Hello Wakulla
I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day weekend. I had another open water class that weekend. The first couple of dives were in the jetties in St. Andrew Park in Panama City Beach. I like to get all the skills done there so the students will be ready when we go to the big water offshore a few miles. I would advise anyone that wants to spend the day at the jetties to get to the park at 8 a.m. central so you can get a good parking spot. When I got there at 7:30 a.m. the line was already backed up to the road before the gate.
The class went good with the normal weighting issues going from a fresh water pool to saltwater. Once we got the buoyancy right we were ready for the class to demonstrate their skills under water. We made a couple of dives to get them done, afterwards we rinsed the gear in fresh water and loaded the vehicles.
We decided to go to my favorite restaurant “Dat Cajun Place” (shameless plug) on Thomas Drive. They have a bread pudding to die for.
The next day, Memorial Day, we met at the boat at 8 a.m. We got the gear and tanks on board then the Captain gave his welcome and safety briefing Then we got underway while the divemaster gave his briefing. It was about a 45 minute ride to the first dive site, the Red Sea.
Once the divemaster went down to tie up the anchor rope he came back on the boat to give us the conditions around the wreck. The visibility was 70-80 feet but there was a 3-5 knot current going bow to stern, there was a slight surface current of 2-3 knots and 1-2 foot swells.We jumped in the water and began the descent to the wreck. Pulling down to the anchor rope on the swim line you could see the wreck from a couple feet under water.
The dive went well and it was time to get back on the boat for our 1-hour surface interval. After discussing with the captain, we decided to move to one of the bridge spans in the area. After the surface interval we geared up and jumped in the water to make our way down to the span. The visibility was about 10 feet less but still had the same current.
My new divers swam around the span while I descended to the bottom of 70 feet. I saw a couple of starfish and lots of bait fish swimming around me.
At one point all the fish disappeared kind of like in finding Nemo, when I looked up and there was a 5-6 foot sandbar shark that was stopped nose-to-nose in front of me. We were both hovering about 6 feet off the bottom. It was only a couple minutes but it was fascinating to see it so close.
It was time for me to surface so I tapped it on the nose lightly with my knuckle and it left very quickly so that was my Shark Week moment.
Keep making bubbles.
Russell Miller
NAUI #59999
IANTD #224715