Trip Report - Panama City 10/25/2002

[Jarhead]

Well, this trip started out as a 12-hour Empire Mica trip with 13 divers. At the payment deadline, 13 turned into 8 divers. Ten divers are required for Hydrospace to make an Empire Mica Trip, So our 12-hour trip turned into a 6-hour offshore trip. By the time we arrived in Panama City Beach, 8 have turned into 4 divers. So our 6-hour trip turned into a 4-hour trip. Then we had another "no-show" at the dock. So now 4 has turned into 3 divers.

10/25/2002 Hydrospace has the M/V Island Diver full already, so they put us on the M/V Reef Runner (48-ft. converted Crew boat). We are joined by Mary from Indiana and a gentleman from Tennessee. We'll call him Ted (because I can't remember his name). Ted is paying a Hydrospace Divemaster (Dino) to dive with him because these will be his first ocean dives. Mary is an experienced (but cold-natured) diver planning a trip to Truk next spring. Our group consists of Kirby, David and myself. Kirby is our LDS owner and instructor. David and I went through AOW class together. David is doing his Nitrox certification dives this trip. Kirby and I are diving Nitrox also.
As we put out to sea, we are suprized that they are calm and relatively flat. We've had a constant 8-10 naut. wind from the North since yesterday. But it disappeared this morning. Hurrah! Reports are that the visibility is horrible. We’re hoping that dive sites further from shore may have better vis.

Dive #1
Quonset Hut
M/V Reef Runner
Captain – Jeff
1st Mate/DM – Wyatt

No one on the boat has dove this site before. Jeff has Loran numbers for it but not GPS. He explained that it might take a few minutes to find it once we get there. It didn’t. He was “right-on-the-money”. Wyatt went down and tied-off on the roof of the Quonset Hut. His report was 10 ft. is. slight current; 73 ft. to the tie-off point and 95 ft. to the sand. Kirby, myself and David were the first to hit the water. We met at the mooring point. Kirby was having trouble with his mask flooding. Turns out that he had not trimmed his mustache lately. After equipment and buddy checks, we moved down the side to the sand. Monofilament was everywhere! This must be a popular fishing spot. I recover several egg-shaped 1 pound weights and a flagless dive float with about 100ft of 3/8” nylon line. Because of the overcast skies and murkiness on the bottom, we moved back to the mooring line. We then moved along the ridge of the hut to the end. On the way, we came across a 5-6ft Barracuda. I believe I now know a little of how Jonah felt. We reached the edge and dropped over for a look, but it was black as pitch in there. It’s supposed to be a 50ft swim through, but our lights didn’t penetrate but about 8-10ft and there was NO light from the other side. Let me draw the picture a little better. The opening is roughly 30ft tall and 40ft wide and 50ft through to the other side. Vis is 10ft, so from the top-center, I can’t see the bottom. The “walls” slope off into the murk to either side and I can’t see light through from the other side. There’s no way I was swimming through there. David and Kirby feel the same way. So we swim to the other end and follow wall down to one side. The current has dug a hole in the sand against the hut here. When checking my equipment, I notice here that my computer has the depth here at 101fsw. Kewl! I point this out to David and we each have a new deepest dive. David is now down to 1200psi, so head back to the mooring point. From here we do a slow ascent (15fpm) to our 3-minute safety stop and then reboarded the boat. I’m back on the boat with 900 psi. Because of the murk, I didn’t take any pictures on this dive.

Max. Depth: 101fsw
Avg. Depth: 73fsw
Bottom Time: 29 minutes
Mix: 33.1% Nitrox

After Wyatt unhooked us we moved to the Black Bart. Surface Interval was 1 hour. The Black Bart is a 175ft. former oil-field boat sank as part of the artificial reef program in 1993 and named after Capt. Charles “Black Bart” Bartholomew, former Commanding Officer of the Navy experimental Dive Unit stationed at the Navy Coastal Systems Station.

Dive #2
Black Bart
M/V Reef Runner
Captain – Jeff
1st Mate/DM – Wyatt

After tying-off to the wheelhouse, Wyatt reports that the vis is 20-30ft with only a slight current. Our trio hit the water (after equipment and buddy checks) in the same order as before. We meet and recheck at the mooring point. We move to the bow and drop near the sand to see what big fish are hanging out there. Moving aft long the port side past the wheelhouse, we check out the huge windows that face aft on the main deck level. Kirby decides that it’s clean enough for us to do a simple penetration. Kirby, David and I slide in, cross the port-side room, pass the head, turn right behind the ladder up to the wheelhouse, cross the starboard-side room and out the starboard big window. This may not seem like a big deal to most of you but this was the first wreck penetration for David and I. I want to penetrate up the ladder to the wheelhouse, but I don’t know what the inside of the wheelhouse looks like. After going around the outside and looking, I’m glad I didn’t do it. There is a lot of cable and crap hanging from the wheelhouse roof. That can wait for another day. Same with the engine room, etc. I did take a few pictures this dive and will post them once they’re developed. After a slow ascent and safety stop, we reboarded the boat.

Max. Depth: 84fsw
Avg. Depth: 56fsw
Bottom Time: 35 minutes
Mix: 33.1% Nitrox

PS: While shopping, we found a 6-pack that will do a 3-tank Empire Mica Trip with all three dives on the Mica.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Thanks for the report, Jarhead.
We're headed down to Hydrospace Sat 2-8 and Sunday 11-3; Vortex Friday and Sat AM before that.
Will report when we return.
Rick

 

[Jarhead]

We stayed at the St. Andrews State Park Campground Thursday and Friday nights. The wind kept the misquitos off of us but was rather cool, too. Definitely needed our jackets. I ate at Billy's Oyster Bar for dinner (Steamed Shrimp). Gary?( tall guy, short black hair) of Hydrosapce and his wife bought Billy's last month.
Kirby grilled hamburgers when he got there. And David didn't get there until 11:30pm , so he ate on the road. We woke Friday morning to no wind at all. The boats going out the lagoon woke me up earlier than I'd planned, but that's OK. I like to listen to them.The ground is harder than it used to be (or I'm getting older). Kirby's camper is in the back of his truck (a slide-in?), so we left it at the campground. David locked his keys in his trunk. They weren't visible from outside, we left it for after the dives. We ate breakfast at Coram's on Thomas Drive. I always feel better if I eat breakfast before a dive trip. I've had to learn that the hard way.
After the boat dive, we went back to the campground and broken into David's truck. You can tell we're honest. In took 35 minutes to get into his truck. After showers , we went to Billy's Oyster Bar to eat. David left from Billy's to try and catch the Smiths vs Enterprise High school football game in Enterprise. His daughter goes to Smiths. Kirby and I went to Divers Den across from Capt. Anderson's. 'Found out that it has changed hands. It is now owned by Debi Haines. Super-nice Lady. The one in Dothan is up for sell, too. Then we went back to the campsite to drink coffee, talk scuba and watch the sun go down. The breeze picked up just enough to keep the misquitos off of us.