We started with Vortex Springs, which was a good little dive and took time to refresh skills and communications in the crystal clear waters. I recommend the 4C's bar in Defuniak Springs, good evening meal, for pretty cheap! That evening, we moved on to Panama City, looking for an Air2 connector and hose for my BC. Day 2, Ran the sonar around on St Andrew's bay looking for wrecks and likely diving spots for the next day. Found the Spanish Shanty Barge, snorkled and played in the water near the pass, at low tide, got to see the reversal (something we don't see in KS). Looked at several other wrecks, but none caught our eye. Day 3, The next morning my oldest had an ear infection and we missed the high tide getting through an Urgent Care clinic. By the time we got out of there, we decided it was time to move on, instead of going to the EE Simpson Tug that we had planned, just outside of the old pass. We moved on right past Destin to Pensacola, just seeing the sights and visiting dive shops until we found my BC a new Air2 hose. The marina at Texar Bayou was a good evening meal of seafood, specializing in oysters. Went out of the new public ramp in Pensacola across to the snorkling reef, my youngest and I played around there, while the oldest watched the air show. Never made it to the gulf or on a charter due to the ear trouble. Finished up after a few dry days in beautiful Beaver Lake, AR in familiar waters and spent a good day fully flushing the boat and and gear with fresh water.
Lessons learned: It was a good time even with no solid plans preset. With the time spent looking into dive shops and asking around, the best information came from old men that were dive charter captains (one such was from Panama City Dive Center), and locals that grew up there (not many in dive shops). Few dive shops knew anything about the bays, only the charters that they had worked with over the years in the gulf. My flat bottom (think super jon-boat hull) Lowe was as expected, rough on the choppy water of the bays, every time we saw the gulf, it was very smooth, it would have been better out there. I would not hesitate to take my deep V hull deck boat on such a journey. After this research trip, we can go back with my other boat (when I get finished with the rebuild) and have an excellent adventure. We now know enough of the areas, tides and available boat ramps and marinas, (who would think a gulf bay marina would close at 5 pm?) to have a reasonably easy trip. A little better timing, looking into tide schedule would have helped, 6:00 AM high tide would have been better if we had caught it around 10 or noon. I found that my new Lowrance Elite 7 Ti had all the wrecks that we found out about, already marked in the charts (not identified by name), learning to use the sonar was half the trick. We may just be outliers being self sufficient, not relying on charters and every one to take us to every site, but I believe that there are a good many others out there just like us.
Thank you for the replies, I appreciate them.
