Dive site: USS Mohawk CGC Veterans Memorial Reef
Depth: 90' to the bottom, 60' to the deck
Water Temp: 86f
Current: very little
Surface: 1' seas, partly cloudy, low 90's
Sorry for the ramble, just jotted down some thoughts from my most recent dive:
The USS Mohawk CGC was sunk to form an artificial reef on 7/2/2012. I dove it just over a year after the sinking and there is a lot of life here. We chartered the El Gavilan out of Placidia, FL (near Port Charlotte). It’s a two hour boat ride each way, so this is an all day trip even if you are already in town. When we got there the captain said there were often many other boats there and given the good conditions for the day he expected it to be packed. For whatever reason, we were the only dive boat that day. Partly cloudy (or partly sunny if you’re a half full kind of person), 95 air temp, 85 water temp, 1’ seas. This boat charter had a sat phone for emergencies, because the reef is far enough out that radios might not do the trick. Cell phones are also not an option.
There are mooring balls near the bow and stern of the wreck. There’s also nothing but sand around the wreck so it should be no problem just dropping anchor if the mooring balls are in use. During the first dive, vis was around 35 feet. We swam into the engine room, and through the bridge area. You can still throw some of the toggle levers on the engine equipment. There are lots of urchins and some coral or other growth I couldn’t identify forming on the wreck. There was an abundance of fish life on the wreck as well. Very large schools of fish (sorry I’m terrible at fish ID). Numerous barracuda, and we encountered a LOT of jellyfish. Make sure you wear a full length skin if you’re not using a wetsuit. On the port side of the wreck during the first dive there were two very large Goliath Grouper (aka jewfish).
During the second dive, the current picked up slightly (still very easy to manage) but it spoiled the vis. Vis was around 15’. I guess the grouper like low vis because I counted 8. One of them was simply massive, I didn’t know they could be so large. Must have been well over 500 lbs, it was the single most impressive creature I’ve seen in my 42 logged dives. That includes sharks. Anyway, this is a FANTASTIC dive site. The captain of "El Gavilan" was a great guy. Discovery channel apparently chartered his boat do do a show about the site just last week! I can’t wait to see the show.
The only thing I can say negative about the site is the travel time. 4 hours of travel time on the water, plus (for me) 4 hours of driving to get to the dock from Largo, FL. It was a long day - but well worth it!
There’s a detailed site about the wreck here: http://ussmohawkreef.com/ The site includes video of the sinking of the Mohawk, and a "virtual" dive tour.
We chartered the "six pack" boat for $125 a head. A lot for a dive charter, but given that he probably burned 80 gallons of fuel and we were on the boat for almost 7 hours - I thought it was worthwhile. Although the bottom is at 90’, the stuff you want to see is really closer to 65 feet.
Depth: 90' to the bottom, 60' to the deck
Water Temp: 86f
Current: very little
Surface: 1' seas, partly cloudy, low 90's
Sorry for the ramble, just jotted down some thoughts from my most recent dive:
The USS Mohawk CGC was sunk to form an artificial reef on 7/2/2012. I dove it just over a year after the sinking and there is a lot of life here. We chartered the El Gavilan out of Placidia, FL (near Port Charlotte). It’s a two hour boat ride each way, so this is an all day trip even if you are already in town. When we got there the captain said there were often many other boats there and given the good conditions for the day he expected it to be packed. For whatever reason, we were the only dive boat that day. Partly cloudy (or partly sunny if you’re a half full kind of person), 95 air temp, 85 water temp, 1’ seas. This boat charter had a sat phone for emergencies, because the reef is far enough out that radios might not do the trick. Cell phones are also not an option.
There are mooring balls near the bow and stern of the wreck. There’s also nothing but sand around the wreck so it should be no problem just dropping anchor if the mooring balls are in use. During the first dive, vis was around 35 feet. We swam into the engine room, and through the bridge area. You can still throw some of the toggle levers on the engine equipment. There are lots of urchins and some coral or other growth I couldn’t identify forming on the wreck. There was an abundance of fish life on the wreck as well. Very large schools of fish (sorry I’m terrible at fish ID). Numerous barracuda, and we encountered a LOT of jellyfish. Make sure you wear a full length skin if you’re not using a wetsuit. On the port side of the wreck during the first dive there were two very large Goliath Grouper (aka jewfish).
During the second dive, the current picked up slightly (still very easy to manage) but it spoiled the vis. Vis was around 15’. I guess the grouper like low vis because I counted 8. One of them was simply massive, I didn’t know they could be so large. Must have been well over 500 lbs, it was the single most impressive creature I’ve seen in my 42 logged dives. That includes sharks. Anyway, this is a FANTASTIC dive site. The captain of "El Gavilan" was a great guy. Discovery channel apparently chartered his boat do do a show about the site just last week! I can’t wait to see the show.
The only thing I can say negative about the site is the travel time. 4 hours of travel time on the water, plus (for me) 4 hours of driving to get to the dock from Largo, FL. It was a long day - but well worth it!
There’s a detailed site about the wreck here: http://ussmohawkreef.com/ The site includes video of the sinking of the Mohawk, and a "virtual" dive tour.
We chartered the "six pack" boat for $125 a head. A lot for a dive charter, but given that he probably burned 80 gallons of fuel and we were on the boat for almost 7 hours - I thought it was worthwhile. Although the bottom is at 90’, the stuff you want to see is really closer to 65 feet.
