Labor Day Beach Tour 2007

[paulwall]

My weekend didn't start out quite as planned. I had intended to drive over Sunday AM, dive Gulf Shores with mwhities on Sunday, and head back to New Orleans Sunday PM. The tides weren't favorable for staying in the area, so I booked a room in Pensacola (much cheaper than OB/GS), and planned to come in Saturday night.

I called Jim(Halftime here on SB) to tell him I was in town, as we had planned a night dive at Pensacola Beach's old pier rubble.

Upon check-in, I had to wait for about 10 mins (At 6pm) for the desk clerk to come back to the desk from cleaning a room in order to check in. Then, the room she gave me was not acceptable for my comfort, and a call to Travelocity was in order to "straighten things out", which means find me another hotel. I called Jim back to tell him where to meet me, as he graciously volunteered to drive us to P'cola Beach.

Finally settled in, Jim picks me up, I load all of my gear (supposedly) into the back of his truck, and off we go. About 15 mins into the trip, I realized I left my mask in my truck (this is strike 2 against me, I lost the O-ring out of my DIN 1st stage was strike 1). Jim saved me again by having a spare mask in his truck (as well as a spare O-ring). We arrived at P'cola beach after most people had left. The parking area was quite empty, and most of the light had left the sky. We met Mike(mike4hire) in the parking lot (Jim had arranged that, too), geared up and headed for the beach. Jim was the tour guide on this trip. After about 40 mins of scaring flounder, dodging the occasional jellyfish, and jousting with cowfish we located the rubble, and came across a small (.5 meter) sea turtle. This place is cowfish/puffer central. A Dozen or more cowfish and porcupine puffers were seen, along with spadefish, flounder, mangrove, a toadfish, tiny little sweepers, some sand divers, HUGE moon jellies, stingrays and the aforementioned turtle Edit: We also saw 3 largeish squid (4-5") and a remora attached to a cowfish. Very Cool stuff.. Dive time 1h09min, temp 29* C, max depth 6 meters, burned about 45 cu ft of air. I got stung once across the upper lip (as predicted). My new (just purchased that day in New Orleans) Pelican Pocket light flooded.

I then found out from Mike
1) this was his first night dive AND
2) this was his first dive post-certification.

Way to go Mike!

Headed back to the hotel get some rest for my 4:30 wake up call. Had to meet at the Whiskey Wreck at 6am.

More later...

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

29*C? You live in the US, give us *F or give us death!

Looking forward to the rest, I was wondering when a report was to be posted.

 

[paulwall]

Sept 2nd dives -

The alarm went off WAAAY to early this AM. I packed all of my stuff and headed out. I had taken advantage of the time the night before to scrub the inside of my mask. It had taken to fogging on the previous snorkelling trip, and I wanted to give it some PM this time.

The skies were dark, and lightning flashed repeatedly on the trip to Gulf Shores. I was pessimistic about our ability to make a dive, but headed out anyway. Before even leaving Pensacola, the rains started. Gentle showers and bright lightning forebode evil intent. However, soon after leaving the "Sunshine State", the skies cleared, and the lightning stayed behind and to the north. I arrived onsite a few minutes after 6 to find Mwhities (Michael), Halftime(Jim), MPR(Mike - also), and Jason (CivilE). As is typical with a Mwhities show, there was lots of standing around BS'ing, but no real gearing up until I got there. I was nominated as guide for this trip, a choice we would all live to regret. MPR, Jason, and Jim headed down to the water first, Mwhities and I were ready to follow when Mike4Hire screams into the parking lot and apologizes profusely for being late. We waited for him to quickly gear up and headed to the water.

Vis was incredible for the WW. fully 20' , little surf, and a light inshore push. I was being cocky and insisted on diving my 1/2 tank from the day before. I also strapped on a Pony (just in case) and headed SSW from our entry.

Here's where things went horribly awry. Instead of using my innate instinct and knowledge of the site, I relied on my compass. Vis was 20', as I said, and surely I could get close enough to see it, since I'd been there before. So, I swam and swam and swam underwater until I hit 15' and - no wreck. Edit: I did, once again, put my hand down on an electric skate, thinking it was a flounder buried in the sand. I swam SE, I swam W - no wreck. I searched for 30 mins, came up to check my bearings, and found I was slightly east of the wreck, and maybe not far enough out. Mwhities opined I was too far (they were well inshore of me), but I stubbornly lined up with the Bahama Bob's sign, and descended again, then headed north. By this time, I was tired, PO'd and low on air. I switched over to the Pony and headed N, hoping to regroup and reequip for another shot. I would tie the flag in, because surely I would find the wreck on my way back to the group. It had to be between us, right? The next thing I knew I was back in 5' of water, well W of Bahama Bob's and really PO'd. I stood up, and the group had apparently found the wreck in my absence. It looked like they were about where I was when Mwhities said I was too far out.

Dive time:30mins, Used 1200psi, a lot of dignity, and energy. I was convinced the wreck was completely covered! I was ready to pull a Cartman - "Screw you guys, I'm goin' home..."

So, somebody else will have to post this trip report.

 

[paulwall]

29*C? You live in the US, give us *F or give us death!

Looking forward to the rest, I was wondering when a report was to be posted.

You know what water temps in the area are- 84-90* F, 20-30' vis between the jellies, low to no surf.

 

[frankc420]

Awww paul that sucks! Maybe SBM can draw you a map next time?

 

[paulwall]

Awww paul that sucks! Maybe SBM can draw you a map next time?

SBM's shore dive guide service is in no danger from me...

 

[snepdiver]

Nice reports. Interesting Whiskey diving.

 

[paulwall]

Ok, after the fiasco of the whiskey wreck, which followed the 4 hours sleep after forgetting the mask on the Pensacola Beach dive, any reasonable person would have packed it in and gone home.

But, have you met me?

We next drove 1.5 hours from Gulf Shores to Navarre Beach, FL, arriving a little after 9:30. I tried to call stichrunner(gene) before I left OB at 8:15 so he could meet us at Navarre. No answer, and I left a message on a female's cell phone (more on that later).

Having snorkeled the Navarre Pier 2 weeks prior, I was anxious to see what the pilings and rubble are like on scuba. I am still anxious to see what the pilings and rubble are like on scuba...

The plan:

I was diving my double 72's, which a friend of mine tells me are too heavy for beach diving. They were fine in the parking lot, and for the walk to the water. They trimmed out well (eventually) in the water and were very comfortable. We entered E of the pier, naturally. There was a mild offshore and W push. We were to submerge, swim W to the Pier, and then S along the pilings, then North along the pilings, then E to exit.

Again, faith in my compass took precedent over instinct and common sense. Although, this time I had a victim - mwhities joined me in my folly. I started swimming W, then North, then over corrected, and swam SSW finally reaching the pilings at what I assumed was the N end of the broken section. We turned to swim S across the break. Vis was about 30', jellies were there, but not thick, and we were in about 20' of water.

In a little while, we came across ....THE INVASION PARTY. Tens of Thousands of nudibranch were marching E to W across our path. They formed lines as far as I could see at least 50' wide. They ranged in size from 1" to 5", the whole floor was one brown moving mass. Very cool, in a creepy sort of way. So, we swam for about a half hour when I realized we hadn't seen a piling in a while. I handed Michael the flag and told him I was going up to look around and get a bearing. I assumed we had drifted through and were too far W of the pier. We were in 28' of water.

WRONG! I hit the surface looking N and could just make out the end of the pier in the distance. We were at least 1/4 mile S of the pier. I descended, met up with michael, and pointed north. We saw the army of nudis again, a rock, some fish in a crab trap.

Some time later, michael motions that he is low on air. He shows me his gauge which showed about 600psi. I deploy my short hose octo, which the tech oriented guy doesn't seem to understand.:11: We swim for a minute or two, side by side, and I motion to surface to see just how much in trouble we still are. Fortunately, we were on the S side of the pier break, and about 50 ft W of the pier. I suggested we do a surface swim back in. There was no surf, and the swim was fairly leisurely.

The doubles were actually heavier going back to the truck! I had loosened the shoulder straps to move them down on my back while swimming. I didn't tighten them before exitin the water, so the tanks were hanging low on my BC, and the chest strap was across my neck. I could have adjusted them by leaning over and tightening them down, but it didn't occur to me.

Details: Vis 20-30', Jellies: few and far between, temps: 84-90, max depth 28', dive time - I really don't know. I only burned about 80 cu ft of gas, the rest of my self-esteem, thousands of calories, and a dive buddy.

We adjourned to Pensacola Beach for Lunch and to set up for the next dive. Yes- the madness continues.

 

[mwhities]

SBM's shore dive guide service is in no danger from me...

It wasn't that bad!

*cough*you are correct*cough*



Michael

 

[paulwall]

So, after Lunch, we head over to the madness which is the Pensacola Beach Parking lot. Halftime, Mike4Hire, and I find relatively close parking. Mwhities parks like 1/4 mile away.

It's not really his fault. The parking lot is like Walmart's at Christmastime. People constantly circling, circling, circling looking for an open spot.

Finally we all meet up and start baking under the sun. cmufiedlhockey was onsite after making an earlier dive. I'm bummed about my last 2 dives, my back is killing me, and I think I got Hooter's food poisoning. Karma's a *****, and I think of my ever-increasing problems with the weekend's dives and think - "With the issues I've been having this weekend, what is next in the progression of incidents that will occur on this dive? Warhammer, embolism, shark attack, entaglement in the float line?"

So, I bake for a little while, and decide to bail. I'm tired, sleepy, and facing a 4-hour drive back to New Orleans. The thunder is rolling in, and I'm just not up to schlepping the doubles to the water's edge. I have no self-confidence left and just want to crawl under a rock.

So, mwhities, halftime, or mike4hire will have to post on this dive. I bailed.

As it was, I pulled off into the MS welcome center to take a 30 minute nap.

Anybody want to buy my gear?