Dive Report: 11/9/2003 Sunday Miami Project Dives Moby's Reef and St. Anne D' Auray

Conditions:
Seas 3-5 and snotty with 6ft swells
Visibility: 35 ft and green
Water Temp: 81 degrees

Dive 1: Moby 1 Barge and Moby's Reef

S: Jody (lead, anchor), Matt (fish), Mike W. (deco)
A: Jody 30/30 Matt and Mike 32%
D: Plan 100ft, Max 103ft, Avg 80ft
D: 30 minutes BT
D: Explore 150ft off the anchor with reel, then turn and drift with Anchor to shallower reef
D: 50/1 40/1 30/1 20/3 10/3 = 9 mins
RB: 1000 PSI

With the rougher seas Jody choose the longer and more pleasant run around Cape Florida before heading out into the ocean. Jody and I were diving single 80s so we choose an adventure dive to the Moby 1. A barge that none of us had visited. There is an excitement the builds were visiting somewhere new and not knowing what your going to find. Jody explained that this barge was not put down by the Miami DERM. It was an illegal sinking, and as such, it was probably put down next to or on top of the reef to attract more fish.

I stopped the boat within 1 ft of the GPS numbers and there was nothing to be seen on the bottom. This barge went through Andrew and the GPS numbers were wrong. Jody took over and made several passes up and down the reef line looking for it on the sounder. He got a good reading and we dropped anchor to explore. After confirming that it set, we geared up and jumped in.

The water was thick and murky. We hit some patch reef that was 20 ft wide and 4-8 feet off the bottom in places. Several large fish, but no big schools. Jody had an idea on which way to swim so we tied off the reel and swam out. Nothing but reef. We turned and swam back to the anchor. Jody clipped off the lift bag and we lifted off on using the "poor man's scooter". There is another reef line with the wreck of the Tarpon in 80ft of water. It took us over 10 minutes of drifting to hit the next ledge.

This reef was a sloping reef line that went from 80ft to 50 ft or so. We set the anchor and headed off again in search of the Tarpon. No luck again. We were skunked on two wrecks, but saw some new reef. Jody thumbed the dive and Mike ran the minimal deco up the line. At 10 feet we cut the ascent short as the occasional jellyfish we saw at 20ft became a wall of them at 10 ft. We bolted back to the boat. Since we never hit the barge, we named the reef area after the barge.

Dive 2: St. Anne D' Auray

S: Matt (lead) Mike (deco), and Jody (anchor)
A: Jody 30/30, Matt and Mike 32%
D: Plan 80ft, Max 74ft
D: 50 min bt
D: Around the wreck with possible drift
D: 40/1 30/1 20/3 10/2 = 7 mins
RB: 1000 PSI
Fish count: 33 species

We lifted anchor from the first dive and prepared for the next drop on the wreck. My first attempt had a weak reading on the sounder and anchor didn't set. We hauled it up and ran for another drop. After the anchor was deployed we drifted right over the wreck and the anchor set only 130ft from the numbers. We geared up and jumped in again.

I didn't waste anytime getting to 20 ft, under the "jelly-cline" that was as solid as the last location. We swam over the wreck to the anchor in the sand and made sure it was set. Then we swam over to the wreck with a very impressive bow. On the wreck I realized I was narc'd out of my brains. Way more than usual for a 70 ft dive. I was guessing it was CO2 build up and I choose an easy path to the stern with some deep slow breathing.

The Bridge was in the middle of the boat. Underneath was the engine room packed with Glassy Sweepers. I didn't feel good enough to go in so we continued on. The stern had skylights showing a room underneath, but I couldn't figure out how to get in. I continued up the port side of the boat that was listed into the sand. At midship, about 10 minutes later my head cleared and I felt like swimming through the inside from hatch to hatch. The inside was packed with fish. The engine and what looked like a generator inside. Back on the starboard side we continued up to the bow. Just past the striped out and open bridge was a large winch with Gray and Schoolmaster Snapper swimming underneath. I found a Blackbar Soliderfish tucked inside the gears.

There were two cargo holds with holes big enough to swim through. Jody and I swam down into one and popped right out the other. There was nothing to see inside. The bow section was cut open on both sides for another swim thru. I went in the hatch and choose the port side to exit as the starboard had several entanglement hazards. I looked behind me to see my team exiting. Then I looked left to find the snarled teeth of a Barracuda a foot away from my head. He was not happy with my invasion. He swam around in from of me, past the bow. Once the team exited he swam past us again like a sentry patrolling the side of the ship. I swam around the outside one more time and ended at the starboard side next to the anchor.

30 minutes into the dive and Jody gave the team signal to "drift off" the wreck with the anchor. I Ok'd and Mike tossed a thumb. We replied and headed up the line. Even with my problems at first, it was a very good dive. On the boat we debriefed and explained to Mike the difference between our teams directional signals on site and drifting signals to go to another site.

Even with the rough weather we made a great dive trip.