Photo Gallery
Jody tells tales of deep air diving this barge. When it sunk, it became a lucky quarter landing on its side. The increased profile of its width made for an interesting dive, but with current, there was no protection, which made it even more interesting. Its luck ran out with hurricane Andrew put it down and tore off the north side of the barge.
The hopper barge, with smooth sloping walls, makes for an excellent substrate for Black Coral to grow on. Black Coral looks like underwater Bonzi Pine Trees with thin green strands resembling pine needles.
The south side of the barge has some of the top plates removed and makes for a good home to large sport fish. The site has a nice Black Grouper and a huge Dog or Gray Snapper, which disappeared into the hull before I could identify it.
A large school of Creole fish stayed just out of our visual range. The barge features 4 dividing walls that were also covered in growth. The sand is 173ft and the top of the barge is 155ft. This dive works out to a 160ft average for 20 minutes.
Jody and I were dropped just past the barge, but we followed the fish and a lobster trap line heading up to the barge itself. We circled the barge with the scooters while I snapped some photos. Visibility was about 40ft and cloudy. I spent about 10 minutes doing a fish survey. I have three more barges before I’ve dove everything off the T1.0 project list.
Dive 1: Hopper Barge
Jody tells tales of deep air diving this barge. When it sunk, it became a lucky quarter landing on its side. The increased profile of its width made for an interesting dive, but with current, there was no protection, which made it even more interesting. Its luck ran out with hurricane Andrew put it down and tore off the north side of the barge.
The hopper barge, with smooth sloping walls, makes for an excellent substrate for Black Coral to grow on. Black Coral looks like underwater Bonzi Pine Trees with thin green strands resembling pine needles.
The south side of the barge has some of the top plates removed and makes for a good home to large sport fish. The site has a nice Black Grouper and a huge Dog or Gray Snapper, which disappeared into the hull before I could identify it.
A large school of Creole fish stayed just out of our visual range. The barge features 4 dividing walls that were also covered in growth. The sand is 173ft and the top of the barge is 155ft. This dive works out to a 160ft average for 20 minutes.
Jody and I were dropped just past the barge, but we followed the fish and a lobster trap line heading up to the barge itself. We circled the barge with the scooters while I snapped some photos. Visibility was about 40ft and cloudy. I spent about 10 minutes doing a fish survey. I have three more barges before I’ve dove everything off the T1.0 project list.