INSHORE-TYPICALLY 8 MILES AND LESS FROM THE PASS
Normal inshore trips are to the Black Bart, Black Pearl and Span 14 or the USS Strength, Red Sea or one of the Spans ( 2, 12) in their vicinity. Shipwrecks are typically 75' deep to the sand with most of the dive being above 60'. The sites listed here arre grouped with the other nearby sites that would constitute the 2nd dive on a 2 tank dive charter.
The Original Hathaway Bridge completed in 1929. The Hathaway and DuPont Bridges began construction at the same time in a effort to connect the port and rail system of the area the the growing state road system and spur developement in the area. These were concurrent projects with Henry Flagler's Ocerseas Highway to Key West for some historical context. Panama City has 17 of these spans, 3 vfrom the DuPont Bridge and 14 from the Hathaway Bridge. The "inshore" were all knocked over by Hurricane Micheal, while the "Offshore" versions tend to still be upright and more intact.
SOUTH WEST
The Black Bart- 180' Oil Field Supply Vessel
Black Pearl- 100' movie prop vessel from Pirates of the carribean.
Hovercraft- Former military Amphibious Assault Craft
Hathaway Bridge Span 14- Metal Truss Span 110' long (collapsed)
Warsaw Hole- Natural limestone reef (liveboat dive only)
East
Red Sea Tug- 110' Tug Boat
Bridge Span 12 and Span 2 (collapsed)
USS Strength (below)- Naval Minesweeper, sunk with explosives.
West
Oleander Reef- A limestone ledge
Heaven Reef- A limestone ledge and fragmented hardbottom ecosystem.
Bridge Spans 5 & 6 (Original Hathaway Bridge- now collapsed)
Offshore- Advanced-Adventure Cert and Nitrox is required for these dives
Dives are typically 100-110' to the sand with structure starting around 70'. The dive sites are more than 12 miles from the pass.
South West of he pass
Tarpon - Steam driven ship sunk during a storm with beer and flour onboard.
(picture needed)
Commander- Small Tug Boat sunk by fire, typicall considered too small for a group of more than 2 divers.
Hornblower Tug and Spools- A 90' tug boat connected to tqo large steel spools by excursion lines.
Stage 1
Stage 1- Old Naval Diving Stage which is Similar to an oil rig in structure. After it s useful life was over the legs we collapsed with explosives.
Hathaway Bridge Spans 7-10- Depths to the sand range from 100-110' on these heavily encrusted spans.
Grey Ghost- 27 miles from the pass, This small tog boat is mostly note worthy as being the original artificial reef from Panama City and that it lays on a nice natural limestone reef.
South of the Pass
Accokeek- Another retired Naval Support vessel, the Accokeek is a fantiastic dive. She is 180' long with many swim throughs and large resident Goliath Grouper.
DuPont Bridge Spans-Part of the DuPont Bridge that connects Panama City to Tyndal AFB and the Forgotten Coast. Theese Spans were deployed in 2009 and are slightly larger than the Hathaway Spans.
El Dorado- A Casino ship grounded by two hurricanes and deployed as a sdive site in 2019. It is 180' from DuPont Span 3 and we hope to have a bread crumb trail of reef modules between the two sites.
The 144' long casino ship "El Dorado" shortly before sinking. She has taken signifigant damage from storms since her sinking.
The Twin Tugs- Originally deployed Bow to Bow, these tugs are now on top of one another courtesy of a passing hurricane.
Mac's Reef- A former navy salvage training vessel, the work barge is a fun multilevel site with fun swim thrtoughs.
Chippewa- A retired military tug/utility vessel. This is another of Panama City's must dive shipwrecks.
BJ Putnam
Bridge Span 3
Bridge Span 13
Technical Dives
Deep Stim-70-135' depth profile on this 300' long oil field fracking vessel makes this an excellent deep dive, or training platform for technical students.
3 to 5s Reef 130-160fsw
Birmingham Queen 150fsw
USCG Zennia 180fsw
USS Ozark 330fsw
