Pensacola conditions?

[mrmccoy]

I'm looking at takeing an advanced ow class either the last
weekend in feb. Or the last weekend in march. Does anyone know what the water temps. and vis. have been running out of p-cola?

 

[Hetland]

Low to mid 50's inshore. High 50's to Low 60's offshore. Inshore viz has been crap. I haven't heard what offshore viz is though.

If the temps stay mild, and the rain stays away, we should get improvements.

 

[mrmccoy]

That's pretty chilly! I might wait untill march, by then it should be a little warmer. I would think depending on the weather it should be in the low 60's by march?

 

[PatMyGreen]

It should be that depending on when in March but the weather is a real crap shoot in the northern gulf March and April. WINDY!!!

 

[Hetland]

plus if you have lots of melting snow or rain coming down the Mobile/Tensaw and Mississippi rivers, then you will have crud in the water.

Yes, crud from the Mississippi River will kill viz in Pensacola. Hard to believe, but true.

 

[mrmccoy]

It would be the end of march and they told me we would dive deeper wrecks
the first day then shallower stuff the second day. I don't know if the shallow stuff would be inshore or not but I would assume the deeper stuff would be offshore.........how far is the question.

 

[Hetland]

I want to say you can find 90fsw to the sand about 7 miles offshore. Usually (though not always) the further out you go the cleaner the water is.

Wind and current would be my top concerns, but you can't worry realistically until the day of.

If you have never dove in the Gulf I would suggest listening carefully to the Captain/DiveMaster's brief, and making sure you use the travel and safety lines to move about on the surface and to do your decent/ascent. A light current can wreck your dive and burn your air/nitrox prematurely.

Even knowing better I got swept off a line late last season because I let go before I should have. No one got hurt, but I embarrassed myself, and wasted a dive. That's never fun.

 

[mrmccoy]

Most of my dives have been in the gulf out of destin but they were all in pretty good conditions. Surface current was about the worst part!

 

[wjefferis]

Below are the average water temperatures by month for Pensacola according to NOAA:

JAN 56
FEB 58
MAR 63
APR 71
MAY 78
JUN 84
JUL 85
AUG 86
SEP 82
OCT 74
NOV 65
DEC 58

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

August looks SO good.