Navarre Pier Blowout/ Vortex Report W/ Video 9-20-8

[wjefferis]

The plan was to go out to Navarre Pier and then to the Pensacola Beach Pier Rubble, but conditions were way too rough so we decided to go to Vortex Springs. Unfortunately, I didn’t have tylerinflorida’s number so I totally forgot to call him to notify him of the change of venue (I am so sorry). We arrived at Vortex to see that there were plenty of students in the water (students = bad viz). Some of us were tempted to go to Morrison Spring, but the thought of going to jail for trespassing kept everyone honest. We splashed in and went straight to the “grotto” and played around in there for a while until a barrage of students came in. After our dive we decided to go to Sally’s. I had heard so much about this place but I had never gone so it was a real treat to go and the food really hit the spot. After we ate we started to get ready for our night dive. I went and bought three cans of Vienna Sausages and passed them out. When we entered the water I was surprised that it was very clear and visibility was great. It was still twilight when we splashed and everything was a mixture of dark tones and monochrome blue. Again we went right into the “grotto.” We opened up the Vienna Sausages and it was like ringing the dinner bell. There were more eels swimming around us than I have ever seen, it was very cool. Sea Yoda took off his gloves and began feeding an eel when the greedy bugger almost took his finger as well. I laughed so hard I almost spit my reg out of my mouth. After a while we made our way back into the basin and played around for a while. At the end of my dive I stopped to look at my gauges and double check my computer and when I looked up everyone was gone. I looked around for a while, but still couldn’t find anyone. At this point I was 47 minutes into my dive so I made my way to the steps to find everyone out at the picnic tables. I had a good time. The night dive was by far the best and I look forward to doing this again during Vortoberfest. With all of the particulate in the water pictures were not looking so good, so I switched over to video. I ended up making a video of our dive. I didn't spend too much time editing, but it shows alot of our first dive. Enjoy…. YouTube - Vortex Springs 9-20-08

 

[MRXRAY]

Sorry we missed you on the night dive. Wished we would have stuck around now!

 

[SeaYoda]

The second dive was WAY better than the first. The colors and lighting right at dusk were very cool! I enjoyed the dives and the company - let's do it again SOON!

 

[GLENFWB]

Walter and I got to Navarre early to check out surf conditions. I got there first and when I walked up I could see the surfers and I knew we were in trouble. Wind was pretty strong out of the North East and I estimate seas were 3 feet. I talked with a lifeguard who told me that seas had been building all morning.

Walter and I began to make the calls to everyone we had numbers for. We all decided that we wanted to get wet somewhere....so we headed to Vortex. As Walter stated crowds were HUGE and the best part of the first dive was just watching some of the classes and the entertainment that provides...not laughing at them but WITH them. It wasn't to long ago that I was doing some of the things I was seeing.

There were three cameras in our group so I decided to leave mine in the truck(Come on guys...get some pictures posted!) so I could concentrate on getting used to my new BP/W. I still have some work to do there...I am going to post a message in the Dive Rite forum for some help. If you dive a single tank with a Dive Rite BP/W, head over there and give me your suggestions.

Sally's was GREAT as always...but the company and the banter back and forth was even better! The night dive was fun. There is just something about diving and seeing the glow of lights throughout the basin. Shagman and I hung out together and we just hovered around observing everyone and everything. We kept our lights turned out for a majority of the time...watching the glow of lights in the cavern, basin, and around the shore was a lot of fun. Each of our dives were almost an hour long, so in spite of getting blown out on the beach, we had two good dives.

We had a GREAT group of divers. If you are a new diver....I encourage you to hook up with ScubaBoard members and divers....they are an AWESOME group of folks to dive with....for the most part! I may not get everyone's screen name correct but I will try....here is the list of divers for this trip:

GLENFWB, Shagman, Halftime, SeaYoda, Wjeffries, XRay, Asefl2, Jim's friend from MBT, ....did I miss somebody?? Thanks for the video Walter!

 

[MRXRAY]

Here are three of the 100 silty pictures I took:

Did you see any Canary's?

 

[MRXRAY]

Hey, I just noticed that the cavern entrance forms the silhouette of a man, in the upper left of the pictures..... Do you see it?

 

[GLENFWB]

Holy Smokes, it does...he is upside down with his mouth open.

Hey, I just noticed that the cavern entrance forms the silhouette of a man, in the upper left of the pictures..... Do you see it?

 

[SeaYoda]

Hey, I just noticed that the cavern entrance forms the silhouette of a man, in the upper left of the pictures..... Do you see it?

I see an up-side-down face. Is that it?

 

[MRXRAY]

I see an up-side-down face. Is that it?

Use this a reference:

 

[SeaYoda]

This is what I saw: