Where did you solo dive today?

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Spent the bank holiday weekend diving off a boat in the English Channel on three different wrecks. Nice to do the shakedown dives for the new season.

Was 10C/50F diving around 40m/132ft with about 2h runtime per dive.

The 1m/3ft to 2m/6ft visibility due to the "May rot" seasonal algal bloom meant the dives were all very much solo dives. Literally saw just one diver over the whole weekend and he was heading up under his bag!

I dived with my newly repaired Blacktip scooter, mostly running on the slowest speed to avoid bumping into the wrecks! The good news was the Blacktip was dry after every dive!!! Yay, the first time I’ve seen that as it is my first DPV and I didn’t realise that dry means dry, not mildly moist as in drysuits :cool:
 
Nice. Dive Tutukaka or under your own steam? Where did you go?
With Dive Tutukaka. We dove Maomao arch and Oculina Point.

Our boat is out of the water getting some repairs :-(
 

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With Dive Tutukaka. We dove Maomao arch and Oculina Point.

Our boat is out of the water getting some repairs :-(

Hey, I made this map years ago when I was diving the Knights at least every other weekend. If you want a high resolution copy, let me know.

Map-Poor-Knights-Dive-Sites.jpg
 
WOW. Magnificent!
 
Another solo dive today on the Butler Bay Shallow Wrecks on St Croix.
83 degree water temp, minimal wave height, mostly sunny, water vis 50 ft due to past 5 days of rain. Wore 3/2 shorty and fleece hood as the dive plan was for up to 2 hours under. Hooked up sidemount in chest deep water. Struck out at 275 degrees. 12 minute swim brought me to the HydroLab, should have gone at 285, as I missed the Northwind wreck due to visibility. Circled Virgin Islander barge and Northwind tug. Returned to the barge, and headed on compass bearing 350. arrived at the Rosa Maria ferry in 5 minutes, and circled it. Hit my 5 minute NDL warning, so set return course at 110, and arrived at the reef in 15 minutes. Followed the reef south at 20' depth to Jungle Gym, and returned north to my entry. Total dive time 1:55.
Critters: Hawksbill turtles, Barracuda, Southern stingray. Two groups of 3 divers were headed out on my return.

Tomorrow's plan: Rust op Twist on the north shore (between Salt River and Cane Bay).
 
Another solo dive today on the Butler Bay Shallow Wrecks on St Croix.
83 degree water temp, minimal wave height, mostly sunny, water vis 50 ft due to past 5 days of rain. Wore 3/2 shorty and fleece hood as the dive plan was for up to 2 hours under. Hooked up sidemount in chest deep water. Struck out at 275 degrees. 12 minute swim brought me to the HydroLab, should have gone at 285, as I missed the Northwind wreck due to visibility. Circled Virgin Islander barge and Northwind tug. Returned to the barge, and headed on compass bearing 350. arrived at the Rosa Maria ferry in 5 minutes, and circled it. Hit my 5 minute NDL warning, so set return course at 110, and arrived at the reef in 15 minutes. Followed the reef south at 20' depth to Jungle Gym, and returned north to my entry. Total dive time 1:55.
Critters: Hawksbill turtles, Barracuda, Southern stingray. Two groups of 3 divers were headed out on my return.

Tomorrow's plan: Rust op Twist on the north shore (between Salt River and Cane Bay).


lucky you are, water temp at my local dive site is 50 F could we swap location ?
 
Did Rust op Twist today - solo. The shore entry is on the north shore, so today's 5mph southeast wind made surf conditions negligible. Entry is all rock, no sand anywhere. Carted everything out to 4 feet deep then geared up.
Nice feature of this site: there is a supply pipe for the adjacent abandoned shrimp farm that runs from the shore heading due north toward the wall. I followed the pipe on entry. The site has a gradually sloping shore, I didn't find 4 foot depth until maybe 30 yards off shore. I submerged and followed the pipe - 10 minutes, still only 20 ft depth. The gradual slope slowly increased as I followed the pipe. At 60 feet, the pipe entered a natural sand chute, At 90 feet the slope finally reached 45 degrees, and the bottom finally dropped away into the abyss. I turned eastward into the slight current and ascended to my usual 60 foot depth. At one hour dive time my computer warned of 5 minute NDL, so I turned the dive, then worked shallower on the return keeping NDL in the 10-15 minute range. Re-acquired the pipe at 90 minutes, and returned to shore. Dive time 1:45, Temp 83, max depth 90 vis 50.
Critters: Accompanied by a pair of Carribbean Reef sharks for most of the time at 60 feet. Lots of color in the reef, a whole bouquet of reef fish.
Today's surf conditions were extremely mild as compared with the site's reputation. I had bailed on the site two weeks prior as I wasn't about to face rock-hopping with two tanks with surf being up. Parking for the site is adjacent to the main north shore road with a pull-off adequate for 2, maybe 3 cars. An adequate but narrow trail runs out to the shore, but there is no beach, merely a shore covered with fist size and larger rock. There is an aged concrete walkway over the first 20 feet of pipe that made a good place to rest gear prior to entry. I made multiple trips both on entry and exit to make navigating the rocks safer.
 

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