A couple of dive sites offshore in Panama City
By Rusty Miller
In this article I would like to cover a couple of dive sites off shore in Panama City Beach. Unless you are diving in a dry suit then you haven’t had the chance to go in the big water yet. Currently the water temperature in PCB is 59 degrees so that requires a dry suit or a semi-dry suit.
I got a report from a boat captain friend of mine that on January 30th there was a new reef that was sunk in 135 feet of water about 12-14 miles off shore of PCB. It is the 239ft artificial reef the cargo ship “Deep Stem.” Based on the sounding pictures that were sent to me it seems to have settled on the bottom upright. The cargo deck is probably at a depth of around 80 feet and the upper bridge looks to be a depth of 60 feet.
This dive is strictly for advanced certified or higher. I would not recommend using nitrox unless you can get mixed 26-28%. Remember nitrox is not for deep dives. You can use 32% as long as you don’t go below 130 feet, but because it is so tempting to go to the bottom to check out the whole boat I would stick with standard air.
I can’t wait for the water to warm up so I can take my dive masters to go dive it and then do a couple of advanced dive classes on it.
There’s not really any background on the ship but it will last longer than the fiberglass hulled El Derado that was in the same area. I was privileged enough when they sunk the El Derado right after one of the hurricanes. It was used as an offshore gambling boat in the Bahamas but was bought by a gazillionaire in PCB who was having it refitted for his personal boat.
Unfortunately, while it was dry-docked being retrofitted I believe it was Hurricane Michael that the storm surge floated the boat over the highway onto the Gulf Coast campus. When a large fiberglass boat gets set on its hull it will break the main spar and destroy any chance it has to be seaworthy.
It was a great dive until the upper frame work gave way and it collapsed on itself. Now it’s just a remnant of its former self and not a very good dive site anymore.
I really cant wait until the warmer water moves in to go diving in the water I love the most, the Gulf of Mexico.
Remember to keep making bubbles.
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-Russell Miller #59999
