tips on diving at old marineland?

[MaxBottomtime]

:e18: ok comedian! When we descended, there was some surge around the platform which was kicking up sand & silt... The vis was 5-8 ft, so we just checked out the platform briefly & followed the line to the warmer shallows...

On Saturday I had 15' vis out there. On Sunday it was down to ten. Yesterday I decided to dive the main reef instead. It was very nice there, albeit chilly at 50F.

 

[hermosadive]

Phil,
The few times I've dove Marineland, we took off from the spot marked X in the attached image. There was also talk of taking off at the spot marked O, but surf was too nasty over there. Assuming conditions allow, do you normally take off at O and head towards the pebble beach/cove to exit?

If you take off from Longpoint ("O"), you need to plan for about a 40min swim back to the cove. New divers with poor air consumption need to take this into consideration, along with the rock/advanced entry from the point, otherwise, it can be a long surface swim back to a safe shore exit.

 

[mccabejc]

Phil,
Interesting about your attempt at steps. As a matter of fact I was thinking something similar with regards to making the exit at the cove easier on the feet. Climbing over those pebbles/rocks is a pain. I've been trying to think of something we could lay down over the pebbles to make an nice path to the water. Haven't come up with anything yet which would stand up to the surf during high tide. Maybe it's as easy as moving them out of the way to expose sand underneath. Or maybe get a few bags of Quickset, pour it over the rocks at low tide, and spray some water on it.

 

[saintsfan]

I guess thats why I didnt see very much,I basically started at the X and swam back towards the cove then back to X,sunday I anchored in between the X and the old pier and swam to the spot marked X but vis got bad on the second dive after about 20min around 2:00 so I couldnt explore anymore.now I have a better Idea where to start. thanks

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Phil,
Interesting about your attempt at steps. As a matter of fact I was thinking something similar with regards to making the exit at the cove easier on the feet. Climbing over those pebbles/rocks is a pain. I've been trying to think of something we could lay down over the pebbles to make an nice path to the water. Haven't come up with anything yet which would stand up to the surf during high tide. Maybe it's as easy as moving them out of the way to expose sand underneath. Or maybe get a few bags of Quickset, pour it over the rocks at low tide, and spray some water on it.

Now THAT I have thought about! There's one spot in front of the moss covered rock on the west side of the cove that has a muddy bottom with few rocks that you can walk right in/out. It's about five feet wide and will likely change the next time we we get high surf.
It's kind of a moot point now until the construction is finished, hopefully early next year. I'm keeping my hopes up for an escalator where the old road is and a long pier out to Buchanan's Reef where we can just make a giant stride into the deeper reefs.

 

[scottfiji]

Phil,
The few times I've dove Marineland, we took off from the spot marked X in the attached image. There was also talk of taking off at the spot marked O, but surf was too nasty over there. Assuming conditions allow, do you normally take off at O and head towards the pebble beach/cove to exit?

Jim,
I prefer to enter at point O and exit at point O.

I'm entered at point X before, but I've found it is actually more dangerous than at point O. It always looks calmer, but the surge at point O is always deceptively much stronger, imho.

since the reef stretches from point O to point X, either entry spot puts you in a good position.

Scott

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I forgot to mention that. My ex-wife tried to exit at the X before and got her face smashed into a rock. All she saw were white bubbles. She protected her Nikonos V, but broke the glass in her mask. I'm fairly adventerous, but I kinda like walking in and out of the water.

 

[hermosadive]

I thought I added this to my last post, but I guess I must have not hit submit. Here's a Marineland photo with some rough heading. It might help you if you've never dove there before.

 

[scottfiji]

Thanks Roland, I like that map alot.

Scott