So today was the big day for 4 of us to try out a new charter and get together for the first time since the Ginnie trip - i think it went well.
I arrived around 7.50 to the shop and signed in, unpacked and hauled down to the boat (its about 40ft long, has a cover over about 2/3's the length to keep you shaded - nice, only the last 3 spots of 8 on each side were uncovered at most). Whilst unpacking onboard Scubafool aka David and his buddy Cathryn show up and get on board. Andy as always is a "little" later than us, but we get away in time. Due to our location right by the step at the pier, it was a little disruptive during gear set-up, but no bother, then we played music tanks whilst they get Andy's air tanks over from the other side of the boat - we still all sat together. So we pull out of the dock, cruise slowly to the inlet and motor at a good lick for about 30-40mins out about 10 miles offshore to do our two dives.
Seas were barely a foot of swell - essentially calm, it was probably high-80's out there, but the sea breeze took the edge off. Water temps were high 70-low 80's above the thermocline and mid-high 60's below (i wore a 3mm and didnt get cold, but some guy called notH2Andy got a little chilly the second dive). First thing i will say to the favour of the charter is that unlike SE FL, where they want you off NOW to drift together (they only have a small drifting window) - here we had as much time as we needed, no pressure diving, i like that. Second is that due to the close proximity of the wrecks there, we only motored for a short time on the SI, the engines were off most of the time - again unlike the drift dives where i feel sick due to the diesel fumes sucked in on an idling boat just waiting there - i like the anchoring thing too, i didnt even begin to get sick once
Dive 1 - USS Mindanao (named after a Falklands Island wouldnt you know - i was told). So this boat was sunk minus the superstructure in about 80-90ft of water, at some point it split in two and the sections are about 30yds apart, the original length was 446ft - however we didnt see all of it. So as we were suited up and waiting on Andy again, we decided to drop in and wait it out. After he got in, we went down the anchor line to the southern section of the boat (the stern), we searched a little for the rope leading to the other section (to the north and downcurrent), drifted over there and checked out the other part. There was a large cargo hold area that was open to current (like one wall taken off as it split at that point) and there were literally hundreds of spadefish there and a few other types too. I saw my first Goliath Grouper (Jewfish to the non-PC out there), it was about 4-5ft long, not huge, but a fair size. So we go around this hold area shining lights in to the various nooks and crannies, plenty of fish to see. We swim back up to the main part, the viz is only about 20ft and i lose Andy for a moment, not the first or last time today! So we check out the hull (down to just about 90ft) a little and ride up on top of the wreck at around 65ft (where the superstructure would have been) to start the whole offgassing thing and multilevel a little back up. Check out a few dozen holes in the deck and look see what is inside with lights - couldnt see too far from the outside, but seeing as we are near our ending pressure there is not much point dropping in the large hold areas. So there are literally hundreds of these little hatch type areas to glance into of which we chose only a few. Up the line with David and Cathryn, just enough current to either grab the line or just gently kick towards it during the safety stop (just dont take your eyes off the line or group hanging on it for too long). It was about a 34 min dive, max 92ft, ave around 64ft. I would like to go back and check out some more of that wreck where i didnt look before - maybe next time, it was a big wreck. There were supposed to be some swim throughs around the rudder and in a side cargo door or something, but we didnt see those - more reason to go back.
We get up for at least an hour SI, they have pineapple, cantalope, watermelon, crackers and water - what more do you need around 10.30am? Dive 2 - Atlas Barge, a 100ft long old wooden topped barge - the wood has eroded and all that were left were a mess of ribs, keeline and other such metal parts. We went in, after we got through the thermocline again, Andy signals he is cold, will go up and we will see him later - i join up with David and Cathryn - there is a group of AOW students coming down after us, so i reckon he will have someone to see a problem. I would have liked to go up with him, and even stated that i would like to stay with my buddy at all times if possible - guess who went back on their view there? We were barely a minute into the dive anyway. So we toured the wreck, there were a couple of ribs stuck up that were large enough to swim through and almost lined up for a straight shot (maybe about 5ft triangles to swim thru). There was also a pile of rocks and stuff that some of the fish were just jumping around in between, like hornets around a nest, also there was a narrow channel that if you were on your game (or if you bulldozed it by holding onto the sand or wreck to pull along) - about 1.5-2 shoulder widths wide that you could gently move along and i saw more fish under the hull whilst going along that narrow channel than i saw elsewhere on that wreck - not that there werent fish on the wreck, but there were loads under there - i guess most people dont look there and that is where they hide when the divers come. That wreck was an enjoyable pootle around, not much i didnt see on that one. Max ~76ft i think, ave 54ft and we were down about 37 mins.
The ride in was quicker than i thought it would be, but a nice resting period. There were about 5-6 spero's on the boat (its also a charter for that kind of diving), but they didnt impede us too much - but all i can see spearfishing on wrecks - shotting fish in a barrel
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That was pretty much it, a pair of enjoyable dives with these 2 guys and girl, viz wasnt great (they thought partly due to the upwelling of the ocean currents which brought in the colder water (<70) and poorer viz) but all in all i would recommend them. The dives were $65 for a two tanker inc tanks ($60 BYO Tank), a bit on the steep side, but not bad considering the service and nice attitude of the crew.
Would look forward to doing the same kind of thing with others in the future.
