packman
Contributor
I went down to Beaufort this past weekend and dove Saturday and Sunday and the diving was, in a word, incredible. The weather was great (except for a short rain band going out Sat.), water was warm (water temp in the mid-upper 70s everywhere I went), visibility was excellent, and critters were everywhere.
On Saturday, we dove the U-352 and Spar. Visibility on both wrecks was 50' or better. A stingray decided to camp out at the U-boat while we were there. At the Spar, there were even more fish...barracuda, amber jacks, spade fish, and a big school of silver bait fish that made it look like flash bulbs going off when they moved. The spades were so numerous and content where they were, that I had to push them aside as I swam through the wheel house.:biggrin:
On Sunday, we went across the shoals and dove the Atlas and CaribSea. The Atlas has the poorest visibility of all the wrecks and it was 40' or so. As soon as I decended down to the wreck, I saw a large sand tiger shark hanging out off to the side. One of my dive buddies had a camera and followed the shark away from the wreck. Shortly after watching him disappear into the murkiness, I saw a group of divers chasing after the shark from the opposite side of the wreck with their cameras. They looked like paparazzi chasing after a celebrity.:laugh: There was also a lionfish on the wreck as well as quite a few barracuda. In fact, as we were hanging out on the hang line for our deco stop, there was a group of large barracuda (~3-5 ft long) hanging out there with us. We just hung out watching each other.
The CaribSea was all about sharks. Lots and lots of sharks. The 50' or so of visibility helped too. I did not want to come up.
Overall, a great weekend of diving. Now I need to get a camera so I can take a picture of all this.
On Saturday, we dove the U-352 and Spar. Visibility on both wrecks was 50' or better. A stingray decided to camp out at the U-boat while we were there. At the Spar, there were even more fish...barracuda, amber jacks, spade fish, and a big school of silver bait fish that made it look like flash bulbs going off when they moved. The spades were so numerous and content where they were, that I had to push them aside as I swam through the wheel house.:biggrin:
On Sunday, we went across the shoals and dove the Atlas and CaribSea. The Atlas has the poorest visibility of all the wrecks and it was 40' or so. As soon as I decended down to the wreck, I saw a large sand tiger shark hanging out off to the side. One of my dive buddies had a camera and followed the shark away from the wreck. Shortly after watching him disappear into the murkiness, I saw a group of divers chasing after the shark from the opposite side of the wreck with their cameras. They looked like paparazzi chasing after a celebrity.:laugh: There was also a lionfish on the wreck as well as quite a few barracuda. In fact, as we were hanging out on the hang line for our deco stop, there was a group of large barracuda (~3-5 ft long) hanging out there with us. We just hung out watching each other.
The CaribSea was all about sharks. Lots and lots of sharks. The 50' or so of visibility helped too. I did not want to come up.
Overall, a great weekend of diving. Now I need to get a camera so I can take a picture of all this.
