Triangle Wrecks 20 August 2005

[Don Burke]

This sounds like a winning plan so far.

Most welcome to offer it! I want to dive and I'm too tight to pay anyone 30 dollars to guide me on a dive like this! 15 more gets me a trip to the tower reef!

Give me a day to check on the tides. But, I'd aim for 9-9.30 (you can guarantee I'll wake up later than I planned or something). That way you miss most of the traffic coming into the OBX area.

If the conditions are anything like they were last time it would be a liability to drag a dive flag around (plenty of current and wave motion)...I'd suggest we tie it off on the buoy. Buddy lines will be a good addition, but wreck reels again could be a liability in terms of getting tangled. The wrecks are small enough that it doesn't matter so much if we surface at the same point we went down.

Anyway, water temps were 72F a few months back. It was definitely colder on the bottom, so bring a thick and thin suit just in case.

 

[DennisW]

I've been out of town for a few days, so I haven't seen this thread for a bit. 9 - 9:30 am sounds good to me. I am bringing someone from Williamsburg with me. By the way, I never made it to Florida, so I will be renting some gear and tanks on Friday afternoon. I will have my 7mm suit so I don't think I'll get cold. My wife is shipping my mask up from FL so I'll for sure have a mask before then. And I will make several buddy lines this weekend for everyone to have a means of keeping together. See you all then.

 

[DrSteve]

Hi Guys!

Here's the info:
Highwater at Kitty Hawk is at 8.20am on Saturday 20th. So if we can hit the water by 10.30 we should be golden. Low tide is at 2.30.
(http://www.saltwatertides.com/cgi-local/neatlantic.cgi)

My thoughts are we try the Huron first as it is the longest suface swim:
http://www.arch.dcr.state.nc.us/HURONBRO.HTM
It is buoyed (at least it was last year) and it looks to be a much more interesting dive than the ones further down.

Next dive will be the "Triangles" (Carl Gerhard and Kazycstikes)
Kyzickes (Triangle Wrecks) Tanker, Milepost 7, Second Street access approximately 100 yards offshore. She ran aground during a storm with a cargo of oil. Four lives were lost. Depth is about 20 ft of water.
Carl Gerhard (Triangle Wrecks) Freighter, Milepost 7, The wrecks are broken in half with the bow section of the Kyzickes lying on the outer sand bar about 200 yards offshore. The Carl Gerhard went down in 1929 carrying a cargo of plasterboard.

There is a fresh water shower in the parking area, so we can rinse our gear.

Finally there is the possibility of a pier located near Duck. I don't know its exact location, but apparently it is next to a small army/weather station. You enter form the beach and swim across. Ring any bells? But it's supposed to be nice. I'll do some research and see what I can find.

Let's aim to meet by 9.30 (we'll swap cell numbers), weather permitting. If there is even a hint of a tropical depression even close to the area I'll likely not want to go. Vis down there isn't great at any time, and with all that sand. How does that sound?

Oh and The Black Duck (I think that's the name) is a great place to eat.

 

[OBXDIVEGUY]

Oh and The Black Duck (I think that's the name) is a great place to eat.

It's the Black Pelican, and yeah, it's pretty good. A better place would be Tortuga's. It is between the Huron and the Triangle wrecks. Great place.

If you guys have never been on the wrecks, I would recommend doing the guided dives. It is worth it to learn about the fascinating stories behind them. The guides are great and extremely helpful. I've even seen them tow people out on their buoy line!

If you're not into the story stuff, you can certainly do it yourself, but the dives can really be challenging sometimes.

I was on the Triangles a few times last week and had great night dives. Gotta love the 90 min bottom time! They are all very uncovered and look great. One night we easily had 30' viz. Definetely at least bring a dive flag as there are often fishing boats over head. The current sort of picked up in the last couple of days bringing in some murk, but not too bad yesterday. The wind has shifted and it should clear up again.

I'd recommend against the Duck pier. I live up there and can tell you there is no public beach access in Duck. The pier is on federal property so its a bit tough to get to. The closest access to the pier is about a half mile trek from Sandy Ridge, but they will tow your car if your not staying there. There's not much to see on it except for some triggers and sheep's head anyway. (however some buddies of mine that work on the pier took a great pict of a 10' hammerhead at the end a couple of months ago.

I'd love to meet up with some of ya'll, but I've got a thing on the 20th. If anyone wants to do a night dive then, I should be done by early evening.

Shoot me a PM if ya have any questions or anything!

 

[DrSteve]

It's the Black Pelican, and yeah, it's pretty good. A better place would be Tortuga's. It is between the Huron and the Triangle wrecks. Great place.

If you guys have never been on the wrecks, I would recommend doing the guided dives. It is worth it to learn about the fascinating stories behind them. The guides are great and extremely helpful. I've even seen them tow people out on their buoy line!

I'd recommend against the Duck pier. I live up there and can tell you there is no public beach access in Duck. The pier is on federal property so its a bit tough to get to. The closest access to the pier is about a half mile trek from Sandy Ridge, but they will tow your car if your not staying there. There's not much to see on it except for some triggers and sheep's head anyway. (however some buddies of mine that work on the pier took a great pict of a 10' hammerhead at the end a couple of months ago.

I'd love to meet up with some of ya'll, but I've got a thing on the 20th. If anyone wants to do a night dive then, I should be done by early evening.

Shoot me a PM if ya have any questions or anything!

Thanks! I've dived the triangles successfully twice now, with 2 aborted attempts. Never managed to get to the Huron, so it'll be a first for me.

10 foot hammerhead! Wow...makes me want to try it just in case!

I doubt I will be up for a night dive, got to get home and let the dog out. But if the conditions were incredible I might be able to manage a twilight dive.

 

[Don Burke]

Finally there is the possibility of a pier located near Duck. I don't know its exact location, but apparently it is next to a small army/weather station. You enter form the beach and swim across. Ring any bells? But it's supposed to be nice. I'll do some research and see what I can find.

Here is the pier.

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=ducn7

This looks like a good candidate for another time.

 

[jgarysmith]

Larry and I are going to join you guys. I have dove the Triangle Wrecks several times (also with Dr Steve once). Never had a chance to dive the Huron so that will be great.

A lot of the posts are correct, the wrecks can be challenging at times, but they can also be a great dive if you get the good conditions. Larry and myself can help out with any questions also, but I can assure you are in good hands with Dr Steve.

I kinda acted as a guide for the NC Wreckdivers group a couple of weeks ago.They had not dove it before. Conditions were not that great, but we did dive and retrieved a lot of conch shells. I look forward to meeting everyone, espically Don Burke. I have been following his posts for a long time.

Look at a few of my pictures from the Triangle Wrecks and you can good idea of what they are like on a good day. I will post them tonight.see evrybody there.

Gary

 

[Dive-aholic]

I just dove Triangle last Monday. Snorkeled out and did a couple of free dives - calm and 10' of viz, lots of fish - then back to shore, all in 20 minutes. Geared up and conditions were completely different. A current came in and it took about 1/2 hour to get to the buoy, dropped down to 2' viz and a ripping current, and no fish to be seen. Explored the inside of the wreck for the entire dive, didn't seem like a good idea to venture outside of it (the buoy is tied down inside the Kyzickes). Despite the conditions, it was a good dive (is any dive not?). I'd recommend against a dive buoy unless you have something small that can easily be clipped to the existing buoy. I ran a reel from the existing buoy to explore the wreck (only because viz was so bad and I definitely wanted to ascend back on the buoy because of the current), no problems with entanglement. Temp was about 80 on surface with a thermocline at about 8' dropping it to 65 deg. Like I said, good dive. I can't wait to do it again next year with better viz - 30' !?!?!?!?

 

[Larry Horne]

Dr. Steve, (good seeing you yesterday)

Looks like Gary and I will see you. I am bringing Lisa and Meredith. Most likely will leave them at first meet point due to parking issues on second dive point with Gary.

Keep us posted of details.

Cheers.

Lar

 

[james croft]

FWIW, I tried to dive the Huron about 12 days ago. Chip with Aqua Adventures had 2 paying customers with him. They got into the water about 15 minutes before I did. The Huron is well marked , bow and stern by bouys.
I was solo diving. By the time I swam out to the wreck, pulling my dive flag, there were two fishing boats on site. One was a fishing charter with 3 guys in it, including a captain. As I neared the wreck the captain pulled his boat near me and began yelling at me. He told me that divers would run the fish off the wreck, called the other divers that were diving the wreck some choice words and told me he had paying customers, etc. I could see the other boat and one guy was jigging like mad and Ialthough I could not see bubbles due to the surface conditions and my lack of elevation, I felt like that guy may have been trying to snag a diver. The guy I was talking to then advised he was going to take Chip's dive bouy, which he unsnapper from the wreck bouy and took it on the boat. I observed there were some lead snap weights, etc clipped to the bouy. The situation was beginning to deteriorate to say the least. I forgot to add the guy was chumming the area and I did not want to be in the middle of a chum slick so I made a tactical withdrawal, kicked back to the beach and and advised the law of the situation. The boat registration numbers were provided to authorities, etc. Fortunately when the other divers surfaced this guy had picked up and left. The only advise I can give someone is to try and avoid diving around the boats, especially a dark blue fiberglass boat with a center console with a 200 HP Yamaha outboard w/ NC 4303 ** on the bow. He doesn't play well with others. Also it would be a good idea for you guys to meet some where else and consolidate your gear and bodies in as few vehicles as possible as parking spots are at a premium, especially after 10 AM. I will be going back to area to dive on Aug.22-27. Will be doing the Huron if anyone wants to buddy up.