pdoege
Contributor
Hey guys -
I went diving off of Tarpon Springs with Narcosis this weekend.
Had a great time and finished off my hundreth dive. Yay!
The Narcosis boat is a smaller six pack. Nice turbo diesel, pretty quick. The crew was experienced and tolerated our hijinks with humor and patience.
The tank racks will barely fit a LP120, so bigger tanks need not apply.
We did two dives.
Dive #1 was Veteran's Reef. This is an artificial reef made of 3 large barges. Pretty shallow. Maybe 60'. The water temp was 87 degrees! I wore my 3/2 to ward of stingers.
I was using my new DR H valve for the first time with 2 brand new Scubapro Mk25/600s.
I met a crab swimming at 10 feet. He followed me around for a while. What was he doing up there? I have never seen that before.
I penetrated the barges and chased the goliath groupers out. I found their nests, but I didn't see the actual fish. The nest of a big grouper is really big. A large pit!
The rest of the divers did ssee the fish. They told me how great it was when I got back on the boat.
I also found some smaller groupers and drums feeding on a dead sea bass of some kind. They didn't want to leave their meal and didn't want to get too close to me. The group dynamics were pretty funny.
After a few minutes they got used to me. The dominant fish would chase off the others, eat its fill, and then the next fish would move in. Pretty neat to watch.
There were a lot of conchs in the wreck. Lots of gamefish and baitfish. I had a good time chillin, soaking in the sights.
I got trampled heading up the anchor line. Thump, thump, thump as the fins went up my back. I have no idea what the rush was. I go up pretty slow
I noticed with some satisfaction that I could hold the safety stop better off the line than they could on the line. I was down for exactly an hour.
I had a lot of air left, so I decided to reuse my tank on the next dive.
The ocean was beautifully calm. Maybe a 1/2 foot. Hard to notice.
Dive #2 was on Marathon Ledge.
This is a large stretch of ancient shoreline. Really pretty neat.
There was a very slight south current. I spent the dive slowly drifting and photographing.
Lots of leopard fish, conchs, starfish, anemones, wrasse, hogfish, porkfish, and grouper. I found some big horse conchs.
The hunter got two mackeral.
I came up after 61 minutes. Got run over on the line again. What is the hurry?
I had around 600 PSI at the end of the dive. I used 122ft^3 in 121 minutes for a SCR of .34 or so.
A big weather system complete with waterspouts came in and chased us into port. Lots of rain. I got a free fresh water shower out of the deal. The captain canceled the rest of the dives for the day due to the weather. I wasn't going to argue. Lightning was hitting everywhere.
The dive sites are around 30 minutes out from the coast and it takes about 20 minutes to navigate from the coastline to the slip. I didn't notice the time particularly, but it is longer than some of the east coast times.
I spent the canceled dives traveling down to Tampa. I went to Ybor city and partied the night away. That is a really nice area. I met a lot of great people.
I spent the next day at the Dali museum and a bit of sightseeing. I got back home around 8:45PM.
My portal to portal time from home to Tarpon Springs was 2:15. On the way back, my Tampa to Orlando time was 1:45 with :45 spent on I-4.
Peter Doege
I went diving off of Tarpon Springs with Narcosis this weekend.
Had a great time and finished off my hundreth dive. Yay!
The Narcosis boat is a smaller six pack. Nice turbo diesel, pretty quick. The crew was experienced and tolerated our hijinks with humor and patience.
The tank racks will barely fit a LP120, so bigger tanks need not apply.
We did two dives.
Dive #1 was Veteran's Reef. This is an artificial reef made of 3 large barges. Pretty shallow. Maybe 60'. The water temp was 87 degrees! I wore my 3/2 to ward of stingers.
I was using my new DR H valve for the first time with 2 brand new Scubapro Mk25/600s.
I met a crab swimming at 10 feet. He followed me around for a while. What was he doing up there? I have never seen that before.
I penetrated the barges and chased the goliath groupers out. I found their nests, but I didn't see the actual fish. The nest of a big grouper is really big. A large pit!
The rest of the divers did ssee the fish. They told me how great it was when I got back on the boat.
I also found some smaller groupers and drums feeding on a dead sea bass of some kind. They didn't want to leave their meal and didn't want to get too close to me. The group dynamics were pretty funny.
After a few minutes they got used to me. The dominant fish would chase off the others, eat its fill, and then the next fish would move in. Pretty neat to watch.
There were a lot of conchs in the wreck. Lots of gamefish and baitfish. I had a good time chillin, soaking in the sights.
I got trampled heading up the anchor line. Thump, thump, thump as the fins went up my back. I have no idea what the rush was. I go up pretty slow
I noticed with some satisfaction that I could hold the safety stop better off the line than they could on the line. I was down for exactly an hour.
I had a lot of air left, so I decided to reuse my tank on the next dive.
The ocean was beautifully calm. Maybe a 1/2 foot. Hard to notice.
Dive #2 was on Marathon Ledge.
This is a large stretch of ancient shoreline. Really pretty neat.
There was a very slight south current. I spent the dive slowly drifting and photographing.
Lots of leopard fish, conchs, starfish, anemones, wrasse, hogfish, porkfish, and grouper. I found some big horse conchs.
The hunter got two mackeral.
I came up after 61 minutes. Got run over on the line again. What is the hurry?
I had around 600 PSI at the end of the dive. I used 122ft^3 in 121 minutes for a SCR of .34 or so.
A big weather system complete with waterspouts came in and chased us into port. Lots of rain. I got a free fresh water shower out of the deal. The captain canceled the rest of the dives for the day due to the weather. I wasn't going to argue. Lightning was hitting everywhere.
The dive sites are around 30 minutes out from the coast and it takes about 20 minutes to navigate from the coastline to the slip. I didn't notice the time particularly, but it is longer than some of the east coast times.
I spent the canceled dives traveling down to Tampa. I went to Ybor city and partied the night away. That is a really nice area. I met a lot of great people.
I spent the next day at the Dali museum and a bit of sightseeing. I got back home around 8:45PM.
My portal to portal time from home to Tarpon Springs was 2:15. On the way back, my Tampa to Orlando time was 1:45 with :45 spent on I-4.
Peter Doege
