Photos: www.geocities.com/tiswango/1012mp/index.htm

Conditions:

Seas: 1 ft

Air Temp: 90 degrees

Sunny

Current: Slight South

Team: Buck Buchanan (21/35), Charlie Gamba (32%), Matt Hoelscher (32%)

Dive 1: Orion

10:12 AM

Depth 96ft

Run Time: 51 minutes

SI: 12 hours 26 minutes

Water: 81 degrees

Visibility: 50ft

Deco: 70/5 (50% switch) 60/1 50/1 40/1 30/1 20/3 10/3

With a perfect drop of the anchor on the Orion, the beautiful conditions make for some top notch diving. We dropped on the first team who was beginning their exit. Charlie was leading, I was second and Buck was the 3rd guy and in charge of deco. We planned 100ft for 30 minutes, with 5 minutes at 70ft for a gas switch to practice for Tech 1 in 2 weeks.

At the bottom we spread out, as Charlie took off and Buck was slower getting his gear settled in. Buck also was sporting his new 18watt Helios 9, but had the light beam pointed behind him. I pointed mine back in his eyes and then gestured to put his beam out in front of me, which he did.

Now that I had my 2nd guy job of keeping the team together done, Charlie went for a nice slow lap around the outside of the wreck. It was covered in deep water seafans and coated thick with grunts, mostly Tomtates. We also found a free swimming Spotted Eel and at the prop and a favorite fish of mine, the Red Spotted Hawkfish near one of the bollards on deck. We swam from bow to stern. The forward hold was filled with Glassy Sweepers and miscellaneous other fish. We passed the anchor and headed for the stern. I was looking for the Green Moray. In the stern hatch a Squirrelfish posed for a photo in the fan. Charlie picked an exit and as I followed all the grunts came rushing by me to head into the hold. I found the moray under ledge above deck.

Back on deck I found two grunts "Jawing Off" to each other (MP00113). Which ever fish has a bigger jaw wins the show of dominance (just like tech divers on the internet) and the competing fish flakes off. At 26 minutes Charlie shot the exit and we went over to the anchor. The goal is to drop the anchor, upside down in the sand down current for easy, snag free removal. Charlie dug it out of the seafans and placed it up current on the deck of the boat. Then the three of us lifted the chain and anchor to get it off the wreck. It took a while to get everyone coordinated and lifting at once. This was a good lesson on why you use liftbags. We left the deck of the wreck at 80 ft at 33 minutes into the dive. Buck kept the deco the same and we ascended.

At 20ft, since we hadn't run any drills I whipped my mask off and started waving my arms. Charlie touched my elbow, but every time he did, I went for my back up and then he let go. Then I would start waving again. I was holding my stop, but I let go on the line and was drifting off. After three tries I just went for the back up and get it on at 16ft up, then swam back to the line.

Back on the boat we debriefed on the proper procedure and will try it again on the next dive. Charlie was wondering why I was waving my arms so much and telling him to buzz off. We found our co-divers napping on the comfy couch.

Ralph drove us over to the Army Tanks, we dropped anchor again on the nearby freighter as the dive boat Nautilus drove up next to us and deployed their DM to tie off and "claim" the spot. They later apologized on the radio for driving us off. The deck of the boat with all the gear looked like a Halcyon garage sale. Ralph and Mica jumped off for a fun dive. Joe and Jody loaded up with doubles, Al 80 stage, and two AL 40 stages for a tech 2 gear check dive. Holy deco bottles Batman! Since it was calm we handed tanks to them in the water. After 20 minutes we started getting ready for our dive.

Dive 2: Army Tanks

1:15 PM

Depth 49ft

Run Time: 48 min

SI: 2 hours 11 minutes

Water: 83 degrees

Visibility: 60 ft

As bubbles approached the stern we started gearing up for round two. The sequence was the same, We would drop down to the freighter and follow the rebar of the bow to the barge, then on to the Army Tanks and limestone rubble reef. I was down to 800 psi in my dubs so Jody kindly loaned me his AL80 stage of the "good stuff" 30/30, what a pal! Charlie staged up a AL80 from last night with 900 psi to start with and then would finish the 1100 PSI in the dubs. Buck has 1500 left of 21/35 and would ascend on his 70ft bottle. Nice gas plan huh?

The freighter was cool and there were a ton more Glassy Sweepers inside the bridge. At the bow Charlie took off and I didn't see any rebar. I looked at Buck who had the same look on his face, "Where is Charlie going?" Back up brains engaged and we stopped Charlie and pointed at some rebar. This lead us to the boring barge and we continued to the Army tanks. Charlie had the BMW Jetfins on and I couldn't stop him. I turned to Buck and ran an OOA. Charlie looked back out of visual range and saw our flashing lights, which brought him back to us. We stuck together much better the rest of the dive.

The back of the army tank emerged and they looked very cool underwater. This is defiantly is a "been there dove that dive site." They were surrounded with fish and the limestone made for a nice reef. We swam over to the other tank. They both were open on the inside. We turned the dive and Charlie switched to back gas. Charlie lead us back, but we ran out of reef again, Buck corrected the heading as we hit the first Army tank again.

As we were looking around I went to the sand and popped the mask off again and waved my light. This time Buck made contact, put my hand on his face with a mask, then held my hand as I deployed my backup. This went very smoothly. From the tank the rebar lead us back to the freighter, I really like these bread crumb rebar trails.

At the stern, by the anchor, we hit our bottom time of 40 minutes and Charlie gave me the thumb"? I replied with the thumb and we headed up. On the way up I noticed Buck got his longhose tucked back between his two tanks. I couldn't get it free. In the middle of his switch off the 70ft bottle I ran another OOA. Buck took the back up reg out of his mouth, dropped the stage reg, unclipped the long hose and passed it to me, then put the back up reg in his mouth. We spent 2 minutes at 10ft sorting his hoses and then I gave him his reg back.

We packed all the gear up and secured all the tanks on the deck for the ride home. Joe and Mica soaked up a little more of the free FL sun. Ralph got to drive through rush hour boat traffic in Government cut. Another A+ day out of the ocean!.

–Matt