Favorite Dives

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  2016-06-25 United States Pensacola, FL
  Joe Patti Barge

  The visibility in the Gulf can range from horrible to around 80 feet. This dive was 45 feet depth and the first 20 feet of the dive had about 5 foot visibility. I was extremely happy that they had placed all of those lines around the boat and I could see nothing even though the dive depth was only 45 feet. I breath quite shallow while diving so I knew I would have plenty of air. I donned all my equipment as well as my computer and strapped my go Pro camera to me. It was a beautiful day though quite hot out and I was looking forward to getting into the water. I did not have a dive buddy obviously and then the dive guy didn't really care which was good for me. I splashed in and work my way around the boats surprised at the absence of visibility as I have never experienced that before. I made my way to the bow of the boat where the Anchorline was and then worked my way down the anchor line while equalizing. I am used to 80 foot dives in West Palm so having a 45 foot dive was quite surprising as I was on top of the barge it self in no time. The visibility, which was horrible at the first 20 feet, opened up and then I was able to see probably around 40 feet when I got to the barge. I could still not see the whole of the boat overhead as the visibility there was awful. Barry had told us that there were quite a few "bait" fish swimming around down there along with some larger predator fish. The baitfish were numbered in the thousands and we're only up you inches long. As Berry stated they were fascinating to watch as they darted around attempting to avoid the larger predator fish down there. They were congregated on the northwest side of the barge itself and there were so many that they created the shadow. Their silver bodies reflected any like that hit them which made it even more fascinating. He darted in and out everywhere and even got within 6 inches of me before they swam away quickly. It was quite amazing how they all seem to swim in unison. Every once in a while you would see a 16 inch to 2 foot predator fish come swimming by to work the baitfish. Barry had asked us to only be down there for 45 minutes and that I had just below 1000 PSI on my submersible pressure gauge. I started making my way up at about just over 40 minutes. I found it the fish to be the most interesting site at that location. The barge itself was interesting as the top of it was populated with artwork and advertisements. They had welded all sorts of pieces of artwork and even a steel replica of a bar from the Flora-Bama Bar. I worked my way up the Anchorline stopping at 15 feet to do my normal safety stop for three minutes. I was back up in the soupy area of the water where visibility was terrible but I didn't care as I was just sitting there listening to my bubbles. I always enjoy the safety stop as it feels very calm but you're just below the surface so you can somewhat see what's going on there. Another thing that was surprising to me was the strong change in temperature of the water right where the visibility got better at that thermocline. It seems like that soupy portion of water was keeping the heat from getting to the area below 20.

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  2014-04-15 British Virgin Islands Salt Island
  Rms Rhone

  Dove the mid and aft sections working our way around starting at the Mid Section. Water clarity was terrific. The mooring area was quite busy with many divers in the water there. We made our way around the mid section then out to the boilers and past the condenser block which was surrounded by a multitude of fish hiding on one side from the current. We then worked our way back to the remains of the aft section, passing the memorial plaque, continuing on to the stern with the exposed propeller. At that point Simone became cold so we ascended, stopping for our customary 15 ft safety stop. Excellent dive as usual with tons of fish and visual imagery.

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  2018-09-03 United States Santa Cruz Island, CA
  Cavern Point

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  2015-06-16 Australia Queensland
  Turtle Bay

  SECOND DIVE We had our required surface interval of an hour. Our 2nd dive briefing was on the boat at 1230p for a 1pm entry time. We would be diving Norman Reef again but the boat had moved to another location called “Turtle Bay.” We decided not to have a dive guide this time as the dives were quite simple and Lani, though a terrific person, didn’t bring much to the table in terms of pointing out sea life. I splashed in at 1:08pm with Louise. we hung around the bottom of the boat this time as Wally was there entertaining us. Wally, as explained in the dive briefing, was a large 5’ wrasse who was part fish and part puppy dog. He was thrilled when divers were in the water and loved having his lips massaged. You just needed to hold your hand up and wiggle your fingers and Wally would come and push his mouth into your hand. It was the most extraordinary sight to see. Louise and I continued our dive. She had purchased a GoPro 4 recently with a red filter and was doing a great job videoing the sea life. We were out of the water by 240p and I had a 40 minute bottom time with a max depth of 15 meters. We were trying to keep our profiles correct and dive shallower as the day went on. We got our stuff together and transferred to the “Ocean Quest” at 3pm which was an event in and of itself. Moving from one boat to another in the middle of the ocean is a risky event though the crew were quite adept at it and we were on our overnight boat in no time. We received our cabin assignment (2) and got organized for our overnight stay. We had two more dives today also.