Diveral
Contributor
Well I have mostly recovered from a week of wreck diving on Cape Lookout NC. I organized and led a club trip to Beaufort NC for a week of diving with Discovery Diving. http://www.discoverydiving.com/
We put together two chapters of dive clubs based in Alabama and Minnesota. We included buddies from previous dives and friends from Scubaboard. It was the first time any of us had dove the Cape Lookout area. I found these sites extremely helpful in putting together the trip. http://www.ncdivers.com/ and http://www.nc-wreckdiving.com/
We had thirteen divers from Alabama, Georgia, and Minnesota pay for the trip. One of the biggest challenges I faced was keeping enough divers on the trip to maintain a group for both the discount and to set the itinenary for the boat. We stayed in one of Discovey Diving's dive lodges. It wasn't the Hilton but was economical and convenient. It also helped us bond as a group. This is a great idea for dive groups.
We took 5 seperate vehicles to NC and kept in touch by cellphone on the way in. Two of us stayed in South Carolina Saturday night and beat the rest of us to Beaufort NC by a good 3-4 hours. They had two tasks 1, to check us into Discovery and 2, more importantly, to find us a good place to relax and have a few beers and food prior to diving. They succeeded beautifully in 2. They found the Dockhouse at the Beaufort Marina. After checking in and unloading the rest of us made our way to the Dockhouse as we arrived. The location and ambience was ideal, the beer good and plentiful, and the food acceptable.
Monday morning July 10 came all too soon (most of us are from the Central Time Zone). We made our way to Discovery and checked in for the dives and boarded the Sea Quest II for our Dives. Discovery is a large, helpful, professional, and very friendly outfit. They are also extremely busy. These were my first dives with them and their organization and professionalism made me feel easy. We made a good choice in choosing them for the charter trip.
The Seaquest II is a 47' dive boat Captained by Jerry Smith. It is a good, comfortable, and well outfitted dive boat and Jerry Smith is an affable and knowledgeable Captain. We were very glad that we were assigned to him as our boat and Captain for this trip. This trip went about as well as one could hope. Jerry enjoys people dropping into the cockpit and visiting with him. He really made the trip as good as it could be.
We put 10 divers on the boat that first day. Although we come from the same dive clubs and many of us know one another but we have never dove together as a group. We had one group of four that had dove together and that was the biggest group on the trip. We decided very early in the planning that we would hit some shallow easier dives on the first day to give the group a chance to get familiar with each other and and half of us were diving nitrox and had come with mixes too hot for deeper dives. We planned on divinng the Carib Sea and the Verbena the 1st day. 2 easier shallower dives that were reported to have lots good life and Sand Tigers.
We pulled off of the dock and headed out to Sea. Conditions weren't right for the run to the Carib Sea or Verbena that day and we went to our alternate sites, the Aeolus and the Indra. The ride out was very pleasant.
The Aeolus is a 400+ ft Navy cable layer that was sunk as an artificial reef in the 90's and has subsequently been broken into 3 pieces by a hurricane. The 200' stern section is upright and intact. We put on our gear and got ready to splash in the water. My main dive buddy for the past year Jeb, had some equipment problems. He bought a new BC in June that was equipped with an octopus integrated into his BC inflator hose. It developed a serious leak and we couldn't find an allen wrench long enough to reach to ajustment screw and he had to scrub the dive. I had invited Jeepbrew along to join us as a third and he and I splashed at 9:49 and met up on the hangbar at 20' for the descent to the Aeolus.
We followed the anchor rope down to he Aelous' stern. Visibility was about 55 feet and the water temperature was 79. We hit a maximum depth of 104 feet and had a bottom time of 29 minutes. Our average depth on the dive was 70 feet. I was wearing a pony bottle for the first time strapped to the right side of my tank and dove with about a 20 degree list to the right. I also had problems with a mask leak.
When we got near the Aeolus we saw about 20+ sandtigers and big schools of fish circling off the wreck about 40 feet out. Jeepbrew and I did a swimthrough inside of the superstructure of the ship. We emerged above the deck of the 200ft stern section. I saw a large open hatch on the deck and dropped into it to see what was down there. It was dark so I pulled out my divelight and started panning from my left to right. It was a very large room and I saw sea anemonies, stonefish, other fish, a sea cucumber or nudibranch. Jeepbrew was hanging onto the hatch opening above and to my left with his head over the hole. When I hit about 2 o'clock I saw the mouth of a very large sand tiger shark about 18 inches from my right ear.
To say I was startled would be a gross understatement. I jumped. That scared the shark and he jumped and took off. I could feel the water coming off his tail fin sweep across my face.This scared me even worse and I jumped again and slammed my head into the overhead and broke part of a filling off of one of my back molars. I came out of the hatch and I swear I could hear Jeepbrew hee-hawing through his reg over the ringing in my ears. We continued to the break and turned the dive and came on up.
We gathered all of our divers and pulled up the anchor and headed for the USS Indra our second dive of the day. The USS Indra is an LST sunk as an inshore artificial reef. It is relatively shallow and possesses easy swim throughs. It is a popular wreck and is used for students and newbs for dives off of NC.
We ate our lunch a during the 2 hour surface interval and ride to the Indra. Jeb's leak had been repaired and I had shifted 3 lbs from one side on my BC to the other to counteract the pony. Jeb, Jeepbrew, and I splashed at 12:18 and headed down. We hit the Indra on an unusually good day. Visibility was approximately 50' on the stern, temp was 77, I hit a max depth of 59', had 46 min of bottom time. Average depth was 43'. Visibility seemed better than the Aeolus. It is a shallower wreck so a lot of it was more light. There had been a couple of boats on the Indra that morning and there was a lot a material stirred up on the stern and hanging in the water. Current was negligible.
We descended into the stern and swam through the boat to the bow. There were lots of openings and it was easy to see and navigate through this wreck. I was listing about 35 degrees on this dive and had problems keeping my regulator in my mouth. The mask leak was much better. In the bow we ran into and had a mexican standoff with 2 sand tigers. A 4 footer and a 5 footer. The 4 footer seemed more aggressive than the larger shark. He, Jeb and I faced off about 4 feet apart. He won and we sidled over to the port side of the ship and continued the swim through.
We ascended through a hole cut into the deck of the bow. Visibility here was much better maybe 70'+. The muck wasn't stirred up here so many divers from the previous boats hadn't made it up here. We looked over the bow at all of the fish down there and turned the dive and headed to the stern and anchor line. I engaged in one of my favorite activities during the trip at this point. We were diving the rule of thirds and I had plenty of air left in my tank. I hung on the anchor line above the wreck and watched the other divers swim around the wreck and observed fish, barracuda, sharks and stuff. Did a slow ascent and hit the ladder with 300#.
This was a fantastic dive. I discovered that when I shifted my weights that I had reversed my weight pockets and loaded the 3# on the same side with my pony. That is why the list got worse. I also noticed that the tab on one side of my regulator mouthpiece was sheared off. Must have done that at the same time I broke off my filling when I had the close encounter with the shark on the previous dive.
We returned to port and hit the Nethouse for supper. Fried seafood at it's best. This was one of the better restaurants we ate at.
Changed out my regulater mouthpiece and turned in.
To Be Continued...
We put together two chapters of dive clubs based in Alabama and Minnesota. We included buddies from previous dives and friends from Scubaboard. It was the first time any of us had dove the Cape Lookout area. I found these sites extremely helpful in putting together the trip. http://www.ncdivers.com/ and http://www.nc-wreckdiving.com/
We had thirteen divers from Alabama, Georgia, and Minnesota pay for the trip. One of the biggest challenges I faced was keeping enough divers on the trip to maintain a group for both the discount and to set the itinenary for the boat. We stayed in one of Discovey Diving's dive lodges. It wasn't the Hilton but was economical and convenient. It also helped us bond as a group. This is a great idea for dive groups.
We took 5 seperate vehicles to NC and kept in touch by cellphone on the way in. Two of us stayed in South Carolina Saturday night and beat the rest of us to Beaufort NC by a good 3-4 hours. They had two tasks 1, to check us into Discovery and 2, more importantly, to find us a good place to relax and have a few beers and food prior to diving. They succeeded beautifully in 2. They found the Dockhouse at the Beaufort Marina. After checking in and unloading the rest of us made our way to the Dockhouse as we arrived. The location and ambience was ideal, the beer good and plentiful, and the food acceptable.
Monday morning July 10 came all too soon (most of us are from the Central Time Zone). We made our way to Discovery and checked in for the dives and boarded the Sea Quest II for our Dives. Discovery is a large, helpful, professional, and very friendly outfit. They are also extremely busy. These were my first dives with them and their organization and professionalism made me feel easy. We made a good choice in choosing them for the charter trip.
The Seaquest II is a 47' dive boat Captained by Jerry Smith. It is a good, comfortable, and well outfitted dive boat and Jerry Smith is an affable and knowledgeable Captain. We were very glad that we were assigned to him as our boat and Captain for this trip. This trip went about as well as one could hope. Jerry enjoys people dropping into the cockpit and visiting with him. He really made the trip as good as it could be.
We put 10 divers on the boat that first day. Although we come from the same dive clubs and many of us know one another but we have never dove together as a group. We had one group of four that had dove together and that was the biggest group on the trip. We decided very early in the planning that we would hit some shallow easier dives on the first day to give the group a chance to get familiar with each other and and half of us were diving nitrox and had come with mixes too hot for deeper dives. We planned on divinng the Carib Sea and the Verbena the 1st day. 2 easier shallower dives that were reported to have lots good life and Sand Tigers.
We pulled off of the dock and headed out to Sea. Conditions weren't right for the run to the Carib Sea or Verbena that day and we went to our alternate sites, the Aeolus and the Indra. The ride out was very pleasant.
The Aeolus is a 400+ ft Navy cable layer that was sunk as an artificial reef in the 90's and has subsequently been broken into 3 pieces by a hurricane. The 200' stern section is upright and intact. We put on our gear and got ready to splash in the water. My main dive buddy for the past year Jeb, had some equipment problems. He bought a new BC in June that was equipped with an octopus integrated into his BC inflator hose. It developed a serious leak and we couldn't find an allen wrench long enough to reach to ajustment screw and he had to scrub the dive. I had invited Jeepbrew along to join us as a third and he and I splashed at 9:49 and met up on the hangbar at 20' for the descent to the Aeolus.
We followed the anchor rope down to he Aelous' stern. Visibility was about 55 feet and the water temperature was 79. We hit a maximum depth of 104 feet and had a bottom time of 29 minutes. Our average depth on the dive was 70 feet. I was wearing a pony bottle for the first time strapped to the right side of my tank and dove with about a 20 degree list to the right. I also had problems with a mask leak.
When we got near the Aeolus we saw about 20+ sandtigers and big schools of fish circling off the wreck about 40 feet out. Jeepbrew and I did a swimthrough inside of the superstructure of the ship. We emerged above the deck of the 200ft stern section. I saw a large open hatch on the deck and dropped into it to see what was down there. It was dark so I pulled out my divelight and started panning from my left to right. It was a very large room and I saw sea anemonies, stonefish, other fish, a sea cucumber or nudibranch. Jeepbrew was hanging onto the hatch opening above and to my left with his head over the hole. When I hit about 2 o'clock I saw the mouth of a very large sand tiger shark about 18 inches from my right ear.
To say I was startled would be a gross understatement. I jumped. That scared the shark and he jumped and took off. I could feel the water coming off his tail fin sweep across my face.This scared me even worse and I jumped again and slammed my head into the overhead and broke part of a filling off of one of my back molars. I came out of the hatch and I swear I could hear Jeepbrew hee-hawing through his reg over the ringing in my ears. We continued to the break and turned the dive and came on up.
We gathered all of our divers and pulled up the anchor and headed for the USS Indra our second dive of the day. The USS Indra is an LST sunk as an inshore artificial reef. It is relatively shallow and possesses easy swim throughs. It is a popular wreck and is used for students and newbs for dives off of NC.
We ate our lunch a during the 2 hour surface interval and ride to the Indra. Jeb's leak had been repaired and I had shifted 3 lbs from one side on my BC to the other to counteract the pony. Jeb, Jeepbrew, and I splashed at 12:18 and headed down. We hit the Indra on an unusually good day. Visibility was approximately 50' on the stern, temp was 77, I hit a max depth of 59', had 46 min of bottom time. Average depth was 43'. Visibility seemed better than the Aeolus. It is a shallower wreck so a lot of it was more light. There had been a couple of boats on the Indra that morning and there was a lot a material stirred up on the stern and hanging in the water. Current was negligible.
We descended into the stern and swam through the boat to the bow. There were lots of openings and it was easy to see and navigate through this wreck. I was listing about 35 degrees on this dive and had problems keeping my regulator in my mouth. The mask leak was much better. In the bow we ran into and had a mexican standoff with 2 sand tigers. A 4 footer and a 5 footer. The 4 footer seemed more aggressive than the larger shark. He, Jeb and I faced off about 4 feet apart. He won and we sidled over to the port side of the ship and continued the swim through.
We ascended through a hole cut into the deck of the bow. Visibility here was much better maybe 70'+. The muck wasn't stirred up here so many divers from the previous boats hadn't made it up here. We looked over the bow at all of the fish down there and turned the dive and headed to the stern and anchor line. I engaged in one of my favorite activities during the trip at this point. We were diving the rule of thirds and I had plenty of air left in my tank. I hung on the anchor line above the wreck and watched the other divers swim around the wreck and observed fish, barracuda, sharks and stuff. Did a slow ascent and hit the ladder with 300#.
This was a fantastic dive. I discovered that when I shifted my weights that I had reversed my weight pockets and loaded the 3# on the same side with my pony. That is why the list got worse. I also noticed that the tab on one side of my regulator mouthpiece was sheared off. Must have done that at the same time I broke off my filling when I had the close encounter with the shark on the previous dive.
We returned to port and hit the Nethouse for supper. Fried seafood at it's best. This was one of the better restaurants we ate at.
Changed out my regulater mouthpiece and turned in.
To Be Continued...
