MRXRAY
Contributor
It looked as though our charter plans for Saturday out of Panama City were going to get scrubbed so I talked it over with my buddies and instead we decided to dive the Oriskany on the H2O below. The weather was great and the sun was already peaking out was we left dock fully loaded with gear and people. The trip out passed very quick as we talked about the dive the weekend ahead and the fun stuff from last years fest.
We all geared up on the way out and about 20 minites before we arrived on site the DM Rich Sleppy gave an awesome dive briefing on the upcoming dives.
We splashed just after 10 AM and we made our way down through the cloudly layer at the top to the Big "O". The viz seemed quite a bit better up higher than it had been the previos week which made me excited but it appears as if the muck at the top had dropped a bit taking away from some of the viz at depth. I would say the viz was around 40 feet to about 60-70 feet deep but opened up to about 60-70 at the top of the tower (80 feet). But once you got down to about 120 feet it really opened up to probably 100 + feet. Everyone had a great first dive and I'm sure we'll see some great photos from those that had a camera and a couple of not so good ones next to the Flag
.
The surface interval went quick with tank changes and some snacks and we were back in the water after an hour topside.
I took a few folks out to the port side of the ship so you could turn around and swim back to the tower and really get that full perspective of how big she really is. It's an awesome sight! Hopefully some of those pictures or video turned out.
All in all a great day on the water with some close friends on the largest artifical reef in the World!
We all geared up on the way out and about 20 minites before we arrived on site the DM Rich Sleppy gave an awesome dive briefing on the upcoming dives.
We splashed just after 10 AM and we made our way down through the cloudly layer at the top to the Big "O". The viz seemed quite a bit better up higher than it had been the previos week which made me excited but it appears as if the muck at the top had dropped a bit taking away from some of the viz at depth. I would say the viz was around 40 feet to about 60-70 feet deep but opened up to about 60-70 at the top of the tower (80 feet). But once you got down to about 120 feet it really opened up to probably 100 + feet. Everyone had a great first dive and I'm sure we'll see some great photos from those that had a camera and a couple of not so good ones next to the Flag
. The surface interval went quick with tank changes and some snacks and we were back in the water after an hour topside.
I took a few folks out to the port side of the ship so you could turn around and swim back to the tower and really get that full perspective of how big she really is. It's an awesome sight! Hopefully some of those pictures or video turned out.
All in all a great day on the water with some close friends on the largest artifical reef in the World!
