To cut to the punch line, the North Carolina dive trip was great! It might should have been called the NC dive and eat trip because we did our best to intake as much as possible at dinner in the evenings but the diving was world class.
We dove with Olympus Diving out of Morehead City and were actually on Olympus for the whole week even though we had been scheduled for the Midnight Express for Friday. The conditions were not atypical for NC, kind of bumpy on the way out, quieting down in the afternoon, and two days it rained on part of the trip. George Purifoy said he was tired of apologizing for the water conditions, like he could really change it, but to those of us coming from inland quarries, lakes and ponds, the water was heaven. The first four days there was a 20-foot layer on top that was kind of brownish with a temperature of 78 to 80 degrees and 30 foot or so of visibility. Below that was a layer of greener water with 50 foot viz and a temp of 71 degrees. What George was apologizing for was the fact that the temps and viz were well below what is normal for June, this water was more like early May. Friday the summer water arrived, and the first 60 feet were in the 80 to 100 foot viz range and the 50 foot viz layer still on the bottom was seemingly much clearer because of all the light that made it down to the wreck. We could see the wrecks from the hang line on Friday.
We saw Sandtiger sharks, Ragged Tooth sharks for all you South African divers, on all the dives except the U-352, not many but a few big ones, 7 to 8 footers I would estimate.
Because of some really nasty water inshore, Olympus took us on double offshore trips. Monday it was Papoose and the U-352, Tuesday it was the Schurz and the Aeolus, Wednesday it was the Schurz and the Papoose, Thursday it was the Papoose and the Aeolus and Friday it was the Papoose and the U-352. Since each of these wrecks is worth as many dives as you can squeeze in, it was wonderful, and they are all big enough that you couldnt see all of any one of them in ten dives, except maybe the sub.
Scubafishee and Breathe Nitrox were both there and really enjoyed it, BN was there with me last year and didnt get enough, expect to see both next year when we do this again.
We dove with Olympus Diving out of Morehead City and were actually on Olympus for the whole week even though we had been scheduled for the Midnight Express for Friday. The conditions were not atypical for NC, kind of bumpy on the way out, quieting down in the afternoon, and two days it rained on part of the trip. George Purifoy said he was tired of apologizing for the water conditions, like he could really change it, but to those of us coming from inland quarries, lakes and ponds, the water was heaven. The first four days there was a 20-foot layer on top that was kind of brownish with a temperature of 78 to 80 degrees and 30 foot or so of visibility. Below that was a layer of greener water with 50 foot viz and a temp of 71 degrees. What George was apologizing for was the fact that the temps and viz were well below what is normal for June, this water was more like early May. Friday the summer water arrived, and the first 60 feet were in the 80 to 100 foot viz range and the 50 foot viz layer still on the bottom was seemingly much clearer because of all the light that made it down to the wreck. We could see the wrecks from the hang line on Friday.
We saw Sandtiger sharks, Ragged Tooth sharks for all you South African divers, on all the dives except the U-352, not many but a few big ones, 7 to 8 footers I would estimate.
Because of some really nasty water inshore, Olympus took us on double offshore trips. Monday it was Papoose and the U-352, Tuesday it was the Schurz and the Aeolus, Wednesday it was the Schurz and the Papoose, Thursday it was the Papoose and the Aeolus and Friday it was the Papoose and the U-352. Since each of these wrecks is worth as many dives as you can squeeze in, it was wonderful, and they are all big enough that you couldnt see all of any one of them in ten dives, except maybe the sub.
Scubafishee and Breathe Nitrox were both there and really enjoyed it, BN was there with me last year and didnt get enough, expect to see both next year when we do this again.
;-0
