Report for Sunday/08.12.2007

[frankc420]

Wokeup at 4:15am, got my gear by the door and waited for Michael to show up.  Sent Michael a text message to be sure he was awake, and he was!  I was happy, because I didn't want to call and wakeup his lil T.

Called Brad to make sure he was up, he acted like he was asleep then started laughing and said he was ready to go.

Michael was running late... so we ended up hitting the road at about 5:15am.  Arrived in Hattiesburg and met up with Gary.  He looked as if he was about to fall asleep waiting for us, but he soon perked up and was ready to make the drive to Pascagoula!  We passed our gear up to Gary for storage for the drive then we were on our way!  There was plenty of storage on Garys' boat, a 25' center console with tank racks for 4 divers (3 tanks each).  Michael had to be the odd ball and take 8" tanks, so they had to lay on the floor! 

We hit the dock and dropped the boat in the water, and we were quickly heading out to start our day of diving!

On this trip was, Gary, Michael, Frank, Brad

[frankc420]

Dive #1
Max depth- 59'
Min water temp- 80
Time in- 10:19am
Dive time- 25m
Visibility- 20-25'

This was a spot that had 3 rigs (that I could see from the surface).  At about 40' the brown water started, but myself and Brad went down to see what we could find... nothing much, so we headed back up to see what fish we could find.  The current was pushing, but not so bad.  We were planning on making 5 dives with 3 tanks so we turned the dive early.

Once on the boat, Gary and Michael geared up and weren't in the water but maybe 10 minutes and came back up.  Gary wasn't pleased with the visibility, he said it wasn't the normal vis.

[frankc420]

Dive #2
Max depth- 63'
Avg depth- 40'
Min water temp- 78
Time in- 12:33pm
Dive time- 26m
Visibility- 15-20'

This dive was on a shrimp boat.  It was a nice dive, the visibility wasn't all that great, but we could easily see the upper part of the boat.  The bottom half of the boat (deck and hull) were under the brown fog, so we didn't feel like venturing down in that area too much.  This site was covered by a lot of fish... There  were dolphins swimming around the boat while Michael and Gary were under too

[frankc420]

Dive #3
Max depth- 96'
Avg depth- 52'
Min water temp- 76
Time in- 03:25pm
Dive time- 32m
Visibility- 40-50'

Gary headed to a deeper rig, it was in 100' of water.  The visibility here was much nicer than the previous dives, we could easily see every pipe running down from the rig.  Gary snagged a fish with his speargun, so Brad and myself though we'd give it a shot.  I was unable to use the gun I was using because one of the bands broke as I was trying to load it, but Brad was able to use his.  Sadly, he missed his fish!

[frankc420]

Dive #4
Max depth- 52'
Avg depth- 29'
Min water temp- 84
Time in- 04:42pm
Dive time- 12m
Visibility- 50-60'

On our way back in we stopped at another rig, no1 was there but us.  Brad and myself jumped in, not too long after our 3rd dive, so I knew we wouldn't have much bottom time.  I took Garys' speargun this time, was down maybe 3 minutes and I got a decent sized fish (atleast it looked that way underwater).  We decided to start exploring after that.  Brad pointed out a baracuda, which decided he wanted to check us out a the same time.  Not 15 seconds after he notices us, he started to eyeball my fish.  He gets within 10' of me so I put the fish behind me.  Then I turn around, to see 2 more baracuda behind me, eyeballing the fish!  The 2 that were eyeballing me came at me, but I made myself big and exhaled as hard as I could, it spooked them off, then I look back and they are greeted by a 4th baracuda, all eyeballing me.

To get them away from me, I released my bleeding fish... never saw them again after that.  Although, my butthole was still sucking my wetsuit into it, so I decided it was time to call the dive.  We were 1 minute away from deco anyway, but only in 25' of water...

[ScubaLouie]

Sounds like ya'll had a good time!!  Those Barracuda sure can be intimidating.  Reminds me of a trip my wife and I took to Martinique....  We were swimming along and a group of maybe 10 Barracuda swam between us.  She freaked when one of them opened it's mouth and she saw TEETH!!  They slowly swam away, but she "Walked On Water" getting away!!

[frankc420]

We only took 3 tanks each, the 4th was a short one.  One of Gary's tanks blew a burst disk so he sat out the rest of the day.  I dove air, so did Brad.

OTU?

I equalized fine, Brad had a little trouble on the 3rd dive but that was it I believe.

There isn't a quota on pictures, so you should have plenty of room.

[snepdiver]

Nice reports. Sounds like a good day of diving and avoiding barracuda.