tddfleming
Contributor
Bear with me on this one, as it will be long. We had a great time and the poor little quarry will never be the same.
We had our first boat dive and ocean dive on Sat. May 28th for an inshore dive on the Indra. We hired a DM since this was our first time ever for both. The afternoon inshores leave the dock at around 4 pm, once the morning dive returns. First thing in the morning we headed over to Olympus to fill out our paper work so this will be out of the way. We met our DM at that time and chatted with her. We arrived back at Olypus at around 2:30 to start unloading gear and getting things set up. The morning dive was running late and did not get back to shore until after 4 pm. We overhead that the seas were picking up from what they had for the morning dives and wondered if things may get canceled, but they were a go. While setting up we observed another guy that was to join our group setting up his BC and reg backwards. We debated to approach him or not. We had decided to tell the DM and she got him squared away. As we are pretty sure he would have had a tough time breathing with his current set up. The seas were rolling and we were soaked before we even made it to the dive site, as the spray, wind and the seas found us no matter where we sat on the boat. Daughter and I had some issues with feeling a little sea sick but never fed the fish. We all did our giant stride and met the DM in the water we gathered ourselves and met at the 15' hang line, like instructed. We did not take much time on the surface as the seas were carrying us away. Grabbed daughters hand and down we went. Temp was wonderful on the surface but a little chilly at depth. Boat was very crowded, as I think every seat was taken. Lots of jellys, saw a xmas tree worm, amber jacks, bait fish. All and all was a great first time out. I am not sure how other boats are set up with the hang line, but in NC we were inst to go hand over hand down the line to the wreck, which we followed exactly. Looking back now, I would do it different. As the boat was pitching pretty bad. We overhead someone say that the seas were 4-5 foot when we were out there. Anyways, as I was working down the line one of the weights from the hang line crossed my reg hose. I found this out as soon as I was being yanked up and down by the pitching boat. I had to find out where I was hooked with the weight and then unhook myself and keep up with the group.
May 29th our shore dive at Radio Island-well this was an experience all in its own right. As we had a hand drawn map from one of the dive shops. We talked to each dive shop about the times to go about getting our gear out there but what we quickly found out was the times changed depending on who you talked to. Since Discovery Diving was not running the shuttle out there for your gear, we decided to do this on our own. Before the dive we walked out there to see everything and the lay out. Long was with gear, but doable, we thought. The last shop we talked to said to be out there at 6 pm and be ready, which we followed by the book. 6 pm the three of us decend and start out to the rock jetty, we get to the jetty and the current is ripping, we bail out as planned and regroup. Time that we were give was off, as if we were able to get over the jetty we would have been at the Coast Guard station before we knew it. Second try later on, still ripping current, but not as strong, we make it over the jetty this time but we got seperated due to the current, my daugther and I stayed together as we held hands. We all followed lost buddy as we had planned and we reunited on the surface on the safe side of the jetty. Third try over the jetty, we made it, still strong current, but we just rode the current and watched as everything went by. We spooked a blue crab and he saw right into my daughter face, she was not real happy with him. Our plan was to finish drifting down to the exit, but we decided to revise that plan as we were not making it very far now. Note: we tied rope to our tank values and inflated our BC and pulled our gear down the beach. It worked for us females much better than carrying the gear for that long walk in the sand.
May 30th-Full day 2 dive charter to inshore site. First was the Hutton followed by the Indra. We booked a charter with Discovery Diving for this one. We did our boat cert for this one with a shop out of NC. Waters much better this round, boat not as crowed which made it a little less stressful. Found sand dollars, and shells daughter found a very small sharks tooth that she picked up. All in all a great time in NC.
We are looking forward of going back.
We had our first boat dive and ocean dive on Sat. May 28th for an inshore dive on the Indra. We hired a DM since this was our first time ever for both. The afternoon inshores leave the dock at around 4 pm, once the morning dive returns. First thing in the morning we headed over to Olympus to fill out our paper work so this will be out of the way. We met our DM at that time and chatted with her. We arrived back at Olypus at around 2:30 to start unloading gear and getting things set up. The morning dive was running late and did not get back to shore until after 4 pm. We overhead that the seas were picking up from what they had for the morning dives and wondered if things may get canceled, but they were a go. While setting up we observed another guy that was to join our group setting up his BC and reg backwards. We debated to approach him or not. We had decided to tell the DM and she got him squared away. As we are pretty sure he would have had a tough time breathing with his current set up. The seas were rolling and we were soaked before we even made it to the dive site, as the spray, wind and the seas found us no matter where we sat on the boat. Daughter and I had some issues with feeling a little sea sick but never fed the fish. We all did our giant stride and met the DM in the water we gathered ourselves and met at the 15' hang line, like instructed. We did not take much time on the surface as the seas were carrying us away. Grabbed daughters hand and down we went. Temp was wonderful on the surface but a little chilly at depth. Boat was very crowded, as I think every seat was taken. Lots of jellys, saw a xmas tree worm, amber jacks, bait fish. All and all was a great first time out. I am not sure how other boats are set up with the hang line, but in NC we were inst to go hand over hand down the line to the wreck, which we followed exactly. Looking back now, I would do it different. As the boat was pitching pretty bad. We overhead someone say that the seas were 4-5 foot when we were out there. Anyways, as I was working down the line one of the weights from the hang line crossed my reg hose. I found this out as soon as I was being yanked up and down by the pitching boat. I had to find out where I was hooked with the weight and then unhook myself and keep up with the group.
May 29th our shore dive at Radio Island-well this was an experience all in its own right. As we had a hand drawn map from one of the dive shops. We talked to each dive shop about the times to go about getting our gear out there but what we quickly found out was the times changed depending on who you talked to. Since Discovery Diving was not running the shuttle out there for your gear, we decided to do this on our own. Before the dive we walked out there to see everything and the lay out. Long was with gear, but doable, we thought. The last shop we talked to said to be out there at 6 pm and be ready, which we followed by the book. 6 pm the three of us decend and start out to the rock jetty, we get to the jetty and the current is ripping, we bail out as planned and regroup. Time that we were give was off, as if we were able to get over the jetty we would have been at the Coast Guard station before we knew it. Second try later on, still ripping current, but not as strong, we make it over the jetty this time but we got seperated due to the current, my daugther and I stayed together as we held hands. We all followed lost buddy as we had planned and we reunited on the surface on the safe side of the jetty. Third try over the jetty, we made it, still strong current, but we just rode the current and watched as everything went by. We spooked a blue crab and he saw right into my daughter face, she was not real happy with him. Our plan was to finish drifting down to the exit, but we decided to revise that plan as we were not making it very far now. Note: we tied rope to our tank values and inflated our BC and pulled our gear down the beach. It worked for us females much better than carrying the gear for that long walk in the sand.
May 30th-Full day 2 dive charter to inshore site. First was the Hutton followed by the Indra. We booked a charter with Discovery Diving for this one. We did our boat cert for this one with a shop out of NC. Waters much better this round, boat not as crowed which made it a little less stressful. Found sand dollars, and shells daughter found a very small sharks tooth that she picked up. All in all a great time in NC.
We are looking forward of going back.
