masonak1298
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Thinking of diving the Oriskany this summer and I was wondering if anyone here have dived it and have any commits on the dive?
Thinking of diving the Oriskany
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We are going in May. Just finished our deco procedures and Triox courses.
I'm planning on a May/June trip out that way. Here's what I know about the boat.
The Oriskany's flight deck sits at about 130'. The tower comes up to within 60' of the surface. As a recreational diver, all you'll be able to dive is the tower. I'm not sure how much there is to see on it, but it might be worthwhile. You're definitely going to have a better time diving it if you're trimix and deco trained.
The Oriskany's flight deck sits at about 130'. The tower comes up to within 60' of the surface. As a recreational diver, all you'll be able to dive is the tower. I'm not sure how much there is to see on it, but it might be worthwhile. You're definitely going to have a better time diving it if you're trimix and deco trained.
Some of the dive ops will not let you go to the flight deck unless your tech trained....a couple of instructors and divemaster I know wanted to go to the deck and were told absolutely not by the Dive op. I think they told me 100 ft. was absolute on that trip.
nolatom
Contributor
I dived her in August. The dive op I used (the M/V SEA SCOUT booked thru MBT Divers) wanted an AOW card or better, and did not give depth restrictions, except to make clear that below the flight deck was a tech dive and we weren't going tech diving. We were just 6 divers on this boat so little chance of a misunderstanding about anything. Most of us were on AL80s with Nitrox 28 or 30. We knew we had to keep an eye on our gas consumption, but there wasn't much current, so getting around was easy and vis was very good.
I went straight down to the flight deck first thing, "touched" it (137'), then after less than a minute looking around and looking up at the divers on the island, ascended back up to the 80' neighborhood, where the light's better and frankly the island, with its nooks and swim-throughs, is more interesting anyway.
The ship is HUGE, but most of us rec divers will explore the island, and maybe a hundred feet of flight deck around it briefly, and won't get much farther away, nor deeper, than that. The mooring bouys are all off the top of the island, so if you get 4 boats out there, it's kind of close quarters on the surface, though plenty of room at depth. It's enjoyable, the island makes a good "wall" dive, and you can either go down to the flight deck or leave it alone, it'd take 3 or 4 dives to cover most of the island anyway.
It's a long way out (22 miles) and back for 2 dives. it's fun to do, but I'd be happy doing it about once a year. there are plenty of good wrecks about 10 miles out. Actually, our group voted to do our 2nd dive on the Chevron platform 2 miles away, because we could see no one on it and we had the place to ourselves.
The Mighty O's a good dive, no doubt. Even better when there's more growth and more fish.
I went straight down to the flight deck first thing, "touched" it (137'), then after less than a minute looking around and looking up at the divers on the island, ascended back up to the 80' neighborhood, where the light's better and frankly the island, with its nooks and swim-throughs, is more interesting anyway.
The ship is HUGE, but most of us rec divers will explore the island, and maybe a hundred feet of flight deck around it briefly, and won't get much farther away, nor deeper, than that. The mooring bouys are all off the top of the island, so if you get 4 boats out there, it's kind of close quarters on the surface, though plenty of room at depth. It's enjoyable, the island makes a good "wall" dive, and you can either go down to the flight deck or leave it alone, it'd take 3 or 4 dives to cover most of the island anyway.
It's a long way out (22 miles) and back for 2 dives. it's fun to do, but I'd be happy doing it about once a year. there are plenty of good wrecks about 10 miles out. Actually, our group voted to do our 2nd dive on the Chevron platform 2 miles away, because we could see no one on it and we had the place to ourselves.
The Mighty O's a good dive, no doubt. Even better when there's more growth and more fish.
mike_s
Contributor
Don Wray:
which dive charters are restricting you to 100' on a trip?
Benthic
Contributor
Exactly! She's in my back yard, and I've been out there a couple times this year. It's a fun dive and, as others have mentioned, the wreck is huge with lots of space to see--but she'll be even more interesting as the marine life moves in. I'm looking forward to seeing what she'll be like next year or the year after.nolatom:
Brian
I will be on her the coming Sunday and Monday. Sunday for a pair of recreational dives, Monday for a tech dive. I will try and get the cranky camera working and take some snaps.
mike_s:
Until he comes back with names that can be verified or refuted, I'd take it with a grain of salt. I've been with or personally know groups who've used 3 of the major charters going out there and none imposed such a ridiculous limit. MBT did mention the flight deck is 137' and the recreational limit is 130', that said it's your call.
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