Diving the Ande off WPB

P9146617
Originally uploaded by tiswango.

I was not happy to be right. After loading the gear by humping tanks up and over the gunnal of the boat at high tide we headed out. On the way out the inlet, Randy said that there was reported black water North of Jupiter Inlet going out to 170ft. This report was collaborated by Mike Barnett the week before. We could skip the Mulphin and try for the Ranking and a reef or head south to the Ande and hit Hole in the Wall on the way back up. There was a Goliath Grouper Spawning aggregation at the Hole that would be leaving after the full moon in two days. We decided to take the sure thing.

Our dive profiles just dropped 20ft to 190ft on Ande and 140ft at the Hole in the wall. I had brough my 18/45 because it was already filled and 21/35.

I took over an hour at 8 knots. We geared up, did out checks as the captian ran over the wreck one more time. Ops, there was no wreck. He had the wrong coordinates in the GPS. We had another 20 minutes south to go. David doffed his gear to avoid overheating.

We cheered after finding the wreck and got ready to dive. We had a 400ft lead and Randy said the currents can run slightly East so be ready to head West. After we splashed I saw something fall under David, I dove and caught the hub to Davids Gavin and gave him the broken scooter sign. He had dialed it down to full speed and the pitch held so he could use it on the dive. There was 1.5 knot current and we needed it.

The wreck was not dove much and covered with fishing line. I found some waving in the current 30ft off the side of the wreck. The lights were very useful for finding this.

The stern was listing to starboard. The cargo hold was broken just before the bridge and mostly upright. It was not a clean break and ripped speices jutted out from both sides. At the bow, the main mast was still upright and beautiful in the blue water.

I stopped and got my team to do some fly overs for photos. My scooters trim had changed to nose down, but still just slightly negative, I wondered what was wrong as it didn't seem flooded? The current was also taking all the strengh out of my right arm. I usually shoot with one hand and drive with the other, but fighting the current was taking its toll.

After 20 minutes I was feeling task loaded so I put the camera away and scootered around the wreck. At the stern, the updraft was so strong it held the Gavin in place at full speed. I went over the mast and followed it up and we prepared for deco.

Our ascent and deco ran perfectly. Excpet for one stop I overstayed as I got into the medatative zone. From there up I had fun making eyes at David and Ron to make them thinkt the stop was over too soon without making the hand signal. Its amazing how dialed in a team can get!