Conditions

Winds: South East 5-10 knots

Seas: 2-4 ft, subsiding

Air Temp: 79

Water Temp: 78

Current: Slight North

Visibility: 40ft

Jody was ready for the maiden dive of the new cave cut TLS 350 in DIR Black. We anchored on the boulder pile outside of Government cut. While gearing up, a large 100ft plus bright red Towboat US vessel approached us slowly. I left the radio on and after 10 minutes they hailed us to ask if we would mind moving? They were part of an acoustical test and needed to anchor near us. We pulled anchor and headed 3.5 miles North to the Patricia, a site I had yet to dive.

Dive 1: Patricia and Miss Karline

8:52 PM

S: Matt and Charlie

A: 32%

D: 60’ plan 57’ max

D: 60” plan, 47” run time

D: around the site

D: 40/1 30/1 20/3 10/2

PSI: 3100/500

Jody with his new suit and Robert carrying all three bottles decided to dive together and take advantage of the light that was left. Charlie and I were geared up when they surfaced and we found out there was a slight North current, 100ft swim from the anchor to the Patricia and then another 75ft swim to the Miss Karline following the rebar trail. There was also some antenna towers and boulder piles in the area, but Jody almost got lost on the return trip due to the decreasing visibility.

These were new sites I wanted to check out so Charlie and I went for a fun dive. Patricia is a 65ft steel tug sunk in June 1990. There was easy penetration in the lower hold and you could swim through the bottom of the wreck. There was a hole to get to the bow section, but it was a tight squeeze in dubs so we skipped it. The boat hosted several bright red starfish, I think they were referred to as a “Crown of Thorns” but I couldn’t find it in the Reef Creature Book.

At the stern on the deck a puff silt kicked up. A huge Grasby lying still near the rail jumped up to catch a High Hat Drum in its mouth. The grouper swam away from us with his prey, but we followed to watch. The grouper had the Drum perpendicular in its mouth and was trying to keep a tight grip on the fish so it couldn’t open its gills. The High Hat wasn’t going down without a fight!

It was wiggling and working its way out. In an instant, the High Hat escaped and bolted off to the other corner of the deck. The Grasby was not happy, his dinner escaped. The High Hat had scratches and teeth marks on its side, but it should be fine. This is the third time I’ve seen a bigger fish try to eat a smaller one. Catching nature’s cycles in action is one of the many thrills in diving for me.

We swam back up to the bow and found the rebar leading to the Miss Karline, an 85ft fishing vessel sunk in June of 1989. The greenish murky water added to the mystery as we traversed the 100ft to the second wreck. Miss Karline was torn up like a crumpled soda can. She was listing to port, with sections that looked like there were ripped open. The bow and the stern are intact, while the middle is heavily sanded in. We found one area of penetration, but there were a lot of ropes and entanglements so we skipped that one as well.

There was rebar off the Miss Karline leading to the Antenna reef, but we skipped that and headed back to the anchored boat. We did another lap around the Patricia and went down in the hold. In the dive briefing, Charlie said he wanted to practice switching to his back up mask. He asked me to “ask” for his mask and then remove it during the dive. In the hold, I noticed Charlie’s back up light was on. I gestured the problem and right when his light was off, I gently took off his mask. He changed it out with ease and we exited to the overhead area with very little silting. I was impressed.

Back on the deck, Charlie asked for my mask and I refused. My back up mask is nasty and it would take a real emergency before I would put it on. I turned my back and I was flashed again, this time Charlie was out of air. Cool, air sharing! We were finished with the wreck and I wanted to drain this tank to fill with 21/35 for the weekend. So I picked up the spool and wound it back up the anchor while sharing gas.

Winding up spools sucks when the line is horizontal. A lift bag is no problem, but I was loosing the bearing on the anchor, as the current was pushing us in a different direction. We got back to the anchor, secured the spool and started up. We completed the minimum deco and swam to the back of the boat without a problem.

Once our gear was secured, Robert headed back to Government cut. On the way, we noticed a small boat turn on its lights and make way towards us, it turned into our boat wake and Jody mentioned that he always get stopped with a new boat on night dives. At that moment the blue lights came on and we throttled back. An orange Coast Guard Rib pulled up and said they wanted to board and check our license and registration. We were cool, the officer checked the paperwork, lifejackets, and made sure we had a dive flag. Then he left and we were free to go. It was an easy stop that was over in 10 minutes. Glad to know those guys are out there doing their job.

–Matt