wjefferis
Contributor
Made it out to Ft. Pickens on Friday (9-4-09) and met up with Denisegg, Standard 11, msuman, S&V, and Osterboot75 for a couple of dives. When I arrived the weather was partly cloudy and it stayed that way throughout the day. The water was tannic, which I felt it would be due to all of the recent rain we have gotten. I held out hope that it was only on the surface at it has been lately after the rain. Once we all got suited up msuman wanted to do a quick weight check so Denise and I splashed in and checked out how conditions were and tied off the dive flag. Once we got to 10 fsw we hit a thermocline and the visibility opened up to 15 feet. While checking out the site I saw a medium sized southern stingray pop up from his resting place and take off towards the big monster tire to the West. Once we surfaced and got everyone to where I tied off to I led everyone off to the West to see if the Stingray was over by the tire which he was. Unfortunately, he wanted no part of us and was quick to take off before everyone got to the monster tire. Just as I though everyone had missed out on seeing something cool, I started panning around and spotted an electric ray chillin’ close to the tire. From there we went out to the tank/culvert and didn’t spot the French Angelfish and Blue Angelfish that are usually there. I feared that they may have turned into food for another fish, but luckily they were both spotted in this location on the second dive. From the culverts we went out to the drum. I went a little further north from there and noticed that there was a ledge of metal that was starting to uncover at about 52 fsw. I will have to keep a lookout on this location to see if anything develops. We made our way back to the rubble pile via the “organ” and then headed East to the jeep frame and then to the golf cart, which is still about 70% covered. From there we pretty much played around the rubble and enjoyed all of the various fish and crabs hanging about and ended up making an 80 minute dive. We surfaced to some dark clouds on the horizon and I didn’t think we were going to be able to make another dive. Luckily, the clouds moved to the West and totally missed us. Once I got to my truck I noticed a bunch of concrete trucks that had came over to pour a fondation for a new bathroom located right next to the showers, sweet! Around this time Standard 11 and S&V had to leave so after saying goodbye we geared up and headed in right at high tide after an hour and six minute surface interval. The tannic water was almost gone as we entered the water and the visibility had jumped up to 25 feet. We pretty much followed the same course, except for this time we headed further West at the beginning of the dive and I was finally able to find the toilet that people talk about. We ended up with a 76 minute dive on this one and surfaced just as the current was starting to move out bringing in the tannic water back over the last 10 feet on the way back up. I had a really good time and it was nice to meet some more ScubaBoarders to dive with. I didn’t take my camera out today since I was playing the tour guide role, but hopefully Osterboot75 will post some of the pics he took. I did however take a few surface shots before everyone got there, here they are:
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