JP11283
Contributor
I met up with my sister Jenn (xeptra on scubaboard), and three other members from the Seminole Scuba Club at 8 Friday morning to dive. We were originally considering diving Troy Springs but after hearing that they close the park when the river levels get high after high amounts of rainfall, we decided to play it safe and headed to Vortex.
We arrived there around 9:30 AM and were met with very overcast skies and 66 degree temps along with a strong breeze. It wasn't the nicest day weather wise but we made the best of it. I was surprised at the number of people there on a Friday morning. A large group from Baton Rouge was there and the Underwater Crime Scene Investigation group from FSU's Panama City campus showed up to train.
We got geared up, putting our wetsuits on first for a change to keep warm! We headed down and spent about 37 minutes in the water for our first dive. The visibility was around 30' for this dive. We went down to the basin just outside the cavern opening at 45' and explored the spring in general.
During our surface interval, we headed over to the swings and zip line for some fun. I made a complete fool of myself on the zip line. The line got wrapped around itself, so when I pushed off the platform, it didn't move and I was left hanging there. There are pictures somewhere.
After our SI, we changed tanks and headed back in under overcast skies. One of the guys with us brought his underwater camera along. We spent most of this dive getting various pictures of the spring and each other. We brought along a can of cheese-wiz and fed the fish, which resulted in them following us around for the rest of the dive. After 43 minutes under water we headed up, did our safety stop with an audience of fish staring at us, and then surfaced under cloudless skies! The change in weather was amazing while we were down!
At this point, we were all pretty hungry, so we packed up and headed over to 4C BBQ for some grub. Even though the weather wasn't the best, it was still a good day of diving. Hopefully I'll get a hold of some of the pictures and post them up!
We arrived there around 9:30 AM and were met with very overcast skies and 66 degree temps along with a strong breeze. It wasn't the nicest day weather wise but we made the best of it. I was surprised at the number of people there on a Friday morning. A large group from Baton Rouge was there and the Underwater Crime Scene Investigation group from FSU's Panama City campus showed up to train.
We got geared up, putting our wetsuits on first for a change to keep warm! We headed down and spent about 37 minutes in the water for our first dive. The visibility was around 30' for this dive. We went down to the basin just outside the cavern opening at 45' and explored the spring in general.
During our surface interval, we headed over to the swings and zip line for some fun. I made a complete fool of myself on the zip line. The line got wrapped around itself, so when I pushed off the platform, it didn't move and I was left hanging there. There are pictures somewhere.
After our SI, we changed tanks and headed back in under overcast skies. One of the guys with us brought his underwater camera along. We spent most of this dive getting various pictures of the spring and each other. We brought along a can of cheese-wiz and fed the fish, which resulted in them following us around for the rest of the dive. After 43 minutes under water we headed up, did our safety stop with an audience of fish staring at us, and then surfaced under cloudless skies! The change in weather was amazing while we were down!
At this point, we were all pretty hungry, so we packed up and headed over to 4C BBQ for some grub. Even though the weather wasn't the best, it was still a good day of diving. Hopefully I'll get a hold of some of the pictures and post them up!
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