bottomfeeder22
Contributor
Well Denise, here you go!
Some places have an almost magical quality about them, and Pensacola is on that list. We arrived in P'cola Sunday afternoon, and after checking in with Dive Pros and the hotel, decided to grab a bite to eat. It was a nice night, so we made the trek out to a restaurant I'd eaten at before a few years ago.
Everyone was excited about the coming dives, so conversation was heavily centered on BC's, caribiners, computers, and ears. Monday was shore diving day, I was diving the O on tuesday morning, and all of us were going out tuesday afternoon for some inshore dives.
As we sat at our outdoor table overlooking the bay, it occured to us that we had no idea where the boat we were diving from was. No worry, we'd find out Monday afternoon, now it was time to just eat and relax! Just as my grouper sandwich came out, a catamaran-hulled boat snuck into the slip to my left. I paid it little attention as I wolfed down my meal, until I heard the characteristic clank of tanks on concrete. I watched the divers disembark with excitement and a tinge of jealousy. It had been over a month since my trip to Key Largo, and I had the itch that only deep blue salt water can scratch.
Sighting the dive boat catamaran, I immediately thought that this could be our boat, as I knew ours was as well. Eventually, she left the platform the divers left from, and she turned, like a snapper feeling you with its lateral. Coming about, the words "Y-Not" came into view. The search for our dive boat's berth was over.
Ok, enough of the intro, what about the diving? We had a DM aboard by the name of Eric(aka Oriskany DiveMaster) that was along to show us the ins and outs of the site. Never have I met nicer people than Eric and Captain Dave, they really made the trip a pleasure. Eric gave us our brief, basically we would be looking at the wreck from a distance and touching down on the flight deck if we wanted(I wanted) for the first dive, and then getting close and doing some swim throughs on the second.
Descending to the O was an experience. As soon as the hiss of my BC was replaced by bubbles, I could see the top of the carrier reef below. We had the obligatory barracuda join us at 15 feet, swimming right up to the DM and I before the rest descended. It was difficult to tell its size because of the openness of the ocean, but it looked like some of its teeth were as long as my fingers! Although the water was blue, the wreck has a green sheen to it, an interesting contrast.
Touchdown at 70ish feet on the tower. Schools of mangoes were everywhere, and there was an LSU fish couple in one of the stacks, along with lots of life growing on it. Once everyone was down, Eric proceeded to bring us down. We arrived at 115 feet, then he signaled for those of us that wanted to, to go down to the flight deck. The great viz that we'd had up to now dropped sharply off down below, and I couldn't help but get the feeling that we were going into a black hole! I descended to 120, still all black below. 125.... still nothing beneath me. At 130 feet I see ping pong balls everywhere on the flight deck. "Am I narcked out of my gourd?", I think to myself. Then I wonder if I can be narcked and be thinking about my narckedness at the same time. Finally, touchdown! My computer may be off a bit but it registered 142, my buddy's hit 138 I believe. Turns out the ping pong balls are actually thousands of scallop shells. I grab one for the dive log and head back up to 115'. We continue our dive, seeing red snapper all over the place. Some saw amberjack as well, but I missed them. Most of the life was in fact at 90' and above, maybe O fish don't like the dark either! At our safety stop was our friendly neighborhood barracuda, making sure our dive went well, lol.
Dive #2 was even better than the first. Upon descent, saw the same LSU fish in the stack, but took a closer look this time..... it was loaded with arrow crabs! I'd never seen these little guys before and was impressed to see them in their little city. As big as the O is, there's an entire city inside of a pipe that's maybe 5 feet in diameter. The abundance of life on the reef is far greater than on the Spiegel Grove, which I dove in June. Waiting for a swimthrough, I saw 2 arrow crabs, their combined length maybe half of my pinky, fighting for territory on this enormous reef. I chuckled through my reg as I thought about how we humans and animals aren't so different after all. I went into what appeared to be the control tower and turned a switch similar to the ones I'd turned hundreds of times before when I was on my ship. I egressed through what used to be a window out over a flight deck many feet below. Did I mention that sea urchins were EVERYWHERE? I'd never seen so many in my life! We hit another swimthrough down a p-way(that's a hallway for you landlubbers) that turned left to the exit. As I turned to exit, I saw a ladder heading down. A chill ran down my spine, I could never truly penetrate a wreck!
Exiting the wreck, I felt a bit violated. I went from a nice closed in environment, out into the open blue! I felt like I'd been pooped out of the O! From time to time, I look wayyy out into the blue, and at this moment it paid off like it did on the USCG Duane when I saw 2 bulls on patrol just at the edge of vis. They say that sharks leave wrecks when divers come down, staying just off in the distance. On the O, the first thing I saw was white, in 2, no, 3 places on the tips of fins. The figure never got close enough for me to be able to tell if it was fish or shark shaped, but with it being at the edge of 60 foot vis, I knew it was pretty good-sized. I could have been narcked when I saw this fish in the distance, but it DEFINITELY had white tips on its fins. Returning to the surface, Captain Dave affirmed my hunch that I must have seen an Oceanic White Tip shark, although he's only seen 2 sharks in his multitude of dives on the O. I asked if there were any fish with white tips, and he replied that he didn't know of any.
I have yet to stop smiling. It seems the more I dive, the worse my cravings to go diving get, like a snowball rolling down a hill. There is no known cure for this disease that we're afflicted with, only the therapy of scubaboard to get us through until we can get our next fix. To all of you jonesing for your next hit, I hope this post gets you through as you count down the days to your next dive.
Some places have an almost magical quality about them, and Pensacola is on that list. We arrived in P'cola Sunday afternoon, and after checking in with Dive Pros and the hotel, decided to grab a bite to eat. It was a nice night, so we made the trek out to a restaurant I'd eaten at before a few years ago.
Everyone was excited about the coming dives, so conversation was heavily centered on BC's, caribiners, computers, and ears. Monday was shore diving day, I was diving the O on tuesday morning, and all of us were going out tuesday afternoon for some inshore dives.
As we sat at our outdoor table overlooking the bay, it occured to us that we had no idea where the boat we were diving from was. No worry, we'd find out Monday afternoon, now it was time to just eat and relax! Just as my grouper sandwich came out, a catamaran-hulled boat snuck into the slip to my left. I paid it little attention as I wolfed down my meal, until I heard the characteristic clank of tanks on concrete. I watched the divers disembark with excitement and a tinge of jealousy. It had been over a month since my trip to Key Largo, and I had the itch that only deep blue salt water can scratch.
Sighting the dive boat catamaran, I immediately thought that this could be our boat, as I knew ours was as well. Eventually, she left the platform the divers left from, and she turned, like a snapper feeling you with its lateral. Coming about, the words "Y-Not" came into view. The search for our dive boat's berth was over.
Ok, enough of the intro, what about the diving? We had a DM aboard by the name of Eric(aka Oriskany DiveMaster) that was along to show us the ins and outs of the site. Never have I met nicer people than Eric and Captain Dave, they really made the trip a pleasure. Eric gave us our brief, basically we would be looking at the wreck from a distance and touching down on the flight deck if we wanted(I wanted) for the first dive, and then getting close and doing some swim throughs on the second.
Descending to the O was an experience. As soon as the hiss of my BC was replaced by bubbles, I could see the top of the carrier reef below. We had the obligatory barracuda join us at 15 feet, swimming right up to the DM and I before the rest descended. It was difficult to tell its size because of the openness of the ocean, but it looked like some of its teeth were as long as my fingers! Although the water was blue, the wreck has a green sheen to it, an interesting contrast.
Touchdown at 70ish feet on the tower. Schools of mangoes were everywhere, and there was an LSU fish couple in one of the stacks, along with lots of life growing on it. Once everyone was down, Eric proceeded to bring us down. We arrived at 115 feet, then he signaled for those of us that wanted to, to go down to the flight deck. The great viz that we'd had up to now dropped sharply off down below, and I couldn't help but get the feeling that we were going into a black hole! I descended to 120, still all black below. 125.... still nothing beneath me. At 130 feet I see ping pong balls everywhere on the flight deck. "Am I narcked out of my gourd?", I think to myself. Then I wonder if I can be narcked and be thinking about my narckedness at the same time. Finally, touchdown! My computer may be off a bit but it registered 142, my buddy's hit 138 I believe. Turns out the ping pong balls are actually thousands of scallop shells. I grab one for the dive log and head back up to 115'. We continue our dive, seeing red snapper all over the place. Some saw amberjack as well, but I missed them. Most of the life was in fact at 90' and above, maybe O fish don't like the dark either! At our safety stop was our friendly neighborhood barracuda, making sure our dive went well, lol.
Dive #2 was even better than the first. Upon descent, saw the same LSU fish in the stack, but took a closer look this time..... it was loaded with arrow crabs! I'd never seen these little guys before and was impressed to see them in their little city. As big as the O is, there's an entire city inside of a pipe that's maybe 5 feet in diameter. The abundance of life on the reef is far greater than on the Spiegel Grove, which I dove in June. Waiting for a swimthrough, I saw 2 arrow crabs, their combined length maybe half of my pinky, fighting for territory on this enormous reef. I chuckled through my reg as I thought about how we humans and animals aren't so different after all. I went into what appeared to be the control tower and turned a switch similar to the ones I'd turned hundreds of times before when I was on my ship. I egressed through what used to be a window out over a flight deck many feet below. Did I mention that sea urchins were EVERYWHERE? I'd never seen so many in my life! We hit another swimthrough down a p-way(that's a hallway for you landlubbers) that turned left to the exit. As I turned to exit, I saw a ladder heading down. A chill ran down my spine, I could never truly penetrate a wreck!
Exiting the wreck, I felt a bit violated. I went from a nice closed in environment, out into the open blue! I felt like I'd been pooped out of the O! From time to time, I look wayyy out into the blue, and at this moment it paid off like it did on the USCG Duane when I saw 2 bulls on patrol just at the edge of vis. They say that sharks leave wrecks when divers come down, staying just off in the distance. On the O, the first thing I saw was white, in 2, no, 3 places on the tips of fins. The figure never got close enough for me to be able to tell if it was fish or shark shaped, but with it being at the edge of 60 foot vis, I knew it was pretty good-sized. I could have been narcked when I saw this fish in the distance, but it DEFINITELY had white tips on its fins. Returning to the surface, Captain Dave affirmed my hunch that I must have seen an Oceanic White Tip shark, although he's only seen 2 sharks in his multitude of dives on the O. I asked if there were any fish with white tips, and he replied that he didn't know of any.
I have yet to stop smiling. It seems the more I dive, the worse my cravings to go diving get, like a snowball rolling down a hill. There is no known cure for this disease that we're afflicted with, only the therapy of scubaboard to get us through until we can get our next fix. To all of you jonesing for your next hit, I hope this post gets you through as you count down the days to your next dive.
Well, not really worthless, It was a great report. But we need pics.
