I finally got down to Pensacola this weekend to dive the Oriskany. The dive was an absolute blast. The seas were calm, the water was warm, and the vis was excellent. Heres the dive report:
We arrived in Pensacola on Friday night and met up at the Fish House for some dinner and to meet the guy that helped arrange the dives. The restaurant is also at the same dock as the dive boats so that worked out well. We had some good food, worked through the logistics, and said goodnight.
We got to the dock at 6:00am on Saturday to start loading the boats. We split the group between 2 six packs; the Dr. Dive and the Y-knot. We were doing three tanks so each of the boats was loaded to the gills before we left the dock. I ended up on the Dr. Dive w/ Capt. Jim Meyers. The boat was great, Capt. Jim was a pleasure to work with.
It took us about an hour and fifteen minutes to get out to the big O and there were already a few boats out there. For anyone who hasnt been there, they have a submerged mooring system on the wreck. There are 3-4 mooring balls on or near the superstructure that are about 15 deep. So instead of dragging the anchor and diving down to the superstructure to tie in you can just clip to one of the mooring balls.
Dive #1: We geared up and splashed at about 8:30am. The surface temp was in the high 80s and the visibility was a little murky on top. There were a ton of jellies in the water and several barracuda patrolling the waters near the surface. As we descended on the line, the vis opened up considerably and we were blessed w/ 80ft. vis on the wreck itself. Our mooring ball was tied up to the flight deck, off the port side of the superstructure. I thought we were tied directly to the superstructure so as we descended through 90, 100, 110, I started wondering where the hell I was going. Then I looked to my right and noticed the superstructure about 60 feet away from us. We bounced the deck at 137 then started a swimming ascent around the tower. This is truly a huge wreck. Its just enormous. I we did a couple of laps around and we ascended toward the top of the tower. Bottom time is definitely limited due to depth. I was diving a 29% mix and I was on the edge of going into deco for the second half of the dive. I kept going up and up trying to buy some time until finally we had to head back toward the anchor line. I brought my new 10W HID can light but it was big-time overkill for the conditions. We did a long safety stop and then got back to the boat. During the surface interval we swam over to the Y-knot to see how everyone was doing. They all had a good time. We were surrounded by barracuda in the water, so it was a short visit.
Dive 2: We focuses on the upper superstructure this dive to conserve as much bottom time as possible. It was another great dive. We did some exploring in the wheel house and the flight control tower and some of the other swim throughs. It is pretty easy to get in and out of the tower. Everything, for the most part, is cleaned out and there appeared to be few restrictions or entanglement risks in the areas where I was swimming. You can see a bunch of little plaques and such that former sailors have left on the wreck which was pretty cool. There were a ton of divers on the wreck. I was surprised to see so many boats and so many divers in the water. Mostly recreational stuff but I did see a few tech divers drop over the edge of the flight deck heading to the hangar I presume. At one point I looked up one of the bouy lines and could have sworn that I saw a sun fish (you can kind of see it in the video) but alas, it was just an old rag on the line. Once we exhausted our NDLs once again, we headed to the anchor and ascended.
Dive 3: For our third dive we went to the Russian freighter which was sunk about 50-60 years ago and has definitely seen better days. The wreck was covered in bait fish and there was a school of yellowtails hunting. That was pretty neat to watch. There was also a bunch of barracuda hanging out in the periphery waiting for a chance to grab something. They were some bigger ones in the 4-5ft range. Not a whole lot to report on this one, we just hovered and watched the fish hunt, then cleaned up some mono line that was all of the place.
Once we got back on the boat a huge pod of dolphins came through. There had to have been 30-40 of them. That was pretty neat to watch.
I managed to get some video clips of the second dive on the O. Nothing special, just some horrible camera work and bad music.
All in all, I had a blast. I will definitely go back to the Oriskany once I have some tech training under my belt to explore the nether regions. Theres just so much there that is out of range with recreational gear. It was worth the trip though. I would also highly recommend Dr. Dive if you are looking to charter a six-pack. He was great.
Enjoy the vid!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeWMiLcLau4
We arrived in Pensacola on Friday night and met up at the Fish House for some dinner and to meet the guy that helped arrange the dives. The restaurant is also at the same dock as the dive boats so that worked out well. We had some good food, worked through the logistics, and said goodnight.
We got to the dock at 6:00am on Saturday to start loading the boats. We split the group between 2 six packs; the Dr. Dive and the Y-knot. We were doing three tanks so each of the boats was loaded to the gills before we left the dock. I ended up on the Dr. Dive w/ Capt. Jim Meyers. The boat was great, Capt. Jim was a pleasure to work with.
It took us about an hour and fifteen minutes to get out to the big O and there were already a few boats out there. For anyone who hasnt been there, they have a submerged mooring system on the wreck. There are 3-4 mooring balls on or near the superstructure that are about 15 deep. So instead of dragging the anchor and diving down to the superstructure to tie in you can just clip to one of the mooring balls.
Dive #1: We geared up and splashed at about 8:30am. The surface temp was in the high 80s and the visibility was a little murky on top. There were a ton of jellies in the water and several barracuda patrolling the waters near the surface. As we descended on the line, the vis opened up considerably and we were blessed w/ 80ft. vis on the wreck itself. Our mooring ball was tied up to the flight deck, off the port side of the superstructure. I thought we were tied directly to the superstructure so as we descended through 90, 100, 110, I started wondering where the hell I was going. Then I looked to my right and noticed the superstructure about 60 feet away from us. We bounced the deck at 137 then started a swimming ascent around the tower. This is truly a huge wreck. Its just enormous. I we did a couple of laps around and we ascended toward the top of the tower. Bottom time is definitely limited due to depth. I was diving a 29% mix and I was on the edge of going into deco for the second half of the dive. I kept going up and up trying to buy some time until finally we had to head back toward the anchor line. I brought my new 10W HID can light but it was big-time overkill for the conditions. We did a long safety stop and then got back to the boat. During the surface interval we swam over to the Y-knot to see how everyone was doing. They all had a good time. We were surrounded by barracuda in the water, so it was a short visit.
Dive 2: We focuses on the upper superstructure this dive to conserve as much bottom time as possible. It was another great dive. We did some exploring in the wheel house and the flight control tower and some of the other swim throughs. It is pretty easy to get in and out of the tower. Everything, for the most part, is cleaned out and there appeared to be few restrictions or entanglement risks in the areas where I was swimming. You can see a bunch of little plaques and such that former sailors have left on the wreck which was pretty cool. There were a ton of divers on the wreck. I was surprised to see so many boats and so many divers in the water. Mostly recreational stuff but I did see a few tech divers drop over the edge of the flight deck heading to the hangar I presume. At one point I looked up one of the bouy lines and could have sworn that I saw a sun fish (you can kind of see it in the video) but alas, it was just an old rag on the line. Once we exhausted our NDLs once again, we headed to the anchor and ascended.
Dive 3: For our third dive we went to the Russian freighter which was sunk about 50-60 years ago and has definitely seen better days. The wreck was covered in bait fish and there was a school of yellowtails hunting. That was pretty neat to watch. There was also a bunch of barracuda hanging out in the periphery waiting for a chance to grab something. They were some bigger ones in the 4-5ft range. Not a whole lot to report on this one, we just hovered and watched the fish hunt, then cleaned up some mono line that was all of the place.
Once we got back on the boat a huge pod of dolphins came through. There had to have been 30-40 of them. That was pretty neat to watch.
I managed to get some video clips of the second dive on the O. Nothing special, just some horrible camera work and bad music.
All in all, I had a blast. I will definitely go back to the Oriskany once I have some tech training under my belt to explore the nether regions. Theres just so much there that is out of range with recreational gear. It was worth the trip though. I would also highly recommend Dr. Dive if you are looking to charter a six-pack. He was great.
Enjoy the vid!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeWMiLcLau4
