Diving off Panama City Florida

Diving In Panama City, Florida

One day I received a phone call from Dave, the owner of a local dive shop. It was fall and he wanted to take his dive boat to Panama City and store it for the winter. It was an 18 or 20 foot open boat (I can not remember which), with an outboard on it. He uses it in the Great Lakes for the summer but wintered it in Florida at his fathers.

The trip was not going to be a relaxing one, that was for sure. We live in the Pontiac Michigan area and we were gonna drive non-stop to Panama City, dive as many dives as we could in two days and drive home. That is a bit more than 4 days for the round trip!

I had never dove in the ocean, at that time, so the whole idea was exciting. Dave loved to spear fish and had gotten some huge Jew Fish and Grouper down there. The walls on his shop are covered with his trophies.

I told him sure and that I had a spear gun. I had bought one at a garage sale but had never used it, as there is nothing much legal to spear in Michigan’s fresh water.

He gave me all the information I would need as far as equipment and meeting time and such. I told him I would contact a buddy, Bob Savage, and see if he would be interested. He had one other diver that was interested in going, so if Bob could make it, we would have four of us.


Dave is the owner of the shop and a diving fool. He is a science teacher in a local school and has had the shop as long as I can remember. He dives almost every day, year around and is a tough one to keep up with. He teaches night diving, wreck diving, ice diving, etc. I think the sucker is hyper too. I have found that if you go diving with Dave there is nothing that will stop the dive.

Arnie, the other diver that had signed on from the shop, was a 16-year-old kid. He was a good diver but had a bunch of growing up issues at the time. He was a little guy and these problems made him do some silly things. He worked out, I guess. It was not evident but when I asked him what he preferred to be called he seriously said, “Right now I can be called Arnie but when I get big like Schwarzenegger, I will expect to be called Arnold” I suspect he is still being called, Arnie..

He was a very good diver though and had quite a bit of experience. He had been on saltwater dives with Dave, which I had not.

Bob is just Bob. He is a great guy to go anywhere with. Nothing excites him and I have never, in the 20 years I have known him, seen him even the slightest mad. Very smart guy and has done many things I would love to do, like hike the Grand Canyon and such and is always in a good mood. I have always thought drugs might have been involved some time in his life. It ain’t natural :O) I gave him a call and he was all for it!

We all met at the dive shop in the afternoon of a Monday or Tuesday, I don’t really remember, but it was during the week. Dave had his boat loaded behind his van. It was one big van, one of those extended ones as he always had it full of diving equipment and students for the classes he ran. For the four of us, there was plenty of room.

We loaded up our gear and crawled in. There would be plenty of room to lie down, for sleeping, as it was gonna be non-stop, except for gas and food. Not much for food either when you are on one of Dave’s diving trips, I was to find out.

Now I am not sure the time we took off but it seems like it was in the evening. I do know we got to Panama City in the afternoon of the next day though. That can’t be right but what ever time we left, we got down there around one or two in the afternoon. That was one long and boring trip, I gotta tell you. Dave drove most of it, as I remember because he was hyper as usual and could not just set there while another drove.

Along the way, I find out that we are going to have a fifth on the dive. There was a friend of Dave’s that had flown down a few days earlier, that was gonna meet with us. He was going to dive with us and join us on the ride back. That is fine, there was plenty of room in the van. That is what I figured at the time anyway. I had forgotten or maybe I just was not aware at the time that the boat was full of gear too!

This new guys name was Dan. He was a cop in local town and a good diver. Big guy and he had done a lot of diving.

We get into Panama City sometime after noon and went to the local Dive Shop. Dave was a good friend with the owner and he was putting us up in a double wide behind the shop. It was not much to look at but little did I know, we would not be using it all that much J

We offloaded all our luggage and pulled the cover off the boat. Man that thing was full of coolers and other gear. BIG coolers! Two were as wide as the interior of the dam van!!

I asked Dave what they were for and he said that he was planning on taking a bunch of fish home for a project in his biology class. He was gonna have the kids dissect the things. Man the inside of that van was looking smaller all the time!!L

We did an inventory on our diving gear and with it stowed in the boat, we headed for the boat ramp. We had not been in town for a half hour yet. This guy doesn’t fool around.

We got to the ramp and Dan was there waiting for us. Good thing as Dave would not have waited, for sure. We did all of our hi’s and hello’s and threw his gear aboard and launched the boat.

I gotta admit that I was a little nervous but I knew I was with some pretty experienced guys and would follow their lead. After the boat was in the water and the van parked we all boarded the boat. There was plenty of room, with tank racks along the sides.

Dave got the thing under way toward the open sea. That was a lot of open water!! Man that was SALT water with sharks and sasquatches and yetty’s and whatever’s in it!! Damn!! Gotta look cool now! J Don’t let them know you got a little buttpucker going now!

Dan broke out his spear gun. Now I had never seen one that dam big! It must have been 5 ft long with 50 ft of line on it! There might have been less but it was a long line. This line ran from the gun to the spear tip and when you shot the fish, he could run but you could fight him in.

Bob and I just sorta looked at eachother. I got out my speargun and it was rather small. Story of my life L This was a fresh water rig and better suited to bluegill than amberjack! I looked at Dave and he had a little smile on his face. I asked him if we were a mite under-guned but he said it would be fine. We had a six foot line on our guns. This was not looking good to me!! Bob and I just shrugged and started getting ready.

Now my vision of the ocean was beautiful blue water and crystal clear. This water was murkey and really sucked. We did not have a full day to run out to the far spots so would have to hunt up some wrecks nearer to shore. There were plenty around it seems.

There was a chop on the water and quite a breeze. We must have been between 5 ard 8 miles from shore. We could see the skyline of the city but not much more than that. The wind was off shore and was brisk, as I said.

As we approached the diving site I heard Dave grumbling under his breath. I asked what was wrong and he said there were fishermen on the site. He slowed down and putted over to calling distance from the fishermen. I looked down in the water and it looked like mud! L This sucked. I looked at the depth guage and it was reading around 50ft. Not bad but this was SALT water with all those Royal eating critters in it. No sweat not Royal. Sharks don’t come around here. I don’t know if I heard that somewhere or if I was praying it but by now, it was true.

Dave put the boat in idle and called to the guys. He asked how much longer they were going to be fishing the site. They called back, “Oh, not much longer. The fish are biting but the dam Sharks were biting them in half before they can land them!” Now this sucked! L I looked at Bob and Bob being Bob, he just shrugged. The boy ain’t normal! Dang! The visibility sucked and I am gonna dive with 30ft Great Whites! I should never have seen Jaws, that is for sure!

I put on my bravest smile and looked at Dave and said, “What the hell is he talking about, SHARKS??” Dave smiled and said, “Don’t worry, they probably won’t hurt you.” What is this probably crap? I ask myself.L

This was in the days just before the GPS systems came out and we were using a LORAN on the boat for navigating. None of us knew how to use the thing but Dave and Dan.

The fishermen finally pulled in their rigs and pulled anchor. As they pulled out we slid in and lowered our anchor. He ran out some line and backed the boat until the anchor hooked into something. The bottom was mostly sand in the area but he managed to hook on.

We then started gearing up. I kept looking at that sucky water and thinking sharks but the testeron had kicked in and my brain had turned off. As I have said many times in my life, when about to do some dam fool thing, I said, to hell with it and lets go. I said it to myself, not to the others. I have done a lot of talking to myself, over the years and it usually starts with, “You dumb ass!” This was no exception.

Dave told us a little about the wreck and I would be lying if I was to tell you I remembered anything about it. I was looking at the sucky water and expecting to see a great white looking back. It was not really a wreck anyway, just a pile of rubble, that was dumped on the sandy bottom to make an artificial reef. It would attract sharks, amberjack, sharks, groupers, sharks, red snapper and sharks.

I looked at the little punk, Arnie. He was a nice kid but the little punk looked like he was excited about getting down in that sucky water with the dam sharks. He had a BIG speargun too. I guess he had rented it from Dave. He didn’t look scared at all. Little punk L

Here we were, 5 guys with three big spearguns and two runty little spear guns. Our spear guns had one dinky little rubber on it and theirs had three, big, rubbers!! L Oh well, Dave said they were fine and he ought to know. I had speared a carp or two with them. Well the spear didn’t really go all the way in but far enough.

We were all suited up and ready to go now and we stepped to the rear of the boat. There was a swim platform, on the back, which made it easier to enter the water but was more important on getting back in. Dave was the first in and I was second. He stepped off and immediately started his decent. With one hand on my mask and the other on my regulaton, I stepped off, into the murky water.

I had filled my BC with air, so I would be held on the surface, where I adjusted my mask and made sure I had put my fins on. I have seen guys enter the water without a mask! Dummy I was but it was early in my diving years.J

I looked around for Dave and as I said he had already started down. Idjit!!

I raised my BC hose and started dumping air. I could hear my heart pounding. I just knew I looked like a bloody seal up there and there had to be a half dozen hungry Great Whites down there, looking up at me. Dang!

Normally the most peaceful time for me is the descent. It is so realizing. You have to hold onto your BC inflator because as you sink, the water compresses your wetsuit and it makes you less buoyant. After you get down 15 or 20 ft you will sink like a rock if you don’t control it with the BC. It is very easy to do by just tapping the inflate button as needed to control it.

The problem is, this was not relaxing to me. I could see about two feet and could not see Dave. I did not know what to expect when I got to the bottom except I was sure I was gonna get bit! Normally the worse thing you will encounter is your imagination and mine was going full bore about then. I was dropping to the bottom, 50 ft below, and didn’t know what was there. I normally would watch my depth gauge to keep tabs on my descent but I didn’t have any eyes left. The two I had were already engaged in watching for teeth.

All of a sudden I was on bottom. On the bottom I could see about 5 ft. That was better as it was what I was used to in the northern lakes. I am not saying I was relaxed, by a long shot but I was on bottom. I looked and sure nuff, I had my spear gun. Now I wonder how I had it in my hand, with one hand on my mask, one hand on my regulator, one hand on my BC inflator and , uhhhh L well I had the thing!

Now I looked for some fish to kill. I didn’t have a clue as to what to spear and there was a bunch of fish down there. I looked around for Bob, as he was coming behind me. I saw a dark object behind me!! My god it is a shark!!!!L Hey! The shark is waving at me!! Aaaah, it is Bob. Good ole unflappable Bob. A dam shark would not shake him up. He would probably just shrug. Had to be drugs in his past. The goofy sucker was in Military Intelligence in Nam. Lived along in the Jungles alone with the natives, gathering information. How the hell could you worry him?

Well I felt better with Bob there. I would let him lead because I was sure a shark could not eat two full growed men. Someone had to survive to tell his beautiful wife about his demise and console her!

I saw a school of some kind of fish come by. They were no bigger than a bluegill from back home. I figured I was down there to get some meat so I speared the thing. It went nuts! I gut shot the poor thing and it went around and around and up and down, trying to get away. I saw this GREEN stuff coming out of it and thought it was a crazy color for guts.

Then it dawned on me, blood it green at depth. The reds are filtered out by about 10 or 15 ft and other colors disappear as you go down. Green hangs in there for a while and that is what I was seeing. Oh great! Great Whites around and I am squirting blood into the water. What is it they can smell blood? A thousand miles or so???

We each had a stringer on our weight belt for our catch. I quickly hauled my catch in and worked the, still green squirting sucker off the barb. How much blood could possible be in the sucker anyway?

I then did the smartest thing I did that whole first dive. I reached for Bob’s stringer! J Well what the heck, it was easier to string it on his than mine! After all I had to reach under my BC to find it and then try to string the dang, green squirting sucker on the line. It was just easier to let Bob be the lure or whatever. I would do it for him, wouldn’t I?? Right.

It didn’t seem to bother Bob.

This went on for a while. Me following Bob. Me watching for sharks. Me watching my air supply and wishing it was time to get out of here. It just was not fun at that time. We could not see the others and with the rubble pile and the poor visibility, it was disorientating.

I finally signal to Bob to stay put as I was gonna surface and see our position, in reference to the boat. I just like to know where I am and I did not want to get down wind of the boat. It is always a heck of a lot easier to swim down wind to the boat than upwind. We could not see the dang anchor rope.

Bob gave me the thumbs up and sat down to wait. I popped some air in my BC and started my assent. You have to watch how fast you go up to avoid embolism. The air in your lungs expand as you rise and if you do not expel it, it can force itself right through the plural lining of the lungs and into the blood stream. It is different than bends and can kill you! One foot a second is what we were taught and it is important. I found an easy way to determine if you are going up slow enough. It is to focus on one of your exhaled bubbles. One about the size of your little finger tip and keep it in front of your mask. You control you assent by putting air in and letting air out of your BC. I had relaxed a bit by now, as I had not seen any sharks, so was able to concentrate on the assent.

I finally popped to the surface and there was a fairly good two to three ft chop. I looked to where I figured the boat was and saw nothing. Now this boat had a Bimini. Top on it.
http://www.boatcoversdirect.com/ This is a top that is used for a sun shade as much as rain protection and can fold down when not needed. We had it up.

I looked all around the area and there was no boat! There was no boat and there was nobody else on the surface. I sorta got the butt puckers all over again. I shot all the air in my BC that I could so my head was farther out of the water. At sea level a six foot man can see about 10 miles but at one foot and in waves, you can not see diddly. I did another spin around and still didn’t see anything. I could not see land and could not see the boat. Just me and the shark infested Gulf of Mexico! Dang! This sucked!!! L

The boat must have pulled anchor and gone with the wind. I looked down wind and saw something occasionally appear, atop a wave. I could not really tell what the hell it was for a second or two. I pushed my arms down and thrust my head as high as I could to see if I could identify it. It was the Bimini Top!! I could not see the boat but the top shown above the waves, on occasion.

Dang! That sucker was a long way off!! Rightfully I should have gone down and let my buddy know what I was gonna do but there was no time. The dang boat was headed for Cuba, the Bimini Top acting like a sail and I was not gonna be a swimming to shore against the wind and tide. I again looked around, hoping for Dave or Dan to appear, as they were strong swimmers, but I was still alone. Well I figured it was mine to do, so I set off after the dang boat!

I was hampered by my diving tank, BC and weight belt but I was not about to be dumping them out there. I popped the snorkel in my mouth and lay down and started a kicking for the boat. I knew I had to conserve my energy as it was a long haul. All I had to do is keep kicking faster than the boat was drifting, but I knew the Bimini Top was shoving it right along. I was hoping the dang anchor would grab something but there was fat chance on that flat featureless bottom.

I kicked and kicked, occasionally looking up to see if I was nearing it. It did not look like I was making any headway at all but it was not getting smaller and that was some small consolation to me. I looked back and thought I saw a head appear on the surface, far to my rear. I had to keep going. I was getting pretty dang tired as I never was what a person would call a strong swimmer. I had the job to do though. I spun around and filled my BC a little more and laying on my back and staring at the sky, I set off again toward the boat. I could see a couple head back there now. They seemed to be following me now but I could not tell for sure.

I got into the routine of kicking a hundred strokes and taking a look at the boat. Dang! It was a little bigger! All I had to do is keep going. The guys behind me, I counted four now, were all in hot pursuit. But there was no way they would do me any good. I dare not stop. I was a bit scared but the sharks had not entered my mind for quite a while now J

I took off again, hundred kicks and look a hundred kicks and look, over and over. My thighs were burning but I was catching up with the thing. My companions were closing the gap too but it was still my job to do.

Finally I turned around and it was right in front of me! I don’t know if the anchor had snagged something or not but I was one happy camper! I felt like I was about ready to give out but kept kicking, afraid that if it was snagged, it might pull loose, as the wind seemed to be getting worse.

I finally managed to get my hand on the swim platform and hold on, gasping for breath. Damn, I thunk, I made it!! I could not see the others but the boat was sorta blocking them now. I unhooked my BC, with the tank attached and swung it free. It floated. I pulled off the fins and threw them in the boat. Then came the weight belt, which I hoisted on the swim platform. Now I felt better. I felt like I had shed a hundred pounds, which I guess I had.

After a few more gasps, I weren’t no dam spring chicken, even back then, and crawled onto the platform. Tossing the gear into the boat and securing it, I looked upwind for the guys. They were getting close now. I waved and moved toward the anchor line. Pulling the anchor up I started the motor and edged it toward the swimmers, being careful not to run them down.

Dave was in the lead and then the others. He climbed aboard and was one happy guy. He felt responsible for the situation, which I guess he was. That anchor should have been checked as soon as he hit the bottom. I was more concerned with a Great White myself. The others crawled aboard as we got to them and all was well.

Arnie climbed aboard and said, “Man, that was fun!” I should have slapped the little bastard but didn’t. The ignorance of youth. It could have been a disaster but ended up being just part of a mighty interesting 4-day trip.

I told Dave that it might be a good idea if we were to make sure the anchor was secure and we all should know the LORAN numbers and how to use them. If I had not been able to see the guys, there is no way I could have pinpointed the wreck.

I have more to this story. Diving on the Templet, which is a oil drilling platform which was sunk as an artificial reef and diving the Empire Mica, which got me to thinking about this story in the first place. It is a ship that was sunk during WW11 by a German sub. It is over 450 ft long and in a hundred and 5 ft of water.