SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
I went with Rusty and his Gulf Diver dive boat today out of Orange Beach, AL. The morning started off cool and clear with blue skies and only a few clouds. There were 3-5 rolling seas, but the water was smooth(not choppy at all really), so it was a decent ride out. We only had one victim to the gentle up-and-down motion of the boat. Today was the first day I've been able to use the 54" speargun I got this past December, all previous boat dives since then had been cancelled due to weather, or lack of interest by others. The water temps felt like they were in the mid-70sºF, I never felt cold and was quite comfortable at depth with a 3mm full suit and gloves. Won't be long and I'll just be worrying about the skin when I go out.
Our first dive was at a site called the Grain Barge, which is actually an upside down tugboat around 20 miles offshore. I was paired up with a newer diver, which is fine with me(I don't mind helping out people newer than I), so I wasn't expecting a super long dive. There was a thermocline around 40' with a layer of 'junk' in the water floating about - most of it looked alive in some fashion. After descending below the funkiness, we enjoyed 50-60' of visibility. You could easily see well past the opposite side of the wreck while on either end. There were several large schools of different types of snapper and amberjack. I spotted two Cobia, one of them was a legal size, but I didn't shoot at it(couldn't remember off the top of my head their size limit - I made it a point to find out during the SI though
). There were also large shools of spadefish and sheeps head swimming in, out, and around the wreck while a few solitary queen angels and small grouper swam around the bottom. I ended up taking a 30" amberjack before starting our ascent. I'll have pics later, along with a pic of the grilled fish sandwich I plan on making him into Max depth was 108' for just shy of 20min.
We had about 2 1/2 hours of SI, in which we used to make our way to another tug as well as snorkel under a line of sawgrass. We saw a large school of fish the captain called chicken dolphin - new to me. My single serving buddy managed to hook one from the boat with the captains rod-n-reel. I took a few pictures, not sure whether they came out or not.
The 2nd dive was made on the 20 mile tug(or 22 mile tug, depending on who you ask). Visibility was about the same as well as temperatures. I had dived this site last year before Ivan and the tug was mostly intact, including the cabin which extended nearly all the way to the back of the boat and its superstructure. Either the hurricane, or a careless fishing boat that hooking onto it, had ripped the superstructure and cabin off the hull and they now lay off to the side of the boat, pancaked, and in the sand. The boat made for a fun dive, but there wasn't many big fish so we played spectators. Shoulda brought my camera down on this one! Hindsights a *****! We saw all the same fish from the last wreck, just smaller Max depth was 99 for 17min.
All in all, it was a great way to get back in the water after a month + of being dry. It would have been a great day had I been diving every other day infact. I met some new divers and had alot of fun with Rusty on his boat. He's a great guy and an excellent captain!
I'll have some pics up later tonight with any luck.
Our first dive was at a site called the Grain Barge, which is actually an upside down tugboat around 20 miles offshore. I was paired up with a newer diver, which is fine with me(I don't mind helping out people newer than I), so I wasn't expecting a super long dive. There was a thermocline around 40' with a layer of 'junk' in the water floating about - most of it looked alive in some fashion. After descending below the funkiness, we enjoyed 50-60' of visibility. You could easily see well past the opposite side of the wreck while on either end. There were several large schools of different types of snapper and amberjack. I spotted two Cobia, one of them was a legal size, but I didn't shoot at it(couldn't remember off the top of my head their size limit - I made it a point to find out during the SI though
). There were also large shools of spadefish and sheeps head swimming in, out, and around the wreck while a few solitary queen angels and small grouper swam around the bottom. I ended up taking a 30" amberjack before starting our ascent. I'll have pics later, along with a pic of the grilled fish sandwich I plan on making him into Max depth was 108' for just shy of 20min.We had about 2 1/2 hours of SI, in which we used to make our way to another tug as well as snorkel under a line of sawgrass. We saw a large school of fish the captain called chicken dolphin - new to me. My single serving buddy managed to hook one from the boat with the captains rod-n-reel. I took a few pictures, not sure whether they came out or not.
The 2nd dive was made on the 20 mile tug(or 22 mile tug, depending on who you ask). Visibility was about the same as well as temperatures. I had dived this site last year before Ivan and the tug was mostly intact, including the cabin which extended nearly all the way to the back of the boat and its superstructure. Either the hurricane, or a careless fishing boat that hooking onto it, had ripped the superstructure and cabin off the hull and they now lay off to the side of the boat, pancaked, and in the sand. The boat made for a fun dive, but there wasn't many big fish so we played spectators. Shoulda brought my camera down on this one! Hindsights a *****! We saw all the same fish from the last wreck, just smaller
Max depth was 99 for 17min.All in all, it was a great way to get back in the water after a month + of being dry. It would have been a great day had I been diving every other day infact. I met some new divers and had alot of fun with Rusty on his boat. He's a great guy and an excellent captain!
I'll have some pics up later tonight with any luck.
