Itinerary Ideas for a weekend junket

[deco_martini]

I was looking at the possibility of flying out on a Friday, diving some sort of signature wreck swarming in sand tigers on Saturday, and flying back on a Sunday some day in August or September. I was wondering.

A. is such a junket possible?
B. which airport would you have to fly into?
C. where are the best spots to stay for those 2 nights
D. who would you dive with?
E. what would that signature dive be?

 

[RAD Diver]

A. Anything is possible, just it would need to be a late flight out on Sunday afternoon to give you that 24 hour no fly time.
B. Probably Raleigh as that is the best bet to get to either Morehead City/ Beaufort & to Wilmington.
C. If diving in MHC/ Beaufort, most likely you will be diving with either Olympus or Discovery & they both have Bunkhouses. In Wilmington you will need a hotel room.
D. Discovery or Olympus in the MHC area, I also like Atlantis Charters, but Bobby & Renate only do 6-packs & their charters are normally filled way before then. An awesome choice if they have a spot open though. You would be then open to needing a hotel room & that time of the year it will be big $$$ in that area.
In Wilmington, Aquatic Safaries, big boat, friendly & very good crew, nice shop. Several hotels in the area, I stay at the Suburban Lodge on Eastwood, less than 10 minutes from boat & shop.
E. Signature dive would really depend on your experience & comfort zone. MHC you could do the U-352, not really known as a sandtiger hangout, but I've seen them there, What was formally called the Papoose, which is actually the Hutton. Normally lots of Sandtigers. There is also the Shurz & Spar which are both good dives with Sandtigers aplenty normally.
In Wilmington the more advanced sites are the Normannia, City of Houston, Rosin wreck & 18 Fathom Wreck. All in about 100fsw more or less. Maybe something shallower with plenty of Shark action would be the Hyde/ Markham.
Now if you want to be more adventurous there is also Cape Hatteras N.C., pretty blue warm water, but hotels will be outrageous $$$ & getting there from Raleigh would also be more of a hassle, but it is nice, with Outer Banks diving or Capt. JTs running ops out of there.

 

[deco_martini]

A. Anything is possible, just it would need to be a late flight out on Sunday afternoon to give you that 24 hour no fly time.
B. Probably Raleigh as that is the best bet to get to either Morehead City/ Beaufort & to Wilmington.
C. If diving in MHC/ Beaufort, most likely you will be diving with either Olympus or Discovery & they both have Bunkhouses. In Wilmington you will need a hotel room.
D. Discovery or Olympus in the MHC area, I also like Atlantis Charters, but Bobby & Renate only do 6-packs & their charters are normally filled way before then. An awesome choice if they have a spot open though. You would be then open to needing a hotel room & that time of the year it will be big $$$ in that area.
In Wilmington, Aquatic Safaries, big boat, friendly & very good crew, nice shop. Several hotels in the area, I stay at the Suburban Lodge on Eastwood, less than 10 minutes from boat & shop.
E. Signature dive would really depend on your experience & comfort zone. MHC you could do the U-352, not really known as a sandtiger hangout, but I've seen them there, What was formally called the Papoose, which is actually the Hutton. Normally lots of Sandtigers. There is also the Shurz & Spar which are both good dives with Sandtigers aplenty normally.
In Wilmington the more advanced sites are the Normannia, City of Houston, Rosin wreck & 18 Fathom Wreck. All in about 100fsw more or less. Maybe something shallower with plenty of Shark action would be the Hyde/ Markham.
Now if you want to be more adventurous there is also Cape Hatteras N.C., pretty blue warm water, but hotels will be outrageous $$$ & getting there from Raleigh would also be more of a hassle, but it is nice, with Outer Banks diving or Capt. JTs running ops out of there.

The Papoose/Hutton I have had an interest in diving. So with that in mind, where do I want to stay?

 

[RAD Diver]

Morehead City & using either Discovery Diving Discovery Diving Co., Inc. - North Carolina Wreck Diving in the Graveyard of the Atlantic or Olympus Olympus Dive Center - Home, both do an excellent job & both have bunkhouses that will allow you to stay very close to the boats & shops for a very reasonable rate, plus you get to talk to all the other divers on the trip.

 

[fireflock]

My guess would be that a lot of your schedule will be dictated by time constraints. The closest commercial airport to any dive op would be Wilmington (ILM). For the Morehead area, you can try Raleigh (RDU), as well as New Bern (EWN) and Jacksonville (OAJ).

You would need to rent a car for any place expect Wilmington. RDU and ILM are the best bets to have more flight choices. At the smaller airports you might not be able to find the times you need.

Rich

 

[RAD Diver]

Good points Rich, I didn't know how big Wilmingtons airport is & don't know where the op is coming from, also when we had a large group come in town from far away all flew into Raleigh, even though we were diving with Cape Fear.

 

[fireflock]

ILM is the biggest east of I-95 in NC, but that's not saying much. Since RDU is only 2 hours or so from Wilmington, the only real advantage to Wilmington is if times happen to work in your favor or if you can't rent a car for some reason. My post reads like RDU isn't a good choice for ILM, but that's not the case. RDU almost always wins on cost too.

Rich

 

[deco_martini]

Thanks for the help with this. Check this out.

Aug-Sept were pretty much booked up at Discovery diving. There were 2 spots open on Aug30-31 (labor day weekend).

I checked NWA and there were 2 reward tickets for Aug29-Sept1. Using an e-code, I was able to score them for 19k miles apiece. We leave at 6:45PM that Friday without even having to ditch work early. And we get home that Monday before supper time on a work holiday.

I was able to redeem a hotel room in Raleigh for that Sunday night minutes away from the airport. So after we're done diving on the 31st we head back to Raleigh and spend the night there at the Embassy Suites near the airport.

All that is left now is getting a room for Fri-Sat 29/30 in Morehead somewhere near enough to the dive center that the 6am dock time won't kill us.

Recommendations? The dive shop recommended the comfort inn.

 

[fireflock]

Anything in the Morehead City/Beaufort/Atlantic Beach area will within 15min from the dock. You won't run into a lot of traffic that time of day

If you want something cheaper at the expense of a slightly longer drive, try the town of Havelock.

Rich

 

[fpsndiver]

Thanks for the help with this. Check this out.

Aug-Sept were pretty much booked up at Discovery diving. There were 2 spots open on Aug30-31 (labor day weekend).

I checked NWA and there were 2 reward tickets for Aug29-Sept1. Using an e-code, I was able to score them for 19k miles apiece. We leave at 6:45PM that Friday without even having to ditch work early. And we get home that Monday before supper time on a work holiday.

I was able to redeem a hotel room in Raleigh for that Sunday night minutes away from the airport. So after we're done diving on the 31st we head back to Raleigh and spend the night there at the Embassy Suites near the airport.

All that is left now is getting a room for Fri-Sat 29/30 in Morehead somewhere near enough to the dive center that the 6am dock time won't kill us.

Recommendations? The dive shop recommended the comfort inn.

Dive lodges all booked up? Stay at the dive lodges or put yourself on their standby lists. ILM is a great airport in Wilmington. We have real airplanes and everything....big problem is not many direct flights. However, for us Wilmingtonians...the cheaper rates at Raleigh don't beat the cost of the drive coupled with long term parking costs at RDU....those make flying ILM cheaper at the moment.

Tom