Well after the success of the previous weekend with Fgray1 and Reefguy off Bradenton's shores, i thought i would take Becky out to see the gulf coast sights/sites. The week had been blowing steady easterlies, and so i had hoped that the viz would be better than last weeks 6-8ft, but it was down to only 2ft clear to 5ft vague outline - so this was new for her! Not like my first trip to the gulf where it was 3in!
We started out looking for Spanish Rocks, followed the book directions (only thing i will say is that it is a left turn, not bear left, and the car park is very small, about 10-12 cars only and was pretty much full when we got there. We started out, swam quite a way from shore, even though i could see that the bottom was still sand, reflecting white, i thought we had best drop down and see what we could. The first line is supposed to be about 75yds out and second 125yds. We found out later that the first line was covered by beach renourishment and we swam out for a while due west, but still couldnt find the reef - i am thinking it is a long way out! The most eventful thing was "finding" a sharksucker. Becky was freaked and we went back in with this fish sticking very close to our fins the whole way until the water was only a few feet deep. I ID'd it later that night, but it was very intimidating having a fish like that so close, i was not particularly comfortable with it and Becky was downright unhappy about it, but it loved our fins and wanted to get on board with us. It had an expression on its face like it was either up to mischief or evil, its close proximity and ability to stick to us like glue were also undesirable. So if anyone else goes out there, maybe you will get a close encounter!
We then went down to the sugar barge again, it would have been fine, but there was an OW class there which reduced the viz even more!!! I tried to avoid the class and drop down a little north of them and find the wreck, but we missed it for 20 mins of searching around, surfaced and just went down the buoy, skirted around them and explored the whole thing again for our remaining 40mins or so. I know i should have just gone down the line, but i thought i would be smart and find it somehow. Under the anchor at the very north end was that same ray i saw the other week, about 3ft across, bright white and it was happy to lie there both times we went to see it. That was all fine.
Then tried to get a fill, but the rental tank had no VIP sticker (i have had this problem before with the shop we rented it from, but was assured that they had VIP'd all their tanks in april) - so rented one, will sort that detail out today with the LDS where we rented it, BTW, i didnt pick the tank up from the store and get to check it before we went diving.
We went down to the third pier again for our second real dive, found that pretty easily on the compass, with so little viz it looked half dead compared to last weekend, but it was still flourishing (there was a lot of stuff in the water this weekend). Got a plethora of boats buzzing the flag, swam back in to shore on the bottom and that was that. It was nice to show Becky shore diving, limited viz and some life. I still found the same algae stuff on the sugar barge that irritated my neck, still have a rash from that - which was no fun. We saw a good amount of fish and other life as usual and best of all about the weekend was that it was cheap!
Up for looking for Spanish Rocks next month - just have to remember it is a long swim out!
We started out looking for Spanish Rocks, followed the book directions (only thing i will say is that it is a left turn, not bear left, and the car park is very small, about 10-12 cars only and was pretty much full when we got there. We started out, swam quite a way from shore, even though i could see that the bottom was still sand, reflecting white, i thought we had best drop down and see what we could. The first line is supposed to be about 75yds out and second 125yds. We found out later that the first line was covered by beach renourishment and we swam out for a while due west, but still couldnt find the reef - i am thinking it is a long way out! The most eventful thing was "finding" a sharksucker. Becky was freaked and we went back in with this fish sticking very close to our fins the whole way until the water was only a few feet deep. I ID'd it later that night, but it was very intimidating having a fish like that so close, i was not particularly comfortable with it and Becky was downright unhappy about it, but it loved our fins and wanted to get on board with us. It had an expression on its face like it was either up to mischief or evil, its close proximity and ability to stick to us like glue were also undesirable. So if anyone else goes out there, maybe you will get a close encounter!
We then went down to the sugar barge again, it would have been fine, but there was an OW class there which reduced the viz even more!!! I tried to avoid the class and drop down a little north of them and find the wreck, but we missed it for 20 mins of searching around, surfaced and just went down the buoy, skirted around them and explored the whole thing again for our remaining 40mins or so. I know i should have just gone down the line, but i thought i would be smart and find it somehow. Under the anchor at the very north end was that same ray i saw the other week, about 3ft across, bright white and it was happy to lie there both times we went to see it. That was all fine.
Then tried to get a fill, but the rental tank had no VIP sticker (i have had this problem before with the shop we rented it from, but was assured that they had VIP'd all their tanks in april) - so rented one, will sort that detail out today with the LDS where we rented it, BTW, i didnt pick the tank up from the store and get to check it before we went diving.
We went down to the third pier again for our second real dive, found that pretty easily on the compass, with so little viz it looked half dead compared to last weekend, but it was still flourishing (there was a lot of stuff in the water this weekend). Got a plethora of boats buzzing the flag, swam back in to shore on the bottom and that was that. It was nice to show Becky shore diving, limited viz and some life. I still found the same algae stuff on the sugar barge that irritated my neck, still have a rash from that - which was no fun. We saw a good amount of fish and other life as usual and best of all about the weekend was that it was cheap!
Up for looking for Spanish Rocks next month - just have to remember it is a long swim out!
