We had a beautiful dive yesterday, so I thought I'd share with you guys and gals.
I'll start by thanking Capt. Bob Wranovics and DM Serge. These guys run a nice tek trip on the "Lady Go Diver", Dixie Divers, Deerfield Beach, FL. Also, to PadiPro, we missed you buddy. I got stuck twice yesterday and put some new scratches on your 108's (sorry bout that!).
This trip was put together by Wally Barnes out of Miami, FL. Wally is a legend down in these parts, and if you've met him, you'll remember him. Thanks for the invite my friend!
Wally had a trimix student with him and two other divers, Antonio and Cliff, in his group. I brought along Julia and Laird, and we flew the missing man formation with the no show Scott, aka Padipro. I'm going to keep razzing you about missing the dive, buddy!
The winds were light, the ocean was smooth, and the sun was shining. That's a bit different than the last month down here, so we knew the dive was going to be nice. Everyone on the boat was nice as well. From the looks of it all, we were in for a treat.
The Wreck: http://www.dixiediver.com/shipwreck.htm#MILLER
(From Dixie Diver's Website) The Miller Lite is a 186-foot Freighter was sank in 164 feet of water on May, 17 1987 off Pompano Beach. In 1957 a German refrigerator cargo vessel was commissioned the Mini-horn, it was a beautiful ship. She was in service for almost 30 years before her demise. During that time she was given two other names, with her final one being Miller Lite, for the sponsor that helped finance her sinking. The Broward Department of Natural resource Protection has one of the largest artificial reef programs in the world. In 1987 it obtained ownership of the vessel, cleaned it and was sank during the yearly Pompano Beach Fishing Rodeo. During the sinking there were 200 boaters and 1,000 people on the shore watching the explosion, which could be seen for ten miles.
The Dive:
I had never been on the Miller Lite before yesterday, so I planned my dive at a max hard bottom of 160 fsw. My dive plan was as follows:
Backgas: ean24, 1.41 PO2
Decogas: ean50 and O2
depth time
160 30
80 1
70 1
60 1
50 2
40 4
30 4
20 14
Runtime of 60 minutes
Julia and Laird were diving trimix and decoing on O2 with a runtime of 60m as well. Due to the very light current, we decided to hook up, descend on the line, and deco around the line while adrift. On the descent, the wreck became visable at about 50'. Sweet.
The wreck is in incredible shape, and the mast sticks up as a beacon to guide you down. Time to let go of the line and free fall. We landed on the deck towards the bow and preceeded down into the forward cargo hold. There is a corridor that leads aft to the second cargo hold and made for a nice warmup swim through. About half way between cargo holds, there is a hatch that leads down a level into a room full of plumbing. A diver from another team had just gone down. Julia signaled for me to go ahead and I went in head first. It was a tight squeeze with two deco bottles and I managed to get stuck. I backed out a bit, and went again. I made it in and saw that the room opened up to the aft and I could see the light coming in from the other end, which was the second cargo bay. Someone had stirred up the silt, and it became very erie. I exited out the hatch into the cargo hold and met up with Julia and Laird again.
Now the real fun began. We entered the main structure of the ship, and wound our way aft. Julia was in the lead, followed by Laird, and myself bringing up the rear. We entered a large room with several cables haning from the roof and Laird snagged his deco bottles as he passed through. I had the benefit of watching this unfold and guess what? I got hung up as well. I started through the room doing a lost reg like sweep with my left arm. I let the cables loose to early though and one caught my left post. I backed up and rolled into the cables. I did a sweep with my arm again, and I was free. Laird seemed amused and I gave him the OK with my light. Somewhere in this room when I was touching stuff, I managed to get stung or punctured by something. I didn't think much of it at the time, but you can read my other thread about my finger now. Ouch!
We moved up the structure on the backside and reentered one level higher. We were in the wheel house now, and swam out the other side. We followed Julia down the side of the ship and into a cut hole in the side. Not much to see in here and moved back up on to the deck. Our bottom timers showed us at 25 minutes, so we stayed up on the deck and moved back towards the bos and the line. All the divers were now headed that way, and it looked like a herd of migrating tanks. At this point, I'm in love with this wreck and didn't want to leave!
We started a free ascent, and the last team unhooked from the wreck. A few of the divers stayed on the line, but the three of us backed away and made a free ascent. My deco schedule allowed for deeper stops, so I was a bit seperated from the other two for a while. Actually, they were hovering over me and decoing on backgas, so they could still come down the 10 to 20' if needed.
The switch at 70 went smooth, and then we all met up at the 20' stop. It was like a ballet! 6 divers slowly rotating around a cental line in a synchronized demonstration of peak bouyancy and control. It was sweet and would have made for a neat picture had someone been filming.
Back on the boat, we shared stories and laughter. Wally forgot the beer again!!!!
What a great trip! I'm looking forward to doing it again in the near future.
I'll start by thanking Capt. Bob Wranovics and DM Serge. These guys run a nice tek trip on the "Lady Go Diver", Dixie Divers, Deerfield Beach, FL. Also, to PadiPro, we missed you buddy. I got stuck twice yesterday and put some new scratches on your 108's (sorry bout that!).
This trip was put together by Wally Barnes out of Miami, FL. Wally is a legend down in these parts, and if you've met him, you'll remember him. Thanks for the invite my friend!
Wally had a trimix student with him and two other divers, Antonio and Cliff, in his group. I brought along Julia and Laird, and we flew the missing man formation with the no show Scott, aka Padipro. I'm going to keep razzing you about missing the dive, buddy!
The winds were light, the ocean was smooth, and the sun was shining. That's a bit different than the last month down here, so we knew the dive was going to be nice. Everyone on the boat was nice as well. From the looks of it all, we were in for a treat.
The Wreck: http://www.dixiediver.com/shipwreck.htm#MILLER
(From Dixie Diver's Website) The Miller Lite is a 186-foot Freighter was sank in 164 feet of water on May, 17 1987 off Pompano Beach. In 1957 a German refrigerator cargo vessel was commissioned the Mini-horn, it was a beautiful ship. She was in service for almost 30 years before her demise. During that time she was given two other names, with her final one being Miller Lite, for the sponsor that helped finance her sinking. The Broward Department of Natural resource Protection has one of the largest artificial reef programs in the world. In 1987 it obtained ownership of the vessel, cleaned it and was sank during the yearly Pompano Beach Fishing Rodeo. During the sinking there were 200 boaters and 1,000 people on the shore watching the explosion, which could be seen for ten miles.
The Dive:
I had never been on the Miller Lite before yesterday, so I planned my dive at a max hard bottom of 160 fsw. My dive plan was as follows:
Backgas: ean24, 1.41 PO2
Decogas: ean50 and O2
depth time
160 30
80 1
70 1
60 1
50 2
40 4
30 4
20 14
Runtime of 60 minutes
Julia and Laird were diving trimix and decoing on O2 with a runtime of 60m as well. Due to the very light current, we decided to hook up, descend on the line, and deco around the line while adrift. On the descent, the wreck became visable at about 50'. Sweet.
The wreck is in incredible shape, and the mast sticks up as a beacon to guide you down. Time to let go of the line and free fall. We landed on the deck towards the bow and preceeded down into the forward cargo hold. There is a corridor that leads aft to the second cargo hold and made for a nice warmup swim through. About half way between cargo holds, there is a hatch that leads down a level into a room full of plumbing. A diver from another team had just gone down. Julia signaled for me to go ahead and I went in head first. It was a tight squeeze with two deco bottles and I managed to get stuck. I backed out a bit, and went again. I made it in and saw that the room opened up to the aft and I could see the light coming in from the other end, which was the second cargo bay. Someone had stirred up the silt, and it became very erie. I exited out the hatch into the cargo hold and met up with Julia and Laird again.
Now the real fun began. We entered the main structure of the ship, and wound our way aft. Julia was in the lead, followed by Laird, and myself bringing up the rear. We entered a large room with several cables haning from the roof and Laird snagged his deco bottles as he passed through. I had the benefit of watching this unfold and guess what? I got hung up as well. I started through the room doing a lost reg like sweep with my left arm. I let the cables loose to early though and one caught my left post. I backed up and rolled into the cables. I did a sweep with my arm again, and I was free. Laird seemed amused and I gave him the OK with my light. Somewhere in this room when I was touching stuff, I managed to get stung or punctured by something. I didn't think much of it at the time, but you can read my other thread about my finger now. Ouch!
We moved up the structure on the backside and reentered one level higher. We were in the wheel house now, and swam out the other side. We followed Julia down the side of the ship and into a cut hole in the side. Not much to see in here and moved back up on to the deck. Our bottom timers showed us at 25 minutes, so we stayed up on the deck and moved back towards the bos and the line. All the divers were now headed that way, and it looked like a herd of migrating tanks. At this point, I'm in love with this wreck and didn't want to leave!
We started a free ascent, and the last team unhooked from the wreck. A few of the divers stayed on the line, but the three of us backed away and made a free ascent. My deco schedule allowed for deeper stops, so I was a bit seperated from the other two for a while. Actually, they were hovering over me and decoing on backgas, so they could still come down the 10 to 20' if needed.
The switch at 70 went smooth, and then we all met up at the 20' stop. It was like a ballet! 6 divers slowly rotating around a cental line in a synchronized demonstration of peak bouyancy and control. It was sweet and would have made for a neat picture had someone been filming.
Back on the boat, we shared stories and laughter. Wally forgot the beer again!!!!
What a great trip! I'm looking forward to doing it again in the near future.
