RAD Diver
Contributor
Well the forecast looked like it would be a great day out on the water, but it was wrong again.
But Will (Wil) & Andy (Drewski), Kevin Kramer (who I don't think is on this board) & I just had to give it a go.:cool2:
Right away the exit of the bay & into the great Atlantic proved to be bone jarring, but we thought this was about normal & pushed on. It didn't seem to get much better the further we got.
Our heading to take us to the "Carolina Breeze" seemed to run us abeam of the wave action. But we pushed on.
Once on site Will made a valiant attempt at hooking something, anything that was left on the bottom, but the sea conditions would leave us & the grapple empty.:depressed:
So the decision was made that the "Luckenbach" would be the lucky recipient of our dive presence.
Once there it seemed that the sea was on the mend, white caps were subsiding, how nice.
Will & Kevin would be the 1st to splash, normally Andy & I do, but Andy had brought his video & a speargun, he needed to know how the vis was as what he would do on this dive.
Will diving wet was ready 1st & made a quick exploration of the lead line to where it met the anchor line & reported very poor conditions.
With Kevin ready now they dropped out of view & we started to get into our drysuits.
When they got back & reported 20+ ft of vis on the bottom & not a lot of fish, Andy decided it was video time.
We jump & the 1st 40ft the vis was at best 5 ft, but at 60ft we could see the top of the boilers 20+ ft below us. On the bottom we found very little current & an easy 25ft of vis, I hooked my reel & we were off. The Luckenbach is quite broken up & I feel much better knowing I can find our way back.
We made it to the bow & had a very nice dive, saw the biggest Sea Bass I have ever seen (so big I didn't believe it was a Sea Bass) & on the way back had an Angel Shark swim right under me. I signaled Andy, but it was too far & at a bad angle for him to get on video.
Max depth at 94ft, water temp a brisk 44 & a total run time of 43 minutes, no deco, but we did a 5 minute hang because, well that's just what Andy does.
Will & Kevin jumped for their 2nd dive & all seemed well, I decided to lay down for 30 minutes to wait for them. Seeing how I was diving doubles & didn't need to change nothing out. Andy was fidgeting with something, when we hear a call for help followed by "to the bow".
Will was holding Kevin who was struggling to breathe, we got a tow rope & got him to the stern & out of the water. He was alert & talking, but couldn't get enough air to satisfy his minds thirst, refusing to put his reg back into his mouth I'm sure he swallowed some water.
Something happened at 70 ft that caused this , what, I don't know & don't think Kevin knows either, but once we had him out of his gear he seemed fine.
Andy questioned him quite a bit to satisfy the EMT in him to where he felt OK for us to dive & leave him on the boat with Will.
So we ate lunch & geared back up to jump with the plan to head for the stern.
Once on the bottom we found vis down to maybe 20ft, probably a bit lower, but not that bad. I hooked a reel & we were off.
Nice easy dive, don't think we actually made the stern, but we were close, when I called the dive. We agreed to no deco with the water temps being what they were & conditions weren't worth it.
I also needed a bit of time to un-tie the anchor & swim it to the sand for an easy recovery. All went according to plan until the chain wrapped around part of the wreck & I had to swim back down to release it, really no problem.
Max depth 97ft water temp had somehow jumped to a balmy 46 & a total run time of 44 minutes
Once again we did a 5 minute hang, well you know why. & boarded the boat for a quick, albeit bumpy ride back. The white caps were back.
The weather forecast was wrong, we got it handed to us out & back, but was still a GREAT day of diving in our back yard & better than being home cutting the grass.
But Will (Wil) & Andy (Drewski), Kevin Kramer (who I don't think is on this board) & I just had to give it a go.:cool2:
Right away the exit of the bay & into the great Atlantic proved to be bone jarring, but we thought this was about normal & pushed on. It didn't seem to get much better the further we got.
Our heading to take us to the "Carolina Breeze" seemed to run us abeam of the wave action. But we pushed on.
Once on site Will made a valiant attempt at hooking something, anything that was left on the bottom, but the sea conditions would leave us & the grapple empty.:depressed:
So the decision was made that the "Luckenbach" would be the lucky recipient of our dive presence.
Once there it seemed that the sea was on the mend, white caps were subsiding, how nice.
Will & Kevin would be the 1st to splash, normally Andy & I do, but Andy had brought his video & a speargun, he needed to know how the vis was as what he would do on this dive.
Will diving wet was ready 1st & made a quick exploration of the lead line to where it met the anchor line & reported very poor conditions.
With Kevin ready now they dropped out of view & we started to get into our drysuits.
When they got back & reported 20+ ft of vis on the bottom & not a lot of fish, Andy decided it was video time.
We jump & the 1st 40ft the vis was at best 5 ft, but at 60ft we could see the top of the boilers 20+ ft below us. On the bottom we found very little current & an easy 25ft of vis, I hooked my reel & we were off. The Luckenbach is quite broken up & I feel much better knowing I can find our way back.
We made it to the bow & had a very nice dive, saw the biggest Sea Bass I have ever seen (so big I didn't believe it was a Sea Bass) & on the way back had an Angel Shark swim right under me. I signaled Andy, but it was too far & at a bad angle for him to get on video.
Max depth at 94ft, water temp a brisk 44 & a total run time of 43 minutes, no deco, but we did a 5 minute hang because, well that's just what Andy does.
Will & Kevin jumped for their 2nd dive & all seemed well, I decided to lay down for 30 minutes to wait for them. Seeing how I was diving doubles & didn't need to change nothing out. Andy was fidgeting with something, when we hear a call for help followed by "to the bow".
Will was holding Kevin who was struggling to breathe, we got a tow rope & got him to the stern & out of the water. He was alert & talking, but couldn't get enough air to satisfy his minds thirst, refusing to put his reg back into his mouth I'm sure he swallowed some water.
Something happened at 70 ft that caused this , what, I don't know & don't think Kevin knows either, but once we had him out of his gear he seemed fine.
Andy questioned him quite a bit to satisfy the EMT in him to where he felt OK for us to dive & leave him on the boat with Will.
So we ate lunch & geared back up to jump with the plan to head for the stern.
Once on the bottom we found vis down to maybe 20ft, probably a bit lower, but not that bad. I hooked a reel & we were off.
Nice easy dive, don't think we actually made the stern, but we were close, when I called the dive. We agreed to no deco with the water temps being what they were & conditions weren't worth it.
I also needed a bit of time to un-tie the anchor & swim it to the sand for an easy recovery. All went according to plan until the chain wrapped around part of the wreck & I had to swim back down to release it, really no problem.
Max depth 97ft water temp had somehow jumped to a balmy 46 & a total run time of 44 minutes
Once again we did a 5 minute hang, well you know why. & boarded the boat for a quick, albeit bumpy ride back. The white caps were back.
The weather forecast was wrong, we got it handed to us out & back, but was still a GREAT day of diving in our back yard & better than being home cutting the grass.