RAD Diver
Contributor
So Sunday arrives with sunny skies & light winds. So our thoughts turn to the days dive schedule. We had 1st planned to hit the shoals & dive the Australia. We dove it last year & only found the bow, but as we were leaving the site Capt. JT saw a large mass come up on his display & marked it for another day like today.
But after checking the newly installed current meters it seemed like a risky call, & after discussing our options (basically JT said if we got there & couldn't dive the site we were screwed) we decided to take a vote & it was quickly decided to dive somewhere else, but where? Andy spoke up quick, PROTEUS. So it was decided.
The trip out was better than on Saturday & was quickly hooked by Trey & then he & Kevin went to do their dive. Andy jumped next with Trina & I shortly thereafter. With a BT of 30 minutes & RT of 61minutes.
We hit the bottom to find terrible conditions, you know 80 ft of vis & absolutely no current. We were hooked off the port side in the debris field, so we headed off towards the boilers, found some juvenile Angelfish & after a few futile attempts to get a picture I decided BT was too precious & we pushed down the starboard side to the prop. Of course there were Sandtigers all around us as per normal, just not as thick as the last time, but still plenty of photo ops.
With still plenty of time we run the port side back to the boilers, this time we floated in the middle of them, & I spotted a juvenile spotted drum or maybe a highhat, but it made a quick beeline for cover. I tried to wait it out & it peeked from time to time, but wouldn't be totally exposed while I was there. We were at 25 minutes when I see Andy floating my way (surely he must be close to his BT limit, he jumped before us & we were very close to ours), he asked my for the hook location, very rare in Andy's case, so I pointed it out to him & he was off.
I give Trina the back to the line sign & just as we start between the boilers something caught my eye, I didn't know what it was, but it was something. An orange eye staring right at me, connected to a perfectly camouflaged Octopus. I put the hold sign to Trina & pointed it out, it took a second, but she finally saw it.
She motioned towards Andy & his video, but I knew he was over his BT so no sense in tempting him.
I started taking some pictures & hitting it with my light, which it didn't like 1 bit & flew off, but I saw it land on the boiler, so I harassed it some more getting in as many shots as possible since my time was extremely short now. At 28 min of BT I called the dive & we got back to the anchor line at 29 min. perfect timing, but then I see a couple of Butterfly fish & decide a few shots were called for, of course they were at the sand. At 31 min I look up & Trina is giving me this time is up look & I know she is right & start up the line.
All stops go as planned & my Trio clears Deco before my schedule so my extra minute didn't cause me too much grief, & I still finished my schedule on my slate. Saw some Dolphins at our 20 ft stop, but they were gone before I could unhook my camera & get it fired back up. Darn.
Upon surfacing we see "OC Diver" with Capt. Ted Green has pulled up to the sight & dropped anchor & did it properly, waiting for all of us to be on our line 1st so as not to hit us with his anchor.
JT had been fishing while we were down & had plenty of Red Snapper in the box. We then trawled in towards the inlet to dive the Keshena & seeing as we were looking for a minimum 2 hour SI & the seas were beautiful we were in no big hurry.
Unfortunately just a few nibbles & no serious bites. What was an amazing task was as Kevin was reeling in 1 of the rods he hooked a Spanish Mackerel right through its side, probably a Million to 1 shot.
JT asked me to be the last in so after Trina & I did our dive we could pull the hook.
Once we arrived at the Keshena site conditions were so good that JT thought that this would be a great time for Trey to try to ride the hook down for the 1st time, well lets just say it wasn't text book on style points & if Trey would like to tell us how it was we will listen.
Once he headed down we could see him & his white tanks in that pretty blue water for at least 40 ft, probably the best conditions seen on this site for quite some time. It was so nice that Nancy decided that she would pull the hook after doing a dive.
Everything was going according to plan until about 50ft & the water turned green & milky, Nancy would be disappointed, I knew she would get the word on conditions from Trey & probably call her dive.
The Keshensa is a smallish wreck that we easily covered with plenty of time to spare, so I went 20 ft off the site & circled it, barely being able to make out the outline, but not too far as to get lost. I found a lot of marks in the sand that showed the outline of Rays, this must be a hot spot for them for some reason. I even found a good sized 1 out there just resting on the bottom, time was up & I went a bit into deco, but not too unexpected as this was our last dive of the weekend & I would do everything to extend it.
We were the last to ascend, but I didn't pull the hook without knowing for sure that Nancy had called her dive. I figured that after we surfaced I could shoot back down & do the deed if warranted. But was not needed as while we were at 15 ft Trey splashed & headed down. So after we cleared deco & stayed a while longer waiting for Trey to start back up the line, then we boarded.
Trey surfaced yelling of some Mahi circling the boat, JT grabbed a rod & went into action, had a few chase his lure, but none made the final lunge to bite, Trey also was babbling something about a Shark & not a Sandtiger, but never caught sight of it.
Thus ending another exciting weekend of diving off Cape Hatteras with Capt. JT on board the only air conditioned live aboard boat on the coast.
If you haven't done this diving thinking MHC or Wilmington is the only coastal NC diving worth while ( & I like those too) you are missing out on some fantastic opportunities to dive some of the best wrecks on the coast.
But after checking the newly installed current meters it seemed like a risky call, & after discussing our options (basically JT said if we got there & couldn't dive the site we were screwed) we decided to take a vote & it was quickly decided to dive somewhere else, but where? Andy spoke up quick, PROTEUS. So it was decided.
The trip out was better than on Saturday & was quickly hooked by Trey & then he & Kevin went to do their dive. Andy jumped next with Trina & I shortly thereafter. With a BT of 30 minutes & RT of 61minutes.
We hit the bottom to find terrible conditions, you know 80 ft of vis & absolutely no current. We were hooked off the port side in the debris field, so we headed off towards the boilers, found some juvenile Angelfish & after a few futile attempts to get a picture I decided BT was too precious & we pushed down the starboard side to the prop. Of course there were Sandtigers all around us as per normal, just not as thick as the last time, but still plenty of photo ops.
With still plenty of time we run the port side back to the boilers, this time we floated in the middle of them, & I spotted a juvenile spotted drum or maybe a highhat, but it made a quick beeline for cover. I tried to wait it out & it peeked from time to time, but wouldn't be totally exposed while I was there. We were at 25 minutes when I see Andy floating my way (surely he must be close to his BT limit, he jumped before us & we were very close to ours), he asked my for the hook location, very rare in Andy's case, so I pointed it out to him & he was off.
I give Trina the back to the line sign & just as we start between the boilers something caught my eye, I didn't know what it was, but it was something. An orange eye staring right at me, connected to a perfectly camouflaged Octopus. I put the hold sign to Trina & pointed it out, it took a second, but she finally saw it.
She motioned towards Andy & his video, but I knew he was over his BT so no sense in tempting him.
I started taking some pictures & hitting it with my light, which it didn't like 1 bit & flew off, but I saw it land on the boiler, so I harassed it some more getting in as many shots as possible since my time was extremely short now. At 28 min of BT I called the dive & we got back to the anchor line at 29 min. perfect timing, but then I see a couple of Butterfly fish & decide a few shots were called for, of course they were at the sand. At 31 min I look up & Trina is giving me this time is up look & I know she is right & start up the line.
All stops go as planned & my Trio clears Deco before my schedule so my extra minute didn't cause me too much grief, & I still finished my schedule on my slate. Saw some Dolphins at our 20 ft stop, but they were gone before I could unhook my camera & get it fired back up. Darn.
Upon surfacing we see "OC Diver" with Capt. Ted Green has pulled up to the sight & dropped anchor & did it properly, waiting for all of us to be on our line 1st so as not to hit us with his anchor.
JT had been fishing while we were down & had plenty of Red Snapper in the box. We then trawled in towards the inlet to dive the Keshena & seeing as we were looking for a minimum 2 hour SI & the seas were beautiful we were in no big hurry.
Unfortunately just a few nibbles & no serious bites. What was an amazing task was as Kevin was reeling in 1 of the rods he hooked a Spanish Mackerel right through its side, probably a Million to 1 shot.
JT asked me to be the last in so after Trina & I did our dive we could pull the hook.
Once we arrived at the Keshena site conditions were so good that JT thought that this would be a great time for Trey to try to ride the hook down for the 1st time, well lets just say it wasn't text book on style points & if Trey would like to tell us how it was we will listen.
Once he headed down we could see him & his white tanks in that pretty blue water for at least 40 ft, probably the best conditions seen on this site for quite some time. It was so nice that Nancy decided that she would pull the hook after doing a dive.
Everything was going according to plan until about 50ft & the water turned green & milky, Nancy would be disappointed, I knew she would get the word on conditions from Trey & probably call her dive.
The Keshensa is a smallish wreck that we easily covered with plenty of time to spare, so I went 20 ft off the site & circled it, barely being able to make out the outline, but not too far as to get lost. I found a lot of marks in the sand that showed the outline of Rays, this must be a hot spot for them for some reason. I even found a good sized 1 out there just resting on the bottom, time was up & I went a bit into deco, but not too unexpected as this was our last dive of the weekend & I would do everything to extend it.
We were the last to ascend, but I didn't pull the hook without knowing for sure that Nancy had called her dive. I figured that after we surfaced I could shoot back down & do the deed if warranted. But was not needed as while we were at 15 ft Trey splashed & headed down. So after we cleared deco & stayed a while longer waiting for Trey to start back up the line, then we boarded.
Trey surfaced yelling of some Mahi circling the boat, JT grabbed a rod & went into action, had a few chase his lure, but none made the final lunge to bite, Trey also was babbling something about a Shark & not a Sandtiger, but never caught sight of it.
Thus ending another exciting weekend of diving off Cape Hatteras with Capt. JT on board the only air conditioned live aboard boat on the coast.
If you haven't done this diving thinking MHC or Wilmington is the only coastal NC diving worth while ( & I like those too) you are missing out on some fantastic opportunities to dive some of the best wrecks on the coast.
