jpsexton
Contributor
Monday morning we broke camp and headed down to Pensacola for some salt water diving. We decided to go by MBT http://www.mbtdivers.com/ divers fist to get air fills and see if they had a reccomendation for a campground near by. They sent us to Big Lagoon State Park about 10 miles down the road. Very nice campgound and quite a bargain compared to Vortex. While we were at MBT, Capt Ron of the Pensacola Dive Company http://www.pensacoladivecompany.com/ just happened to be there. He had a couple guys on the list wanting to go out to the Oriskany and just happened to need three more divers to fill the boat. After a little arm twisting we agreed to go. 
Looks like tomorrows plans are made, were diving the Oriskany! :jump3: . We then headed over to Navarre Pier for a shore dive and to get our salt water weighting dialed in. Hurricane Ivan pretty much wiped out the whole island of Navarre beach. A big section of the peir is missing and the end is gone as well. They are just starting to rebuild some of the condo's and a few of the houses seems to have survived but the devestation has to be seen to be believed. Mother nature can be nasty when she wants to be. As we were suiting up I realized I had forgotten something, my regulators. Now mind you not only did I forget my regulators but I even brought a spare set just in case and both of them are back at the camper 30 min. away. What a dumb a@#! Wally then grasiously offered to do a short dive with Bruce and then let me use his regulators to do a short dive as well. I was very gratefull and gladly accepted so I could get my weighting sorted out for tomorrow. There was'nt much too see but sand for the most part. We did see an octopus tucked back into a hole and one big stingray and a few more smaller ones. The current out past the fallen section was really screaming so we called it a day. We were off then to find a seafood resturaunt for some dinner. We wound up at a place called Adams Oyster Bar. The food was outstanding! I got my fill of Oysters while Wally and Bruce both filled up on the seafood combo. By the time we got back to camp we watched a little TV and then called it a night.
Tuesday morning after grabbing a pop tart for breakfast we met Capt. Ron and the Sea Sherpa at MBT divers. The Sea Sherpa is a 28' center console trophy fishing boat with twin four stroke Hondas. I have to admit when I seen this small boat and trailer hooked to this beat up white van that Capt. Ron reffered to as the Bang Bus I thought to myself "We're going 25 miles offshore in that little thing?". We quickly loaded everything into the boat and off the the boat ramp we went. As we were headed out of Pensacola pass I realized that this was the way to do a dive charter. Whith only six divers, Ron and a Dive Master this little boat could fly. We made it out to the dive site in well under an hour. As we got out to the site I noticed the bouys were submerged under water about 15' of so. Josh the dive master quickly suited up and took the float line and tied it off to one of the submerged bouys. I guess thats what you get when the dive boats are the ones to set the bouys. The fishermen would have a hard time using them if they are 15 feet under water. We all suited up and did a back roll off of the boat. We met at the float and started our decent down the line. The vis was somewhere around 50' so the ship did'nt start to come into view untill about 30'. As the ship began to appear I was completely awe struck by the size of it. With the vis at 50' you literally could not see anything but the ship. We contiued our decent around the inside of the superstructure untill we hit the deck at the escalator opening where the piolts come on deck from below. I looked down at my computer and we were at 129'. We worked our way up a few feet and then went inside an open doorway swam down a hallway a short distance a came back out. We then went through a window into the bridge of the ship and exited the other side. We contiued working in and out of the ship untill we reached the observation deck on top. Ron stopped us and pointed to all of the clams that had taken up here hiding from the current. as he swam through them they all started swimming in all directions. Pretty funny to see. We ended the dive on the very top and the three of us posed for a picture holding the flag. I'll get the pictures developed tonight and thats the only one I'm worried about.
After lunch and an hour and a half surface interval we went back down to 110' and penatrated into an open door on the side. We went up a stairway and down a short hallway and wound up in the captains quarters. The bathroom was on one side of the hall and the bed and desk were on the other side. We came back on the other side and worked our way back to the top. We spent the remainder of the dive on top looking in all the crevises at the life that had moved in. We saw an octopus that had taken up in a tube of some sort. Ron tried to coax her out with no luck. He finally motioned for everybody to have a look and then we left her alone. In the top of the communications tower there were lots of wires and conduit left behind. There were tons of differnt creatures hiding in all of the little spaces. Lots af Blennies and other small fish and a file fish hanging in the center about a foot long.
Words or pictures cannot begin to describe the awe and majesty of this ship. This was truly the dive of a lifetime. The only dive I can think of that will ever top this one is coming back next year after more creatures have moved in to call the Mighty O' their home.
Looks like tomorrows plans are made, were diving the Oriskany! :jump3: . We then headed over to Navarre Pier for a shore dive and to get our salt water weighting dialed in. Hurricane Ivan pretty much wiped out the whole island of Navarre beach. A big section of the peir is missing and the end is gone as well. They are just starting to rebuild some of the condo's and a few of the houses seems to have survived but the devestation has to be seen to be believed. Mother nature can be nasty when she wants to be. As we were suiting up I realized I had forgotten something, my regulators. Now mind you not only did I forget my regulators but I even brought a spare set just in case and both of them are back at the camper 30 min. away. What a dumb a@#! Wally then grasiously offered to do a short dive with Bruce and then let me use his regulators to do a short dive as well. I was very gratefull and gladly accepted so I could get my weighting sorted out for tomorrow. There was'nt much too see but sand for the most part. We did see an octopus tucked back into a hole and one big stingray and a few more smaller ones. The current out past the fallen section was really screaming so we called it a day. We were off then to find a seafood resturaunt for some dinner. We wound up at a place called Adams Oyster Bar. The food was outstanding! I got my fill of Oysters while Wally and Bruce both filled up on the seafood combo. By the time we got back to camp we watched a little TV and then called it a night.Tuesday morning after grabbing a pop tart for breakfast we met Capt. Ron and the Sea Sherpa at MBT divers. The Sea Sherpa is a 28' center console trophy fishing boat with twin four stroke Hondas. I have to admit when I seen this small boat and trailer hooked to this beat up white van that Capt. Ron reffered to as the Bang Bus I thought to myself "We're going 25 miles offshore in that little thing?". We quickly loaded everything into the boat and off the the boat ramp we went. As we were headed out of Pensacola pass I realized that this was the way to do a dive charter. Whith only six divers, Ron and a Dive Master this little boat could fly. We made it out to the dive site in well under an hour. As we got out to the site I noticed the bouys were submerged under water about 15' of so. Josh the dive master quickly suited up and took the float line and tied it off to one of the submerged bouys. I guess thats what you get when the dive boats are the ones to set the bouys. The fishermen would have a hard time using them if they are 15 feet under water.
We all suited up and did a back roll off of the boat. We met at the float and started our decent down the line. The vis was somewhere around 50' so the ship did'nt start to come into view untill about 30'. As the ship began to appear I was completely awe struck by the size of it. With the vis at 50' you literally could not see anything but the ship. We contiued our decent around the inside of the superstructure untill we hit the deck at the escalator opening where the piolts come on deck from below. I looked down at my computer and we were at 129'. We worked our way up a few feet and then went inside an open doorway swam down a hallway a short distance a came back out. We then went through a window into the bridge of the ship and exited the other side. We contiued working in and out of the ship untill we reached the observation deck on top. Ron stopped us and pointed to all of the clams that had taken up here hiding from the current. as he swam through them they all started swimming in all directions. Pretty funny to see. We ended the dive on the very top and the three of us posed for a picture holding the flag. I'll get the pictures developed tonight and thats the only one I'm worried about.After lunch and an hour and a half surface interval we went back down to 110' and penatrated into an open door on the side. We went up a stairway and down a short hallway and wound up in the captains quarters. The bathroom was on one side of the hall and the bed and desk were on the other side. We came back on the other side and worked our way back to the top. We spent the remainder of the dive on top looking in all the crevises at the life that had moved in. We saw an octopus that had taken up in a tube of some sort. Ron tried to coax her out with no luck. He finally motioned for everybody to have a look and then we left her alone. In the top of the communications tower there were lots of wires and conduit left behind. There were tons of differnt creatures hiding in all of the little spaces. Lots af Blennies and other small fish and a file fish hanging in the center about a foot long.
Words or pictures cannot begin to describe the awe and majesty of this ship. This was truly the dive of a lifetime. The only dive I can think of that will ever top this one is coming back next year after more creatures have moved in to call the Mighty O' their home.
