West Beach Paddlewheeler 4-29-8 Dive Report

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Met up with cmufieldhockey at Bahama Bobs in hopes to dive the Paddlewheeler. We walked out to the water and found ankle-high rollers and clear looking waters. Sandersondive from Down Under was out there with his woman and we talked to them for a bit before loading up a single vehicle and heading West a bit.

After gearing up, we hit the 69F water and I tried to sniff out the wreck unsuccessfully. Ever since I switched to a wrist computer, I forget to throw a compass on when I need it(it was mounted on my console computer before, so I always had it in the past). After about 15 min of looking around, we ascended, did a quick surface swim and descended again before finding the wreck before too long. Bad news, everything but the top two feet of the boilers are covered in sand. This makes for a dive site about 12' x 12'. Visibility was an easy 8-10', so no problems there. The little wreckage out there did hold fish. Large schools of spades with a couple sheepshead mixed in and lots of pigfish could be found in numbers. Found one pufferfish and several blennies as well. Ended up shooting 3 flounder, while another pulled off(later to be claimed by cmufieldhockey). I also shot a sheepshead. Hit a max depth of 13', although the visible wreckage is at a max depth of 8', for a total dive time of 75 minutes.

Dunno when this one will uncover again, not much too it at all...

 

[Port Tack]

I guess she will stay well hidden now. I need to go the Whiskey and try for a few flounder.

 

[paulwall]

I guess there's nothing to see at the shrimpboat, then. Talk about right place, right time!

 

[ShagMan]

Wow, sorry to hear that. Ah well!

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I guess there's nothing to see at the shrimpboat, then. Talk about right place, right time!

I snorkeled to it late last year and the relief was similar to what the Paddlewheeler had yesterday. I checked my log and it had been a little over a year since I had dived the Paddlewheeler - yikes!

 

[cmufieldhockey8]

I am very bad at cleaning fish.

 

[paulwall]

I am very bad at cleaning fish.

Can't be worse than PHD (Fred)!

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I am very bad at cleaning fish.

LOL

Any easy thing to do with those flounder... scale em, spice em, batter em, and toss in the frying pan whole.

 

[GLENFWB]

You are right Mat, put some Zatarans fish fry on them and throw them in whole till they get nice and crispy....it is like eating friend soft shell crab....but with MUCH better meat!

LOL

Any easy thing to do with those flounder... scale em, spice em, batter em, and toss in the frying pan whole.

 

[cmufieldhockey8]

ewww whole fish! I got the flounder alright but the sheepshead was the last one and it was 11 pm by then. I tried and then said screw it- i put it in a ziplock bag with enough water that the entire fish is in a chunk of ice. I'll tackle that later.. maybe after I buy a better knife!