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| Photo of me taken by Rich Venuti |
Caribsea 7-30-12
The Caribsea is a freighter that was carrying manganese when it was torpedoed two times by the U-158 on March 11, 1942. This wreck sites in 70'-90' o f water and is not known for the best visibility but today we would have a decent 40' fo viz on the bottom and about 100' just above the wreck. The engine, boiler and the bow are the most recognizable parts of this wreck that remains today. We were anchored into the bow and upon decent it was hard not to notice the schools of spade fish that swam mid water column. I did not even reach the bottom and I began to notice lots of sharks. The Captain had advised that the visibility was lower on the bottom so that if we wanted to photograph the sharks we should hang above the bow in the clear water. I initially went to the bottom and tried to get a feel for the wreck but with a limited 30'-40' of visibility I did not like not being able to keep an eye on all of the sharks. So I decided to hang out at a depth of about 65' and to check out all of the sharks. They were every where you looked along with lots of jacks. Rich Venuti waved me over to the deck of the bow and showed me a spotted eel that was such a treat to see. He was not large but, allowed us all to spend time photographing him.
Even though the visibility on the bottom was not the best for North Carolina, it is excellent for this particular wreck which is not known for good viz. That being said we all agreed to stay on this wreck for two dives especially since it was loaded with sharks.
Pappose 7-31-12
Today we went to the Pappose for two dives. You can look at my earlier post on the Pappose from August 2011 for information on the wreck sinking. The weather on the surface was not so hot, did I say rain...it poured all day long which made for a chilly surface interval. However, the underwater conditions were fantastic, 80'-100' of visibility and plenty of small tropical fish that I have not noticed on other wrecks. When I dove this wreck last year, there were sharks all over it. This year I only saw a few, the Captain and crew have always said that the sharks do move from wreck to wreck and this is proof. I saw two Sea Raven's on this wreck and they sat patiently as I took a bunch of photos of them. I'm sure my flash blinded them for the week!
There always seems to be a current on this wreck and as a result I still have not made it to the stern to see the giant prop. One of these days I'll dedicate a dive just to swim the entire length of the wreck to see the whole thing. I managed to spend most of my time in the debris field adjacent to the break of the wreck and the small pieces out in the sand. After this rainy cold day, I swore if it rained tomorrow I would be breaking out my drysuit to stay warm on the surface. Funny how I froze on the surface but the water was nice and warm so I was nice and toasty during my dives.
Shurz 8-2-12
This by far is my favorite This wreck sits in 95'-110' of water and it was a gunboat that sunk in a collision with the SS Florida on June 21, 1918. The guns and canons are still on the wreck and can easily identified along with the prominent boilers. The reason I love this wreck so much is because the visibility is great, it sits on white sand so it generally is bright on the bottom and also has so much marine life on it. Before we splashed the mate had indicated that there was a school of sting rays off of the bow and that was where I was heading. I quickly swam out into the sand and spotted the school of 6 rays. They were quite far off of the wreck and the tricky part is getting close to them without losing site of the wreck. The bait fish would swoop in and you instantly would lose all track of direction. I simply kept the wreck to my back so that I knew I would need to do a 180* and swim back into the wreck and not get lost. Since I was all alone out with the rays, I sat on my knees and waited for them to come to me. They would split into groups of 3 and circle all around me. Once they got comfortable they swam right up to me and would poke their noses on my knees. This was so cool but, made it difficult to video and photography, they were just too close.
In addition to the rays was about 4 jacks that swam around me. After a while the rays took off and I went back to the wreck and spent time cruising the wreck and trying to get a decent picture of the small irrisdescent blue fish. I do not know what kind of fish they were but they were small and bright in purplish blue color.
This wreck also had some sharks that hung up higher on the wreck and the schools of spade fish would swim around the sharks. This was the most awesome dive and could not be topped. However, during my hang the most unbelievable thing happened. I was decompressing and keeping a close eye on this large baraccuda that was eying me up. Rich started pointing behind me and I thought he was trying to alert me to the baraccuda but, no he was pointing to a school of dolphins right behind me. I could not believe that I was underwater with dolphins. The swam all around us and gave us all quite a show, there was plenty of time to shoot photos and video of them before they left. What a dive: sting rays, sharks and dolphins all in one dive!!! The second dive on this wreck was just as grand but without our dolphin friends.
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| Photo by Ben Price |
Atlas 8-3-12
The Atlas was a tanker carrying gasoline when it was torpedoed by the U-352 on April 9, 1942. The wreck today is quite large and sits on a muddy bottom in 80'-125' of water. I know most of you have been following the latest NOAA proposal for an expansion to the National Marine Sanctuary which would require all divers to obtain costly and cumbersome permits to dive wrecks that are within the sanctuary. Well just last week the dive boat I was on was boarded by NOAA to check and see if any worthy artifacts were taken off of the Shurz wreck. Today as we approached the Atlas, NOAA had a boat anchored to the wreck. They had divers in the water and lift bags were present possibly raising some artifacts for their own "research". We had to wait until NOAA was done bringing up their divers and equipment prior to anchoring onto the Atlas. This was a staunch reminder of how the world of diving that we all know and love will not longer exist if the sanctuary is expanded beyond the Monitor. I know I wrote several letters opposing such an expansion but often wonder if that was all I could do. The presence of NOAA on this wreck definitely dampened my spirits while diving but I also thought, I am lucky that today I am free to dive this wreck. This wreck is not known for visibility but it is known for sharks. The visibility was 30' on the bottom which is very good for this wreck and about 100' just above the upper decks. As I descended I did not even get to the wreck when I saw lots and lots of large sand tigers. I stopped at about 50' and took some photos and watched the sharks as they effortlessly hung in the water. Eventually I went further down and landed on the upper superstructure. There were so many sharks all around that I could not move. I did start to swim around when a 14'-15' sand tiger was coming full speed at me, there were smaller sharks underneath me so I could not kick to get out of the way of the big one coming for me. It came to within inches of my face and quickly veered off. I screamed so loud into my regulator I am sure everyone heard me! I swam over to my buddy, John and held on to his arm to let him know I was scared to death. I don't think John could save me but, I felt better holding on to him. I am such a whimp!!! Soon I gained enough courage to swim around the wreck a bit but, due to the muddy bottom, it silted up quickly and I did not like being in a wreck with sharks that I could not see. Before long, I went back up to the 50' depth and watched the sharks in mid water column. Those sharks did not swim around too much and you can at least see them coming... I would like to go back to this wreck someday since it is so large there is lot to explore.
Caribsea 8-3-12
We went back to the Caribsea since reports were that the visibility had improved since Monday and again because there were a large concentration of sharks there. I did like this wreck on Monday and was glad to be able to go back to it to explore further. I spent this dive trying to capture some good silhoettes of the sharks but for some reason my camera was not getting enough light. I therefore, shot some pics and video of the groupers that happened to be hanging out on the higher portions of the wreck.
This week means a lot to me and definitely rejuvenates me spiritually. We had a really great group to dive with and I think every one of us had a nice time together! We even had a few divers added onto our charter that happened to be from NJ too... One thing that inspires me is that most of these guys are retired yet, they are physically and financially able to continue to dive...I hope I have the luck and happiness they all have acquired!
I have quite a few photos from this trip so I decided to just post a few now and will work on posting more over the winter along with the videos, so stay tuned!!
Next year I will be returning to dive these wrecks again but, this time I will be bringing my daughter Rebecca along to for a "girls" week. I can't wait!!
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| Photo of the "Group" taken by Mike Gerkin aka our Captain |
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