SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
This past weekend was The Kraken's Major League Vortex Meet-n-Greet. I arrived Friday night around 9:30PM to The Kraken, cewarbin, SeaYoda, Gulf-Gulper, darcy, FSUgly gearing up for a night dive at Vortex Spring.
Dive #1 7-22-5 @ Vortex Spring
We were the only group in the water and there wasn't alot of particulate kicked up in the water column - a nice change from the norm on both accounts. Visibility was 30-40' easily and there were lots of critters about. One of the more notable fish was a large freshwater eel with a head the size of my fist and a girth as wide as my wrist. Darcy and I were paired up and for about 15min of the dive we went w/o our lights - the moon and street lights provided enough light UW for us to see suprisingly well after our eyes adjusted. We did the other Vortex stuff, like play around in the cavern, the training caverns, the talk box, ect. I don't have any pics, but SeaYoda might.
Dive #2 7-23-5 @ Vortex Spring
Darcy and I hopped back in the water Saturday morning around 8:30ishAM. The parking lot had already started getting crowded and the basin was starting to fill up as well. Visibility suffered a bit at 20'ish and there were lots of classes running around the bottom. We did meet the grand-daddy freshwater eel again. We did the normal Vortex activities again and hopped up out of the water. Kraken was in the water by 7AM and I think he missed all the traffic - lucky SOB! No pics
Dive #3 7-23-5 @ Cypress Springs
Josh Timmons and Nancy met up with darcy and I at Vortex and we headed to the boat launch on CR277 in Vernon. I had my Zodiac with me but it isn't the biggest little inflatable in the world so it took us 2 trips to get 3 sets of dive equipment and 4 people to the spring(Nancy snorkeled only). The river levels(@Caryville for the Choctawhatchee) showed 7.5' but the water looked higher in Holmes Creek this week than last(water levels showed 10.5' last week). The entire spring run was tannic, but the basin itself held gin clear water. We dove the cavern and explored the basin. The normal critters were swimming around here as well. Some of the more notable were a school of mullet and lots of crawfish. We found out firsthand that crawfish scrump missionary - pretty funny. I wish to hell I had remembered my camera for that sight. We also found a leach - ick.
Dive #4 7-23-5 @ Cypress Springs
After a bit of an SI, we hopped back in the water for another shorter dive(we were hungry). We basically dove the same profile and saw all the same stuff as on the first dive. We did spot a pretty big bass and played with a little snapping turtle for a bit. Josh spotted a pike off behind some trees. A couple of boats headed into the spring and we figured it was getting a bit too crowded(just locals soaking up the sun). It was nice that we were the only divers at this site yet again. No pics.
Dive #5 7-23-5 @ Vortex Spring
We got back to Vortex in time for some of Kraken's brunswick stew and drank a few beers while waiting on a pretty big thunderhead to come. Vortex ceased its water ops. The wind picked up a bit and we lost a few tent poles on Kraken's tarp but it stood and kept us dry. There was quite a bit of lighting and rain but we survived. We watched as some jackass hillbilly did 360ºs in the grass with his truck. Later we saw an ambulance head into Vortex. The storm lasted for an hour or two, and then activities continued onsite. I guess everyone was waiting on the storm because darcy and I didn't have the site to ourselves this time around on the night dive. Visibility was around 20-30' and there was some particles floating in the water. We still did the normal Vortex stuff and had fun. I slept well Saturday night. When we left Vortex Sunday morning the hillbilly's truck was taco'd around a tree near the entrance - I guess that answered the question on the ambulance.
Dive #6 7-24-5 @ Morrison Springs
Darcy and I made it to Morrison around 9AM and Josh got lost on the way, arriving a bit after us. The water was pretty high and it appeared very tannic. We were determined to dive it anyway since we knew the cavern would be clear regardless. Plus, we had a mission. The cavern at Morrison has a ledge on the East side that contains statues of a goose and a kid eating a watermelon(basic generic yard ornements). They've always been a worthy stop during the dive to look at and I've always wanted to put a yard knome into the mix.
Once we hit the water, we were happy to see that once we descended below 4' from the surface, the water cleared up to 30-40' of vis in the immediate area around the basin and platform with water penetrating the tannic water creating some really awesome sun-rays flickering on the bottom. We spent some time in the cavern, relocated the goose back to the ledge(not sure who moved it) and placed our knome - Victory! We explored the smaller cavern on the southside of the basin and then the basin itself. We swam around a bit of the area around the basin as visibility allowed, but stuck within the vicinity of the basin. We saw alot of the normal fauna found at Morrison and surfaced after an hour of bottom time. I brought my camera down for this dive and I'll post pics later tonight.
I had a damned good weekend camping at Vortex with other ScubaBoarders and had a nice set of dives with everyone. The Kraken, thanks for setting up the Meet-n-Greet, had a blast and it was nice to meet you - the stew rocked! It was nice to meet you too cewarbin, I hope we get to dive more on the next event - looking forward to your central FL spring reports. FSUgly, I hope you get your sinuses worked out, it was nice diving with you again - maybe next month we can hit the jetties? Darcy, SeaYoda, Gulf-Gulper, it was nice diving with you guys as always - I'm sure I'll see you guys around within the next few weeks.
Dive #1 7-22-5 @ Vortex Spring
We were the only group in the water and there wasn't alot of particulate kicked up in the water column - a nice change from the norm on both accounts. Visibility was 30-40' easily and there were lots of critters about. One of the more notable fish was a large freshwater eel with a head the size of my fist and a girth as wide as my wrist. Darcy and I were paired up and for about 15min of the dive we went w/o our lights - the moon and street lights provided enough light UW for us to see suprisingly well after our eyes adjusted. We did the other Vortex stuff, like play around in the cavern, the training caverns, the talk box, ect. I don't have any pics, but SeaYoda might.
Dive #2 7-23-5 @ Vortex Spring
Darcy and I hopped back in the water Saturday morning around 8:30ishAM. The parking lot had already started getting crowded and the basin was starting to fill up as well. Visibility suffered a bit at 20'ish and there were lots of classes running around the bottom. We did meet the grand-daddy freshwater eel again. We did the normal Vortex activities again and hopped up out of the water. Kraken was in the water by 7AM and I think he missed all the traffic - lucky SOB! No pics
Dive #3 7-23-5 @ Cypress Springs
Josh Timmons and Nancy met up with darcy and I at Vortex and we headed to the boat launch on CR277 in Vernon. I had my Zodiac with me but it isn't the biggest little inflatable in the world so it took us 2 trips to get 3 sets of dive equipment and 4 people to the spring(Nancy snorkeled only). The river levels(@Caryville for the Choctawhatchee) showed 7.5' but the water looked higher in Holmes Creek this week than last(water levels showed 10.5' last week). The entire spring run was tannic, but the basin itself held gin clear water. We dove the cavern and explored the basin. The normal critters were swimming around here as well. Some of the more notable were a school of mullet and lots of crawfish. We found out firsthand that crawfish scrump missionary - pretty funny. I wish to hell I had remembered my camera for that sight. We also found a leach - ick.
Dive #4 7-23-5 @ Cypress Springs
After a bit of an SI, we hopped back in the water for another shorter dive(we were hungry). We basically dove the same profile and saw all the same stuff as on the first dive. We did spot a pretty big bass and played with a little snapping turtle for a bit. Josh spotted a pike off behind some trees. A couple of boats headed into the spring and we figured it was getting a bit too crowded(just locals soaking up the sun). It was nice that we were the only divers at this site yet again. No pics.
Dive #5 7-23-5 @ Vortex Spring
We got back to Vortex in time for some of Kraken's brunswick stew and drank a few beers while waiting on a pretty big thunderhead to come. Vortex ceased its water ops. The wind picked up a bit and we lost a few tent poles on Kraken's tarp but it stood and kept us dry. There was quite a bit of lighting and rain but we survived. We watched as some jackass hillbilly did 360ºs in the grass with his truck. Later we saw an ambulance head into Vortex. The storm lasted for an hour or two, and then activities continued onsite. I guess everyone was waiting on the storm because darcy and I didn't have the site to ourselves this time around on the night dive. Visibility was around 20-30' and there was some particles floating in the water. We still did the normal Vortex stuff and had fun. I slept well Saturday night. When we left Vortex Sunday morning the hillbilly's truck was taco'd around a tree near the entrance - I guess that answered the question on the ambulance.
Dive #6 7-24-5 @ Morrison Springs
Darcy and I made it to Morrison around 9AM and Josh got lost on the way, arriving a bit after us. The water was pretty high and it appeared very tannic. We were determined to dive it anyway since we knew the cavern would be clear regardless. Plus, we had a mission. The cavern at Morrison has a ledge on the East side that contains statues of a goose and a kid eating a watermelon(basic generic yard ornements). They've always been a worthy stop during the dive to look at and I've always wanted to put a yard knome into the mix.
Once we hit the water, we were happy to see that once we descended below 4' from the surface, the water cleared up to 30-40' of vis in the immediate area around the basin and platform with water penetrating the tannic water creating some really awesome sun-rays flickering on the bottom. We spent some time in the cavern, relocated the goose back to the ledge(not sure who moved it) and placed our knome - Victory! We explored the smaller cavern on the southside of the basin and then the basin itself. We swam around a bit of the area around the basin as visibility allowed, but stuck within the vicinity of the basin. We saw alot of the normal fauna found at Morrison and surfaced after an hour of bottom time. I brought my camera down for this dive and I'll post pics later tonight.I had a damned good weekend camping at Vortex with other ScubaBoarders and had a nice set of dives with everyone. The Kraken, thanks for setting up the Meet-n-Greet, had a blast and it was nice to meet you - the stew rocked! It was nice to meet you too cewarbin, I hope we get to dive more on the next event - looking forward to your central FL spring reports. FSUgly, I hope you get your sinuses worked out, it was nice diving with you again - maybe next month we can hit the jetties? Darcy, SeaYoda, Gulf-Gulper, it was nice diving with you guys as always - I'm sure I'll see you guys around within the next few weeks.
