Bellingham Bay
As I understand it, of you are the first to document a wreck with no known name then you get to name it. Therefore, I am calling this one the GP Failboat because it is a sunken sailboat off the GP pier. I found this uncharted wreck on the NOAA bathymetry data during the winter of 23-24 and ran sidescan over it just about a year ago. I didn't get much diving in last year and when I did it was too late and the algae bloom was in full swing. Even today, vis was only 5 feet and water temps were under 51 degrees f.
The wreck is a 25' Fiberglass sailboat that has had a few anchors drug over it. The area where it sank used to be used as an unofficial moorage by transient vessels and it was probably one of these. No sign of a name or registration, just a white hull with a red stripe.
This dive was also an exercise in risk management. As I mentioned in another thread, my dive computer died and so I had to decide whether to go without it. Diving without it meant not knowing my depth or remaining air, nor being able to calculate my NDL time. On the other hand, I knew there was a hard (actually squishy) bottom at 25 feet, and that on a target this size Inwas likely to run out of things to see long before I ran out of air. Even if I did somehow stay down long enough to exhaust my steel 72, I still had a full Al40 slung with me. Also, we are leaving for Oregon in a week and so if I didn't do the dive today it would probably be October before vis returns. Given all those considerations I went for it and had a great dive.
This is now my second uncharted wreck I have found and documented and while it is still not smooth, I am gaining confidence in myself and my processes. I am able to find wrecks on open source data, position them accurately enough to locate on sonar, and mark them closely enough that I can find them in low visibility. It is still a ride on the struggle bus, but that ride is taking me some cool places!
