KansaiKitsune
Contributor
Went out on a boat dive with a few friends I met here in Panama City, Florida -- just a thing with friends, no charter. We set out in the afternoon, around 12:30, and headed out to the Gulf through the pass. On the way, we saw a large pod of dolphins near Shell Island, but they dove deep and didn't resurface until after we were past. The weather was absolutely perfect with near clear skies and very calm seas. We got to the Black Bart a short time later. While we were getting suited up, our captain's kids were swimming around the boat, and they got zapped by a few jellies, but it wasn't the severe kind -- a few moon jellies and stinging nettles were around, but getting stung certainly didn't keep the kids out of the water, and it certainly didn't keep us from getting in.
We entered at 2:21PM and made a rapid descent on the Bart, coming down on the cargo hold section of the ship, and we spent some time exploring the holds and the sides of the ship. We saw a total of one amberjack on the deck, a number of queen angelfish, many tropicals, a few sea cucumbers, numerous baitfish, and one very large, very rough looking barracuda which had taken it upon himself to claim the wheelhouse. The snapped line and the hook wedged in his mouth, as well as the scars on his completely black back told us that this fish was not to be messed with, so we gave him a wide berth. He just stared at us the entire time, his jaws flexing occasionally as he hovered in one stationary position. Eventually he either saw something more interesting, or he got tired of us staring at him, and he zipped out, leaving us free to examine the wheelhouse. I am pleased to announce that there is still a skeleton in the wheelhouse. Apparently the story is that one Halloween, some pranksters dove down and put a fake skeleton in there with a mask, snorkel, and an old reg to scare people -- especially people who were getting their certs on the Black Bart. It's getting a bit grown over, but it's still there, and some of the others managed to get some pictures with him. Passed into a large school of baitfish near the end and saw a huge moon jelly. I descended to the sand bottom just to get near max depth for a few seconds, but I stayed on top of the ship for the vast majority of the time and safety stopped at the end. I actually went into deco according to the PADI tables, but my dive computer never warned me, or fully filled the tissue loading indicator, probably due to the fact I stayed at a higher depth for the vast majority of the dive. Max depth was 77 ft. for a total time of 38 min.
Second dive was on one of the Hathaway Bridge spans, after a fairly lengthy surface interval. I'd driven over Hathaway Bridge countless times as a child, so seeing it again was a bit of nostalgia for me. The first thing I noticed when getting to depth was barracuda -- big ones. Everywhere. The only thing that kept running through my head was the guitar riff from the Heart song. At one point, one of the guys with me waved me over quickly, and I swam over. He was pointing at something under the bridge span, but we couldn't see anything -- that is until a massive goliath grouper suddenly emerged and began to swim a circle. Along the way, I saw him snap up something in his mouth, so chances are he was hungry and didn't want these pesky humans fouling it up for him. I noticed that the barracudas were following along behind the grouper, shadowing its every move. We went back to the bridge spans. Again, lots of tropicals and queen angelfish. A few illegal snapper near the bottom, a big moon jelly getting gnawed at by small fish. I noticed that there's a big bell on the top of one of the bridge spans -- it may have been put there to recall divers. I don't remember it being there when the bridge was in operation, but I was also never looking up that high. I hit a max depth of 75 (to see the goliath grouper) but ascended and stayed at around 30 for most of the dive, for a time of 39 minutes. I did get nailed in the chin by what I guess was jellyfish parts or larvae during my safety stop, but also got to get swarmed by a school of baitfish -- it was pretty nice.
All in all, a marvelous day -- no spearing, but good times and good training for all. Pictures should be forthcoming when I get them off the digital camera of the guys I was diving with. Incidentally, I know a lot of people have done the Black Bart and Span 14, but it was my first time on them -- I was pretty thrilled!
We entered at 2:21PM and made a rapid descent on the Bart, coming down on the cargo hold section of the ship, and we spent some time exploring the holds and the sides of the ship. We saw a total of one amberjack on the deck, a number of queen angelfish, many tropicals, a few sea cucumbers, numerous baitfish, and one very large, very rough looking barracuda which had taken it upon himself to claim the wheelhouse. The snapped line and the hook wedged in his mouth, as well as the scars on his completely black back told us that this fish was not to be messed with, so we gave him a wide berth. He just stared at us the entire time, his jaws flexing occasionally as he hovered in one stationary position. Eventually he either saw something more interesting, or he got tired of us staring at him, and he zipped out, leaving us free to examine the wheelhouse. I am pleased to announce that there is still a skeleton in the wheelhouse. Apparently the story is that one Halloween, some pranksters dove down and put a fake skeleton in there with a mask, snorkel, and an old reg to scare people -- especially people who were getting their certs on the Black Bart. It's getting a bit grown over, but it's still there, and some of the others managed to get some pictures with him. Passed into a large school of baitfish near the end and saw a huge moon jelly. I descended to the sand bottom just to get near max depth for a few seconds, but I stayed on top of the ship for the vast majority of the time and safety stopped at the end. I actually went into deco according to the PADI tables, but my dive computer never warned me, or fully filled the tissue loading indicator, probably due to the fact I stayed at a higher depth for the vast majority of the dive. Max depth was 77 ft. for a total time of 38 min.
Second dive was on one of the Hathaway Bridge spans, after a fairly lengthy surface interval. I'd driven over Hathaway Bridge countless times as a child, so seeing it again was a bit of nostalgia for me. The first thing I noticed when getting to depth was barracuda -- big ones. Everywhere. The only thing that kept running through my head was the guitar riff from the Heart song. At one point, one of the guys with me waved me over quickly, and I swam over. He was pointing at something under the bridge span, but we couldn't see anything -- that is until a massive goliath grouper suddenly emerged and began to swim a circle. Along the way, I saw him snap up something in his mouth, so chances are he was hungry and didn't want these pesky humans fouling it up for him. I noticed that the barracudas were following along behind the grouper, shadowing its every move. We went back to the bridge spans. Again, lots of tropicals and queen angelfish. A few illegal snapper near the bottom, a big moon jelly getting gnawed at by small fish. I noticed that there's a big bell on the top of one of the bridge spans -- it may have been put there to recall divers. I don't remember it being there when the bridge was in operation, but I was also never looking up that high. I hit a max depth of 75 (to see the goliath grouper) but ascended and stayed at around 30 for most of the dive, for a time of 39 minutes. I did get nailed in the chin by what I guess was jellyfish parts or larvae during my safety stop, but also got to get swarmed by a school of baitfish -- it was pretty nice.
All in all, a marvelous day -- no spearing, but good times and good training for all. Pictures should be forthcoming when I get them off the digital camera of the guys I was diving with. Incidentally, I know a lot of people have done the Black Bart and Span 14, but it was my first time on them -- I was pretty thrilled!
