Randy g
Contributor
Thinking about the origin for memorial day while driving down to Hatteras. I could not think of a cooler way to honor the men who have died in battle than to visit the gravesites underwater.
We had an opportunity to spend some time with friends down in Hatteras this weekend and made alot of first's in my book. It was a very fun, exciting and educating weekend for me.
The weekend started off with all the excitement of a motorcycle race weekend from not so long ago. Lots of prep work in getting two sets of gear prepared and ready to go diving, getting the truck packed and finally getting on the road
We have tried to dive off of Hatteras, NC on 3 other occasions only to be cancelled due to weather/sea state. This weekend would not be one of those. We headed out on friday afternoon for the 3.5 hr drive south. Upon arrival we said our hello's to Capt JT Barker aka "Iceman" (because he keeps the cabin as cold as an icebox) on his luxury dive liner Under Pressure and started unloading. 1st mate and a good friend of mine Bobby and his better half Trina were a couple of hours behind us, so we decided it was a good idea to grab some dinner at one of the local diners. Food was great, Bobby/Trina had arrived and a early bedtime was in order since we were heading out at 0700.
We arrive at the first wreck site called The Dixie Arrow. We hooked the bow of the wreck and after Bobby jumped in to the pool and tied us in. Visability was 60ft with a water temp of 76 on top and 74 on the bottom. We had a few sharks swimming around and lots of sea life everywhere, from little inch long goby's to big 30lb sea bass. We did 2 dives on saturday on this wreck with sundays dive plan to go to The Proteus and stern of the Dixie Arrow.
The proteus wreck was amazing with lots of lots of sealife. Lots of sharks, bait fish, amberjacks, turtles and smaller sealife on the wreck itself. For the first time I saw a baitball feeding frenzy with the AJs darting like jets into the baitball snagging smaller fish and the sharks following suit. Great wreck with 60ft of vis and temps about the same as the day before with 76 on the surface and 74 on the bottom.
The surface interval and ride to the Dixie Arrow would top the weekend for me. Capt Iceman threw in 4 lines and we trolled to our second dive site. While motoring along we hooked 4 Mahi Mahi aka dolphin. It was my first blue water catch and I was absolutely thrilled...........as you can see.
Dixie Arrows disconnected stern would top the weekend off for us and end a amazingly awesome, words can not describe weekend for us. I mean, hell, I rubbed the belly of a shark and got a stern finger waggin from Kate...hee hee hee
Now its back to work so I can start planning for our next Under Pressure dive weekend.
We had an opportunity to spend some time with friends down in Hatteras this weekend and made alot of first's in my book. It was a very fun, exciting and educating weekend for me.
The weekend started off with all the excitement of a motorcycle race weekend from not so long ago. Lots of prep work in getting two sets of gear prepared and ready to go diving, getting the truck packed and finally getting on the road
We have tried to dive off of Hatteras, NC on 3 other occasions only to be cancelled due to weather/sea state. This weekend would not be one of those. We headed out on friday afternoon for the 3.5 hr drive south. Upon arrival we said our hello's to Capt JT Barker aka "Iceman" (because he keeps the cabin as cold as an icebox) on his luxury dive liner Under Pressure and started unloading. 1st mate and a good friend of mine Bobby and his better half Trina were a couple of hours behind us, so we decided it was a good idea to grab some dinner at one of the local diners. Food was great, Bobby/Trina had arrived and a early bedtime was in order since we were heading out at 0700.
We arrive at the first wreck site called The Dixie Arrow. We hooked the bow of the wreck and after Bobby jumped in to the pool and tied us in. Visability was 60ft with a water temp of 76 on top and 74 on the bottom. We had a few sharks swimming around and lots of sea life everywhere, from little inch long goby's to big 30lb sea bass. We did 2 dives on saturday on this wreck with sundays dive plan to go to The Proteus and stern of the Dixie Arrow.
The proteus wreck was amazing with lots of lots of sealife. Lots of sharks, bait fish, amberjacks, turtles and smaller sealife on the wreck itself. For the first time I saw a baitball feeding frenzy with the AJs darting like jets into the baitball snagging smaller fish and the sharks following suit. Great wreck with 60ft of vis and temps about the same as the day before with 76 on the surface and 74 on the bottom.
The surface interval and ride to the Dixie Arrow would top the weekend for me. Capt Iceman threw in 4 lines and we trolled to our second dive site. While motoring along we hooked 4 Mahi Mahi aka dolphin. It was my first blue water catch and I was absolutely thrilled...........as you can see.
Dixie Arrows disconnected stern would top the weekend off for us and end a amazingly awesome, words can not describe weekend for us. I mean, hell, I rubbed the belly of a shark and got a stern finger waggin from Kate...hee hee hee
Now its back to work so I can start planning for our next Under Pressure dive weekend.
