How could we go to Florida and not get a dive in???
We tried to book a trip to dive the USS Oriskany. This aircraft
carrier was sunk off the coast of Pensacola Florida as an artificial
reef in 2006.
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Unfortunately, the weather wasn't cooperating. I checked with every dive operator and charter boat that I could find, and nobody was taking divers out to the wreck. I was told the weather was too rough for safe diving. With rough seas, I also ditched any plan for shore diving as well.
Good thing we had a backup dive plan! Florida has many fresh
water springs that are diveable. We picked two a couple of hours north
of Pensacola, Vortex Spring
and Morrison Springs. Vortex Spring is a private dive site with gear
available for rent. They let you use the gear off site, so we were able
to also drive a few miles to Morrison Springs and dive there as well.
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Dive 1
I had my brand new Canon A540 camera and brand new Canon underwater case out for it's debut on this dive. All was going great! I was snapping photos and video, and we made it to 40 ft. Then Murphy took over. I watched with frustration as my case started to fill up with water. I ended the dive, but by the time I surfaced the case was about 75% filled with water. I took the camera out of the case to assess the damage. I figured the camera was fried, and the pictures and video were toast as well. I pulled the SD card and batteries out of the camera and shook as much water out as I could. I was pleasantly surprised that the data already written to the SD card was fine. After drying, the camera actually worked for the most part. The shutter sticks and battery life is about half of what it used to be.
I learned that you should always test a new case (sans camera) on it's maiden voyage, just in case... I resealed the O-ring and the case has worked fine since this trip. Who knows, maybe a hair or speck of dust was the culprit.
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Dive 2
The water is crystal clear, and there are actually some fish in the spring. We saw eels, catfish and I think bass. There really isn't much to see, but it was a fun dive. There is a cavern here for certified divers. We peeked into the opening to the cave system, and it gave me the wileys. I don't see cave diving in my future.
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