We had a pretty good weekend in Panama

City Beach. After all of my misadventures on Friday, we got down to Panama City around 8:00 p.m., and loaded up the boat for the morning.

On Saturday morning, we headed out on Captain Bill's El Tortuga. There were five of us: me, Capt. Bill, my friend Mike C., John the Astronomer and Matt from New Orleans. A nice small crew for a dive trip.

Saturday's weather was delightful: sunny, warm and calm. Our first dive was relatively shallow over some sandy flats and to a nearby jetty. We saw a few grouper and schools of assorted "bait fish." Mike C. found a sea spider on the jetty, and played around with it for our amusement, letting it crawl over his arms and shoulders. Our second dive was at an old sunken barge. Here, visibility was pretty low (about 5 feet), but I managed to make out some clown fish, angel fish, and another couple of grouper. The barge itself had some big holes that looked like good moray habitats, but none came out to greet us.

That night, after dinner, we watched the Red Sox win Game 1 of the World Series, 11-9.

Sunday was overcast and a little breezier, and the seas had about one-foot swells. It was still a fine day, although New Orleans Matt got seasick when we stopped and let the El Tortuga roll in the waves. Our first dive was back at the barge, where we were hoping for some better vis, but were disappointed to find it about the same, and our second dive was back at the jetty, with about the same result as yesterday.

We got back to the dock around 1:00 p.m. and headed home. Instead of riding back with Capt. Bill, I let Matt from New Orleans travel with him, and rode instead with Mike C. and John the Astronomer. We had to drop Mike C. off in Tallahassee, where he was meeting his wife for a week in Florida, and John the Astronomer and I rode back together to Atlanta. By the time we got back to the unsellable condo in Vinings, Game 2 of the World Series was already on the radio. I listened to the game as I drove the Jeep, with its driver's side window held up with duct tape, back to Collier Hills, where the house had not been burglarized over the weekend, and there I watched the Red Sox win Game 2 of the World Series, 6-2.