Just got back from an amazing scuba trip to Vortex Springs in Ponce de’Leon, Florida on Friday, and Panama City, Florida on Saturday. Friday was fun, cold, but fun. Vortex springs is like a big pond with crystal clear water, the temperature is 68 degrees, and it goes down to about 100 hundred plus feet deep in some caves. Panama City was the highlight of the weekend. We got on the boat at 8:00 a.m. @ Hydrospace dive shop. We went out about 8 miles outside the jetties. I was packing in the Dramamine as precautionary. lol.. We first dove on a old bridge span (71 feet). Then we moved out a little further to a wreck called the Black Bart. This was probably my favorite dive spot out of the two different places we dove. The Black Bart was about 175ft long. It was pretty dang big. The boat tied in on the stern, so we swam down the port (left) side until we reached the wheel house ( the big room, where the steering wheel is) as we swam around front we made and interesting discovery. Someone had taken a fake skeleton (scuba steve..lol), put its feet in concrete filled five gallon buckets, stuck a old scuba regulator in its mouth and placed it looking out the front window. I caught my self a couple of time jumping and thinkin someone was there as we swam around several times. That dive was also about 71 feet. We then got back on the boat and headed back to dock. We unloaded the tanks to be refilled, went out grabbed lunch, and then headed back out at 2:00 . We went on back out to do our 3rd dive of the day on the Black Bart. We kinda took our time getting out there and hung around on the boat for a while to let it get a little dark. When we did get in the water this time, we were alone. Just me and my dive buddy, no instructor. (oooooooooahhhhhhhh…70+ feet and two newbs..lol) We went on down and eventually swam around to just off the port bow. On that side there was a pit on the side of the hull. We were able to get down to a whopping 83 feet. Horray our personal record…Lol.. we came back up… hung around on the boat for bout an hour then pulled back up at the bridge span again. This time it was dark outside. We were also by ourselves again. We went down and putted along, shining our flash lights in the cracks of the bridge to see the fish and crustaceans. We saw lots of fish over the course of these 4 dives. We saw angelfish, amber jack, and a couple barracudas. We headed back in to dock at about 7:00 p.m. I barely made it back to my condo, and showered before feeling very wierd. We went to the Boatyard to get something to eat, i can remember looking at the walls and seeing them moving. It was wierd but kewl… By the next morning it had subsided. Even though the trip had some interesting not necessarily bad side effects, i have to say it was one of the best times i have ever had. I am already trying to work my schedule around planning the next one.
l8er folks.
-Brandon ( the now scuba certified …lol) maybe i can put Brandon Fiquett SC next to my name now..lol
P.S. – I will try to find pics to post later..
links:
Adventure Sports Scuba * Great folks to get in touch with if your interested in Scuba Diving