Trip Report - October 7, 2007

We had a real treat this holiday weekend. We loaded up the boat Saturday night, and steamed 75 miles to the Carolina. The seas were calm as we cleared the inlet, and turned south. The bow rose & fell in a gentle rhythm. The boat slowly ate up the miles as the passengers ( except BOB) slept in their bunks, like babes. As the moon set, and the sun started to rise, we increased our speed to get to  the wreck at 9 am. We arrived on calm seas with a slight breeze. Gerhard, quickly jumped in to set the hook near the boilers. Within a few minutes the pool was open.

The divers dropped into cobalt blue 70Deg. Water, with Sargassum floating on the surface. The upper vis was over 80 ft. the vis on the bottom was about 60 ft.  With such good conditions, it was a fun, and relaxing 240' dive. It’s not often that, that happens in the north east.  The divers “flittered “ about the wreck, trying to take it all in at once, an impossible task. With heavy hearts, they reluctantly left the bottom   and began the long climb to the surface.

Just when everything is going good, there is one guy to spoil it. BOB, of course was the culprit. He ended up rocketing to the bottom below the boat, and doing a drift decompression.  We saw the bag come up, and quickly drift away in the current. We watched until the bag disappeared in the distance. We were forced to wait a few hours for all the other divers to return to the surface, before we could go look for him. RJ. Dropped empty water bottles in the water to try and track the current. After the last diver was back on board, we started searching for him. As we traveled up the line of bottles”eagle eye RJ”. Saw him first about 2/3 of a mile from the boat, almost 2 miles from the wreck.  There was BOB, shit eating grin and all, complaining that he had to wait so long for us to come. I explained to BOB that the divers on the anchor line had done everything right why make them wait, while we tracked him down ???

With all the excitement over we returned to the wreck so my mate John, could make a dive. With diving done for the day we snoozed until dinner time. We all feasted on my wife, Susan’s delicious baked ziti. After which,  we slaughtered a pumpkin pie in the oven, and ate apple pie instead, washed down with Gerhard’s & John’s great coffee.

With our bellies full to bursting, some turned in early, some watched a movie,  courtesy of RJ.  The boat rocked back & forth ½ the night, finally calming down by sun up. The divers were slow to rise today. After assorted breakfast foods and coffee, they got ready to dive.  The surface conditions were even better today. The divers jumped in , in small groups. Gerhard managed to find a nice cage lamp on his dive. We put RJ. In charge of watching BOB so there were no issues with him today.  While we munched down a lunch of chili, prepared by BOB. The crew got us unhooked, and ready for the long ride home. We had a port beam sea most of the way home. RJ. Used that as an excuse to roll me onto the floor ( a person might forgive, but a CAPTAIN, don’t forget)  The inlet was a welcomed sight as we headed to our slip, but my son & wife waiting for me at the slip, was the BEST sight of the whole trip !!  Thus end another great weekend diving wreck valley.