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| Self Portrait of me, I was actually trying to make sure my strobes were both firing! |
This is my third year of making the trek to North Carolina to dive wrecks and this year was a Very Special one. As you all know my daughter, Rebecca became a certified diver last summer and I had promised her that I would take her to North Carolina this year if she was ready. The wrecks here tend to be a bit deeper and I wanted to make sure she was up to the challenge. Geoff Graham offered to teach her NAUI Advanced and Nitrox during this trip which was a deciding factor. The dive season in NJ had been a little rough in the spring and early summer so the two days we had scheduled to take Rebecca diving in NJ to re-familiarize her with her skills did not happen so, a trip to the quarry was in order. She did great at the quarry and learned about Nitrox and how to analyze your mix. Therefore, I decided to take her along with me to North Carolina for a little mom and daughter diving getaway.
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| Rebecca on her hang. |
Our first wreck this week was going to be the Shurz. which is one of my favorites so I was excited to bring Rebecca here. The ride out was not as forecasted and was a solid 3-5' seas which resulted in Rebecca getting very, very seasick. The poor girl was sick from the minute we left the inlet until we returned. Geoff was going to take her in and do a Nitrox dive with her, and since this wreck is about 110-115' deep I was a nervous mom especially given how sick she was. I splashed with Jill Graham and wanted to do some photography including some video and photos of Rebecca. She is a trooper and once she hit the water she was awesome. Everyone on board could not stop saying what a great diver she is which made me so proud of her. She is excellent in the water no matter how bad she feels on a boat.
I only saw Rebecca for a few minutes at the end of my dive but she ended up seeing a sting ray and lots of tropical fish. I later explained to her that the anchor was tied into a cannon and how cool it is to dive a wreck with cannons on it. The visibility on the wreck was about 40' and I've had much better during other trips to this wreck but the water was a toasty 77 degrees which suited me just fine. I didn't cover much of the wreck during my dive, I guess I was just to nervous about Rebecca to fully enjoy myself but after this dive, I knew I had nothing to worry about. Geoff took great care of her and she would be fine.
Given the rough seas that just kept on building we opted to relocate closer inshore to a wreck called the Indra. The Indra is a 300' ship repair freighter that sits in 65' of water. It was sunk as an artificial reef on 8/4/92 off of Emerald Isle. Rebecca had said during the surface interval that she could not make another dive but, some how she gathered up the strength to head back in with Geoff. On this wreck we had about 40' of visibility and had a couple of sharks. Since it was quite a bit shallower I had a nice and long dive and got to explore the entire wreck. This wreck is easy to penetrate because when they sunk it they cut large holes in the hull making for lots areas to get into and out of the wreck. This wreck is known for octopus and I found one small one on the deck that I could not convince to come fully out of its hiding place.
As I enjoyed this wreck, Geoff had other plans with Rebecca, he took her inside the wreck and toured the decks. She said she had to turn on her light to see on the inside and thought it was cool....First a deeper dive and now wreck penetration and this is only her second time in the Atlantic...what next? This wreck rose up to about 40' so during your hang you could see the entire wreck and watch other divers exploring. I am not fond of artificial reefs but sometimes they are fun and I really liked this dive. After this dive, Rebecca continued to feed the fish on the way in and I was thinking how in the world am I going to convince her to get back on the boat tomorrow. There was no convincing, she wanted to head back out and thought positive thoughts..as quoted from Rebecca, "it can't get any worse than today". I think the encouragement of Divemaster's Budd and Gavin helped too..
Caribsea 7-30-13
Today we had beautiful calm 1-2' seas and we were destined for the Caribsea (see my August 2012 post for details on the wreck). This wreck is known to have hundreds of sharks and here I am again, the nervous mom about to allow her daughter to dive with all these sharks. Today, we switched seasick medications and what a difference, Rebecca made it all day without feeding the fish!! On the first dive I splashed after Rebecca and Geoff to find sharks right there along the hang line. They were huge and of course just sitting there watching you. We were anchored into a piece right next to the two giant boilers and I descended into a debris field next to the boilers. I found a spotted eel and spent some time photographing it and then started to swim towards the stern.
There was a bit of current which made it hard to swim too far. I ran into Rebecca and Geoff and followed them out into the sand to watch some of the sharks. There were quite a few flounder on the wreck that were not scared off by divers. If I only had a bag I could have easily grabbed them with my hands. I have to say that it is unnerving to watch your daughter with a 12' shark right next to her but, she was not as scared as I and, really liked watching them. Geoff had mounted his Gopro onto an extendable pole and was putting the video camera right up to the sharks so I can't wait to see how it came out.
The conditions were great, 50' of vis, warm water, flat seas...so we opted to stay for two. During the surface interval the crew and the teenagers on board spent their time jumping off the boat and snorkeling with the baracuda. They all had a blast.
On dive #2 we swam up to the bow to watch the sharks since they tend to hang in this area. There seemed to be a little less current so we swam around most of the wreck collecting seashells. There was a small brass artifact found by another diver whom in the end left if on the bottom so I took a picture of it only to find out later that another diver brought it up. This was a fun day with a lot of laughs on board and I think after this day I have Rebecca hooked on wreck diving.
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| Brass!! |
Pappose (W.E. Hutton) 7-31-13
Today was another day of 1-2' seas, so we headed out to the W.E. Hutton which is another dive that I could dive a bunch of times and not get bored. Rebecca again was diving with Geoff so I was splashing with Jill. As soon as I splashed my inflator jammed and I could not inflate my wings. I decided to go down anyways. Once on the bottom, I could not get it to work so I was left to inflate my wings the old fashioned way, orally which is not fun at 120' but, I managed. This wreck is turtled but, there is a break and debris field in the bow. At the break there is a tremendous opening into the wreck and this is where the sharks circle into and out of the wreck. I love just sitting in the white sand and watching them. The vis on this wreck was 80' and the water was still 77 degrees at 120', it was simply beautiful. I noticed some really big lion fish, larger than I had ever seen and I again found some spotted eels.
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| This lionfish was HUGE! |
I never saw my daughter on this dive, but she told me that she too loved this wreck. We saw some dolphins on this wreck prior to jumping in and I was sad to not see them while in the water. There were schools of jacks that swam around this wreck and I tried my hardest to photograph them, they sure are fast. This was a great dive and I would have been happy staying for two but, we moved inshore.
Aeolis 7-31-13
This wreck too is known for hundreds of sharks that hang inside the wreck. Evidently these sharks are used to divers being inside the wreck with them and we were advised that its ok to be in a room with them just don't grab them. I don't think that I want to be in closed quarters with a shark larger than I..Staying on the outside of the wreck looking in seemed like a better option to me. Geoff was shooting video and would shine his light on the sharks which make a cool effect. The vis was not the best here, maybe 30'. Prior to jumping in, Geoff had told Rebecca he was going to do something special with her and advised her to bring her light. I was curious but, went on to explore the wreck with Jill. Well Geoff again took Rebecca inside the wreck (you know where the sharks are) and showed her how to get an artifact. He got a large sink faucet. I think this now qualifies her as a true wreck diver and she is now trained in artifact removal. Of course we all teased Geoff all afternoon for binging up such a fine artifact. I wonder what he will make of this faucet when it is cleaned up??? Rebecca thought is was fun and had not problems going in the wreck with the sharks or learning how to get an artifact. She certainly is learning lot so quickly on this trip. This brings me back to to the first dive of the week, she truly is a great diver and you would never know how few dives she has under her belt which is why I feel so confident in letting go and having her be Geoff's buddy.
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| The fine artifact in the goodie bag.. |
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| Look carefully and there is a shrimp |
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| Mr. Crab hiding in the backround. |
Rebecca and I took our fourth day off to go to Fort Macon and the North Carolina Maritime Museum since it was absolutely pouring out. We had a great day and learned a lot about the Graveyard of the Atlantic and Blackbeard. Our final day was blown out so in hind sight I guess we should not have taken a day off. Rebecca is now a NAUI certified Advanced Diver And Nitrox I Diver. Thanks to Geoff for teaching her the courses and for teaching her much more about wreck diving!
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| All Smiles!! |
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Rebecca and Geoff coming up from the Shurz. |
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