salty
Contributor
This weekend my buddy and I headed out on the dive boat R/V Wreck Valley to dive the wreck of the Oregon.
For those of you who dont know the Oregon went down in the 1880s and was a Cunnard ocean liner. The wreck lies in 130 ft of seawater.
Sunday mornings weather was predicted to be the best out of the preceding two and following two days and the reports were accurate as we were meet with light wind and 3 foot seas.
After the two-hour boat ride we arrived on site and in short order we dived in. The surface temp was around 40 degrees F and the bottom temps were 35. The vis which was around 35 to 40 feet was a little better than what is typically found on the wreck but was what we expected based on the weather and water temps. I was surprised at the amount of sea life with such a low temp but all the usual critters were out and about. My buddy and I worked the boiler area and did some light penetrations into the wreck not that there are too many areas to do this considering the collapsed condition. Just getting in for the first time of the year made the dive worth it but being able to use my new 18-watt hid was a big bonus.
We spent 30 minutes on the bottom with a max depth of 125. The gas for the dive was 28/20 with 50% for deco which was about 19 minutes, total in water time was around 55 minutes.
For those of you who dont know the Oregon went down in the 1880s and was a Cunnard ocean liner. The wreck lies in 130 ft of seawater.
Sunday mornings weather was predicted to be the best out of the preceding two and following two days and the reports were accurate as we were meet with light wind and 3 foot seas.
After the two-hour boat ride we arrived on site and in short order we dived in. The surface temp was around 40 degrees F and the bottom temps were 35. The vis which was around 35 to 40 feet was a little better than what is typically found on the wreck but was what we expected based on the weather and water temps. I was surprised at the amount of sea life with such a low temp but all the usual critters were out and about. My buddy and I worked the boiler area and did some light penetrations into the wreck not that there are too many areas to do this considering the collapsed condition. Just getting in for the first time of the year made the dive worth it but being able to use my new 18-watt hid was a big bonus.
We spent 30 minutes on the bottom with a max depth of 125. The gas for the dive was 28/20 with 50% for deco which was about 19 minutes, total in water time was around 55 minutes.