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Thanks, I'm glad you liked the video....right around the 7:56 minute mark, in the morning dive, you can see the photographer ( Sandra) trying to hide from current in a big exposed area, by some rubble on the bottom. The Goliaths use the structures and contours just like we do, even though they are cable of short bursts where they can hit many times our speeds....most of the time, they move at closer to the speeds a slick diver can move at. Marine Biologist Sara Tores, says they run a very low metabolism, and expend very little energy....and actually do not eat very much ( considering their size), because of this avoidance of exertion behavior
The current in this area was not a problem for good divers in very streamlined vests, or any of the bp/wing divers...And really, there would be few dives a recreational diver could enjoy, with more current than this, so it shows pretty well that a Vest can be streamlined enough for virtually any condition a recreational diver can find themself in. All my "stressing" before, was just about the vest or other BC's that are the opposite of the vests worn by divers here...the vests that really are huge and open, and that "CATCH" water going by.
The high current drops are a skill that separates good captains from average captains, and allows exceptional captains to really shine.
One of the first wrecks ( kind of deep) we began diving around 1994, was the HydroAtlantic. In about 165 feet of water, it was the first somewhat deep shipwreck I had ever dived, and it was where I met George Irvine and Bill Mee, who would then get me into diving all the really deep wrecks of the area, down to the 285 foot depth areas. The first few times we had captains drop us on the hydro, some would want to anchor on it...the Hydro had a normal current around 3.5 to 4 mph ( my guess). It was well into Gulfstream intrusion. When anchoring in the big a current, even as a weight lifter and cyclist, massive exertion would occur on the way down to the wreck, as the hand over hand journey felt almost impossible--and for many it was. It would take too long, it would fry the arms of most, and cause enormous air consumption. Other Captains, the best of which was Lynne Simmons of Splashdown in Boynton, would drift us in to this wreck. Captain Lynne was like a Savant....she had had us on the boat many times before, and already had calculated our typical fast descent rate--and knew it precisely.....She would drop a group of 4 at a time, and tell us that the moment she said dive, to do our normal full speed descent to the bottom, and then look up, and the ship would be coming at us fast. This was a drop where you enter with the air sucked out of your wing or bc, and you swim straight down, but don't actually exert--just swim down at cruising exertion
We never failed to have the ship come right at us, and with us at the right section of the ship to find perfect access to enter. Lynne was, and is, amazing at this!! As she got to know us even better on these deep wrecks, she would say--"do you want me to drop you on the wheel house, or the stairway, or things like that...and could do this without fail.....It is a combo of amazing captain, and a small dive team that the captain can estimate descent speeds of well. So the captain would do multiple drops, until each group of 4 or less, was in. In the old days, when we were still anchoring, coming up the line for deco was even worse. The current could even pick up to closer to 5 mph....You can hang on for a while, but after 10 minutes at 50 feet, and another 10 minutes at 40 feet, with lots more deco to go, the deeper wrecks quickly became unmanageable to returning on an anchor line....wrecks like the skycliffe in 225, dove usually for a 25 minute duration, had just too much time at each deco stop for even an Olympic Athlete to be able to hang on for long enough, during each deco stop....and this ignores the constriction of tired muscles, and the poor offgassing this causes....Had we tied on to the anchor line, a jon line concept, the problem would still be that the divers are like trolled bait in the water collumn, being thrown all over the place like a bucking bronco ride, as the current blows past furiously. Regulators easily auto purging, and masks easily torn off by current....It was just no fun, it was really hard, and when we began our free floating decos, it was SO MUCH MORE RELAXING, AND EASIER!!
We would send up and SMB in the early days, and later sometimes would use a torpedo float with a flag on it...it could be tied off ( cave line) with little tug on the line, and on our leaving one of us would just grab it and the rest would stay with them....Drag compairison....take a big red float on a thick yellow line...toss it off the back of the dive boat going 20 mph....will you be able to hang on? with the torpedo, toss the torpedo at 20mph, and there is only a mild tug....this is holy grail stuff
We would come up several miles from the wreck, after deco, so we would need a reference from the boat the entire time....so we had to have an smb or a torpedo.
Micheal Kane told us alot about the Doria diving he did, and I have done a few cold water sites similar....and yes, you do need your sh#t together to dive places like this, and to live and enjoy yourself.
I feel very lucky to live in a place with such good vis, huge marine life, and I have come to love the high current areas, because this is where the biggest swarms of baitfish, groupers, and all the cool stuff hangs out under water....by structures where THEY experience the differential of huge current and lee currents.
Plan a trip here and dive with Bill and myself
