paulwall
Contributor
Well, my buddy backed out on the trip 2 weeks ago, so there was a last minute substitution...
Left my house at 4:15am for the 90 minute drive down to Venice. Forecast called for partly cloudy skies, scattered showers and 1-2ft seas. Boat was due to depart at 7am, and would be full with 6 divers plus one dive shop rep (who was basically just a 7th diver...).
Boat was a 36ft fishing boat called "Fish-n-Chips" which showed up about 6:20 and we loaded gear for the trip. 3 tanks each plus food, water, and safety equipment for 7 divers. The boat has a wide beam and promised to be stable in the unpredictable gulf.
We pulled away from the dock prior to our 7am departure time...
In spite of the drone of the twin Diesels, I stretched out on top of the port engine box and fell asleep for much of the 2.5 hour trip out to the rigs in 200-300 ft of water.
Dive one - average sized rig, unknown designation. Lacking a "rig hook", the LDS rep lassoed a ladder of the rig with a line and we were tied off about 50-60 ft from the rig. With almost no surface current, some wind-driven waves kept the boat safely away from the structure. I was second or third over the rail (the long-neglected backwards roll-off) and swam towards the structure before descending through the murk (which was suprisingly not that murky-about 15 ft of vis). Dropped down to 15 ft, out of the surface surge and into a ~1 kt. current running through the rig from my back. Got adjusted and tried to find a spot out of the current. The rig itself was beautiful. It had little tube worms covering the structure between 30 and 52 ft in exactly the color of a field of daisies. Extremely interesting, and several hundred blennies cavorted in the field. In fact, you didn't know what they were until you got close. Visibility was about 80ft at depth. You could see clear across the rig. Spadefish, snapper and HUGE barracuda were all over the rig from 80' to 15'. There were angels and rock beauties near the jackets and stinging hydroids covered the upper 30' of the jackets.
I took a few pics before I put the camera away to manage the relentless current. Seas: Gentle 1-2' light wind swell. Surface temp: 88*, air temp 95*, small thermocline/halocline at 15'. Max depth 65', average depth 59', bottom time: 35mins. BOB with 750 p.s.i. Steel 95.
Dive 2: 311 rig. Similar topside conditions, current was a little stronger. Left the camera behind on this dive. Encrusting materials not nearly as colorful as the first rig. Large amberjack, schooling red snapper, spadefish, sheepshead. I spotted a 6' shark off the side of the rig and about 50' below me. Could not identify species from above. Large Lemonfish (lingcod, ling) near the surface as we entered the rig. Current up to ~1-1.5 kts. Visibility still 100'+ there was another murk layer coming up below 70'. Max depth 50', dive time 25mins, BOB with 750 p.s.i. Al80.
Dive 3: Wind picked up as we could see Storms off to the South, seas still 1-2', with occasional 2-3. Light surface current from Starboard, but not strong enough to fight the wind's push from the bow (IOW, you didn't notice it until the surface swim). Very noticeable near the structure. Dropped down with some difficulty removing air from my BC in the chop. got caught in a little alcove during the surge, but managed to extricate myself quickly with no harm. Current was from the back in excess of 2kt. I was a little worn from the surface swim and 2 prior dives and found a nice hanging spot at 30'. When I tried to drop lower, I had a slight ear squeeze which I could not overcome, so the entire dive was spent hanging on an abandoned stringer at 30' and looking around. Entirely different group of fish- schooling semi-tropicals and barracuda were resident. Very fishy place, lots of small non-game fish and stony encrustation. Facing the tiring swim back at the boat, I departed after only 20mins and did a shamu-style entry (more on that later) exhausted onto the boat. 1500 p.s.i BOB.
Ok. I said this was a fishing boat. So, they don't have things like tank racks - no problem. They don't have a head - no problem. They don't have a swim platform - no problem. Their ladder is a hook-style swimming pool ladder that doesn't really attach to the boat - a not insurmountable problem. Some of the divers shimmied up that ladder like it was welded to the boat. Others (like me) had the ladder constantly trying to slide over the side. I ended up using the chine on the side of the boat as a step, grabbed the lip of the gunwale to hoist myself to where my chest was even with the rail, then reached over and grabbed under the gunwale and hosted the rest of my body over - foregoing the treacherous ladder. On the third dive, I never stood up or crawled, just slid over the rail to the deck like a wounded tuna and unsnapped the shoulder buckles of my BC. Then I stood up and stowed my gear.
I slept on the fantail on the way back to port. Then the 90 minute drive back to my house.
I enjoyed my day, it's something I'd do again (in a few years). Call me a "weekend warrior", but this was an awful lot of work for the payoff. I'd take Boca's drift dives in a heartbeat over going again. Maybe I'm spoiled and need more of these types of challenges....
Left my house at 4:15am for the 90 minute drive down to Venice. Forecast called for partly cloudy skies, scattered showers and 1-2ft seas. Boat was due to depart at 7am, and would be full with 6 divers plus one dive shop rep (who was basically just a 7th diver...).
Boat was a 36ft fishing boat called "Fish-n-Chips" which showed up about 6:20 and we loaded gear for the trip. 3 tanks each plus food, water, and safety equipment for 7 divers. The boat has a wide beam and promised to be stable in the unpredictable gulf.
We pulled away from the dock prior to our 7am departure time...
In spite of the drone of the twin Diesels, I stretched out on top of the port engine box and fell asleep for much of the 2.5 hour trip out to the rigs in 200-300 ft of water.
Dive one - average sized rig, unknown designation. Lacking a "rig hook", the LDS rep lassoed a ladder of the rig with a line and we were tied off about 50-60 ft from the rig. With almost no surface current, some wind-driven waves kept the boat safely away from the structure. I was second or third over the rail (the long-neglected backwards roll-off) and swam towards the structure before descending through the murk (which was suprisingly not that murky-about 15 ft of vis). Dropped down to 15 ft, out of the surface surge and into a ~1 kt. current running through the rig from my back. Got adjusted and tried to find a spot out of the current. The rig itself was beautiful. It had little tube worms covering the structure between 30 and 52 ft in exactly the color of a field of daisies. Extremely interesting, and several hundred blennies cavorted in the field. In fact, you didn't know what they were until you got close. Visibility was about 80ft at depth. You could see clear across the rig. Spadefish, snapper and HUGE barracuda were all over the rig from 80' to 15'. There were angels and rock beauties near the jackets and stinging hydroids covered the upper 30' of the jackets.
I took a few pics before I put the camera away to manage the relentless current. Seas: Gentle 1-2' light wind swell. Surface temp: 88*, air temp 95*, small thermocline/halocline at 15'. Max depth 65', average depth 59', bottom time: 35mins. BOB with 750 p.s.i. Steel 95.
Dive 2: 311 rig. Similar topside conditions, current was a little stronger. Left the camera behind on this dive. Encrusting materials not nearly as colorful as the first rig. Large amberjack, schooling red snapper, spadefish, sheepshead. I spotted a 6' shark off the side of the rig and about 50' below me. Could not identify species from above. Large Lemonfish (lingcod, ling) near the surface as we entered the rig. Current up to ~1-1.5 kts. Visibility still 100'+ there was another murk layer coming up below 70'. Max depth 50', dive time 25mins, BOB with 750 p.s.i. Al80.
Dive 3: Wind picked up as we could see Storms off to the South, seas still 1-2', with occasional 2-3. Light surface current from Starboard, but not strong enough to fight the wind's push from the bow (IOW, you didn't notice it until the surface swim). Very noticeable near the structure. Dropped down with some difficulty removing air from my BC in the chop. got caught in a little alcove during the surge, but managed to extricate myself quickly with no harm. Current was from the back in excess of 2kt. I was a little worn from the surface swim and 2 prior dives and found a nice hanging spot at 30'. When I tried to drop lower, I had a slight ear squeeze which I could not overcome, so the entire dive was spent hanging on an abandoned stringer at 30' and looking around. Entirely different group of fish- schooling semi-tropicals and barracuda were resident. Very fishy place, lots of small non-game fish and stony encrustation. Facing the tiring swim back at the boat, I departed after only 20mins and did a shamu-style entry (more on that later) exhausted onto the boat. 1500 p.s.i BOB.
Ok. I said this was a fishing boat. So, they don't have things like tank racks - no problem. They don't have a head - no problem. They don't have a swim platform - no problem. Their ladder is a hook-style swimming pool ladder that doesn't really attach to the boat - a not insurmountable problem. Some of the divers shimmied up that ladder like it was welded to the boat. Others (like me) had the ladder constantly trying to slide over the side. I ended up using the chine on the side of the boat as a step, grabbed the lip of the gunwale to hoist myself to where my chest was even with the rail, then reached over and grabbed under the gunwale and hosted the rest of my body over - foregoing the treacherous ladder. On the third dive, I never stood up or crawled, just slid over the rail to the deck like a wounded tuna and unsnapped the shoulder buckles of my BC. Then I stood up and stowed my gear.
I slept on the fantail on the way back to port. Then the 90 minute drive back to my house.
I enjoyed my day, it's something I'd do again (in a few years). Call me a "weekend warrior", but this was an awful lot of work for the payoff. I'd take Boca's drift dives in a heartbeat over going again. Maybe I'm spoiled and need more of these types of challenges....
