Diving from the Sea Fox

[rockjock3]

Well, VblueV, Dave (bcyber?) and I went out on one of the maiden voyages of the Sea Fox. Newly owned and operated by IDH out of Hawaii Kai. This boat is awesome. We went out to New Barge and Anglers reef. Nice pleasant dive at Anglers, but I gotta tell ya'll. New Barge was awesome. We were a boat load of advanced divers so we chose to dive with conditions as they were. Surface was nice with 2-3s, but underwater was totally different. The current was crazy. I have only felt current worse than that once and that was on a strong day off China Wall. You can see VblueV climbing upside-down down the rope. This was the story all the way down, but once on the wreck (inside) it was all cake. New barge is a rarely dove wreck that sits in about 80-90 feet of water and is in really good condition. It lies in the same area as baby barge, but is different in that you can swim through all the compartments from front to back. Nice little exploration dive and exits in every compartment, so no real closed off sections. Once you stuck your head out though the deck it was a quick and free ride back to the bow of the barge for one more trip through.

All in all a great dive. Here are some pics.

Thanks to Matt and IDH for the new boat and great dives.

http://s227.photobucket.com/albums/dd57/narcedinhi/?action=view&current=8d060d20.pbw

 

[VBlueV]

yeah! great dives!
and solid dive buddies who can stay with you in 5kt current :11:

i too luv the new barge for the stem to stern serpentine swim thru..
[a padowan wreck diver's dream ]

and wow! the sea fox.. what a fantastic dive boat!
very stable, good swim step, and sturdy ladder [especially for doubles]
easiest climb out of the water i've ever done.

shakas from bcyber and rockjock on the bow of the sea fox.

here's matt at the helm of his new boat..

rockjock inside the new barge.. as jay said, all the bulk heads have cut-outs
and every compartment has a wide opening out to the deck..

thanks to the island divers hawaii dive club..

and thanks again to skipper chris and matt for some great dives
on the inaugural voyages of the sea fox off oahu.. mahalo!

 

[mrjimboalaska]

Sea Fox look NICE.....trying to get out in October (if I can find a place to sleep... )
16-22, since Eileen goes to the Sandbox Dec-Jul, it will be hard to do any diving during those 8 months.......any chance of ya taking a few days off to dive?

 

[ScubaAndDreams]

You can stay with me if I am here.

 

[VBlueV]

Sea Fox look NICE.....trying to get out October 16-22..any chance of ya taking a few days off to dive?

lol.. you would pick the week of our major INSPECTION [UCI] at work..
otherwise.. i totally would take the week off
hopefully i can dive that weekend.

and YES, the sea fox is very nize.. and the boat's awesome too :biggrin3:

 

[Kevrumbo]

Very Nice! Gonna have to stop over and check out IDH's Sea Fox on my way back from Chuuk and the Philippines this December (travel budget willing). Sounds like you've could have used Sherman's X-Scooter to get you down on New Barge much quicker, instead of hauling down the mooring/anchorline hand-over-hand, expending breathing gas & physical effort. . .

 

[rockjock3]

Very Nice! Gonna have to stop over and check out IDH's Sea Fox on my way back from Chuuk and the Philippines this December (travel budget willing). Sounds like you've could have used Sherman's X-Scooter to get you down on New Barge much quicker, instead of hauling down the mooring/anchorline hand-over-hand, expending breathing gas & physical effort. . .

I don't know. I honestly think we might have still been moving backwards with the scooter.

 

[kidspot]

I don't know. I honestly think we might have still been moving backwards with the scooter.

That's one strong current. I don't think I've been in anything over 2.5kt before and that was a real workout dragging myself over the bottom.

btw - very nice spacious boat. We only have one dive boat close to that size and it runs with about 24 divers. Nearly all our boats over here are crowded with 12 divers and there is barely enough room to move around. Last time I dove on Oahu I was really impressed with how "roomy" the boat was - wide open deck, I wasn't tripping over everyone (like I usually do with my big feet on the boats over here). Are large boats the norm on Oahu?

Aloha, Tim

 

[bcyber]

Here are some pictures from the dives. Not sure where rock and blue were, but this is what I saw ;-)

http://dbellas.sharpcast.com/albums/thumb/3_12899743554

Also, here are some pics from San Diego dives last week:

http://dbellas.sharpcast.com/albums/image/3_12899744339

 

[VBlueV]

wow! nize photos of the shark and barracuda at the new barge dave!

and the san diego shots were awesome!
you mean there are more colors than olive-drab and grey on other coral reefs?

photo by bcyber:

looks like everyone on the san diego boat had a dry suit.. 56°F !!! brrrrr..