Our first choice of the day was the Merci Rabbi. After several attempts to mow the lawn to get a good picture of the wreck, Jody couldn’t find more than 10ft of relief on the wreck. So we scrapped that idea and headed over to the Nick C. Jody hit the wreck and I tossed out the ball. Ops, we had the 150ft rope on the ball for the Merci at 120ft. The Nick C was 160ft or so, well the rope was a bit longer, and there was chain, plus there wasn’t much current, we hoped we would be fine. The ball was on the wreck when we geared up. We walked to the back of the boat, came up on the ball and Ralph noticed we were 500ft away from the target, so much for doing it right the first time. Jody and I doffed our gear, pulled in the line and got the 200ft line out.

Conditions

Winds: West 10 knots

Seas: 1ft, 2ft rollers

Air Temp: 75

Water Temp: 75

Current: Slight South

Visibility: 50ft

Dive 1: Nick Comoglio

10:12 AM

SIT 12:14

S: Matt (lead & fish count) Charlie (deco) Jody (Liftbags)

A: 21/35, 50% deco

D: 168ft

D: 20 minutes BT, 53 minutes RT

D: explore wreck

D: 130 deep, 70/5 60/3 50/1 40/1 30/2 20/8 10/5

PSI: backgas 3500/1600, deco 3100/1400

The second time we tossed out the Bruce anchor and hit the wreck. Jody and I donned our gear, ran checks and Ralph dropped us in. The anchor was in the sand 10ft west in the middle of the wreck. Jody sent the anchor up on a BBQ bag and off it went. I got out my wetnotes and headed for the stern.

The Nick C is 90ft steel ship sunk in January 1997. The bridge it at the bow and the stern is flat with the deck covering the cargo hold below deck. The propeller was missing, but there was a guard around it to keep it from catching lines in the water.

At the stern I was amazed at the 50 or so Reef Butterfly fish swimming around. I had never seen so many of these fish in one location. The stern had a slope in and there was a lot of room by the propeller shaft. Under there were large Cubbyu and Squirrelfish. Swimming around the outside, there were French, Gray, and Blue Angelfish, Surgeonfish and ever more Reef Butterfly fish up on the bridge. Behind the bridge was school of Creole fish.

During the dive plan, Jody couldn’t remember if the penetration required a reel or not, so I brought mine as team leader. I tied in to the outside and ran the line down into the hold. The entrance was 2ft by 4ft. At the bottom I wrapped around the shaft and headed astern. The cargo area was wide open and sanded in. There was a rear compartment that I peaked into. I was shocked to find a huge dog snapper. At first I thought it was a Goliath, but the silver color and tear drop under the eye gave him away. I signaled my team to look, but the fish exited the stern before I could get their attention.

Heading back towards the bow, the engine was removed, but there was a large generator and air compressor still inside. Jody’s guess was that this was a fishing boat and probably required a lot of electricity to make ice and keep the catch cold. The compressor could have been used to start the old diesel engine. Forward of the engine was another compartment, empty with an exit to the deck that just looked big enough to wiggle some doubles through. We turned around and headed out.

Reeling up, I dropped the reel trying to undo the primary tie. It was heading back down to the hold through a small hole. I watch Jody hoping he was grab it, it felt like slow motion, due to the narcosis of an equivalent narcotic depth of 90ft. Jody grabbed it before it went through and I wound it up.

We wanted to swim through the upper deck, but it was time to go as 20 minutes slips by so quickly. As we ascended for our deep stops I gazed back at the wreck trying to build a mental map of the details. The deco was simple and easy. I reviewed my fish, drew some sketches of the wreck and time went by quickly was nothing else to see besides blue water.

Dive 2: Andro

12:32 PM

SI: 1:26

S: Matt and Charlie

A: 32%

D: 114ft

D: 45 minutes

D: around the wreck via anchor

D: 70 deep 30/2 20/5 10/3

PSI: 3100/500

The Andro is a 165ft steel ship sunk in December 1985. Hurricane Andrea did a number on it, but there are three main sections left. The bow and stern are listing to port. The engine section is intact with the stack still standing tall. The bow points north. Between the sections, the sides have fallen in creating a lot of shelter for fish. This site is 1 mile off Haulover inlet and seems to be the first wreck fished on the way out and the last one fished on the way back in. Fishermen without big budgets for gas don’t have to go far offshore.

We cruised over to this site to set the anchor early and establish a spot with the fisherman during the surface interval. A 50ft sport fish was anchored on the north side and they seemed to this was there wreck and were unhappy at the thought of sharing it with us. We kept our dive flags down as we waited. Jody and Ralph were diving together, so that left Charlie and I. I didn’t think the anchor was on the wreck, so Jody would take my reel and run it to the wreck if the anchor was out of visual range. Charlie and I would dive second and recover the reel on the way back. After we put our flags up to dive, most of the fisherman left the area, except for the unhappy ones.

Charlie and I jumped in to see the anchor and a large dragline. There was a line tied off and we followed it. We saw were the anchor landed and kept going. It was a 4 minute swim to the Andro, I’m glad Jody found it as I would have lost faith. We were tied in to the propeller, as there was nothing else around. On the trip over there were Chalk Bass and Blue Gobies in the sand.

This wreck was much bigger than I anticipated. There were several penetration points, but I wanted to see the whole thing so we kept swimming to the stern. At amidships, the smoke stack is still standing which I found quite impressive.

The bow is decorated with soft corals and a large winch. From the bow we swam back over the top of the wreck. At his point, I had built up some narcosis from the constant swimming. I decided to do a “clean up break” for my head and put in my back up reg from some 35% helium. After two minutes, I was feeling good again and switch back to the stage of 32%.

On the other side of the stack was a large engine about 8ft long. I resisted the temptation to explore further and continued to the stern. We had three minutes left before we had to return to the anchor. The stern offered several points to explore further. One screw was buried in the sand with only one blade exposed. The other was out in the open. I untied the reel and we started swimming back to the anchor. Charlie and I started our ascent 2 minutes ahead of schedule.

While the plan was for a 3/3, I extended the 30 and 20 ft stops since this was 110ft profile for almost a full bottom time on a repetitive dive.

–Matt