Hi all, quick report on Wreckfest from a our perspective:
We were really lucky with the weather and couldnt have asked for better conditions. This made for the best weekend of tech diving we could ever have hoped for. Jarrod Jablonski, Casey McKinlay, David Rhea & Sonia Tittle had been in Bimini for the week leading up to the event shooting for the Halcyon catalog etc. They were joined by GUE instructor / WKPP diver & project coordinator Mark Messersmith, WKPP divers Scott Cox and Jim Miller plus members of the Florida Keys DIR club, GUE students and Miami dive shops for an awesome weekend of diving.
Friday - everyone went out to the Spiegel Grove in the morning on 30/30 and for the afternoon one boat went to the Duane and the other to Carysfort for a deep reef / ledge drift. Conditions were perfect on the Duane with little or no current and beautiful blue water. David Rhea got some awesome shots of the Duane, with some unusual shots of the bow that you dont normally see. In the evening we had presentations from John Halas from the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and Carry Caignet from the History of Diving Museum. Casey then stepped up to run us through the WKPP history and of course their incredible link up of the Wakulla and Leon Sinks cave systems.
On Saturday morning the deep boat went out to the Queen of Nassau (220fsw)and the other did the Spiegel. Conditions at the QoN were excellent, with a silky shark hanging around the line on the descent. This wreck is in pristine condition, upright with a large debris field that includes the ships spare props. On the way home the guys did the Eagle. Evening presentations were given by Dr Brenda Lanzendorf from Biscayne Bay National Park, JJ and a Davids showed us pictures from the previous 2 days worth of dives.
On Sunday morning we went out to the Northern Light where there was a smoking current, but the guys saw Bull sharks and plenty of cool stuff on the wreck. The other boat went out to the Spiegel in the morning and the Bibb in the afternoon.
Average run times were about an hour and a half, with everyone breathing standard gases for their max depths.
I would like to thank GUE, WKPP and Halcyon for sponsoring the event and also the speakers and attendees for making it such a pleasurable weekend.
Roll on Wreckfest 2008!
