So the wife and I just got back from a truly fantastic trip east. Our intention was to do the Intro to Cave course with Avery Chipka in High Springs and then spend a few days breaking in the skill set. Tropical Storm Debby had other plans for us. We got through two days of training and before we could finish up the river, she started to rise.
I have trained with Avery in the past, but my wife had not. The first two days were very positive. We had a third diver with us who I had trained with previously and it was terrific to get the gang together and introduce them to my wife. We did lots of line work and blacked out drills (lost line, lost diver, simulated failures, etc). Unfortunately we were limited to the Ballroom as the cave system was closed to all but full cave certified divers and instructors could not take students into the system on the days we were there.
We had several positive interactions in cave country including Wayne Kinard (sp?) at Amigos dive center. Probably the coolest dive shop I've ever visited and one heck of a nice guy as well. Breakfast at the diner in town and dinners at the Great Outdoors. This was my second trip (first was for cavern training) and it's still charming and fun to be in such a small community that revolves around the diving population.
Faced with the reality that diving was over and not getting better, we made the trip north to Morehead City, NC (a quick ~8 hours away) to do some wreck diving and salvage the trip.
Good call!
We dove with Captain James Rosemond on the Tortuga. It's a 31' six pack with lots of space to spread out. Probably the best feature - bean bag chairs on the dive deck! Very comfortable ride for the 2-2.5 hours out to the wreck sites. Our first day we did a double dip on the Papoose in very blue water with ~50-60 feet of visibility. The wreck is hull-up and broken in places where you can make a limited penetration. Lots of sharks, rays and grouper around to keep you company. The boat is very friendly to tech divers and had no issue with us running long provided we gave them our dive plan before we splashed. We were lucky to have a boat full of very competent divers and made for a terrific couple of days.
This was my first trip to the outer banks and I was surprised by a) the water temperature (balmy at 78'F) and b) the tropical fish. Given that we had planned to be in cave country, all I had was a dry suit. I was very pleased that I could shed the drysuit and go in board shorts comfortably (though I did borrow a 3mm shorty for the second day as even 78'F gets chilly when you've got some hang time to kill).
Day 2 on the Tortuga brought us to the obligatory dive on the U-352. This german sub was put down by the coast guard in WWII and makes for an interesting dive. It has little relief and is only about 300 feet long, so it's over pretty quick. Visibility was less good on Sunday, but still respectable at 20-30 feet. Not my favorite dive, but Ashley (wife) had been chomping at the bit to dive a u-boat since she was certified, so she got to tick this one off on the bucket list.
Our second dive was on the Aolis (sp)? An old cable-layer that was sunk as an artificial reef. Usually I prefer real wrecks, but this one has the very cool feature of being able to descend into the cable room at ~100 feet. You drop in through a hole in the deck and immediately notice 3-4 quite large sand sharks circling you. We have done several "shark dives" and "shark feedings" over the years and honestly I've never been this close to them before. It was terrific to see them so close and so docile without any impetus to be there. We spent about 40 minutes in that room hanging out with the sand tigers taking pictures and just observing. Definitely the highlight of the trip.
So despite not being the trip we had planned, we had a truly terrific time. I'm looking forward to getting back to cave country to finish our course and now I have an excuse to return to North Carolina as well.
I'd highly recommend the Tortuga operation and her captain to anyone heading that way.
I have trained with Avery in the past, but my wife had not. The first two days were very positive. We had a third diver with us who I had trained with previously and it was terrific to get the gang together and introduce them to my wife. We did lots of line work and blacked out drills (lost line, lost diver, simulated failures, etc). Unfortunately we were limited to the Ballroom as the cave system was closed to all but full cave certified divers and instructors could not take students into the system on the days we were there.
We had several positive interactions in cave country including Wayne Kinard (sp?) at Amigos dive center. Probably the coolest dive shop I've ever visited and one heck of a nice guy as well. Breakfast at the diner in town and dinners at the Great Outdoors. This was my second trip (first was for cavern training) and it's still charming and fun to be in such a small community that revolves around the diving population.
Faced with the reality that diving was over and not getting better, we made the trip north to Morehead City, NC (a quick ~8 hours away) to do some wreck diving and salvage the trip.
Good call!
We dove with Captain James Rosemond on the Tortuga. It's a 31' six pack with lots of space to spread out. Probably the best feature - bean bag chairs on the dive deck! Very comfortable ride for the 2-2.5 hours out to the wreck sites. Our first day we did a double dip on the Papoose in very blue water with ~50-60 feet of visibility. The wreck is hull-up and broken in places where you can make a limited penetration. Lots of sharks, rays and grouper around to keep you company. The boat is very friendly to tech divers and had no issue with us running long provided we gave them our dive plan before we splashed. We were lucky to have a boat full of very competent divers and made for a terrific couple of days.
This was my first trip to the outer banks and I was surprised by a) the water temperature (balmy at 78'F) and b) the tropical fish. Given that we had planned to be in cave country, all I had was a dry suit. I was very pleased that I could shed the drysuit and go in board shorts comfortably (though I did borrow a 3mm shorty for the second day as even 78'F gets chilly when you've got some hang time to kill).
Day 2 on the Tortuga brought us to the obligatory dive on the U-352. This german sub was put down by the coast guard in WWII and makes for an interesting dive. It has little relief and is only about 300 feet long, so it's over pretty quick. Visibility was less good on Sunday, but still respectable at 20-30 feet. Not my favorite dive, but Ashley (wife) had been chomping at the bit to dive a u-boat since she was certified, so she got to tick this one off on the bucket list.
Our second dive was on the Aolis (sp)? An old cable-layer that was sunk as an artificial reef. Usually I prefer real wrecks, but this one has the very cool feature of being able to descend into the cable room at ~100 feet. You drop in through a hole in the deck and immediately notice 3-4 quite large sand sharks circling you. We have done several "shark dives" and "shark feedings" over the years and honestly I've never been this close to them before. It was terrific to see them so close and so docile without any impetus to be there. We spent about 40 minutes in that room hanging out with the sand tigers taking pictures and just observing. Definitely the highlight of the trip.
So despite not being the trip we had planned, we had a truly terrific time. I'm looking forward to getting back to cave country to finish our course and now I have an excuse to return to North Carolina as well.
I'd highly recommend the Tortuga operation and her captain to anyone heading that way.
