Try Venice again?? 10/9?

[Virus]FSLR2[]

Man I would love to join, but I just found this thread, and it's a 4+ hour drive down. Anyway, I gotta finish cleaning up from the last of the storms. Still have an oak tree down in the back and it's screaming FIREWOOD at me. Haven't cut the grass in over 2 months because of all the mess in the yard.

I'm pondering Sunday though... Probably not.

Oh Well <Heavy sigh>

 

[ReefGuy]

I got 1

 

[SmokeAire]

It's sooooo early....yawn.........leaving here in about 45 minutes.........Colin, if you get there before I do and the conditions stink ie: thar be surfers there, give me a call (ya got my #)......zzzzzzzzz.......oh gotta open eyes......

 

[sylvester]

Folks I enjoyed meeting ya'll today and sharing part of the gulf with you. it took me till 230 to get here good thing I left a uniform and shaving kit at work or id have been late.

ô

 

[CBulla]

Hey buddy, it was great to meet you to! And Becky.. it was good to put the face with the name finally!

For the record, the vis degraded seriously between the first and second dive. It was good to get into the water again and search after some of those elusive shark chompers. After finding a suitable spot to make a hole I picked 85 teeth out before deciding that I was low enough on air to have justified my time there.

The second dive I ended up scrubbing doing anything serious as the vis had completely gone away. After finding I had gone from 14 to 20' and not having done much more than think I was hovering waiting for my dive buddy to show up through the murk, I decided to peek around. When I surfaced, I realized that I was 400 yards north and 100 yards west of my buddy, NovaFury, basically in front of the Public Beach. Surface wind was so strong that swimming to the flag and dropping down on him given up after attempting to do with no progress, I ended up doing a swim as best as I could to swim into the wind and parallel to the shore line. Some 20 minutes later I finally reached the shallows where I could walk down the shoreline to the entry point.... it was a long walk. The warning here is that drift took about 5 minutes - the amount of time I was waiting for my buddy to circle around to my last known position. After speaking to my buddy, he informed me that he had maintained the same position roughly the while time, but was kicking the entire time. I guess the storms changed things a little more than just a little superficially.

Chuck, Simon, Becky, Richard, and Brian - it was awesome to meet and dive today, a shame the vis went so much awry, but we got one good dive in anyway! And as always, the post dive comradery and chat was great to!

 

[simbrooks]

Sylvester - shame you split so early (i know you had to hussle to get to work), sorry we didnt see you down there, in fact at times there wasnt much to see We spent the best part of 50 mins wandering around on a search pattern trying to find something that resembled the clay beds - we found silty stuff, hard clay (broke up like boulder clay) and some clam beds before stumbling upon Chuck and getting into the spirit of things by finding some teeth. Again i am still trying to get a feel for where the clay is/has gone (buried) and that made the pickings slim (unless you hit a mine like Colin). Still had a good dive, 96 mins BTand that was only cos i had a short fill - my SAC continues to go down . The viz varied from about 8ft max (before we started any digging) to essentially 6-in or less when silting out by digging in the siltier, puffy clay that seemed to be to the west of the usual beds. Didnt get out for a second dive after Colin's report on it as the tide turned and some longshore current seemed to come along (mucking up viz) - got 36 teeth on that dive,. would have liked more though!! Have to try again in another few weeks.

BTW, was that likely to have been a rip current that caught you out Colin as i think more about it?

 

[CBulla]

Kris and I have discussed it twice since we left Venice and were thinking that may very may be the the culprit while under the water, on the surface I can without doubt say that it was the winds. Once I was close enough to shore, the buildings acted as a wind break for the wind and made the swim in considerably easier.

Fortunately I am not one to panic, though it did cause me some concern in that for the first time in a few months I had not had my safety sausage clipped to my BC. With the waves up and down as they were, you can imagine my concern was about boats not seeing me more than being take down the beach at a rapid pace. If I had continued the direction I was going, I could have caught a ride with the boat that was anchored off the public beach.. that is if I wasn't run down by the Donzi fishing boat or the Venice Police boat that drove through with complete disregard to the dive flag on the water.

 

[OrlandoRogue]

I had a great time on Saturday, despite my poor luck with the teeth. I am hoping it was just beginner's luck! Colin, it was great to finally meet you and Kris. I'll look forward to having you as neighbors soon! Good to meet Rick and Brian as well (and of course always exciting to dive with the cabana boys, Simon and Chuck). Now that I have had a taste of Venice diving, I can't wait to get back and increase my collection.

 

[scubafool]

Cabana boys, huh?! I see now how you treat us reel-men. Don't worry, the teeth really are there, except for in the areas that Colin has already been. They could be there also, but you will not be able to see them for at least two weeks. If you follow the trail he left while floating beachside, though.....

 

[SharkBaite]

LOL. Well it was great to see some of you again and to meet a few new ones, As colin said about the second dive. It left more to be desired as I was down there in 17' or soo of water I found myself having to hold onto the bottom. I.E. anything that was burried deep enough to hold me in one place while I waited for the sun to come back out so I could see. I did manage to pull 28 teeth and a rib bone. not bad, but not as good as the first time I dove there 192 teeth and two peices of meg WOOOHOOOO.

Can't wait till this weekend. gonna get the boat ready weather permiting.

Good to see ya guys can't wait till next time