Has the Oriskany settled deeper since sinking?

[willardj]

Don't forget to factor in the risk involved with taking OW divers to a site over 200 feet deep--not the divers on Scubaboard, but those that don't know a damn thing about buoyancy control, depth limits, or safety stops.

I know there are charter boats that make a killing...no doubt. Throw 40 people on an ancient fifty-foot boat at $145 a head, and you're going to make a killing. And I know the expenses associated with running a fast six-pack, and I promise you no one's getting rich--especially this time of year. Keep in mind that the expenses go beyond just the gas. It includes insurance, slip fee, boat payment--all of which must be paid every month whether we dive or not. Then factor in the repairs and maintenance, and it begins to add up. After all that, then hopefully you get to pay your mortgage, utilities, etc...

I'm not crying the blues and I'm not on the way to the poorhouse (yet) but I promise you no one works a charter to get rich. I work so that others can have a hell of a time diving and want to come back over and over. If you do what you enjoy, it's never work.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've just had the Ferrari detailed, and I promised Muffy we'd dine at the country club this evening.

I understand the cost of running the boat, but to jack the price up $50. Thats just digging into the pocket..

I lived there for 10 yr's and still dive there atleast once or twice a year.. Being that we still have family there it make's it easy. I do have to say that Pcola has some Great Diving. There is a hole lot more to see than just the Oriskany, but it being the new thing. So if you are going to see the Big O make sure to see all the other Great wreck's in the area. Being that Pcola been a port sence the 1600's. There is a lot of good stuff on the sea floor.

 

[Nemrod]

To much

 

[Nemrod]

fighting for me

 

[Oriskany Divemaster]

I wen back to your website DiveMaster--again--having been there several times before and never got an answer and I don't understand. You use the words "we" and "we're" but don't define who "we" is. It appears "we" don't actually have a boat and so like I said, I don't think I can reach the deep ledges with my kayak even if I put you up front with a paddle. LOL. N

Nemrod,

Regarding how to get there...go to website, click on "Pensacola", click on Dive Charters, click on Link. Follow instuctions on link. Or--again as I mentioned in my original post--you can PM me for all the details. But to make it easy on you, we dive from a 29 foot catamaran with twin Yamaha 200s. It does about 30 mph so we'll get to the Advocet in less than an hour. Timberholes, less than an hour. Antares in less than an hour.

Regarding website not making sense, that's subjective and others may agree with you. But the feedback I've been getting has been fairly positive. The website is not only an informational site, but it allows you to book your airline tickets, rental cars, and hotels--all of which I put on there gratis. I receive no remuneration from them. I do it to help those who want to dive Pensacola whether it's with me or someone else.

Email: I receive quite a bit of email, and I try my best to make sure I return each one. Every now and then I may miss one. I just checked my PMs and found nothing from you. And took a quick look through my emails and didn't see anything that would match up to Nemrod. If I missed it, I apologize.

On my attitude, you're exactly right. I'm very customer oriented and want the best experience for those I dive with. I was willing to do whatever I could to accomodate you, but it wasn't enough. All you had to do was PM me---again, as I mentioned in my original post-- and you would've found yourself exactly where you wanted to be. Rather, you chose to be confrontational to the one guy who was trying to help you.

I suggest you either try one of the cattle boats in town, or try making a friend or two in the community where you want to dive. You'd be surprised what kind of clout regular customers have. But unfortunately, you can't be an ******* and a regular customer at the same time.

I shall speak of this no more...

 

[Nemrod]

which is why I gave up last summer. Enough of that.


Me and my girlfriend are going to do a swim through at 180, yeeeeee hhhhaaaaaaaaaaa!

but first I gotta go plow a little snow

and then maybe a pool workout

N

 

[rainman_02]

And on most days, you'll find me working aboard as the resident Divemaster Extraordinaire.

I'm gonna guess that's what he has to do with Blue Water Adventures.

But it's just a guess.

Based on info from his hard to read website.

 

[aue-mike]

With all the constant whining about the ORISKANY, the USN should have scrapped it for razor blades.

"It's too deep, it's too far, contractors stripped it too much, other divers are ripping parts off it, other divers are messing up the algae...."

wah, wah, wah.

The fact is the bottom out there is not unconsolidated soft sediments. There is a thin veneer of sand over hard limestone hardpan. So it is only going to settle so far, and probably already has settled in good.

The absolute depth of deployment was a requirement of COE and USCG for safe navigation. Various counties have various requirements in their current COE permit sites, but most have at least 45 feet of water clearance required. Do the math.

Razing the superstructure more to "raise" the flight deck shallower opens a whole 'nuther can of worms. Facilitating recreational diver access below the flight deck to the gallery or hangar deck would be a bad, bad, bad thing. There are sooooo many points of access that are impossible to seal off adequately. The arbitrary 130fsw depth is a good invisible barrier that hopefully will keep untrained and unexperienced divers out of there.

The ORISKANY was awarded to Florida/Escambia County as their primary allocation for the carrier would be as use as enhancement of recreational fishing opportunities. So all this whining about poor, poor, neglected divers is pretty pointless.

Consideration and planning for this project looked at a huge spectrum of issues -- more than most here can (apparently) imagine. If the dive is too deep, too far, too "whatever" for you, then perhaps you should stick with the Disney experience and go dive in an aquarium.

buh-bye.

 

[mrpat]

Yea but some of us really like to go deep, doing planned decompression dives deep in the bowels of these things.

(Edit) Aw heck I meant for this post to be in reply to one of the guys way up above. I'll figure this board out one of these days.

Dive Safe & Often
Mr. Pat

 

[Soggy]

Next time Florida sets up a dive site maybe they could put it maybe at 300 feet or even 500. Why stop at 220 feet? Oh, and make it at least 200 miles off shore so only the Navy can get there, oh wait, it was a Navy ship that sank.

I don't get it, even for fisherman it is out to far and to deep.

I don't think the Navy should use the ocean as a dumping ground for all their junk, if some of them can be placed where they are a resource--key word--RESOURCE--that is great--otheriwse sell them for scrap and reimburse the taxpayer.

Expect it to sink at least 15 feet, that would be typical of such a massive object on a soft bottom.

N

Wow, it helps if you know what the heck you are talking about before you start blabbing...

First, how much shallower can you sink the thing!? The superstructure comes up to close to 60 ft from the surface. You can't sink something that is 150' tall in 100' of water. And, it's only 22 miles out. For many boats that's only about an hour ride out. Having dived the Antares, which is 20 miles out and covered with fishing boats and divers, your argument doesn't really hold water, especially considering the frequency that the thing gets dived!

 

[Nemrod]

Soggy, it is like this, if you read back you will see a rather elegant analysis of the depths. You and I see not eye to eye on anything. No big deal, I realize your wrong and I am right and therin lies your problem, you still suffer under the delusion that your Doing It Right. LOL, don't argue with me, the effort you put in to it is not worth it for me to respond.

Yes, it gets dived a bunch, mostly the tower--which could have been cut off and layed beside it. I do hope it continues to be a draw for the area and area buisness/divemasters/boats/captains so they can benifit from it and put some money in their pockets. Perhaps it will open up other diving opportunities in the area as well, that are not 220 feet deep but equally far over the horizon that are generally diffucult to get trips out to. That bridge rubble really gets old.

Just for your info, one of the shops there keeps a wonderful list of GPS coordinates on their web page. If you don't know which one PM me and I will give you the link. They are very nice to perform this service. I also have quite a few coordinates of my own--I was lucky to get to dive this area a great deal during my college days when it was still wild and undiscovered, comparitively anyways (pre GPS---drats that).


There is a spring/sink out there, it is an awesome and very deep dive, I hit my personal record of 235 feet on that one, much younger then. At that depth you can look back up the chimny--awesome (as much as I hate that word) is the only thing that describes it. Unfortuantely, the gentleman who took me out there and who was a friend has long ago passed away.

Soggy--chill-it is all good--don't get bent.

Oriskany below taken from stern of local dive charter--excellent boat and captain.

After a bit I kayaked out to the USS Mass. and that was a cool shallow dive, it needs to be deeper, darn USN, they just will not cooperate!

My kayak at Destin on the same trip. I got to get a new camera, one of those plash proof Olympus digis, camera no longer funtions, paddled out from here and had some fun dives.

N