V.A. Fogg

[MichaelBaranows]

Has anyone dove the V.A. Fogg lately? Yesterday I was invited to go tom. so I will be heading out there and wanted to know what to expect. This is going to be a good weekend cause I am get two drops on the Fogg tom., two rig dives Saturday and most likely Sunday also.

Michael
Sweeny, TX

 

[MichaelBaranows]

I am surprised that no one has dove the Fogg. Seems like no one on here does any Gulf diving. I am sure that one of the big problems is not having boats or friends with boats.

 

[Debraw]

The only Gulf Diving I do is the Flower Garden trips. I don't usually have much time during the summer to go a lot of places on the weekends. We are usually with a class. Someone may pipe in here soon though to respond to your post.

 

[TwoBitTxn]

I am surprised that no one has dove the Fogg. Seems like no one on here does any Gulf diving. I am sure that one of the big problems is not having boats or friends with boats.

Waiting three hours for a response on a Thursday morning, then making a blanket statement is at best impatient. Many of us work during the day and are unable to hang out on the boards. My work day ends shortly.

You do make a correct assumption that there are few members of TSD that are able to make dives on places like the Fogg due to the lack of a boat or a friend with a boat. I am like Debra, my Gulf dives are at the gardens or off the coast of Alabama when I am there on vacation.

TwoBit

 

[MichaelBaranows]

I am sorry. I am trying to get some quick info.

I didn't mean to to step on anyones toes. I just know that people have asked about Rig diving and there were very few replies. Plus I have not seen many post about Gulf diving post on this board.

I will just go hide under a rock. If anyone would like a report Monday morning PM and I would more than happy to send you one.

 

[O2BBubbleFree]

I am sorry. I am trying to get some quick info.

I didn't mean to to step on anyones toes. I just know that people have asked about Rig diving and there were very few replies. Plus I have not seen many post about Gulf diving post on this board.

I will just go hide under a rock. If anyone would like a report Monday morning PM and I would more than happy to send you one.

You're right in that there needs to be more trip reports on this forum, so why don't you post yours when you get back?

I, for one, would love to see it, even though I won't get to go for myself anytime soon.

Where is the Fogg?

 

[MichaelBaranows]

The V.A. Fogg is only 32nm from Freeport with the bottom in 102' of water. There is the V.A. Fogg which exploded and sank in 1972.

http://www.exploreuw.com/sc05003.htm

There are also several oil platforms that were decomissioned as well as a few Liberty ships in the same area.

Since I am about to leave today I will type up a little report for last weekends dives or sunken barge and a few rig dives.

 

[Cudabait]

Mike,

The wreck is in many pieces, not the typical hulk one might expect. I would hope ypou are going with some experienced divers also. The VA fog is an advanced dive. Visibility can vary from dive to dive...the current is always a consideration and underwater orientation and gas management are major considerations. If the seas are relatively flat it is not unusual to see a numerous boats anchored all over the sites. They, for the most part will be fishing. I've had divers (uninvited) go down on my anchor line while fishing and I've had disoriented divers surface on my anchor line both while I was diving and fishing.

I would be very pleased to see your trip report. Don't forget the gloves and be careful and dive safe.

Regards,

 

[MichaelBaranows]

Since I have made my first post I have done a little research and found out a little more about the location. The V.A. Fogg was a freighter that explode and sank in '72. Since then TPWD along with support from some oil companies they have added a few more sunken ship as well as a half dozen deco mentioned oil platforms to the area as part of the state artificial reef program. By going to the TPWD artifical reef program on their website there are coordinates of the location.

On Wednesday I was invited by Joe (assistant instructor I met when I took rescue) to go diving the V.A. Fogg on Friday (8/26). And lately it has been hard for me to pass up a chance to dive specially with seas going to be less than 2'. So after work on Thursday I made a b-line to dive shop to get my tanks and then to wal-mart to get supplies. And then home to pack.

Being that I normally get up for work at 330 I was able to sleep in cause I didn't have to be at Kirby in Oyster Creek until 700. Like normal I am still up early and show up at the marina about 615 with no one to be seen anywhere. So I kick back in the truck and listen to the radio and see if I might be able to get a little sleep. Around 700 there is still no one there and I start to wonder if I might have miss understood and might be at the wrong place. I try calling Joe but straight to voice mail (found out that the number I had was his other cell phone). About 715 a truck pulls into the parking lot and it is Fred of "Lucky Strikes" guide service and about a minute latter Joe and his friend (I am bad with names) plus a another car with his son and friend. Lesson learned that maybe I shouldn't always be so early. So we start loading gear and get out of the marina by 800. When we get to the Jetties the seas are even flatter than forecast. Since it was going to be and hour to hour 1/2 boat ride to the dive site I knew it was my chance to get little shut eye. I slide down in seat and put my feet up in the cool and next thing I know I heard Joe say "gear up".

We within 5 minutes of the Fogg so I go into the cabin to get mine gear out. Back out on the deck and start getting suited up. Since the boat is not set up for diving we have all the tanks sitting in a old igloo cooler with on lid. I get all my gear ready but not on a tank cause we didn't want unsecured tanks. We arrive on the location of hte Fogg to see no other boats guess being that it was not the weekend. Once on location the anchor is over the bow. Joe gets ready to check the anchor and when he grabs his mask the frame is broken. He says "You would think these mask would last longer than 20 years. He doesn't have an mask mask so I grab my extra mask for him. He flips into the water to make sure the anchor is set. A few minutes later is back up and says the anchor is good and the rope is resting over a piece of the wreck. He also lets us know that there is no current which is great. My gear is on and I join Joe in the water. Joe's friend and Andrew (his son) get the gear on and follow me into the water. I follow the rope down with Joe a few feet in front of me. At about 40' I can can start making out the wreck and continue to proceed down to wreck which the highest point of this section is about 85'. I am met by some small snapper as well as angle and trigger fish. Now that I am at the wreck start to swim the length to check out above the murk level. Seems to be part of the mid-ship and setting on its side. I pull out my small light (note: next time bring bigger light) to look inside some large breaks in the side. I see more snapper in these opening. After swimming the length of this piece of the wreck I down down thru the murk to the bottom where is vis. is about 15' but only from bottom (110') up about 4'. Around the wreck I go looking at the fish and see what kind of treasures I can find. I see some great shells and then a down rigger weight. I pick up the down rigger weight think I really could use another one for my boat but don't want to carry it around for the rest of the dive so I leave it there. I proceed and find a anchor and then a fishing lure. Again the anchor is too heavy but I stick the lure in my BC pocket. I am going to have to think about get lift bag cause I could use an extra anchor and down rigger weight. Down to 1000 psi so it is time to start surfacing. As I start up the anchor rope I see a few fish above the wreck that hadn't seen earlier. A barracuda and few snapper that were a little larger than the ones I had seen before. There are several dolphins around the boat when I am making my safety stop. I watch a dolphin playing with a snapper that was released from from the boat from one of the guys on the boat fishing. (Note: Before everyone says something about people fishing while we are diving. They were not fishing in the area we are diving cause we are diving about a 100' yard infront of the boat and they had all the line back in the boat before we got close to the boat.) Once back in the boat we all began to fish and talk about the dive. We fish the spot a few hours and caught a few few keeper snapper and then start to talk about making our second dive.

I get my gear together and then look at my computer and it has a "NO DIVE" symbol. I go to the plan mode and it tells me I need to stay out 4 hours. I start going thru the dive to see what might have happened during the dive to have by computer do this to me. And about all I can think was that during my safety stop the computer said I need a 3 minutes and 15'. So I came up to 15' and held onto the rope and then didn't look at my depth any long and after 3 minutes I went to the boat. I am thinking that when the guy behind me they stopped at 20' and floated up some causing the anchor rope to raise and in doing so cause me to raise. My computer locks out if it is above the safety stop for more than 3 minutes. But not be able to make a second dive didn't bother me cause I was going to go rig diving/spearfishing on Saturday and allowed me to have a extra tank.

So the other guys made their 2nd dive on the part of the wreck that was under the boat. They dive this part and surface behind the boat and we pull up anchor and go get them so they down have to swim back to the boat. On this dive there was not as big of section of the wreck and mainly just scatter debris. Plus there was less marine life than the first dive also.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon fishing at several rigs caught a few limits of snapper. On one rig there are 6-8 Ling that won't bite on anything. Joe grabs this mask and fins and into the water he goes with his speargun. The Ling scatter when he hits the water. But they come right back and Joe shoots the largest one and hands me the speargun since I am the nearest person on that side of the boat. So pull the Ling up and with a little help from a gaft the Ling is in the cooler. Fish a little more to and start heading in. Like most trips I find cool and lay down to get a little sleep on the way back to port. I wake up a few time and notice it is getting darker every time I open my eyes. By the time we enter the Jetties it is about a 1/4 to 900. I call home to let everyone know that I am back on dry land only to find out that Saturday spearfishing trip is off. But dad says we will talk about it in the morning.

Back at the dock we unload boat, clean fish, and head home. By the time I get home and clean gear it is close to mid-night. After a shower I am able to caught the end of the 'stros and NASCAR Busch Series race.

Bad news:

Up Saturday morning about 600 to see why trip was called off. Come to find out dad was starting to get everything load and ready Friday afternoon for Saturdays trip. Figured he would run the boat to make sure everything was OK and batteries were charge only to notice the water wasn't pumping out like it was suppose to. After tearing the water pump down we find out the impellor has a few veins missing. That isn't a big deal and go pick up an impellor and have it back in the pump and boat running by noon. But now the day is half over so don't get to make any dives and end up just mowing the yard. And the weather is not going to be nice on Sunday cause a storm in the Gulf. I guess I will have to wait until next weekend and hope for good weather.

All and all I liked diving the Fogg and plan to do so again. I would like to try and dive every section of the Fogg as well as the other parts of the artifical reef. But i still think I like rig diving more cause there seems to me so much more life from top to bottom.

I hope this report isn't too long and that everyone doesn't point out every little thing I did wrong during the dive and how spearfishing is wrong.

 

[Dee]

Nice report, Michael. No nitpicking from me! I do have one comment about your safety stop violation and a suggestion. As you noticed it's very hard to hold at exactly 15 ft in the ocean so do your SS at 20ft. On deep dives I always stop at 50ft for 1 min, 40ft for 1 min, 30ft for 2 min and spend no less than 5 min at 20ft. Just because the computer says 15ft doesn't mean you can't start it before then!

Glad you had a great first dive and want to hear about the next one on the Fogg!