I was in Morehead this past weekend. Elected
not to go out Sat. (5 ft seas 6 seconds apart). Wind died down Sat
night and we had a wonderful day Sunday. A pretty big but gentle
swell on the trip out, lake Atlantic when we arrived at the
site. Dove the Cassimer and a nearby ledge. Water temp was running
82 from the surface to about 60ft where we hit a little thermocline
that dropped it to 77 from there to the bottom. Visibility was
between 60 and 70 ft, not bad at all considering the sea state the
day before. My first time at both sites. The Cassimer is a very nice
dive, only covered about half of the wreck (from the boilers to the
bow) Everyone had a great time on the ledges, even though all the
lobsters grabbed had eggs and had to be released.
Looking forward to getting back down there again with everyone on
the 18th and 19th. Gina and I will be leaving around noon on Friday,
should be there by 6 pm. We are staying at the Quality Inn. My cell
# is 434-996-7437. I'm thinking Raps Bar and Grill for dinner Friday
evening if anyone would care to join us.
The boat will leave at 6:30am Sat morning. Please take
note, We may very well not be able to make it wait if someone is
running late. Time, tide and the Diver Down wait for no one. Please
arrive at the boat by 6am to allow plenty of time to load up and
sign releases, if you are getting tanks from the boat you may want
to be even a few minutes earlier than that. Please do check out the
Trip Policy statement at the Diver Down's website for some general
info and common boat diving tips.
http://www.diverdownscubadiving.com/information.htm and
http://www.diverdownscubadiving.com/ and of course please email
or call me if you have any questions. Wind, weather and Capt. Bob
will have the final say, but I'm tentatively thinking of the Schurz
and the U352 for Sat. and the Papoose and Aeolus or Aeolus and Indra
for Sunday.
See ya soon,
Gordon
Sunday August 13, 2006
I had a very fortunate opportunity to dive the Bow
Mariner and Marine Electric this past Sunday.
The Bow Mariner was a 540 ft long
tanker sunk just over two years ago. She rests in 260ft off water 48 miles
off the Eastern Shore. We tied into the top of the bridge at 140ft. Vis was
in excess of 100ft, temp was 54 and no current. I had tables cut for 19/35
Trimix with EAN 70 for deco. Max depth for my dive 210ft, 25 minutes of bottom
time with a total runtime of 75 minutes.
From the tie in, I dropped down
to the main deck and spent my dive slowly working up the superstructure
exploring/checking out a little of each level. I entered the bridge/wheelhouse
through a window on the port side and exited through a window in the very
front of the bridge, pausing as I exited I could see the entire width of
the beam below me.
It's hard to put into words just how visually
spectacular this wreck is. My allowed 25 minutes went by way too quickly,
and I starting kicking myself for not swimming back and checking out the
view over the end of the stern. Without a doubt this "tops" any dive I've ever done
and I'm sure will rank up there for quite a while!
Our second dive was on the Marine Electric, a wreck
I've wanted to do for a long time. Thanks to Mike Marks who lent me his
doubles, I had a fresh set of tanks ready to go. My max depth for this dive was
120ft. Vis was maybe >25ft. The wreck is broken in two pieces, we tied in to
the Stern section near the collapsed bridge.
I didn't really get a good
feel for the layout of the wreck but I did poke around quite a bit. I'm sure
the wreck would have been much more impressive had it not been right after
the Bow Mariner and I definitely would like to get some more time on her.
Sunday August 6, 2006
I was crewing as Divemaster on the Big Time this past
Sunday. Also on the boat from our local dive community was Eric Horton and
Chris Coates. We were scheduled to dive the Cuyahoga but after a little
discussion in the inlet on the way out the divers elected to go to the Morgan
instead. When I hit the water to tie in, I was greeted by clear, warm blue
water and a good sized school of spade fish.
The warm clear water lasted all
of maybe 50ft and then I knew I was "back home". Vis on the wreck dropped
down to the normal 15 or so ft, bottom temp was in the upper 50's. Everyone
onboard had good dives and I know Eric and Chris especially had very
productive dives.
Sunday July 29, 2006
Two weeks and no Ocean dives. I did head down the
Rawlings with Kevin Jones to try out some of the goodies Dive Rite had out for
their demo day.
July 14, 15 and 16, 2006
Gina and I went down to Morehead City this past
weekend and joined our good friends Roy and Kim Cowan for Roy's annual prime time
Diver Down trip. Roy is a regular Divemaster for the Diver Down but for this
one weekend the boat is his. Seas were a little rough Friday so we did both
dives on the Caribsea. This wreck is known for it's Sand Tiger
population and didn't let us down this time.
Unfortunately, we were joined by
two other crew boats during our surface interval. Gina and spent most of
our second dive off the wreck in the sand out from the bow swimming with the sharks.
Saturday we were blown out but still spent the day
"underwater" at the Aquarium. Conditions Sunday were perfect. Did our first dive on
the Papoose. Gina finally got to use her new camera and got some good
lion fish shots. Our second dive was on the U 352. The vis here was just
amazing. From the bottom at 110ft you could look up and clearly see the boat. Horizontally, you could almost see the entire length of the sub. 80 degrees
top to bottom. Morehead City and Gulf Stream diving is the best!!!
Sunday July 9, 2006
Dive Connections reserved the boat this past Sunday
for a SeaDevil trip. I was joined by Chris Coates and Brian Miller
who were
doing Wreck specialty dives. Gina was on board and diving with her good
buddy Greg Downer. Last minute scheduling problems kept Claudia Roussos
from
joining us.
Stan Karpinski was our Divemaster and expertly tied us in
right beside a large stockpile of the Morgan's famous 90mm shells, about
half way between the stern and the remaining high piece of hull and
superstructure. Water temp was in the upper 50's and visibility was at least 40
ft, probably one of the best days I've seen diving at Va Beach.
Gina had two
great dives with Greg. Chris and Brian completed 2 of their dives toward
their wreck specialty and I'm sure they will be back wreck diving again soon.
Sunday, July 2, 2006
With the "Big Time" not running this past Sunday (no customers), I had an
opportunity to do a little diving off a private boat instead.
The boat was a 2006 28' Parker with twin 250hp 4 strokes. These were the
first dives off the boat, but it was set up for diving as well as many of
the commercial dive boats I've been on.
Our first wreck was the Schooner. An unidentified 19th century sailing
vessel. Our second dive found us tied up to the Kurn. No monster lobster
this time but there were a lot of flounder on both wrecks.
Both sites are a little over 100ft deep. Bottom temp was around 56
degrees and vis was very good, 30ft or better, conditions top side were
perfect.
The Big Time did go out the Sat before and the divers reported 50ft vis
on the Morgan. I'll be heading to the Morgan next Sunday with a group from
Dive Connections (July 9th). Gina and I have a long weekend in Morehead
City, NC the following weekend (July 14 thru 17) and I'll be in Ocean City
diving on July 21st.
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Eric Horton and I made the trip down to Va Beach this Sunday for
another day of wreck diving. We met Capt. Steve and the other divers
on the trip at Marina Shores for a very early 6am leave time.
Our plan was to make the 60 mile run south to the wreck of the Chenango
but the threat of roughs sea's and winds to the south of us caused us to
change our plans. We decided on the Cuyahoga instead.
The 125ft long Coast Guard Cutter (built in 1927) was sunk as an
artificial reef in 1978. The wreck is still intact and resting upright
in 115ft water. Bottom t
emp
was a comfortable 55 degrees, vis +/- 15 ft, no current and 1 to 2 foot
seas. T he Cuyahoga was a very fun dive, one of the few intact wrecks we
have. Small size, easy swim through penetrations and home to Sea Bass,
Tautog, Flounder, a few Lobsters and even two Angel Sharks.
Our second dive found us about a mile away on the Kurn. The Kurn
was a 250ft long Navy Ocean going tug, also sunk as an artificial reef.
She is broken into two pieces with the small stern section resting upright
and the larger bow section upside down in 100ft of water. Eric and I
spent most of our dive exploring over, under and through the upside down bow
section. Lots of Flounder and Lobster, including two of the biggest
ones I have ever seen.
One of them eventually brought up by another diver on the boat, the other
(even larger) still hiding out under the bow.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
I made the short trip down to Va Beach once again this Sunday, joined by
fellow SeaDevils Gina Petrucci, John Dawson, John Williams and
Eric Horton.
We had chartered the dive boat "The Big Time" through Dive Quarters.
Captain Steve picked us up at Marina Shores and in 2 to 3 foot seas we
headed out to our dive site, the wreck of the Margaret P. Hanks. The
Hanks is a former clam dredger lying on her starboard side in about 65ft of
water. We had 12 to 15ft of vis, mild current and a bottom temp of 54
degrees. Pretty typical conditions for Va Beach diving this time of
year. Surfacing from our first dive, we were greeted by a building
sea. The 4 to 5 footers made it an interesting climb back into the
boat. We were lucky enough to be joined by a curious Loggerhead during
our surface interval who seemed very interested in the boat and again after
the second dive by a very large pod of Dolphins.
Eric and I are going back again this Sunday to dive the Chenango. I'll be
with a group of SeaDevils in Nags Head the following weekend. Back at
the beach July 2nd and we have the whole boat reserved July 9th for a
SeaDevil trip. If anyone is interested joining us just call Dive
Connections or email me (gordons@connect2diving.com)
if you have any questions.
