Destin Report - 10 Jun 03

[Stone]

Destin has been in the news lately. We didn't dive last weekend because of the lousy conditions. A lot of tourists went swimming anyway. The current death toll is 9 and there are a few more in the hospital and/or on life support.

The conditions improved yesterday, so I played hooky from work.

Date: 10 Jun 03
Wx: Clear, winds S 10 kts, high 80s
Seas: ~2ft
Viz: 15ft to 20ft. Obvious fresh water mixing near the surface (runoff from the weekend storms)
Temp: 72 on the bottom. Two thermoclines (50ft and 20ft)
Depth: ~80 ft on all three dives

Two dives on a small, broken bottom reef. The lobsters from a couple week ago were gone, but we saw two short groupers, a few short triggers, one flounder, one 8ft bullshark, several grey snapper, and a few red snappers. It's time to head to the deeper wrecks to find the grouper.

Shot a 22" red snapper on the first dive, and decided to dive the reef again for the greys. Bull showed up 5 minutes into the second dive, so we looked for lobsters until time to leave. Went ahead and shot a 20" grey before heading up the rope.

Last dive on a collapsed barge. A few greys and one flounder. Didn't bother to pull the trigger.

[fernandezh]

Thanks for the report. I heard that the red flags were flying showing that people shouldn't be going in the water because of the current conditions but they went in anyways. It is a pity that people allowed their kids to drown because they take them for granted. It pisses me off to hear things like that. My little girl was kidnapped from her day care by my ex-wife although I had legal custody and I regret those times I was too busy to play with her. I have always heard that everything happens for a reason. I think the reason it happened to me was so that I could tell other people not to take their kids for granted. This is a difficult subject to talk about and I'll end it here.

[Stone]

Originally posted by fernandezh
I heard that the red flags were flying showing that people shouldn't be going in the water because of the current conditions but they went in anyways. It is a pity that people allowed their kids to drown because they take them for granted.

In a twist of fate (that happens a lot), at least three of the adults died trying to save their kids. The kids survived after being saved by other rescuers.