Our adventure continued as we traveled leisurely toward Panama City from Destin. We wanted to get there in time to check into the hotel, get tanks filled, and just relax before the afternoon trip. PCDC buzzed with activity and the air conditioning felt good. The day that started out to be a rainy and cool Saturday had quickly turned hot and muggy.
As usual, the confusion of unloading and loading the boats fell into a well organized effort and we were on our way past the rocks. It always feels so good when the boat moves and the breeze starts. Since the cloudy layer is still there at the Accokeek we headed for Two-Tugs.
We had two deep and night diving candidates and a few old salts. The other folks on the boat were from the Decatur shop. We always seem to time our PC weekends with them. Dive Sports and Adventure Sports all looking at the same goal, great dives; and great dives we found. Dennis drove the boat and Holly and Face were the decks. Holly spent most of the time trying to memorize everyone’s name.
We did both dives on the same site. Both were absolutely wonderful. We had about 50 feet visibility on the wreck and about 15 feet on the bottom. The bait fish were so thick that we could hardly see the wreck at times. We saw large schools of spadefish, jacks, grouper, and snapper. The dive was one of those that you just don’t want to end.
The second dive came after dark. We have never seen so many Atlantic Deer Cowries out roaming the wreck. My camera battery died right in the middle so we just spent time looking at stuff. We went out on the sand and kept the strobe in sight as we looked for shells and sand dollars. We reluctantly made our ascent as we turned off our lights and watched sparkles in the water.
Sunday we slept late and started for the boat via Winn Dixie to replenish snacks. With freshly filled tanks we headed out again. This time we chose the USS Strength and Bridge Span 1. The Strength boasted probably 50 feet visibility on top of the wreck with huge schools of all sorts of fishes. We found a bristle worm eating a minnow and a sassy old mantis shrimp. We would probably call the mantis shrimp the mockingbird of the ocean, afraid of nothing and not ashamed to tell you about it. We used snips to free two fish from a discarded net.
Bridge Span One also gave us some great visibility. We went down the roadbed and back along the side. There were several sand dollar skeletons here. We made sure that we came to the top of the span and were able to drift into the anchor line. While there was none on the bottom, current on top of the span was kind of sporty. We saw some white anemone that we haven’t noticed on PC sites before. The baitfish continued their show as we ascended. Another great dive must come to an end along with another great weekend.
We stopped at Boondocks for a Boon Burger and settled in for the long-sleepy drive home. We still dreamed of the weekend looking forward to the next.
As usual, the confusion of unloading and loading the boats fell into a well organized effort and we were on our way past the rocks. It always feels so good when the boat moves and the breeze starts. Since the cloudy layer is still there at the Accokeek we headed for Two-Tugs.
We had two deep and night diving candidates and a few old salts. The other folks on the boat were from the Decatur shop. We always seem to time our PC weekends with them. Dive Sports and Adventure Sports all looking at the same goal, great dives; and great dives we found. Dennis drove the boat and Holly and Face were the decks. Holly spent most of the time trying to memorize everyone’s name.
We did both dives on the same site. Both were absolutely wonderful. We had about 50 feet visibility on the wreck and about 15 feet on the bottom. The bait fish were so thick that we could hardly see the wreck at times. We saw large schools of spadefish, jacks, grouper, and snapper. The dive was one of those that you just don’t want to end.
The second dive came after dark. We have never seen so many Atlantic Deer Cowries out roaming the wreck. My camera battery died right in the middle so we just spent time looking at stuff. We went out on the sand and kept the strobe in sight as we looked for shells and sand dollars. We reluctantly made our ascent as we turned off our lights and watched sparkles in the water.
Sunday we slept late and started for the boat via Winn Dixie to replenish snacks. With freshly filled tanks we headed out again. This time we chose the USS Strength and Bridge Span 1. The Strength boasted probably 50 feet visibility on top of the wreck with huge schools of all sorts of fishes. We found a bristle worm eating a minnow and a sassy old mantis shrimp. We would probably call the mantis shrimp the mockingbird of the ocean, afraid of nothing and not ashamed to tell you about it. We used snips to free two fish from a discarded net.
Bridge Span One also gave us some great visibility. We went down the roadbed and back along the side. There were several sand dollar skeletons here. We made sure that we came to the top of the span and were able to drift into the anchor line. While there was none on the bottom, current on top of the span was kind of sporty. We saw some white anemone that we haven’t noticed on PC sites before. The baitfish continued their show as we ascended. Another great dive must come to an end along with another great weekend.
We stopped at Boondocks for a Boon Burger and settled in for the long-sleepy drive home. We still dreamed of the weekend looking forward to the next.
