dsstandiford
Registered
Did a day of diving with Olympus out of morehead city NC last week.
Arrived at shop at 0600 and geared up on the dock. They have nice wheel barrels to toat your stuff from car to dock (it's a short walk). Checked our Nitrox mix at 30 ppm (gives you the best bottom time for the typical 100+ foot dept) and loaded up the boat. We were instructed to bring our own food on the trip since it's too far offshore to come back for lunch.
Weather was clear, an occasional cloud, with a slight haze on the horizon. We got underway around 0730. There was a 5 to 10 knot wind coming in from the south-south west I believe. Capt decided to take us around the corner east of the shoals to dive the Caribsea hoping the seas wouldn't be too rough. Ride out was over an hour and a half of blue water. Seas coming out of the channel and along the south of the shoals were 3-5 feet at 5 seconds or less. After getting around the shoals the seas were alittle smaller but the interval was about the same. I was fine going to the site.
Dive #1 at the Caribsea started around 0900 in clear skys. The capt gave the dive briefing and we all geared up. The mate radio`ed from the anchor drop that there were a dozen sharks swimming around the anchor line which was tied off on the bow of the wreck. We jumped in to 75 degree surface temp and 50+ foot of viz. Going down the anchor line it became apparent to me that the visibility was going to drop off pretty fast once we were on the bottom. A thermocline later or two and 80+ feet later the temp dropped 4 to 5 degrees and the visibility was 30 feet at best. We swam right through a large bait ball of fish (probably sardines) on the way down. He was right about the sandys around the anchorline. My wife and I practically descended right ontop of a smaller shark. This was my first "shark" dive and to be able to reach out and literally be within two feet of a shark before even hitting the top of the wreck was special. I didn't know if we were going to be able to dive the caribsea again so my wife and I did one circle around the bow and headed to the boilers at midship. We attempted to swim down past the boilers to the stern but found that bottom time might come into play if we tried to swim the whole wreck. I had enough gas left to get back to the bow and spend a good portion of the dive checking out the sand tigers. Upon returning down the port side of the ship we stopped in the sand to get some teeth. I found a couple sand tiger teeth and a bullshark tooth. Very cool indeed. We returned to the anchor for the last portion of the dive and found a lionfish on the bow (a first time ever for me also). He was alone and resting on top of the bow... below him was a large hole that could provide harbor for a number of creepy crawllys. We observed the sand tigers and made note of some fairly massive females around the wreck (8-10 feet). I was suprised at how comfortable they were with divers. There were times when I felt like it was my responsibility to move out of their way. They appear to show no fear of divers unless harassed. I guess when your at the top of the food chain there really is nothing to fear anyway :14:. We ascended the line and found a huge baracuda just over the top of the wreck. Then another one directly under the boat. Fish on the Caribsea are common place. Grouper, triggerfish, grunts, blenys, all the ususal.
Surface interval - I got green and ralphed. Felt better after that. Two hour surface interval and we were back in the water for our second dive.
Dive #2 at the Caribsea was all about the sharks for me. The wreck is really cool but it's a shell of it's former self. Between the sinking and the coast guards dept charging it is broken up into three pieces. We descended onto the sand to swim with the sand tigers. A number of sharks swam right up to me just checking us out. We decided to swim around the bow twice checking the hull for coral and fish. Saw some cool little blenys and a crazy looking anemone. I kept seeing this huge female the size of a VW bus 8-10 feet with huge gashes down her back side (males from mating). She was breath taking. My SAC rate when she was around must have been terrible. I burnt through my gas after about 45 minutes of bottom time and we headed towards the top.
Trip back was unremarkable. I was sad we were leaving.
The next day we checked out the town and ate some good food. We are definitly going back. See you soon NC!
Arrived at shop at 0600 and geared up on the dock. They have nice wheel barrels to toat your stuff from car to dock (it's a short walk). Checked our Nitrox mix at 30 ppm (gives you the best bottom time for the typical 100+ foot dept) and loaded up the boat. We were instructed to bring our own food on the trip since it's too far offshore to come back for lunch.
Weather was clear, an occasional cloud, with a slight haze on the horizon. We got underway around 0730. There was a 5 to 10 knot wind coming in from the south-south west I believe. Capt decided to take us around the corner east of the shoals to dive the Caribsea hoping the seas wouldn't be too rough. Ride out was over an hour and a half of blue water. Seas coming out of the channel and along the south of the shoals were 3-5 feet at 5 seconds or less. After getting around the shoals the seas were alittle smaller but the interval was about the same. I was fine going to the site.
Dive #1 at the Caribsea started around 0900 in clear skys. The capt gave the dive briefing and we all geared up. The mate radio`ed from the anchor drop that there were a dozen sharks swimming around the anchor line which was tied off on the bow of the wreck. We jumped in to 75 degree surface temp and 50+ foot of viz. Going down the anchor line it became apparent to me that the visibility was going to drop off pretty fast once we were on the bottom. A thermocline later or two and 80+ feet later the temp dropped 4 to 5 degrees and the visibility was 30 feet at best. We swam right through a large bait ball of fish (probably sardines) on the way down. He was right about the sandys around the anchorline. My wife and I practically descended right ontop of a smaller shark. This was my first "shark" dive and to be able to reach out and literally be within two feet of a shark before even hitting the top of the wreck was special. I didn't know if we were going to be able to dive the caribsea again so my wife and I did one circle around the bow and headed to the boilers at midship. We attempted to swim down past the boilers to the stern but found that bottom time might come into play if we tried to swim the whole wreck. I had enough gas left to get back to the bow and spend a good portion of the dive checking out the sand tigers. Upon returning down the port side of the ship we stopped in the sand to get some teeth. I found a couple sand tiger teeth and a bullshark tooth. Very cool indeed. We returned to the anchor for the last portion of the dive and found a lionfish on the bow (a first time ever for me also). He was alone and resting on top of the bow... below him was a large hole that could provide harbor for a number of creepy crawllys. We observed the sand tigers and made note of some fairly massive females around the wreck (8-10 feet). I was suprised at how comfortable they were with divers. There were times when I felt like it was my responsibility to move out of their way. They appear to show no fear of divers unless harassed. I guess when your at the top of the food chain there really is nothing to fear anyway :14:. We ascended the line and found a huge baracuda just over the top of the wreck. Then another one directly under the boat. Fish on the Caribsea are common place. Grouper, triggerfish, grunts, blenys, all the ususal.
Surface interval - I got green and ralphed. Felt better after that. Two hour surface interval and we were back in the water for our second dive.
Dive #2 at the Caribsea was all about the sharks for me. The wreck is really cool but it's a shell of it's former self. Between the sinking and the coast guards dept charging it is broken up into three pieces. We descended onto the sand to swim with the sand tigers. A number of sharks swam right up to me just checking us out. We decided to swim around the bow twice checking the hull for coral and fish. Saw some cool little blenys and a crazy looking anemone. I kept seeing this huge female the size of a VW bus 8-10 feet with huge gashes down her back side (males from mating). She was breath taking. My SAC rate when she was around must have been terrible. I burnt through my gas after about 45 minutes of bottom time and we headed towards the top.
Trip back was unremarkable. I was sad we were leaving.
The next day we checked out the town and ate some good food. We are definitly going back. See you soon NC!
