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  Comments:
Schweet broken up barge.
Another wonderful 'huntin' trip with Scott. Went out
on the GroundsKeeper with Cpt Ron. It's been a LONG
time and everybody was ready to get wet. Poor Larry
hasn't been out since a coon's age! The weather was
trying to cooperate. There was a real nice warm front
trying to go through, but that was also causing a bunch-O
nasty waves. Seas were 'officially' 2'~3' with plenty
of 4 footers thrown in to keep things exciting. Got
cloudy and when the sun wasn't shining the temp seemed
to drop like 5°. I had done an Internet search on
water temp (since it'd been so long since I'd been swimming)
and it showed mid to low 80° so I only packed my
1mm suit.... mistake: the water temp was more like high
70° and it really took it's toll. By the end of
the 3rd dive I was dogged tired. I guess
it was kind of a blessing the the boat was SOOO slow...
got a nice little nap in on the way back to the dock!
What
with it being a almost new moon the current was ripping
pretty good for the Gulf.
This
broken up barge was very very nice. Lots of structure
and spread out in 2 major pieces. The part we started
on had chunks all over the place and tons of fish! Saw
a few 'reds', but they were all too small, but at least
it's a start. Missed a nice flounder that darted off
into the sand; but I did get another flounder later
in the dive. One of the other divers, Dave was wrestling
with a 'lesser amberjack' and they were schooling around
so I snagged one as well!
The
other end of the debris field was about 100' West following
a thin debris field. Even more structure down here!
Since
there was only the captain on board we were doing modified
drift diving. ie: drop a jug and come back to the jug
as the boat putters around. Being on the wreck made
it nice and easy to get back to jug was was good 'cos
the VIZ was going in and out at about 10' to 20', sometimes
30 when the current swept through.
WHAT
WE LEARNED: Cold is bad... It really does drain
ya. Current is good on drift dives, bad when trying
to stay in one area!
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