Wx: 80 F early (warming to 90F). Sunny until 1500. Winds light and variable early, then 25 kts out of the north due to multiple afternoon squalls
Seas: Rocky Bayou was glass, the Bay was flat, and the Gulf was mostly rolling 1+ ft. The squalls changed everything.
Boat Info: In the process of finding a new transmission, Candy called the same company that we bought our engine from. To make a long story short, Candy mentioned that we were not getting the gas mileage or power we expected. We were informed that our Holley carb had a latent defect and they would replace it. I blew the dust, sand, and cobwebs out of my old Rochester carb, pulled the Holley, and re-installed the Rochester. The old carb seemed to work.
Crew: Candy, Stone, & Viper
Gear: Candy: 7 mil / 14 lbs - Stone: 5 mil and vest / 12 lbs
Prologue: We left the dock at 0730. We didn’t find any fish inshore last week, so we headed to our private coops. We planned on 4 dives, 3 offshore and a shallow dive on the way home.
Dive One: Private Coop. Surface current was pretty strong (2-3 kts?). Vis was lousy on top, but 30 – 40 ft on the bottom. The water was 82F on top and 76F on the bottom. No legal fish, so we thumbed the dive pretty quickly.
Dive Two: Prewitt Tug. We tried the Baskin’s Tower Barge first (a favorite for AJs), but it had 2 boats on it. Thankfully, no one was on the Prewitt. The vis was still lousy on top, but after descending through the whale snot, the vis was about 50 ft (even with the lower light level). While still on the anchor line, we were met by a school of barely legal AJs. I swam toward the wreck and another school of AJs swam by, but this school had a few bigger fish mixed in. I shot a 25 lb, 36 inch AJ and spent the rest of the dive getting untangled from monofilament.
Dive Three: Prewitt Tug. Since there were plenty of legal AJs on the wreck, we decided to stay put. We used the surface interval to eat lunch and play with the carburetor. After 2 dives to 120 ft, we knew the 3rd dive would not be very long. I swam to the wheelhouse hoping for a grouper. Candy shot an AJ while still on the rope, but it pulled off.
Epilogue: We headed inshore for a 4th dive and actually dropped the hook and prepared to dive on Anniversary Reef. The skies over Destin were dark and I could see (RADAR) a rainstorm over land about 5 miles north and another squall about 5 miles SW. Before we knew it, the wind picked up to 25 kts and we reevaluated the dive. We couldn’t use the anchor ball in the Anniversary boulder field, so Viper pulled the anchor by hand (which was not very easy as the seas quickly built to 3-4 ft). The winds turned offshore, so we made the best headway we could almost due north. The closer we got to shore, the more speed we could make, and we finally turned east toward the jetties. The RADAR helped us maneuver through the slackest parts of the squall, and we didn’t hit any very heavy rain (the lightning was pretty, but I’d rather watch it from the comfort of my living room).
The transmission continues to give me problems, but the old Rochester Carb noticeably improved my gas mileage.
Trip Info:
Elapse Time (hrs): 11
Total Miles (st): 82
Fuel (gal): 72