# Dove Ft. Pickens Sunday



## Turtlebait (Dec 3, 2008)

Took newly certified nephew, Jeremy, to Ft. Pickens for his first non-instructor guided tour. Left Navy Point around 1 pm, and promptly hit a rock with starboard prop causing a spun hub. Decided to keep on getting up with just the port engine engaged. As luck would have it, the fuel filter on the port engine is sucking air, and I can't find the spare. We decided to limp on to Pickens at about 8 mph, and just enjoyed the sun and all the sailboats passing us.

Beached the boat near the old fishing pier at Pickens, Jeremy and I suited up, and the rest of the crew - his brother, Josh, his dad, Scott and a friend of Josh's, Chris - went to the new pier to try their luck fishing.

With full 6 mil suits, with hoods, my old equipment (Jeremy got my old gear to use), my new equipment (I got a new DIN reg by Aqualung, new steel 100 tank, and my new Nitrox compatible Aeris AI computer), with dive flag in tow, we ventured into the 61 deg water.

We couldn't see more than 3 ft and the incoming tide was pretty sporty too. We went under the old pier and saw Sheephead, Redfish, Grouper, Mullet, Trout and a bunch of Jellies. Knowing there is a nice sized ballast pile about a 100 ft Northof the pier, we ventured out into the sand. When Jeremy got down to 1500 psi, we turned back, even though we didn't find the rock pile. Jeremy found some live sandollars, starfish, and some hard coral looking things growing on a rock, which he pocketed for his younger sister, Deeanna. We returned a bit West of our initial foray into the channel (apparently, I overcompensated for the incoming current). We went back around the old pier, and back to the boat, dumped our gear, and went to check on the fishermen.

They had got on a few times, but never landed anything. Reminding them of the late hour and our lame engine situation, we got back in the boat for the slow ride back.

Jeremy and I had achieved a max depth of 44 ft, and a total bottom time of 35 mins. He performed flawlessly on the dive with no equalization problems and constantly checking his pressure gauge and bottom time on my old Captain computer. I think he is ready for the GOM next, possibly the 3 Barges. His dad, Scott, wants to ease him into the depths so he can get comfortable with his equipment, the enviornment, and his own physiology. Who knows, his dad may just take up diving again to see how he's doing himself. I am so proud of Jeremy and his mature attitude to the whole diving scenerio. I'll keep you posted and hope to get a picture of his first underwater kill (he already is a good deer hunter). - Ric


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## Corpsman (Oct 3, 2007)

You sound like a good teacher, and that sounds like a great day.


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## courantpublisher (Jan 13, 2009)

Anytime spent with family is a good time. Sounds like you might need to gig Dad a little and get him back involved in diving. I am working on getting my 20-year-old in class so we can have another hobby to keep us close.



Great report.


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## TONER (Mar 25, 2008)

Sounds like you guys had a great time I'm sure you may know but the jetties on the west side of the pass are a good dive spot to start on at slack tide of course


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## 50mullet (Sep 18, 2008)

nice beginners dive report. cant wait to get my first"real" dive in also.


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## GONU (Oct 3, 2007)

Glad you were able to make something happen, good way to stay close to the kids. I can't wait till mine are old enough to dive.:clap


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## user6993 (Feb 15, 2009)

Sounds like a good dive. Thanks for the report and also your time in teaching a new diver to take another building step.


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