flounderer
Contributor
Bringing back the dive report thread.
Diving has been awesome the past week! The marine forecasts said 2-4 and 3-5 ft but it was mirror flat out on the water. Saturday and Sunday it was literally 2-3 inches. Visibility has been pretty good also. The water is gin clear down to about 20ft off the bottom where it has been 40-50 ft on the offshore wrecks. I got to dive with Aaron and some of the Down Under Scuba guys, they know how to make a dive boat fun, I had a blast.
Sunday on the Nashville the seas were the flattest I've ever seen, no signs whatsoever of a hurricane 500 miles offshore. There was a stiff current on the surface but not unmanageable. I could see the wreck sitting in 110 ft of water when I reached 30ft. Water temp on the surface was 84 and 79-80 on the bottom. I haven't been to the Nashville in 5 years and the seas have taken there toll on the wreck but it is still a really cool place. I got to the bottom set the anchor and started looking around. My focus for this dive was to snap pics so I left the catch bag topside. Five minutes into the dive I see antennae and I think to my self "I'm 110ft down without a catch bag I don't want to go back up". I go to investigate to see it is a BIG lobster. I swim down and grab him he puts up a fight but he is as good as dinner by this point. I swam him back to the boat and went back down to complete my picture taking goal. There were a lot of small tropicals over the wreck even some cleaning stations with small wrasse cleaning grunts. The wreck was surprisingly void of large fish not many grouper, amberjacks, or pompano. I was diving 30 nitrox with a 70% deco mix but decided not to go into deco because of the earlier bounce dive. I did a nice slow accent with an extra long hang on the 70% to be on the safe side.
Next I dove the Gill. The same water that was at the Nashville was at the Gill. Clear on top 40-50 ft on the bottom. The current was a little stronger but still not bad. The Gill is a great dive, after being on it dozens of times there is always new stuff to explore. The was 3 sand tigers patrolling the wreck, a few barracudas, and a moray.
Hopefully these conditions continue.
The first pic was taken from 70 ft just to show you show clear it was and you can see the slight ripple on the surface showing how flat it was.
The second picture is of dinner (~8-9lbs) and to show how calm the surface was 35 miles out.
Diving has been awesome the past week! The marine forecasts said 2-4 and 3-5 ft but it was mirror flat out on the water. Saturday and Sunday it was literally 2-3 inches. Visibility has been pretty good also. The water is gin clear down to about 20ft off the bottom where it has been 40-50 ft on the offshore wrecks. I got to dive with Aaron and some of the Down Under Scuba guys, they know how to make a dive boat fun, I had a blast.
Sunday on the Nashville the seas were the flattest I've ever seen, no signs whatsoever of a hurricane 500 miles offshore. There was a stiff current on the surface but not unmanageable. I could see the wreck sitting in 110 ft of water when I reached 30ft. Water temp on the surface was 84 and 79-80 on the bottom. I haven't been to the Nashville in 5 years and the seas have taken there toll on the wreck but it is still a really cool place. I got to the bottom set the anchor and started looking around. My focus for this dive was to snap pics so I left the catch bag topside. Five minutes into the dive I see antennae and I think to my self "I'm 110ft down without a catch bag I don't want to go back up". I go to investigate to see it is a BIG lobster. I swim down and grab him he puts up a fight but he is as good as dinner by this point. I swam him back to the boat and went back down to complete my picture taking goal. There were a lot of small tropicals over the wreck even some cleaning stations with small wrasse cleaning grunts. The wreck was surprisingly void of large fish not many grouper, amberjacks, or pompano. I was diving 30 nitrox with a 70% deco mix but decided not to go into deco because of the earlier bounce dive. I did a nice slow accent with an extra long hang on the 70% to be on the safe side.
Next I dove the Gill. The same water that was at the Nashville was at the Gill. Clear on top 40-50 ft on the bottom. The current was a little stronger but still not bad. The Gill is a great dive, after being on it dozens of times there is always new stuff to explore. The was 3 sand tigers patrolling the wreck, a few barracudas, and a moray.
Hopefully these conditions continue.
The first pic was taken from 70 ft just to show you show clear it was and you can see the slight ripple on the surface showing how flat it was.
The second picture is of dinner (~8-9lbs) and to show how calm the surface was 35 miles out.
