Dive Report: 10/19/03 Southseas

Photos:
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/031019mp/

Conditions:
Seas: 1 ft and confused.
Air Temp: 85 degrees
Sunny

Dive 1: Star Trek
Team: Jody S. and Joe T.
Depth: 220ft
Bottom Mix: 15/55
Deco Mix: 50% and 100%
Current: Slight North
Visibility: 80 ft
Temp: 81 degrees top to bottom
Run Time: 90 minutes
Deco: A lot

I drove right over the wreck the first time with the numbers Jody had for the Star Trek. He lined it up again a stopped the boat dead on the numbers to check for current, none. This was going to be a good dive. Charlie ran through the dive plan and times to confirm when we needed to be on the look out for bottles and liftbags. Charlie was a big help getting on the stage and deco bottles donned and ready to go. I got the boat ready for the run, about 500ft away from the mark and they moved to the back platform. These two guys had $150 or so worth of gas on there backs, I didn't want to drop them for a sand dive. Oh the weight of the gear. I stopped the boat dead four feet from the numbers and called out "Dive, Dive, Dive!"

Occasionally, I would make runs back to the numbers and let the boat drift away. At ten minutes a saw a thick diagonal line in the sounder as I ran over the bubble trail of the divers, cool. 26 minutes into the dive about 50 ft off the bow I saw a small surface marker and two spent Aluminum 80s floating in the water. Charlie retrieved them, then he decided to lay down and take a nap. At 45 minutes we started looking for the marker. At 50 minutes into the dive I saw a flick orange in the distance, due East of the boat. I headed over that way, .3 miles from where we were I found 1 foot of a 6 foot sausage sticking out of the water. Looks like it didn't get much gas in it on the 70ft stop.

After an hour and 15 minutes I jumped in on the marker and took some photos while free diving. I got "Ok's" from the team so I new it was all good. 10 minutes later they surfaced and we picked them up. A perfect dive!

Joe never heard of the new Halcyon semi-closed circuit lift bag being called a "BBQ Apron". He tried it on and I think it works quite well.

Dive 2: Southseas and Airplane wreck
Team: Charlie G. and Matt H.
Gas: 33% and 50%
Visibility: 40ft
Current: None
Depth: 82ft
Runtime: 58 minutes
Deco: 50/5 40/1 30/1 20/3 10/3

Charlie and I have dove a lot of sites off Miami now. One we've not hit yet in our wreck treks was the Southseas which is an old 135ft steel freighter. From there we have the choice of swimming off the bow to the Princess Brittany or heading off the stern to the Airplane wreck. Jody told us to dive and we splashed it. The visibility was 30-40ft, but milky white. I could see the shadow of the wreck and swam to it.

The wreck was nothing by super structure, the top was gone. There was lots of growth and juvenile fish swimming in the steel beams. In the midsection there was some equipment left. To the right I noticed a large green moray having straight up and down. I slowly approached with my camera, snapped a couple of photos and hovered. I moved my camera and light away from it and starred. The moray swam up to within 2 ft of me and starred back. We shared a moment, I went to shoot another photo and it disappeared in the floor.

We worked back and saw some juvenile stripped parrotfish, trumpetfish, numerous grunts and some hogfish. Swimming back on starboard side of the wreck I found a Starlet coral with a Peppermint Goby. This fish is only 1.5 inches long, but you can see the yellow body and blue of the eyes if you look for it in photo. (see photo mp032.jpg) I zigged back over to the port to see the eel again. Then we swam back to the bow. After killing only 25 minutes out of 50 we decided to swim for the Airplane wreck off the stern.

Jody said to swim Southwest and we should hit a big triangle half way between the two. Charlie and I took a "swim of faith" of the stern and headed over the sand. I saw what looked to be rebar in the sand. They pointed to the triangle, cool. We kept going, and right as I was loosing faith, I saw a depression in the sand, we swam over and saw all that was left, the wing. Several Blackfin snapper greeted us as we arrived. I saw some of the largest Grasby Grouper I've ever seen. At the other end I also found a Coney.

Joe gave me a quick lesson on how to shoot the semi closed bag. I got it out and looped up the spool. It was hanging down so I put a couple bubbles in it to get it upright. While trying to get my reg further up into the bag, it purged and started filling the bag. I wrestled with it, kept the gas going in until I couldn't hold it any more and let it fly. It was full on the surface, but I think I could be a little more graceful next time. Charlie and I ran a mock deco schedule with a gas switch at 50ft to 50%. Joe kept reminding us that diving with 50% is a "loaded gun" and we should be careful about oxtox and holding our depth. The deco bottle is getting loaded up with 32% for the first weekend of Tech 1.

--Matt