Mike and Mark Whibbs (Mike's brother-n-law) met us at a dock in Gulf Breeze this morning at 6:30 with Mark's 25 foot fishing boat. A thunderstorm had just passed overhead and we loaded all the SCUBA gear and took off for an old Liberty Ship that had been sunk by Nazis during WWII. Side note: Nazis are like Muslims only nicer. The ship was about 6 miles out into the gulf and at 85 feet. We set anchor. That took a couple of times, we kept drifting. Mike finally dropped the anchor right on top of the wreck and Mark went down the anchor line to check that it would hold. In the mean time Tyler and Mary were working into a state of "Green Gills". Mary recovered and Tyler made several offers to Neptune, the God of the Sea. When we got all the dive gear straight Tyler and joined Mark in the first dive, following along with camera in hand. Mark brought a Speargun but had no luck. We all came to the top about 30 minutes later for a much needed break. Mike and Mary dropped several lines into the water and
had already had many bites when we joined them. We needed to wait about an hour between dives so most of us picked up fishing rods. I hooked into 3 fish but was only able to bring one to the boat deck, a red snapper about 3.5 pounds. Not 5 minutes later I was standing next to Mike talking about the fact that "I had not gotten skunked and how happy I was" when Mike hooked into another snapper ruining my ability to tease him. Mike landed his snapper but it was to small to eat except on a cracker or something. After the fish going on ice Mark, Tyler and I put the dive gear back on and dropped down for another round around the sunken ship. The 2nd dive went even better than the 1st and at one point we were surrounded with hundreds of 4 foot Amber Jacks. The way back to dock we lost an engine but I think the slow down helped everyone recover their stable stomach. The whole experience was incredible and I can't say thanks enough to our hosts Mike and Mark.
