Anybody want to dive a U-boat?

[jviehe]

Great Question!

I am the Chairman of the Decatur Chapter of the xx Scuba Adventure Club. It's an employer sponsored activity club and funded by my employer. By Charter I cannot exclude any qualified xx employee from any club sponsored events. So a certified xx diver with appropriate experience and qualifications trumps everybody else.

We also are associated with three other clubs: the GLSPS in Minnesota, and the SEAS and NNDC clubs in North Alabama. It's an incestuous relationship and the membership lists look sorta like a Kentucky or West Virginia family tree. You keep seeing the same names on a lot of the different trees.

We did the exact same thing last time we went on this trip. We sent the invitations out to the xx Scuba Adventure Club, then the GLSPS and SEAS clubs, and then I posted a very similar thread to this one in this forum. I had between 25 and 30 divers interested initially. When it came time to put the money on the table we had 13 left and 12 of us showed up for the dives. We had 5 xx club members, 1 GLSPS club member, 2 SEAS club members, 3 buddies of xx club members and 2 Deep Dixie Diver buddies pay the charter fees for the last trip.

We've got 16-20 slots we can fill and I'll fill the slots as fairly as I can and will be extremely surprised if we end up with 20 divers that pay for the trip. I hope we don't have 21. I would really hate to tell anyone of my scubaboard buddies who really want to go that we can't take them because all the spots are taken.

AL

No problem here. I fully understand how it goes. I was already planning a trip next summer to NC, just figured someone else doing it made things easier.

 

[Diveral]

might I quote Jaws.... "I think we're gonna need a bigger boat...."

That's a great quote. We've got one of the biggest boats available. We're looking at going out on the Seaquest II with Discovery Diving Discovery Diving Co., Inc. - North Carolina Wreck Diving in the Graveyard of the Atlantic
In all of the club trips we have organized in the past with the exception of a six pack trip, we have never filled all of the seats available on a charter boat. I will be amazed if we do it this time.

AL

 

[Diveral]

No problem here. I fully understand how it goes. I was already planning a trip next summer to NC, just figured someone else doing it made things easier.

Don't throw in the towel yet, I'll bet that you'll be diving with us next summer if you want to. I already know that we have divers on the list who have conflicts with each of the weeks. So when we finally pick a week we'll see some divers drop off. Also when it comes time to write the checks we'll see some more drop off. In that case the extra buddies you and Divin'hoosier say you can bring will pay dividends.

Actually I'm more worried about keeping a minimum number of divers. We need at least 12 paid divers to keep the main East Lodge and set the agenda for the boat. We really need 16 divers to fully control the boat. If we have less than 16 and an inexperienced diver pays Discovery for a charter and hops on the boat with us we won't be diving the U-boat or another deep wreck that day. If we have 16 divers the boat belongs to us and Discovery will not add any additional divers to the Charter.

AL

 

[Diveral]

I just got off the phone with Bill at Discovery and here are the Updates (Please be aware that the listed prices may exclude taxes so some of the actual costs could end up higher):

1. We've got the East lodge for 6 nights at $20ea/night. ($120/diver and I'm not sure when we have to pay for it)
2. We can add a day to the June dates so June 24-28 or July 8-11 are our target charters. We'll finalize the week by early November. Currently we are leaning towards the June dives as we have fewer divers with a conflict in June (Sorry mikerault).
3. The Seaquest can carry 20 divers so we have 20 spots we can fill.
4. We're chartering 3 regular days at $105/diver, 1 special day at $130/diver, and 1 long day at $115/diver. Expect to be blown out some while we are there so we'll be very fortunate if we get to dive all 5 days. Discovery will refund the charter fees for any days for which they call the dives.
5. I have to provide Discovery a deposit check in December, so everyone who's going will need to send me a deposit check for $105 before Dec 1.
6. The charter fees are going to cost $560 for all 5 days. Right now there is an additional $7/day fuel surcharge which isn't included in the $560.
7. We will need to pay Discovery the remaining balance for the charter fees in May, so everyone who goes needs to send me ~ $455 on May 1 (We may need to add the $120 lodging fee to this check). Note!!! These fees become non-refundable 30 days prior to the trip!!!
8. We show up and go diving
9. Oh yeah, I need everyone that's committed to going on this dive to PM me a good e-mail address so we can update and track everything via e-mail.


Here's a list of dive sites: DDC Dive Sites
Here's a sample agenda:
Day 1: Easy adjustment day- Carib Sea and Portland or Spar and Indra
Day 2: U-352 and Suliode or Atlas and Verbena
Day 3: Special Day Proteus and Carib Sea or Cassimer and Aeolus
Day 4: Schurz and Ario(Hutton)
Day 5: Hutton(Papoose) and Spar

Geterdone
AL

 

[jeepbrew]

I went last year and had a blast! Looking forward to next year's trip now...

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I'm looking forward to diving with you guys next summer. I've done a good amount of Great Lakes wreck diving but I've really been wanting to dive some of the wrecks off of NC.

Thanks Allen for the heads up about the trip!

One question ... I just wanted to confirm that Discovery Divers allows doubles.

 

[jeepbrew]

One question ... I just wanted to confirm that Discovery Divers allows doubles.

You can always call them and ask, but from what I could tell last year, they don't care what size tank you dive with. I will be taking my HP130s.

 

[Diveral]

I've gotten a reply from Discovery about doubles. They are very doubles friendly and have no problems with divers carrying doubles for the trip. However they emphasized that this is a Rec charter and we're planning on diving 2 different sites every day. So no tech deco profiles and no extended bottom times different than what the divers with singles are doing.

AL

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I've gotten a reply from Discovery about doubles. They are very doubles friendly and have no problems with divers carrying doubles for the trip. However they emphasized that this is a Rec charter and we're planning on diving 2 different sites every day. So no tech deco profiles and no extended bottom times different than what the divers with singles are doing.

AL

Sounds great. We see recreational doubles all the time up here on the Great Lakes. Many rec divers chose to dive doubles for the redundacy and increased safety factor due to the cold water and frequently dark conditions on the wrecks and not necessarily for technical diving.

I understand this as a rec charter and if I'm able to make the trip I would plan on doing two recreational wreck divers per trip.

Thanks for following up on this Allen.

 

[Diveral]

Well it's time to resurrect this thread. We've put together a U-boat and wreck diving expedition to Cape Lookout NC for June 24 - 28th. We'll be diving with Discovery Diving and staying in their dive lodge. Discovery Diving Co., Inc. - North Carolina Wreck Diving in the Graveyard of the Atlantic

We'll probably be diving the U-352, Schurz, Box Wreck, Cassimer, Hutton, Carib Sea, Atlas, Spar, etc.

We've lost 4 divers this week due to medical issues and have at least 6 spots open. So PM me with an e-mail address if you are interested and I will send you more detailed information. You can post general questions in the forum.

We'll have a carpooling groups leaving from the B'ham and Decatur, AL areas.

AL