Upper Fl coast Destin area

[Bladebreaker65]

Looking to make some road trip weekend runs. Driving from Texas to Alabama thru Destin area. Any info / locations on Shore dive or close to Shore dive. Will be towing an 18 ft boat with us. any cool structures or areas to chk out other than the normal listed wrecks.

 

[Bladebreaker65]

Please !!

 

[sportxlh]

see Skeptic14's posts in this thread....

Panhandle Prices???

 

[Bladebreaker65]

Great info for sure. Still wondering if there are any spots inside of that 3 mi mark, to take my boat to without a dive charter.

 

[red_tide]

Go to this website Destin FL GPS Fishing Numbers Coordinates Artificial Reefs wrecks and look for the Destin GPS Fishing Numbers map. There are some numbers within a few miles of the pass including the urchin reef and sand flea reef. Both are groups of concrete reef pyramids that are in 50’ – 60’ fsw. I also seem to remember some bridge rubble spots and maybe a tank or two in the same area.

Just keep in mind that close to the pass can be decent to downright horrible on visibility. When we have lots of rain, runoff from the rivers and bays can ruin visibility for more than a few miles offshore.

 

[Yancey M]

If you have a phone that supports the Navoincs app download it. It's great for finding spots and just handy to have for boating in general. I've found some great spots in NEFL to dive using it.

And as far a vis goes high tide is going to be you friend. We have the same problem over here and always try to be in the water about 60-30 minutes before full high.

 

[nolatom]

this is probably among "the normal listed wrecks", but may be good fun, and close in:

Battleship USS Massachusetts (can be cloudy sandy vis, but if it's clear, it's a good dive)
Tex Edwards barge
Joe Patti Barge--ha ha fun with cool stuff welded onto a sunken deck barge, there's a "bar" you can sit at

This list from MBT Divers (good local shop btw) may help you. To stay close in, you want a site whose latitude is 30 degrees, 16 minutes, or greater. Use your GPS (your iphone utilities should have one) and check the lat/long for something not too far from the breakwaters:

Pensacola Scuba Diving Sites and GPS Coordinates

And here's NOAA chart 11383, just for orientation and measuring distances/coordinates, you'll see the MASSACHUSETTS shown right by the entrance channel:

Chart 11383

 

[Bladebreaker65]

Thank you Red Tide that is exactly what I was looking for.
I would love to hear any other ideas / warnings.

Yancy M I have the navoincs app already but I like entering in numbers into my garmin on the boat better (also have a spare power cord to run my garmin in the truck.
Thanks everyone.

 

[Midwesterndvr]

Pensacola Florida home of the blue angels. wrecks uss massachusetts, uss oriskany aircraft carrier. Civil war forts Pickens, barrancas and Mcree( if you have a boat). Some reefs always wanted to stay out by fort Pickens but never had the chance.

 

[flyingDiver75]

Out of Destin Pass, the most popular close-in dive sites are:
-- Destin Bridge Rubble (there are 3 main 'stacks' within a few hundred yards of each other)
-- Air Force Barge (about 400yds north of the bridge rubble)
-- Miss Louis Tug - this is a 6ish mile run east from the pass, but in fairly shallow water (~40ft) near shore

All of the above should be on most GPS numbers lists for Destin.