In this article I want to share an experience that every dive instructor hopes they never have to go through.

Let’s start at the beginning: It was a beautiful morning on Saturday at the Jetties in St. Andrew’s Park in Panama City Beach. The wind was blowing about 15 knots from the east and had a light chop in the swim area. The water was tannic from all the rain runoff in the area. The water was comfortable to be in so we had the briefing then suited up and got in the water to do the scuba skills they learned in the pool the previous week. They students did extremely well with all the skills on both dives. We disassembled our gear and then parted ways until Sunday at the dive shop to do the usual paperwork before getting on the dive boat.

Sunday morning we met at the dive shop and signed the usual paperwork then headed to the marina to board the dive boat.

I made the introductions to the captain and dive master then we proceeded to load the tanks and our gear on to the boat. The wind had died down to a very light breeze, after a discussion with the captain as to the location of the first of two dives we decided to go to the Black Bart which is in about 75 feet of water and about 4-5 miles offshore. It was a fairly smooth ride to the dive site. The dive master rolled over the side with the anchor chain to tie the boat to the wreck. When he returned to the boat he briefed us on the visibility and potential current around the wreck as well as sea life and any jellyfish in the area we would be diving.

He said he was tied off amidships and no current and 40 foot visibility. There were some jellyfish but the most interesting jellyfish is the pink horse maims jelly. That jellyfish is a very rare one to see in these waters because they mainly stay much farther out in the Gulf.

The students descended to the cargo deck at about 60-65 feet along with my assistant instructor. I came down last and swam around to make sure the students were doing well. After about 30 minutes the first two students made their way back up to the 15-20 foot safety stop, and then the next set of students did the same. I still had plenty of gas in my cylinder as well as about 35 minutes on my computer so I decided to head to the port side of the wreck to find that jellyfish. At about 72 feet there she was, so I got as close as I dared, but close enough to see the 4-5 foot maim with the stinging tentacles flowing in the water. She was a very beautiful animal and very graceful unlike the moon jellies that seem to flop around trying to swim. I was in awe of watching her slowly making her way around the wreck.

I looked at my computer and I still had 1600lbs of pressure but my time was getting close so I decided to make my way to the anchor line and proceeded to my 15 foot safety stop for 3-5 minutes. As usual I was the last one on the boat but after watching that beautiful jellyfish it was all worth it.

As the title stated the incident happened on the second dive and for that you will have to wait until next week’s article. Until then blow bubbles.