Gave several of them to some kids snorkeling on the beach near a boat and were asking where they could find some shells or sand dollars.... They were pretty excited by it, so that was pretty cool.

I don't know if JeepBrew and the others made it or not... we didn't run into them when we met in the parking area.... so hopefully they made it and had a good dive also.

Though the vis wasn't great... it was still a good dive and a good day at the beach.

-mike

 

[SeaYoda]

When we were out near the anchor we could not find, I was within three feet of you guys and had a hard time seeing you. The dark green wall of June grass was freaking me out. I didn't want to swim into it any further. I was happy to turn the dive when we did. I have never seen it this thick before. Steve at ScubaTech says that boat viz was not so great either. Here are a graph and some pictures from the snotstorm:

 

[photohikedive]

I am sorry to have missed out on the "not quite after dive drinks". MDB and I made it to the point, when physics reared it's ugly head. Her steel 72 just didn't last as long as everyone else's AL 80s. We turned the dive, while the others fought thier way through the murk and currents. It sure was reminicent of home, except I was diving in shorts and a tshirt.

Unfortunately events from before the dive turned ugly sometime during it. When arriving to the parking area that is nothing more than a dirt strip along the road, I stopped nearly across the street from the beach entrance. A car was preparing to pull out. While stopped there, a woman and her three kids stood at the other side of the road. I waved to her, to show her she could cross. She waved me on, to let me know she didn't want to cross. As I waited there, she continued to stand across the street, waving me on. I tried to point to the parking space, to show her I wasn't waiting just for her, but for that space as well. As the car pulled out. I pulled into the spot. I rolled down the window, because she was still calling to me. "Didn't you see me claiming that spot?" she demanded. At this point her husband pulled his PT Cruiser up along me, and glared. His window was partly down, and I told him he could have the spot. He shook his head and said no. His wife continued to yell, and I suggested she should have been on THIS side of the street, if she was claiming the spot. He drove off, turned down the road, and came back. Again, I tried to offer the spot. I walked out in the road as he approached, and he drove past. About this time, SeaYoda drove up, while I was still in the middle of the road. I gave him a brief rundown, and Tsunamigav drove by. Mike_S pulled up, and we started the ballet that was parking two full sized trucks, into a parking space that had previously held just one. Then we went diving. Returning before the others, and expecting a ticket, we arrived at the parking area. No ticket, but two nice gouges in my door, from what likely was a key, probably a key to a PT Cruiser from Tennessee. Stupid coward. Angry at the brow beating his ugly fat foriegn wife was sure to give him for not being faster at getting the spot. And not being manly enough to make me give it back, he lashed out the only way he could.

Frustration ruined my patience, and I decided to call it a day instead of waiting for the other guys to finish thier dive. Oh well, there will be more dives (tomorrow at Morrison. I might use up the remaining 2200 lbs in my tank from today) and that always cheers me up. Sorry for ditching you guys. Next time the aquatic crabs and beer are on me.

 

[photohikedive]

an example of poetry in parking, from a previous dive.....http://s69.photobucket.com/albums/i...9 2006/?action=view&current=Niceparkjob-1.jpg

 

[Knight1989]

Sounds like an interesting but still fun dive. Shame I missed it, even with bad viz, still would have been fun. Sucks about your car photohikedive.

 

[photohikedive]

Sounds like an interesting but still fun dive. Shame I missed it, even with bad viz, still would have been fun. Sucks about your car photohikedive.

IT IS A TRUCK!!!! NOT A CAR!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[SeaYoda]

an example of poetry in parking, from a previous dive.....http://s69.photobucket.com/albums/i...9 2006/?action=view&current=Niceparkjob-1.jpg

The blue scubabomb got her picture taken!
Sorry to hear about the vandalism.
When we saw your note, we thought mike_s had gotten a ticket .

 

[Knight1989]

Sorry.....truck!!

 

[photohikedive]

The blue scubabomb got her picture taken!
Sorry to hear about the vandalism.
When we saw your note, we thought mike_s had gotten a ticket .

how did you get your images to link? everytime I tried to load the address into the manage images box, it failed upload.

 

[photohikedive]

I just needed to bump the page, those images are too wide