SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
I headed down to Orange Beach Saturday and met up with Mike_S at the condo he's staying in for a week. We loaded up into the wagon and headed over to Bahama Bob's to check out the water over there. The gulf was pretty calm, just some ankle snappers zipping along the beach with a slight east wind giving some sideshore current. The water looked blue, but milky. We walked back to the parking lot and DogHouseDiver met up with us and loaded into the wagon as well. The three of us packed into Vdub, headed into West Beach and over the dunes to the beach adjascent to where the paddlewheeler was overtaken by surf and sunk between sandbars in the early 1900s.
The water was much cleaner here, with a few patches of seaweed here and there. The water was still warm though. I forgot my computer, so didn't get an accurate temperature, but I dove in my trunks comfortably. Once in the water, we dropped below the surface and started heading south-ish. After a bit, we hit a large bed of seaweed covering the bottom, couldn't even see the sand. After a few surfacing, and some zigzagging along the bottom, we followed our ears to the West Beach Paddlewheeler. The relief was pretty much the same as the last time I had been there. Saw a few stingrays, school of spades, couple bluefish, mangrove snapper(one or two legal - lots of smalls), pigfish, sgt majors, damsels, blennies, wrasse, and even a few stone crab. We circled the wreck a few times and took note of the paddlehub still standing on the axel running across the ship. The A-frames holding the axel in place are still there, and the boilers make up the majority of the remaining relief at the moment. Look around slowly and it can still make a fun little dive. We cruised around for a dive lasting about 40 minutes before heading back to the beach. DHD or Mike_S will have to give specifics on the dive(my computer sat at the house).
We headed over to the beached wreck on Fort Morgan, which has been mostly covered in sand to keep the public from hurting themselves on it. There was still some wreck visible, so it was a neat little stop. Afterwards, we hit up Bahama Bobs again, to catch some Louisiana divers exitting after a good dive. They said visibility was around 5-8', which is fine, but relief was still the same 2' for a couple stretches of 10-15' of length. So we declined diving again. Instead, we hit Bahama Bobs for a couple drinks and some crawfish tails before calling it a day.
Great way to waste the day away, the weather was great and the water was nice.
The water was much cleaner here, with a few patches of seaweed here and there. The water was still warm though. I forgot my computer, so didn't get an accurate temperature, but I dove in my trunks comfortably. Once in the water, we dropped below the surface and started heading south-ish. After a bit, we hit a large bed of seaweed covering the bottom, couldn't even see the sand. After a few surfacing, and some zigzagging along the bottom, we followed our ears to the West Beach Paddlewheeler. The relief was pretty much the same as the last time I had been there. Saw a few stingrays, school of spades, couple bluefish, mangrove snapper(one or two legal - lots of smalls), pigfish, sgt majors, damsels, blennies, wrasse, and even a few stone crab. We circled the wreck a few times and took note of the paddlehub still standing on the axel running across the ship. The A-frames holding the axel in place are still there, and the boilers make up the majority of the remaining relief at the moment. Look around slowly and it can still make a fun little dive. We cruised around for a dive lasting about 40 minutes before heading back to the beach. DHD or Mike_S will have to give specifics on the dive(my computer sat at the house).
We headed over to the beached wreck on Fort Morgan, which has been mostly covered in sand to keep the public from hurting themselves on it. There was still some wreck visible, so it was a neat little stop. Afterwards, we hit up Bahama Bobs again, to catch some Louisiana divers exitting after a good dive. They said visibility was around 5-8', which is fine, but relief was still the same 2' for a couple stretches of 10-15' of length. So we declined diving again. Instead, we hit Bahama Bobs for a couple drinks and some crawfish tails before calling it a day.
Great way to waste the day away, the weather was great and the water was nice.
