Photo Gallery | 15 sec Video of Rainbow Parrotfish Attacking the Rio Miami

Conditions

Winds: NW 20 knots

Seas: 1-2ft 4-5 ft wide swells

Air Temp: 59 degrees

Water Temp: 72

Current: Slight South

Visibility: 40ft

The weather forecast was dismal for Saturday. Like a guard dog, I watched the NOAA weather report and wind report. The word West stayed in the report so we decided to go out. We all decided that diving a grapnel and ball was the way to go. But there is still a problem of the grapnel landing in the sand and the team not being able to swim down to the wreck following the line. Being able to pull down a line would be ideal.

Jody surprised us with a baby plow anchor instead of using the hook. The theory being that the plow could also grab sand so that we could pull ourselves down the line. Jody found some more line in the garage so that we could have a 200ft line and 100ft line. The Lakeland, being upside down, would be a great test as it would be hard to hook.

On the way out of Government cut we saw 20 or sailboats heading out. Ralph said there was a preliminary competition for the Olympics. It was fun watching them roll in succession from our wake.

At the site, I prepped the anchor, got all the line coiled up on my arm and gave a toss when Jody hit the site. I felt the anchor hit and set, but still had plenty of line on my arm. I tossed it all out and we prepared to dive.

Dive 1: Lakeland

9:33 AM

S: Matt (lead), Charlie (deco), and Jody (grapnel)

A: 21/25, deco 50%

D: 140 plan/max

D: 61 minutes

D: around the wreck, explore penetration points

D: 100 deep, 70/5 60/3 50/1 40/1 30/2 20/8 10/5

PSI: Back gas 3300/1400, Deco 3000/1400

Buck came down to drive the boat for us. We walked to the back platform right as he positioned the boat in front of the ball. There was a slight surface current that took me to the ball. I gently tugged the line to see if it was grabbing or loose. I saw Charlie was behind me and we headed down. At 50ft I looked back and saw that Jody wasn’t with us. He had stopped at one of the knots in the line. Charlie and I waited for him to catch up to us. I could see he was working on the rope, but it didn’t dawn on me to get off the line as our drag just made his job of redoing the knot that much harder. Reaching the bottom, the plow anchor slid off one of the smooth concrete piped into the sand. It didn’t move in the sand so we were pleased with its performance as it brought down three divers in a light current. I swam ahead to the big box shaped shadow ahead of me.

The Lakeland is upside down in the sand. Its flat hull looks like a giant box. We headed west and came up on the bow. It was crushed, but there was an opening with lots of growth. Jody’s briefing said that there were several penetration points that opened up into huge rooms. We passed the larger opening and I gestured a question to Jody to penetrate? I nodded and I tied in my reel and headed it. I had to rotate in a couple of different directions to get in. There was only enough for two divers and I didn’t feel like wiggling any further in.

As I turned to reel in, I noticed the line wasn’t through the guide. Swimming, reeling and rotating was a big pain. Running reels in wrecks is a completely different experience in practice compared to running them in a cave. This dive confirmed with the RSB-1 trip that I need a lot more practice. Heading back up the other side, at amidships I found the huge opening Jody referred to. There was a large rope hanging over the opening and it was swinging like a pendulum. There was surge at 140ft and you could see the water movements in the vibration of the Deep Water Sea Fans that framed the entrance and the exit. The large cavern had good water flow to feed a lot of life. There was a door in the middle of the room heading further back towards the stern. The passageway looked clear, but as we planned, we were to look for penetration and come back later to actually do it. I exited the other side and continued heading to the stern of the ship.

As we swam around, there were large cylinders lying around in the sand. They looked like jet engines. Then I saw the large cog on the wider side and realized they were cement mixing truck drums. There were 15 or so around the site. There was also a large amount of piping on both sides of the site. This would be an ideal place for a scooter as there is a lot of ground to cover.

At the stern, there was another large cavern. We swam in and on the right side there was another hatch. Jody checked his gauge and shook his head “no”. I went a little further to the door and could see there was a large hallway to swim through. It might connect with the door in the other opening. We’ll have to come back to find out.

Back outside, the green soupy water allowed for rough shapes to be made out about 40ft away. I saw Jody’s gauge and we had about 10 minutes left. I headed out for another one and was flashed to stop and return to the anchor line. During the debrief, Jody thought I was lost and that’s why he headed back to the anchor line. We swam up the side, back into the other opening and out the other side. At about 25 minutes, we arrived back at the plow anchor. The plan was to knot the rope up until the plow hung free. I told Jody I would start the line for him. As I started pulling the line in to knot it, Jody grabbed the anchor and lifted off. It was very easy to bring the line in. At 100ft, I could see Jody wanted to hook the anchor off to the line. I didn’t know how he wanted to do it and I couldn’t gesture him as my hands were full of line. I knew I should have tied the line off, but didn’t and he wrapped the anchor up in the line and let go. I was neutral at the time and started to sink. I got one hand to my inflator to add gas to my wing as the line tightened up on the float ball; I was now at 116ft. I tied off the line. I came back up and we started our deep stops.

The current and surge through off our game and we kept bumping into each other. I was trying to center myself after knotting up the line. At 20ft I was back in the groove. The large swells above caused a unique sensation underwater. You would feel your stomach drop as a large wave passed overhead. I pulled out my wetnotes and started logging all the fish I spotted on the dive so I could turn in a survey. The REEF database has one 15-minute survey from several years ago. I was distracted as a large school of Blue Runners from the jack family that swam by us.

It was freezing when we got out of the water. I was so cold, I was ready to cancel the second dive. I put a layer of nylon on and my dive parka. After we secured the gear and the ball, Charlie whipped out some nice hot Mate. We even convinced Jody to drink some weed.

Dive 2: Rio Miami and Parasio

11:42 AM

SI: 1:06

S: Matt (lead), Charlie (deco), and Jody (lift bag)

A: 32% in Al80 stage

D: 70ft plan, 80ft max

D: 50 minutes

D: around the Rio, swim the Parasio

D: 40ft deep, 20/3 10/3

PSI: 3000/500

Ralph was supposed to do the second dive, but lost heart looking at our frozen faces. Jody ran through the list of all the close dive sites and I had hit them all. The Rio Miami was the only one I have not dove during the day. The south current would also take us to the Parasio and the Princess Britney depending on how ambitious we felt. We tossed the plow anchor back out, geared up, and Buck gave us a quick drop on the ball.

I pulled the line and it was solid. Descending the water had about 50ft of visibility. The plow was in the sand again, right where it landed. It didn’t even look like it “dug in.” I would be interesting to see how well it will work in a moderate current. Now that we were on site, we decided to lift bag the anchor up for the boat to recover. This way would could drift off and not have to worry about it.

The Rio Miami is listing on her starboard side at a 45-degree angle. The bollard at the bow and stairway up to the bridge are well decorated. Down the starboard side I found a polka-dot batfish in the sand. Looking in, there was the crew’s mess table and right next to the door was a small sink and faucet.

Swimming aft, there is a large engine room with no ceiling over the engine. Jody mentioned you could swim around the engine down below in a single tank, but weren’t going to squeeze in with doubles and an al80 stage. There was other machinery, an electrical panel and gas tank clearly visible. I ascended out to give the others a peak.

From the west a squadron of 15 obese Rainbow Parrotfish swam in over the sand. They hit the starboard side like torpedoes and you could hear the crunching of their beak like mouths taking invertebrates off the side of the ship like we eat corn off the cob. I swam closer for a photo. The swung around the stern and headed up the port side while I gave chase. The crunching sound was incredible.

15 sec Video of Rainbow Parrotfish Attacking the Rio Miami

After a good 20 minutes, we swam off the bow over the sand to the Parasio. There were two rebar stakes, keeping us in line. In the sand I paused to look at a colony of 4 Brown Garden Eels. We came on in the stern of the wreck. I still had 1500 psi and I wanted to do the swim through the hold and take some photos. I dropped in the opening at the stern of the deck. In the center is the hatchway to the refrigeration hold. I didn’t fit through the hatch, so I rotated 90 degrees with the stage bottle down and pulled through. I got a close up photos of one fan on the cooling unit.

The rows and rows of racks remind me of the bread cart at the local grocery store. I came up to the second hatch, rotated and pulled through. I stopped and looked back to find my team behind me. I waited for them to catch up. Then forward past the second row of racks. There were all burnt orange, covered with a fine layer of powdered rust.

At the end of the line, I ascend back up to the main deck. I thought there was another way up to the bridge for that level, but I was off. The main deck was empty of fish with an eerie glow of green light pouring in. I swam forward through another narrow passageway to the bow. The left side of the triangle was open in the bow and I climbed up trying not to make a big mess with my fins. After checking out the big winch, it was time to go.

Jody shot a lift bag and we drifted off. At 20ft, we were swarmed by Rainbow Runners form the Jack family. We drifted a little further and baitfish schooled all around. Looking down, there were 30-40 Barracuda underneath them. I saw the top of the mast of the Princess Britney as we passed overhead. At the 20ft stop I took photos of all the divers wings and suit covered in burnt orange rust. I don’t know how Charlie got out of there so darn clean!

Charlie and I stopped by the grocery store on the way home to pick up steaks, vegetables and beverages to grill out by the pool. It was the perfect way to spend an afternoon after diving.