Triangle Wrecks 20 August 2005

[UnixSage]

Well, the shop didn't have a 3mm that would fit. So, I will be wearing my 7mm. I never thought I would say this, but I hope I don't get too hot.

The shop had none for me either so I am afraid I will not be joining you. Thanks for the offer of letting me join your group but as I feared the wetsuit is a problem. Which is the next piece of gear I was planning on buying after my BCD.

Good Luck and Dive Safe.
Thanks
John

 

[Angie Gudmon]

Everyone is meeting in Naggs Head around milemarker 11 at 9:30am?

 

[Don Burke]

Everyone is meeting in Naggs Head around milemarker 11 at 9:30am?

I will be at the Huron plaque north of the Nags Head fishing pier.

It appears I will have at least some company.

The weather will make the decisions for us from there.

 

[jgarysmith]

Yes, We are meeting at the Public parking area beach access at MP 11. Across the Beach Rd is Bladen Street. At that time there should be parking available in the lot, but it fills up quiclky. If it does we can also park on Bladen Steet. I have a black F-150 Truck that we can load up and drive over if the lot is full. When we go down to the Triangle Wrecks we might have to do that. The lot will be pretty full by then.
Gary

 

[DennisW]

Or, the dive that wasn't.

Skip Chappell and I left Williamsburg this morning at just after 5am to meet several people in Nags Head to dive The Huron. Skip and I got there early and decided to have breakfast. After breakfast, we went to the dive site and waited. As we waited the current built and the breakers got higher.

Everyone finally arrived and we suited up. I had my 7mm suit and I was hot. I was hoping the water would cool me off. We went out to the beach and entered the water. Don Burke from Chesapeake was already way past the breakers and heading for the wreck. The two young guys, Gary and his buddy (sorry, I can't remember your name) were right behind him and then it was Skip and me. We got out past the breakers, but by then we were exhausted and the current was taking us South. My tank had come loose and since I wasn't familiar with this BC (a rental) I didn't figure out that it was lose for a bit. Anyway, by the time I figured it out, I decided to call the dive. By this time, Steve was there and helped me get in through the breakers with my tank hanging. Then Steve went out to continue the dive with Skip. Steve's tank came loose and he had to come in to get it back on his BC. He got rolled around a bit in the sand and both his primary and octo began to free flow. Steve got the sand out of them and finally got back in the water and headed out. While this was going on, Skip was pushed pretty far South by the current. I thought he had gotten to the wreck, but he was so far down the beach, I didn't see him. The current had increased a lot by this time. Skip called his dive and came in while I was taking my gear to the showers and cleaning it up. I went back out to see where everyone was and Skip yelled for me. He was waiting under someone's canopy and resting. So, I helped Skip back up to the parking lot where the shower was.

The other guys were able to dive, but the viz was around 2 ft and they were exhausted and decided to not go to the Triangle Wrecks. Steve showed us where the Triangle Wrecks were and he stayed a while, we drove home. Steve may have dived the Triangle Wrecks. Maybe he'll post a trip report on the other board.

Lessons Learned:

1) Next time, go early and get in the water before things pick up. I think we could have made the dive earlier. Maybe not, because we are both worn out old men. But I think we could have.

2) We should have dropped to the bottom after we got past the breakers. The current would not have been so bad on the bottom. But with very low viz, we would have been popping up every once in a while to find the buoys for the wreck.

3) Make sure I am satisfied with the way the tank is attached to the BC. The BC was a rental and I was unfamiliar with the strap.

It was a beautiful day and I got wet, I didn't dive, but I got wet.

 

[Don Burke]

Yep, the Huron was like diving in a snowstorm. I expected fishing line and found none.

The current just took the fight out of us.

In a few weeks, I would like to take a shot at the triangle wrecks.

Lessons learned on Huron:

- bring wreck reel
- bring a big float to add to the existing bouy
- plan on current
- an AL80 was certainly enough
- There is a resaurant a few blocks to the north called "Mulligan's" (I think) that serves a pretty good breakfast.

At some point I would like to try to find that tug.

 

[DrSteve]

Dennis pretty much sized up what happened to me. Thankfuly with Don's help later on I was able to get my tank bands threaded correctly so tank slippage shouldn't be an issue. Anyhow, after all that excitement I finally made it out past the breaking waves (which really weren't so bad once you got passed the surf zone - but still not easy to deal with) and swam out.

There appears to be two zones of current. For the first 150 or so yards out I was going out in a nice straight line perpendicular to the beach, then as I got out further the current started taking me south. Karen and I had this problem earlier this year when we tried it as well. I swam hard, very hard against it and couldn't make any gains. In fact befeore I dropped down to the bottom, my computer was predicting 15 minutes of air time! But as I could see the buoy about 40 yards away I dropped down and pulled myself along the bottom. All of a sudden it went dark...then my eyes adjusted and there was the Huron.

I swam around a bit and explored. It is a nice wreck. Visibility fluctuated depending on the direction of the tidal surge, one minute you might have 4 foot of vis, next it was zero. At one point I had swam away from the wreck chasing a flounder, I turned aorund and had zero vis and a moment of vertigo. I looked at my compass and decided to head south as I knew I had left the wreck behind me. Literally 1 foot to the south lay the wreck again!

I saw some blue crabs, some small tau tog, a couple of star fish. One section of the wreck had been cleaned by a band of urchins, which appeared to be teaming up with some small hermit crabs (or maybe the hermit crabs were ganging up on the urchins). I also saw some baby butterfly fish, seaweed blenny (?), a school of atlantic spadefish, and a scuba liger (Larry's fins - it's a Napoleon Dynamite reference) before he and Gary surfaced. In general it was a nice dive and I had 66 minutes bottom time.

 

[DennisW]

Steve,

That Pufferfish is really a Toadfish. But with that viz, you didn't get to see much of him. I would say that the unknown fish is a Seaweed Blenny. Thanks for the report and the pics.

 

[DrSteve]

I have to say it is a real shame that everyone left after the Huron. The Triangles were an absolute breeze to swim out to with almost no issues with wabes or current. Add to that the 100 foot visibility. I did come in to try and call everyone, but the moment I decided to the vis was back down to 2-4 feet again. But seriously, this was a very relaxing swim out and a good dive.

This was my 3rd dive on the Triangle wrecks and as before I didn't remember anything looking quite the way it did today. I saw a lot of interesting life, well camouflaged flounder, more blue crabs, an adult butterfly fish (plus a lot of juveniles), several seaweed (?) blenny's and a very cute puffer fish (probably a web burrfish) that just kept wanting to say hi to me, as well as a much uglier puffer fish hiding in a crevice.

At one point I struck gold (literally) and saw a bright gold glint from the bottom. I went down and cleaned off a long tube like object (open at one end and possibly closed on the other, about 5 feet long with a 6-8" diameter) that was a shiney gold colour. First thought was that it was a cannon, but it felt too thin on the walls to be a cannon. I suspect it is the same item that Gary has on his triangle pics web site. I'm curious what it was made of as it was so shiney, I suspect brass would have corroded by now - next time I'll chip off a sample for analysis. A very large (around 16" length) Atlantic Spadefish decided to play hide and seak in what I suspect were the remains of the boilers. There were also a few triggerfish flitting aorund, but they didn't seem to want their photos taken.

Bottom time for this dive was 125 minutes.

 

[Skipp]

I agree with Dennis, it was a beautiful day and we did get wet. It was also great to get out of town and away from the office for the day.

I have been told that the Outer Banks surf is unforgiving. There are techniques you have to learn in order to enter the surf without completely wiping out, and when you do get past the surf you must watch the currents. It may take several tries, but experience is the best teacher.

I have been visiting the Nags Head area since the early sixties and always enjoyed frolicking in the surf which can really beat you up. I know how hard it is to get past the waves and have found myself in severe rip currents many times.

Yesterday was fairly calm for the Outer Banks and the current difficult but not extreme. I failed to remember that I was just not in my swim trunks, but in full gear with way too much neoprene on (three mil jump suit with shorty over top).

I managed to get past the surf...Man, what a chore. The more I kicked to get to the site the closer the fishing pier got (which was in the opposite direction). Realizing I was overheated, becoming exhausted and getting nowhere fast, I yelled to the other divers on the site that I was going back. Hoping they heard me, I started kicking back to shore (while the fishing pier kept getting closer). Remembering the rule "Don't fight the current" I just let it carry me South while kicking toward shore.

I felt a great sense of relief when I reached the breakers where I could touch bottom until I realized I still have to get out of the surf. Exhausted and looking forward to another beating, I recalled one of my instructors telling me "Skip, you have to crawl out, you can't walk". Getting on my hands and fins, crawling and rolling like a wounded crab, I managed to free myself from the reach of the Ocean's angry waves. As I lay on the sand, half in and half out of the surf I noticed two young ladies looking down on me. "Are you OK"?

"Why of course, but could you get my fins?" (which were floating out to sea). How gracious they were as they actually had to go out to retrieve them. I was well beyond pride at that point and had absolutely no inhibition about letting them carry my tank, BC and accouterments to the shore line. I did have to stop myself from asking them to carry me.

Anyhoo, I dropped all gear and started to carry what I could back to the entry point. Was it one or two miles? I was offerred santuary under a canopy and provided with several buckets of water over my head to cool me down. What? No beer? I recognized Dennis walking toward shore, yelled and the rest is history in his previous post.

Let's try it again!!!