We departed Hydrospace aboard Island Diver at 0630 for the four hour ride to the Mica. Seas were delightfully calm, with scattered showers on the way, but no rain at the Mica itself. Enroute, one of the LORAN stations took a hit and went down, and as the Island Diver didn't have an operable GPS (bet they do now!), we began a search with a single LORAN line and the depth gauge - as the Gulf is sloping very gently in the area, it took awhile to find the Mica and get tied in.
Hit the water a bit after 11; visibility about 40-60 feet - not as good as it had been off Pensacola the week before but pretty nice. We descended through a virtual layer of barracuda, stacked like cordwood about 20' - some of 'em big old boys, too... to the deck at 70' - and the thermocline, water temp dropping from a balmy 80 to a bracing 67. A slight current running bow to stern.
There's less of her left now than last year - probably no more than 60-80 feet of deck near the stern supported by a hull getting paper thin. Still, the spare prop is topside and quite impressive. Dropping off the aft edge of the remaining hull, I drifted on down to the three huge boilers, the main shaft and the rudder post - an area heavily damaged during salvage of the solid brass prop (now on display outside Captain Anderson's restaurant in Panama City). I was looking for a little meat, and shot a reasonably nice snapper to take with me for supper the following evening at Vortex - clipped him off to the anchor line and explored the rubble field for a bit before working my way up to the deck again. I was gratified to see at least six Jewfish ranging from a baby (probably only 40-50 pounds) up to a five footer that probably topped 300. Last year I didn't see any.
Back up the line, I had a wee bit of concern bringing my snapper through the 'cuda mob, but they just ignored me.
Total dive time 45 minutes; max depth 112' on EAN32.
After the unexpected thermocline - I'd been out of Perdido the previous weekend in 100' where the temp never got below 75 - I put on my little hooded vest under my 5 mil for the next dive.
Back in at 1350, the Lovely Young Kat & I spent the entire dive amongst the boilers and associated machinery, enjoying the myriad critters while trying to identify all the parts in the rubble. Kat spotted a reticulated Moray, an eel not very common and a nice find. A thoroughly enjoyable dive... Dive time 35 minutes, max 109' on EAN32.
While we were down Shannon, the boat captain, had fired up the grill on the stern of Island Diver, and had steaks ready to go on as we surfaced - by the time we'd changed tanks and gotten out of wetsuits, the rare ones were coming off. We'd brought baked potatoes, salad, fruit, bread, all the fixin's & trimmin's, and enjoyed a delightful cookout before starting the trip back to Panama City.
On the way back in, we stopped at Bridge Span 11 (the old Hathaway bridge had 14 spans which were sunk as artifical reefs when it was replaced - each is about 180' long with cantilevered framing rising about 35' above the old roadbed) for a third dive. The fish life here was abundant and delightful... 37 minutes, max 105' on EAN32.
As we headed into the sunset towards Panama City, a monster storm was breaking up in the west; the resulting panoply of color and light and cloud as the sun set was absolutely spectacular, and a fitting end to another marvelous wondrous awesome terrific fun delightful diving day in the Gulf of Mexico.
Rick
Hit the water a bit after 11; visibility about 40-60 feet - not as good as it had been off Pensacola the week before but pretty nice. We descended through a virtual layer of barracuda, stacked like cordwood about 20' - some of 'em big old boys, too... to the deck at 70' - and the thermocline, water temp dropping from a balmy 80 to a bracing 67. A slight current running bow to stern.
There's less of her left now than last year - probably no more than 60-80 feet of deck near the stern supported by a hull getting paper thin. Still, the spare prop is topside and quite impressive. Dropping off the aft edge of the remaining hull, I drifted on down to the three huge boilers, the main shaft and the rudder post - an area heavily damaged during salvage of the solid brass prop (now on display outside Captain Anderson's restaurant in Panama City). I was looking for a little meat, and shot a reasonably nice snapper to take with me for supper the following evening at Vortex - clipped him off to the anchor line and explored the rubble field for a bit before working my way up to the deck again. I was gratified to see at least six Jewfish ranging from a baby (probably only 40-50 pounds) up to a five footer that probably topped 300. Last year I didn't see any.
Back up the line, I had a wee bit of concern bringing my snapper through the 'cuda mob, but they just ignored me.
Total dive time 45 minutes; max depth 112' on EAN32.
After the unexpected thermocline - I'd been out of Perdido the previous weekend in 100' where the temp never got below 75 - I put on my little hooded vest under my 5 mil for the next dive.
Back in at 1350, the Lovely Young Kat & I spent the entire dive amongst the boilers and associated machinery, enjoying the myriad critters while trying to identify all the parts in the rubble. Kat spotted a reticulated Moray, an eel not very common and a nice find. A thoroughly enjoyable dive... Dive time 35 minutes, max 109' on EAN32.
While we were down Shannon, the boat captain, had fired up the grill on the stern of Island Diver, and had steaks ready to go on as we surfaced - by the time we'd changed tanks and gotten out of wetsuits, the rare ones were coming off. We'd brought baked potatoes, salad, fruit, bread, all the fixin's & trimmin's, and enjoyed a delightful cookout before starting the trip back to Panama City.
On the way back in, we stopped at Bridge Span 11 (the old Hathaway bridge had 14 spans which were sunk as artifical reefs when it was replaced - each is about 180' long with cantilevered framing rising about 35' above the old roadbed) for a third dive. The fish life here was abundant and delightful... 37 minutes, max 105' on EAN32.
As we headed into the sunset towards Panama City, a monster storm was breaking up in the west; the resulting panoply of color and light and cloud as the sun set was absolutely spectacular, and a fitting end to another marvelous wondrous awesome terrific fun delightful diving day in the Gulf of Mexico.
Rick
