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Navarre BEach Pier
Apnea - 5/28/2009 11:18 PM
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Category: Travel
Comments: 0
Today was a good day. Went to the end of the first half of the Navarre Pier (old one) and got to see quite a bit of local activity. On my way out I stayed topside for the first 5 pylons then took a deep breath and went under. I immediately encounted a MAJOR school of baitfish. There were so many, it was to the point that I could not see anything but fish. I swam through them and they completely surrounded me. It was amazing. I surfaced to catch another breath and chug along. I made it to the third set from the end and dove down and ran into a large school of running bluefish. I think I spooked them at first, so I took a deep breath and submerged to the bottom to make a run to the next pylon while underwater. I made it to the next set and relaxed on the bottom. I came to both knees and looked around and was again surrounded by the bluefish. They were getting curious as I was needing air from the bottom pylon to pylon swim. I surfaced and went right back down. I kneeled on the bottom and then sat there. They came right into my face and I was looking eye to eye with one of the little guys. I made my way to the next to last set of pylons as I saw a large fish with two dorsal fins just escape my field of view. I was curious if it was a king, so I surfaced for more air and then went back down to see what was zipping aroundthe next pylon. While surfaced I took a few recovery breaths and looked around. Nothing. I went back to the bottom and didn’t see anything save for a few blues running by. I surfaced to make my run to the last pylon set. As I approached the halfway point, I dove and saw the darkness of the pylons coming into view and a LOT of shadows in between the pylon cluster. I reached the set to see about 50 or so eight inch Spades hovering near the bottom. I surfaced to get a good breath and made my way back down. While on top I noticed the long double dorsaled fish had a buddy. I took my next breath and packed twice for some extra bottom time and with the help of my trusty weight belt, I reached the floor in no time. About 1 meter from bottom I noticed that the double dorsaled fish was actually a pair of barracudas zipping away from me. Nice, I thought as I grabbed my wetsuit sleeve and pulled it over my watch face as not to give the cuda anything shiny to look at. I curled my body around the pylons while my left hand grabed the sandy floor and scooted me along the bottom. They disappeared from sight, but the spades were still there to entertain me. I surfaced for more air and to fix the strap on my left fin that managed to ride up on my achilles and start to irritate me. After doing so, I went back down to the bottom right in the middle of the spades. As I stopped, they all surrounded me within arms reach. What a beautiful fish I thought. I observed for about 45 seconds then decided to head back to my oh so patient wife back on land. On my return trip I was escorted by some tiny little 1 inch black and white stripped fish that stayed with me ALL the way back to shore, despite my depth difference. Everytime I surfaced for air, they were there to greet me. How funny I thought. They never left the top six inches from surface, but they somehow managed to find me at the next set of pylons after my floor swim. So all in all it was a great dive. About 15 feet vis for most of the dive. Maybe doing it again this Saturday.