I took my 2 sons to Beaufort, NC for several days of diving. They've done lots of cold quarry diving here in PA and a few days in the Caribbean on cruise stops, but this was their first experience with ocean boat diving. It was a great trip overall.
Beaufort is a quaint little coastal town. It was very easy to find an AirBNB to stay in, plus there are lots of hotels close by. It's right next to Morehead City, which has several great dive shops, including Olympus Dive Center (which I used last year on a drive trip and reviewed here.)
I used Discovery Diving for this trip because I could book 4 half-day inshore (shallower) charters ahead of time. One of my sons was only 14, and while he is a PADI rescue diver and very comfortable in the water, all of the shops said he couldn't dive on the deeper offshore wrecks.
Discovery Diving was a great operation. Booking ahead of time was very easy, they were organized and great to work with.
BOAT: Captain's Lady
All of the sites were wrecks. The Captain would drop an anchor then maneuver the boat to catch the anchor on the wreck.
Day 1: Blown out due to weather
Day 2: 2 dives on the Indra, a 400' wreck which only has the bow and stern intact (there's a 330' debris field between the two). We anchored into the bow, visibility was only about 30'. Probably the worst dive of the week but still good.
Day 3: 2 dives on the Caribsea. The wreck is still pretty intact, so there's a lot to see. There were A LOT of sand tiger sharks.
Day 4: Only got about 15 minutes out before we turned back due to large waves. The Captain thought it might be okay but when we starting passing all the earlier boats that had already turned around, he decided to turn around too.
Day 5: 2 dives on the Aeolus. This is a deep wreck (110' to the sand) which was my favorite of the trip. The stern is still very much intact and large, so you can see the cross section of the decks very easily. We weren't supposed to be diving this day but since we got blown out the day before, they were able to add us last minute. My younger son and wife were already scheduled to go fishing that day, so it was just my 16-year-old son and me.
My only complaint was that the anchor line didn't have a strobe at the bottom, which made it harder to see on the first dive. After that I attached my own bright XDeep strobe (2500 lumens) to the line (like most other ocean charters do).
Overall it was a great trip. Captain Leroy was great, we all had a good time, and I highly recommend Discovery Diving. Beaufort has enough little things to do that my non-diving wife was happy while we were off diving.
Beaufort is a quaint little coastal town. It was very easy to find an AirBNB to stay in, plus there are lots of hotels close by. It's right next to Morehead City, which has several great dive shops, including Olympus Dive Center (which I used last year on a drive trip and reviewed here.)
I used Discovery Diving for this trip because I could book 4 half-day inshore (shallower) charters ahead of time. One of my sons was only 14, and while he is a PADI rescue diver and very comfortable in the water, all of the shops said he couldn't dive on the deeper offshore wrecks.
Discovery Diving was a great operation. Booking ahead of time was very easy, they were organized and great to work with.
BOAT: Captain's Lady
- Holds 6 divers plus the captain
- Shade, but no head
- AED, oxygen, first aid kit
- Plenty of snacks and water for surface interval
All of the sites were wrecks. The Captain would drop an anchor then maneuver the boat to catch the anchor on the wreck.
Day 1: Blown out due to weather
Day 2: 2 dives on the Indra, a 400' wreck which only has the bow and stern intact (there's a 330' debris field between the two). We anchored into the bow, visibility was only about 30'. Probably the worst dive of the week but still good.
Day 3: 2 dives on the Caribsea. The wreck is still pretty intact, so there's a lot to see. There were A LOT of sand tiger sharks.
Day 4: Only got about 15 minutes out before we turned back due to large waves. The Captain thought it might be okay but when we starting passing all the earlier boats that had already turned around, he decided to turn around too.
Day 5: 2 dives on the Aeolus. This is a deep wreck (110' to the sand) which was my favorite of the trip. The stern is still very much intact and large, so you can see the cross section of the decks very easily. We weren't supposed to be diving this day but since we got blown out the day before, they were able to add us last minute. My younger son and wife were already scheduled to go fishing that day, so it was just my 16-year-old son and me.
My only complaint was that the anchor line didn't have a strobe at the bottom, which made it harder to see on the first dive. After that I attached my own bright XDeep strobe (2500 lumens) to the line (like most other ocean charters do).
Overall it was a great trip. Captain Leroy was great, we all had a good time, and I highly recommend Discovery Diving. Beaufort has enough little things to do that my non-diving wife was happy while we were off diving.
