SFLDiver3445
Contributor
On Monday, February 15th, I dusted off the dive gear and my underwater camera, and went out with a friend for a quick dive in Pompano to dive the Rodeo 25.
We hooked the wreck on the first try, then geared up to see what was going on down below. The wreck sits in approx. 125' of water and is pretty twisted up, but this once 215' long freighter usually makes for a nice dive. The water temperature was approximately 71 degrees on the bottom and there was a nice current on the wreck.
Immediately upon arriving on the wreck, we spotted two very large bull sharks off the starboard side, low to the sand and near the wreck. My buddy Jeff swam down towards them, in hopes of snapping a couple of shots of them, but I don't think they liked the bursting of his strobes too much. However, since Jeff and I were diving rebreathers, which as you know are pretty silent, the sharks did complete a couple of passes on him, but never got close enough for him to photograph them properly with the wide angle lens he was using.
We had anchored mid-ship of the wreck, and did manage to make our way to the bow and back to the stern during out 45 minute dive, but we did have to work a bit, because the current was fairly strong - Let's just say, we spent a lot of time hiding in and behind the structure of the wreck to avoid the current.
The visibility was nice, probably well in excell of 80+ feet, and the water had a nice blue color to it.
This is a nice wreck to dive, and it appears to be getting even nicer every day. The one thing that stood out to me was the amount of cup corals growing on the wreck. We were fortunate that the current was flowing, because the orange and yellow arms of the coral were open, and flowing beautifully. I did manage to take a few pictures while down below, but haven't had the time to edit all of them yet. However, I did manage to get through a couple, which might give you an idea of just how beautiful the corals on this wreck are.
Here's a picture of Jeff posing with his camera behind some beautiful corals:
And here's another shot of just the corals:
The entire ship is slowly being covered in similar coral, but it's difficult to see until you acutlly hit it with light, but as the picture shows, it's there!
I've dove this wreck many times over the last couple of years, but I do not remember this heavy a concentration of growth on it. In my opinion, at this rate of growth, this wreck, much like the Hydro Atlantic which is also covered in this coral, will soon be one of the nicest dives in the area, especially for photographers!
After completing our required decompression, we surfaced, had lunch and attempted to dive the Wreck of the Captain Dan. We attempted to hook the wreck a few separate times, without success, so we took it as a sign that it was not meant to be and terminated out attempts and called it a day. We had no regrets, because after seeing the large sharks and the beautiful colors on the Rodeo 25, we were more than satisfied with our diving adventures for the day!
We hooked the wreck on the first try, then geared up to see what was going on down below. The wreck sits in approx. 125' of water and is pretty twisted up, but this once 215' long freighter usually makes for a nice dive. The water temperature was approximately 71 degrees on the bottom and there was a nice current on the wreck.
Immediately upon arriving on the wreck, we spotted two very large bull sharks off the starboard side, low to the sand and near the wreck. My buddy Jeff swam down towards them, in hopes of snapping a couple of shots of them, but I don't think they liked the bursting of his strobes too much. However, since Jeff and I were diving rebreathers, which as you know are pretty silent, the sharks did complete a couple of passes on him, but never got close enough for him to photograph them properly with the wide angle lens he was using.
We had anchored mid-ship of the wreck, and did manage to make our way to the bow and back to the stern during out 45 minute dive, but we did have to work a bit, because the current was fairly strong - Let's just say, we spent a lot of time hiding in and behind the structure of the wreck to avoid the current.
The visibility was nice, probably well in excell of 80+ feet, and the water had a nice blue color to it.
This is a nice wreck to dive, and it appears to be getting even nicer every day. The one thing that stood out to me was the amount of cup corals growing on the wreck. We were fortunate that the current was flowing, because the orange and yellow arms of the coral were open, and flowing beautifully. I did manage to take a few pictures while down below, but haven't had the time to edit all of them yet. However, I did manage to get through a couple, which might give you an idea of just how beautiful the corals on this wreck are.
Here's a picture of Jeff posing with his camera behind some beautiful corals:
And here's another shot of just the corals:
The entire ship is slowly being covered in similar coral, but it's difficult to see until you acutlly hit it with light, but as the picture shows, it's there!
I've dove this wreck many times over the last couple of years, but I do not remember this heavy a concentration of growth on it. In my opinion, at this rate of growth, this wreck, much like the Hydro Atlantic which is also covered in this coral, will soon be one of the nicest dives in the area, especially for photographers!
After completing our required decompression, we surfaced, had lunch and attempted to dive the Wreck of the Captain Dan. We attempted to hook the wreck a few separate times, without success, so we took it as a sign that it was not meant to be and terminated out attempts and called it a day. We had no regrets, because after seeing the large sharks and the beautiful colors on the Rodeo 25, we were more than satisfied with our diving adventures for the day!
