grunzster:
11 of us went out on the Outlaw Saturday, including 4 Wreck Valley rookies. Originally had 5 us, but one couldn't make it after some problems carrying his rig out to his car Friday night!!!...
Wow, that was a great report Chris.
I suppose I'd be the one who wasn't tossing anything but gear around the deck. I'm not counting the one time after we pulled anchor and I was on the bow smoking a butt waiting for Wes to come up. It was those cherries anyway, just as well, they had to go to make room for jerky.
I got two great dives in.
We anchored into the rear of the port side. Seas were only about 3-4 feet at the time and the rain had just stopped. So over the side we went and made our way down the line to the deck at about 110'. There was a lot of nice growth down there. More than I expected on a wreck only down for about 15 years. Visability was about 50' and bottom temp a cool 43º. We cruised by the funnel along the port side rail, around the front of the superstructure and over to the starboard side. Along the starboard side of the cabin the covered walkway has since partially collapsed. See
here about 2/3 down the page. The corner of the roof has fell to the rail, making a nice swim through. We entered from the fore end and made our way aft. There were a lot of nice openings, doorways and portholes to peer in. I see a powerful HID in my near future. We inched through the overhead and came out the rear next to the starboard side of the funnel. A couple of more pics, then over to the anchor line. A few divers had just descended. A couple of nods back and forth and up we went. We saw Chris coming down the line at about 30-40 feet and knew Rich was waiting for him at the tie in. BTW, we would have stopped you if we didn't know he was there waiting past the pea soup layer.
After a two hour interval we splashed in for dive two. The seas were picking up by now with 5-7 footers rolling by. Down at the rail the current had picked up, the vis dropped to about 35-40' and the bottom temp rose to 50º. We had the same plan and for the most part followed the same route, only this time going further towards the bow and on the return, along the starboard rail, stayed on the outside of the superstructure. Once again just past the funnel we found the tie in and headed up. The seas were kicking and at 15-20' impossible to hold onto the line. It definitely could have ripped an arm off. With a loose OK hand signal around the line, I would have thought the line whipping through the O would have worn a hole in my glove, but it didn't. I finished out the stop and made my way to the ladder. Luckily I grabbed on tight, felt like I was busting a bronco. Yee Ha!
Mental note: grab ladder as high as possible, less steps to climb.
On the ride back the seas picked up a little more. I would say over 10', but it was probably more like 8-10'. They were following us, so at the stern you could tell the boat was riding them and then as they broke it seemed like they were going to come crashing over the rail. Close, but not. Chris, next time you take a picture of me sleeping on the stern rail, right afterwards could you give me a little shake and tell me I'm about to fall in. Luckily I moved right before I fell asleep.
Final highlight of the day, we unloaded the boat, packed up our gear and I slammed the hatch down on my Jeep just as it started to rain again.
All in all I had a great time and can't wait to get back out there again.
I got a few good pictures. You can check them out
here at the Wreck Valley Gallery.
