Dive 1: Jupiter Star (aka Cleve Jones Junior)

Something about the numbers we use to set up the hot drop always leaves the Jupiter Star to the East. I saw the shadow and followed the fish to her. We went over the side into the cargo hold to find 68-degree water. My .5 mil suit wasn’t much protection. Fortunately my thumb was too cold to go up. After about 3 minutes, I went numb all over and didn’t feel it.

There was a lack of fish on the wreck, only two Jacks checking us out? We swam for the stern. Our goal was to find an easier way to the engine room besides using the exhaust stack. We entered an opening at base of the wreck on the port side. I was going to run the reel, when Jody told me not to. We ascended with no other options accept to exit at the top on the starboard side.

So we swam around to the stack and I tied off the reel again. This time I lead down the shaft and noticed there is another entrance from the stern to the engine room. At the end of the shoot, there is a vertical restriction that required me to pick up my deco bottle and get nice and flat to swim through.

Once inside it was huge. There were large electrical panels, the engine, and gauges everywhere. As I looked around I noticed I was the only light inside there. I looked back to see Jody was having problem negotiating the narrow section. I swam back over and Jody decided to turn around. Poor Gamba didn’t get to see anything except rusty percolation and stirred up silt.

We exited and it took me longer than usual to the get the untied. My numb fingers in gloves made it more of a challenge. From there we swam around to the stern. There large screw was still in place and the rudder was hard to starboard. I peaked my head over the top of the rudder and got the full force of the current in my face. We gave the thumb and began to drift off the wreck.

Dive 2: Army Tanks

Jody and I were going with a scooter dive. I placed my scooter on the tag line. Charlie, Andrea, and Anna aborted their dive and came back to the boat. I clipped in and found the scooter was just keeping me ahead of the current. Jody back rolled and drifted by. I kept looking for him to come back. I found out later he still had the trigger pinned and blades set to zero. I drifted to the end of the line preparing to offer assistance, when he finally caught up. The surface current was about 1.5 knots at the surface.

It was about 1 knot on the bottom. It was so nice not having to swim. We hit the army tanks, the barge, the wreck and the culverts in the area. It was a pain scootering into the current, but we flew with it.

–Matt