About 10 of us from Columbus, GA drove down with our LDS (Chattahoochee Scuba). We met at Panama City Dive Center at noon. I have to say, the people at PCDC are super friendly and I can't wait to visit them again.
We head out to the marina and got our gear loaded onto the Panama. Captain Doc was incredibly nice and his deckhand Brian was extremely attentive. We loaded about 30 tanks aboard and Captain Doc gave us a well organized briefing on the boat. Afterwards, our gear stowed, tanks and coolers secured, we headed out of the marina.
Dive #1 - 1400 – Accokeek wreck site (USN Fleet Reserve Tug)
About 15 minutes into the transit Brian ordered us to into our gear. We were about 2 miles from the first site. Seas were 1'-2' max and water temp was 81F. We slowed to a stop and Brian front-rolled off the bow and tied us off to the wheelhouse. He reported excellent viz, the location of where we were tied into the wreck, the direction of the wreck facing, and numerous types of animal life.
This being my first time in the ocean (I've dove springs and quarries only) I was a little apprehensive. The crew was aware that many of us were newbies to boat diving and extra care was given during the briefing of how they expected us to enter and exit the water.
We were a little slow getting our gear on, and the crew helped facilitate our entry with some light-hearted banter and got everyone moving along quite nicely, paying attention to how we were geared and making sure we were set up for the slight negative entry they recommended.
After my buddy and I checked each other over I approached the side exit with fins in hand, reg in, mask on, a small amount of air in my wing, and hoses tucked. I kicked my feet back one at a time as Brian fitted me into my fins. I’m wearing a steel LP-95 for a tank. Man I love that tank. I think I’ll buy a pair of 119’s from my LDS soon. I like the fatness and the way my wing doesn’t wrap around it with little air inside.
My buddy entered and was waiting at 20’ for me on the anchor line. Trying to control my breathing I felt my heart-rate increase slightly and with my regulator making that god awful racket out of the water, I took giant-stride for man-kind into the gulf.
As the air escaped from the trapped areas of my gear I started a slow descent heading toward the bow only slightly pulling myself along the line to the anchor line to save air by not swimming so hard against the current. Speaking of which, the current was almost negligible and I eventually was able to gain enough confidence to let go of the rope and just eyeball it to the 20’ mark where my buddy sat trying to clear his ears.
I got neutral and stayed horizontal next to my buddy while he was clearing and practiced a few frog kicks, both forward and backward. To my surprise I had little trouble. Those pool sessions really paid off. By the time my buddy was finished clearing, my heart-rate had slowed to near normal and my breathing had resumed its regular rhythm… kinda… heh, I’m still totally stoked and saucer-eyed at being in the Gulf. [smack smack… salty… hmm, didn’t expect that. Hehe, I forgot.] Wooo!
After another buddy check, we descend to the wreck. The Instructor with us had a few skills to go over with a couple of students and we decided to stick with them for a few minutes to get acclimated. Woah, What the...?? There’s a long silvery lookin dude with big teeth cruising outside the wheelhouse. Hm. So THAT’s a barracuda! He looks mean! There were some smaller silvery dudes with him, but I’m not sure if they were the same kind of fish. Sorry, I didn’t pay my money to PADI yet for my Fish ID C-Card and am unable to correctly identify fish. :05:
We break away from the students after a few minutes because they were silting up the area pretty good. Out of the cloud of silt we head forward along the waterline of the Accokeek. The hull is full of sea critters like barnacles and stuff. They looked kinda sharp to the touch so I took extra care not to scrape myself along it. I’m paying attention to the hull, and every now and then I see some more alleged-barracuda just moseying along about 15-20 feet away. They paid us no mind, and I felt quite at ease with them.
As we cross under the forecastle heading back aft we’re about 10’ above the sand and I keep seeing these little round brown things about 2½ inches diameter on the floor. Curious, we drop down and scoot the sand away from one. WOAH! A frikkin sand dollar! HUGE. The biggest we saw were a good 8 inches. There are about 10-15 of them all around us and looking closer we were able to find a few white ones. We assumed these were the dead guys because all the fuzz and stuff is gone and they seem more brittle to the touch. We scoop up a few of them and goody-bag them. GGRRRAaaaaar! Pirate Booty! Can you take the live ones? Is it frowned on? Sure, I’m gunna killem dead with a fire-ant mound and a bucket of bleach (I figure the same way you do hog/deer heads), but is it okay? (PS – PETA affiliates or supporters: I already know your answer, so no need to voice your concerns, thanks. :07: )
So after messing around with the sand dollars we continue aft on the deck at about 70’. A friend called them sea biscuits… that’s a royally stupid name by the way. They don’t look like a biscuit for chrissake. Maybe a Sea Pancake, a Sea Diskette or a Sea Frisbee, but a biscuit?!?! C’mon.
We’re up on the deck floating with the current along the inside of the railing. Huge holes are cut in the deck plates, where I assume the generators were located at one time. Lots of Spade Fish (again, with the names… I mean OBVIOUSLY these are not SPADES!! I mean who named these fish? Frikkin’ Hoyle?) The official scientific name is Black Striped Skillet-sized Small-Mouthed Angel-Fish Fish with Big Eyes!
There were AT LEAST a billion of these Black Striped Skillet-sized Small-Mouthed Angel-Fish Fish with Big Eyes swimming around. I sat in the middle of about 11,428 of them as they swam in place facing the current. Cool.
My buddy said there were only about 25-30 of them, but I’m positive it was at least 406 these Black Striped Skillet-sized Small-Mouthed Angel-Fish Fish with Big Eyes.
There was one part of the railing that was cut off at the joint and a small blue and yellow fish about ½” long made his home there. All you could see was his little mouth poking out every once in a while when he thought we weren’t looking. But we’d fake him out and act like we were watching the Black Striped Skillet-sized Small-Mouthed Angel-Fish Fish with Big Eyes but would really be looking at him sideways. He’d come out and swim in a circle then back himself into his little hole like he was parallel parking a Yugo or Chevette.
The only really big fish I was able to see was a huge grouper or something like that. He looked to be a good 5 feet long with a fat mouth and Droopy the Dog Eyes. He was snooping around the shadows aft of the wheelhouse. Only one other person saw him and he called him a Jewfish. Hmm. Whatever. Well, I defer to him, because I know for a fact he paid for his PADI Fish-ID card. So this big giant Jewfish was creeping around in the shadows and I almost swallowed my regulator when I saw him because I almost ran into him chasing a couple Black Striped Skillet-sized Small-Mouthed Angel-Fish Fish with Big Eyes.
Okay, time to go. My buddy and I are about 1200 psi and the current has picked up a bit. The viz has dropped considerably due to silt and I want a leisurely pace to the anchor line and a nice slow ascent. We make our stop, and eventually swim to the ladder back aft of the boat.
Once again Brian the deckhand is right there and helps us aboard.
Dive Time 26 minutes. Back on board with about 800 psi. Yea, yea… Hoover. But I am an excitable type person.
I babble for the next 1 hour and 21 minutes during the SI about that sneaky little blue and yellow fish.
In the mean-time everyone else gets back on-board and we crank up the engines and head off to the Black Bart! I’m at work writing this and need to get some work done. I’ll continue with Dives 2-5 later. :05:
In the attached image, you can see the Accokeek and our dive boat with positions for the dive highlights. You can tell that is me in the picture because of how big my eyes are and the LP-95 on my back. Also, check out that frog kick technique. Uber.
View attachment 23442
We head out to the marina and got our gear loaded onto the Panama. Captain Doc was incredibly nice and his deckhand Brian was extremely attentive. We loaded about 30 tanks aboard and Captain Doc gave us a well organized briefing on the boat. Afterwards, our gear stowed, tanks and coolers secured, we headed out of the marina.
Dive #1 - 1400 – Accokeek wreck site (USN Fleet Reserve Tug)
About 15 minutes into the transit Brian ordered us to into our gear. We were about 2 miles from the first site. Seas were 1'-2' max and water temp was 81F. We slowed to a stop and Brian front-rolled off the bow and tied us off to the wheelhouse. He reported excellent viz, the location of where we were tied into the wreck, the direction of the wreck facing, and numerous types of animal life.
This being my first time in the ocean (I've dove springs and quarries only) I was a little apprehensive. The crew was aware that many of us were newbies to boat diving and extra care was given during the briefing of how they expected us to enter and exit the water.
We were a little slow getting our gear on, and the crew helped facilitate our entry with some light-hearted banter and got everyone moving along quite nicely, paying attention to how we were geared and making sure we were set up for the slight negative entry they recommended.
After my buddy and I checked each other over I approached the side exit with fins in hand, reg in, mask on, a small amount of air in my wing, and hoses tucked. I kicked my feet back one at a time as Brian fitted me into my fins. I’m wearing a steel LP-95 for a tank. Man I love that tank. I think I’ll buy a pair of 119’s from my LDS soon. I like the fatness and the way my wing doesn’t wrap around it with little air inside.
My buddy entered and was waiting at 20’ for me on the anchor line. Trying to control my breathing I felt my heart-rate increase slightly and with my regulator making that god awful racket out of the water, I took giant-stride for man-kind into the gulf.
As the air escaped from the trapped areas of my gear I started a slow descent heading toward the bow only slightly pulling myself along the line to the anchor line to save air by not swimming so hard against the current. Speaking of which, the current was almost negligible and I eventually was able to gain enough confidence to let go of the rope and just eyeball it to the 20’ mark where my buddy sat trying to clear his ears.
I got neutral and stayed horizontal next to my buddy while he was clearing and practiced a few frog kicks, both forward and backward. To my surprise I had little trouble. Those pool sessions really paid off. By the time my buddy was finished clearing, my heart-rate had slowed to near normal and my breathing had resumed its regular rhythm… kinda… heh, I’m still totally stoked and saucer-eyed at being in the Gulf. [smack smack… salty… hmm, didn’t expect that. Hehe, I forgot.] Wooo!
After another buddy check, we descend to the wreck. The Instructor with us had a few skills to go over with a couple of students and we decided to stick with them for a few minutes to get acclimated. Woah, What the...?? There’s a long silvery lookin dude with big teeth cruising outside the wheelhouse. Hm. So THAT’s a barracuda! He looks mean! There were some smaller silvery dudes with him, but I’m not sure if they were the same kind of fish. Sorry, I didn’t pay my money to PADI yet for my Fish ID C-Card and am unable to correctly identify fish. :05:
We break away from the students after a few minutes because they were silting up the area pretty good. Out of the cloud of silt we head forward along the waterline of the Accokeek. The hull is full of sea critters like barnacles and stuff. They looked kinda sharp to the touch so I took extra care not to scrape myself along it. I’m paying attention to the hull, and every now and then I see some more alleged-barracuda just moseying along about 15-20 feet away. They paid us no mind, and I felt quite at ease with them.
As we cross under the forecastle heading back aft we’re about 10’ above the sand and I keep seeing these little round brown things about 2½ inches diameter on the floor. Curious, we drop down and scoot the sand away from one. WOAH! A frikkin sand dollar! HUGE. The biggest we saw were a good 8 inches. There are about 10-15 of them all around us and looking closer we were able to find a few white ones. We assumed these were the dead guys because all the fuzz and stuff is gone and they seem more brittle to the touch. We scoop up a few of them and goody-bag them. GGRRRAaaaaar! Pirate Booty! Can you take the live ones? Is it frowned on? Sure, I’m gunna killem dead with a fire-ant mound and a bucket of bleach (I figure the same way you do hog/deer heads), but is it okay? (PS – PETA affiliates or supporters: I already know your answer, so no need to voice your concerns, thanks. :07: )
So after messing around with the sand dollars we continue aft on the deck at about 70’. A friend called them sea biscuits… that’s a royally stupid name by the way. They don’t look like a biscuit for chrissake. Maybe a Sea Pancake, a Sea Diskette or a Sea Frisbee, but a biscuit?!?! C’mon.
We’re up on the deck floating with the current along the inside of the railing. Huge holes are cut in the deck plates, where I assume the generators were located at one time. Lots of Spade Fish (again, with the names… I mean OBVIOUSLY these are not SPADES!! I mean who named these fish? Frikkin’ Hoyle?) The official scientific name is Black Striped Skillet-sized Small-Mouthed Angel-Fish Fish with Big Eyes!
There were AT LEAST a billion of these Black Striped Skillet-sized Small-Mouthed Angel-Fish Fish with Big Eyes swimming around. I sat in the middle of about 11,428 of them as they swam in place facing the current. Cool.
My buddy said there were only about 25-30 of them, but I’m positive it was at least 406 these Black Striped Skillet-sized Small-Mouthed Angel-Fish Fish with Big Eyes.
There was one part of the railing that was cut off at the joint and a small blue and yellow fish about ½” long made his home there. All you could see was his little mouth poking out every once in a while when he thought we weren’t looking. But we’d fake him out and act like we were watching the Black Striped Skillet-sized Small-Mouthed Angel-Fish Fish with Big Eyes but would really be looking at him sideways. He’d come out and swim in a circle then back himself into his little hole like he was parallel parking a Yugo or Chevette.
The only really big fish I was able to see was a huge grouper or something like that. He looked to be a good 5 feet long with a fat mouth and Droopy the Dog Eyes. He was snooping around the shadows aft of the wheelhouse. Only one other person saw him and he called him a Jewfish. Hmm. Whatever. Well, I defer to him, because I know for a fact he paid for his PADI Fish-ID card. So this big giant Jewfish was creeping around in the shadows and I almost swallowed my regulator when I saw him because I almost ran into him chasing a couple Black Striped Skillet-sized Small-Mouthed Angel-Fish Fish with Big Eyes.
Okay, time to go. My buddy and I are about 1200 psi and the current has picked up a bit. The viz has dropped considerably due to silt and I want a leisurely pace to the anchor line and a nice slow ascent. We make our stop, and eventually swim to the ladder back aft of the boat.
Once again Brian the deckhand is right there and helps us aboard.
Dive Time 26 minutes. Back on board with about 800 psi. Yea, yea… Hoover. But I am an excitable type person.
I babble for the next 1 hour and 21 minutes during the SI about that sneaky little blue and yellow fish.
In the mean-time everyone else gets back on-board and we crank up the engines and head off to the Black Bart! I’m at work writing this and need to get some work done. I’ll continue with Dives 2-5 later. :05:
In the attached image, you can see the Accokeek and our dive boat with positions for the dive highlights. You can tell that is me in the picture because of how big my eyes are and the LP-95 on my back. Also, check out that frog kick technique. Uber.
View attachment 23442
