3gun
Registered
Finally made it to the Oriskany on Sunday with Downunder. The boat was awesome especially with only 10 divers on a 43' Newton. We almost didn't go as thunderstorms were building offshore as we loaded, but Capt. Bubba finally got us to the Oriskany.
We tied in right next to the H20 Below. Surface was 84F with lots of snot and a few jellys for the first 30-40' and strong current. At about 60' the thermocline dropped down to 72F and the stack of the O came into sight. She's huge. Viz was 50+ and current was light. Off the O were schools of AJ, a few Baracudda and lots of small Snapper. The wreck holds lots of juvy Grouper. My buddy and I dropped to 100' and went forward to the bridge on the starboard side and around the tower starting up to where the flags are attached. There wasn't much light, I'm not sure if thats normal or if it was from the heavy cloud cover topside. Probably both. Looking down from about 100' you could just make out the flight deck. The Brown Shoe Navy should have left a couple of A4s and a SeaKing or 2 to decorate the flight deck.
You could spend many many dives just checking out the conning tower. That's exactly what we did on the second dive. I regret not bringing my big light as there are many openings in the tower.
The Downunder crew was awesome and actually cooked hotdogs during the 1:30 surface interval. We had a Capt, 2 DM Deckhands(the lovely Beth and the well pierced Shane) and 2 DMs (Bryan and another Gentleman I was not introduced to) diving with 10 guest. Everything from the hello to the goodbye was very professional. I'll be back.
We tied in right next to the H20 Below. Surface was 84F with lots of snot and a few jellys for the first 30-40' and strong current. At about 60' the thermocline dropped down to 72F and the stack of the O came into sight. She's huge. Viz was 50+ and current was light. Off the O were schools of AJ, a few Baracudda and lots of small Snapper. The wreck holds lots of juvy Grouper. My buddy and I dropped to 100' and went forward to the bridge on the starboard side and around the tower starting up to where the flags are attached. There wasn't much light, I'm not sure if thats normal or if it was from the heavy cloud cover topside. Probably both. Looking down from about 100' you could just make out the flight deck. The Brown Shoe Navy should have left a couple of A4s and a SeaKing or 2 to decorate the flight deck.
You could spend many many dives just checking out the conning tower. That's exactly what we did on the second dive. I regret not bringing my big light as there are many openings in the tower.
The Downunder crew was awesome and actually cooked hotdogs during the 1:30 surface interval. We had a Capt, 2 DM Deckhands(the lovely Beth and the well pierced Shane) and 2 DMs (Bryan and another Gentleman I was not introduced to) diving with 10 guest. Everything from the hello to the goodbye was very professional. I'll be back.
