Diving the Yankee Clipper Jacks with Kenny Barnwell

Kenny Barnwell is a guitar technician from Georgia, who is touring with the large show at the BB&T Center Saturday night. This morning, he wanted to go diving. He came to the apartment. I got him outfitted. We drove to the South Beach parking lot to dive the Jacks.

We swam out to the buoy line and descended. He was underweighted and had trouble just getting down. I handed him a brick of broken off coral to carry and that fixed that problem. We headed across the Algae Patch, the sand, the 3-tiered reef and turned South to the Jacks.

I did not take my camera on this first dive since I didn't have any idea how he would be in the water, but he is fine in the water. We swam along about 1/3 of the Jacks, then headed back to the beach. He was low on air, but we made it just fine.

Bottom temperature was 76 degrees; dive time was 76 minutes; consumption rate was 30.98 psi/minute at an average depth of 16 feet; SAC rate was 20.87 psi/minute on an aluminum 80.

Took a while to dry off and warm up.  I also put my camera together. We geared up and swam out past the buoy line and almost to the sand, before we descended. Both of us were heavier on this dive. We got across the sand and over the 3-tiered reef, turned South and were at the Jacks. We swam East along the North side of the Jacks because of the current. I was busy shooting pictures and looking for the Porcupine fish Kenny had commented upon earlier.

 Got this shot of a Caribbean Spiny Lobster,

 this shot of a Cottonwick,

 this shot of an Initial Phase Queen Parrotfish,

 this shot of a Nurse Shark with three trailing shark suckers, and

this shot of two Smallmouth Grunts on the Jacks.


Kenny tripped 1500 psi as we were almost to the Eastern end of the Jacks, so we turned the dive and scurried back to the beach. Two dives was enough for Kenny. Me too, truth be told. We did a lot of swimming.

Bottom temperature was 76 degrees; dive time was 75 minutes; consumption was 32.25 psi/minute at an average depth of 18 feet; SAC rate was 20.87 psi/minute on an aluminum 80.

Diving the Yankee Clipper Jacks

I got to the South Beach parking lot about 8:20 am and quickly geared up and got in the water. I swam out past the buoy line on the surface and about half way across the Algae Patch then descended. I was still in only 16 feet of water, I swam ENE. Got to the sand and found a moonsail shell sort of like a Gaudy Natica but only small black lines and no tan or green coloring. It is on the small side but interesting. Went East along the North side of the 3-tiered reef and came up in 24 ft of water for a short surface interval.

Water temperature was 76 degrees; dive time was 61 minutes; consumption was 25.20 psi/minute at an average depth of 14 feet and my SAC rate was 15.99 psi/minute on an aluminum 80


During the surface interval, I swam South so when I descended I was close to the Jacks. Swam along the North side of the Jacks and then on the top for a bit taking pictures. Lots of fish, but mostly common reef fish.

Got this shot of an Initial Phase Striped Parrotfish,

 this shot of a Midnight Parrotfish,

this shot of a Sand Perch,

 this Sergeant Major,

this Slippery Dick on the 3-tiered reef,

and this Spotted Trunkfish.


Left the West end of the Jacks with 1400 psi and had a nice swim back across the sand and then the Algae Patch. Hung out on the edge of the white sand to get to 57 minutes, then headed across so that I came up at 60 minutes. Pleasant dive if not the most interesting photographically speaking.

Water temperature was 76 degrees; dive time was 60 minutes; consumption was 25.27 psi/minute at an average depth of 14 feet and my SAC rate was 17.74 psi/minute on an aluminum 80

Two Search and Recovery Dives off Tower 17

On Saturday, Brent, who works at the rental office and snack bar at Birch State Park told me that a yacht had recently lost its anchor off Tower 17. He said it was North of the swim buoy on the sand before the reef. I decided to check it out this morning.

Got in the water a little after 9:00, but I swam on the surface out to the buoy line, then North to Tower 17. It took about 45 minutes. Then I descended on the 100 degree bearing off the Tower and over the blocks. Took a few moments to set up once I was on the bottom. I was carrying both my SMB and lift bag so I could recover the anchor should I find it, and both of these were floating next to me and in the way of the camera. From the blocks, I swam up the gunsight and kept going East looking for the Cigar Rock. I did not find it, instead, I found the Green Mountainous Coral near the Perpendicular Rocks. Then went to the Swept Rock and finally to the Knoll.

On the North side of the Knoll I found the Rock Hind I have photographed there over the last two years. It's still as timid as ever, but perhaps that's why its still alive. Anyway, it was nice to see. I hung with the fish on the Knoll for awhile.

I spotted and photographed a Juvenile Stoplight Parrotfish.

 I also got this shot of a Juvenile Creole Wrasse.

 Then I found a small Nudibranch and

got two pictures.

I couldn't resist this shot of a pair of Porkfish.













I got this shot of a Sand Diver

and really enjoy this shot of a White Grunt opening his mouth and requesting a cleaning from the small Spanish Hogfish in front of him.

After some time on the Knoll, I swam down to the buoy line to look for the anchor. I swam a U-shape pattern between the reef and the buoy-line then surfaced at 60 minutes.

Bottom temperature was 75 degrees; dive time was 60 minutes; consumption rate was 25.58 psi/minute at an average depth of 18 feet and my SAC rate was 16.55 psi/minute on an aluminum 80.

I stayed on the surface for 7 minutes, then descended and finished running my u-shaped pattern well South of Tower 17.  I saw no sign of an anchor, lost or otherwise, and wonder about the accuracy of the location information from Brent. I swam with the current to the South and made really good time all the way to Tower 14, so I could swim back on the surface fighting the current. I found a gaudy natica along the way and a spiral shell which was white with a red spiral line.

Water temperature was 76 degrees; dive time was 51 minutes; consumption was 27.75 psi/minute at an average depth of 18 feet and my SAC rate was 17.95 psi/minute on an aluminum 80.

Diving the Little Coral Knoll with Leo

Leo got to the Park about quarter to 9:00, which was fine. We geared up and headed down the hill. The gate was open, so we went to the beach and got in the water. Swam on the surface out past the swim buoy and descended on the Big Rock.

Saw several lionfish on the Big Rock, but I didn't take any pictures. Instead, I got a shot of this little Seaweed Blenny

and this Spotted Scorpionfish.  Then Leo and I headed South to the smaller rock. Leo took a few pictures there, and then we headed off at 120 degrees to the knee-high coral, the two decorator sea rods, and across the sand sea to the dead rods. We jogged South to the counter-weight and then got back on our 120 degrees bearing past the bare rod, the green star coral head with the red-boring sponge to the knoll.

We drifted across and around the knoll for awhile, then I decided I wanted to go to the Porthole Rocks. I looked, but couldn't find Leo or his bubbles. I finally decided that he must have gone already.


So I headed off at 45 degrees from the NE tipped Coral Head and about half way to the Porthole rocks ran into an Octopus.











He kept an eye on me as he made his way under the Coral Head beside him

I went to the back of the coral head, but he spotted me as soon as I peeked around.

A large Red Grouper watched the whole thing and inserted himself between me and the Octopus.

Leo and I did a little exploring West of the Porthole Rocks, then swam back to the knoll. At 1000 psi, we turned the dive and headed back to the beach. Hung out in about 7 ft of water until I tripped 120 minutes, then surfaced.


Water temperature was 75 degrees; dive time was 2 hours; consumption was 24.88 psi/minute at an average depth of 18 feet; SAC rate was 16.10 psi/minute on an aluminum 80.


Leo called his pregnant wife and got permission to make a second dive so long as he got back to Miami by 2:00 pm, so we geared up and got in for a 90 minute dive. Same pattern as the first dive: went to the Little Coral Knoll and hung out with the fish then went over to the Porthole Rocks and explored to the West some more; came back to the knoll and then headed back to the beach.

I got this picture of a Black Spotted Feather Duster,

 this shot of a Graysby on the knoll,

this shot of a Hogfish to the South of the knoll,

and this shot of a Starfish on the sand on the way back to the beach.






Water temperature was 76 degrees; dive time was 85 minutes; consumption was 23.72 psi/minute at an average depth of 17 feet; SAC rate was 15.65 psi/minute on an aluminum 80.