down4fun
Contributor
Jeff, Adrian, Tony and I headed out with Underwater Explorers of Boyton Beach for a dive on the Skyecliffe. This wreck doesn't see much activity in the way of divers as the current is strong on good days to undivable on bad days. It's a Japanese built freighter that is 317 feet long, 45 feet wide and sits upright and intact in 200 feet of water.
Unfortuantely Tony had some DSV issues and sat the dive out. But Jeff, Adrian and I geared up and got ready for the hot drop. Current today was running 2-3 knots to the north. The wreck lies north south inline with the current with the bow south. So the captain set us up with about a 400 foot lead and we landed dead on the bow. It was a perfect drop.
Once on the wreck viz was about 50 feet. But the thing that struck you immediately was the cup coral. The entire wreck is covered. The current was pushing us towards the back of the wreck where the superstructure is, so we went with it. The wheel house is 4-5 decks high and full of places to go. But as the strong current meets the 70 foot uprising of the wheel house it creates a very strong downward push. One practically has to scale the wheel house to make entry into the upper decks. Then the current flows right through the wheel house and so does the cup coral. I have never see such beautiful flowing cup coral inside a wreck as today.
There is a large opening that drops straight down behind the wheel house that will take you all the way down to the engine room, complete with catwalks. To the stern of the wheel house is some machinery (winches I am guessing?)
Then to the front of the superstructure are some large cargo holds and another structure midship, though smaller than the stern one. The wreck has significant amounts of monofilament and fishing lures. We saw a few large snapper when we first arrived and some amberjacks. But no other large fish. Although the water was very warm all the way down.
Soon our 30 minutes was up and we shot a bag to begin our drift deco. The water tempature for deco was a blamy 87F :shocked2: I had a 5mm and a hood because we have been having some cold water upwellings on the deeper wrecks and i am a weenie. And I paid for it today. I spent much of my deco trying to flush water through my suit to cool me off. There were plenty of moon jellies still in the water but not the infestation of a week ago,
It is a great wreck with amazing growth, one we all came up saying we want to go back to again.
Unfortuantely Tony had some DSV issues and sat the dive out. But Jeff, Adrian and I geared up and got ready for the hot drop. Current today was running 2-3 knots to the north. The wreck lies north south inline with the current with the bow south. So the captain set us up with about a 400 foot lead and we landed dead on the bow. It was a perfect drop.
Once on the wreck viz was about 50 feet. But the thing that struck you immediately was the cup coral. The entire wreck is covered. The current was pushing us towards the back of the wreck where the superstructure is, so we went with it. The wheel house is 4-5 decks high and full of places to go. But as the strong current meets the 70 foot uprising of the wheel house it creates a very strong downward push. One practically has to scale the wheel house to make entry into the upper decks. Then the current flows right through the wheel house and so does the cup coral. I have never see such beautiful flowing cup coral inside a wreck as today.
There is a large opening that drops straight down behind the wheel house that will take you all the way down to the engine room, complete with catwalks. To the stern of the wheel house is some machinery (winches I am guessing?)
Then to the front of the superstructure are some large cargo holds and another structure midship, though smaller than the stern one. The wreck has significant amounts of monofilament and fishing lures. We saw a few large snapper when we first arrived and some amberjacks. But no other large fish. Although the water was very warm all the way down.
Soon our 30 minutes was up and we shot a bag to begin our drift deco. The water tempature for deco was a blamy 87F :shocked2: I had a 5mm and a hood because we have been having some cold water upwellings on the deeper wrecks and i am a weenie. And I paid for it today. I spent much of my deco trying to flush water through my suit to cool me off. There were plenty of moon jellies still in the water but not the infestation of a week ago,
It is a great wreck with amazing growth, one we all came up saying we want to go back to again.
