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It's starting to look a lot like summer...
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Michael Barnette
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Mar 10, 2003 08:00 PST
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After the miserable winter weather, it was nice to see that things are
taking a turn for the better. Last weekend we had great conditions on the
LOWRANCE and HYDRO ATLANTIC, with water temperatures around 73 degrees. We
had even better conditions this past weekend, with surface temperatures at
77-78 degrees.
On Saturday afternoon Lesley, Joe, and I dived the TRACOR DRYDOCK, an
artificial reef site just outside of Port Everglades in 220fsw. The upper
half of the water column was fairly hazy, but on the bottom we had perhaps
100 feet or more of visibility. There is a lot of material on this site:
aside from the large drydock, there are several barges (one leaning on the
side of the drydock!) around the perimeter, as well as other miscellaneous
debris just to the north. We dropped down on the north corner of the wreck
to see what looked to be a new anchor rig lying beneath us in the wreck. It
was a very nice stainless grapnel and chain, and some very new, high-quality
anchor line. The line had been cut, but there was still about 250 feet of
line to coil up. I bet whoever lost it must have been fairly upset. After
easily getting it all together, we shot it on a bag to the surface as a
present to our captain. We spent the rest of the dive scootering around the
drydock and enjoying the scenery. However, due to the heavy fishing
pressure on this wreck, there was nary a fish to be seen. Decompression was
uneventful, with the exception of Joe "Alka Seltzer" Citelli's antics. It
seems the HP hose on his 70 bottle was being a little finicky; it would spew
out a massive cloud of bubbles when turned on. Once we realized the
situation was not serious, I just lost it. Joe was doing a wonderful job at
timing the on/off - breathing, but every time he did, he would disappear in
this cloud of tiny bubbles. Upon reappearing, his entire upper torso was
covered in all these little bubbles. I just couldn't stop laughing, which
caused Joe to lose it and totally mess up his rhythm. Our support diver
soon arrived though and swapped out his bottle, so we could continue the
rest of deco in relative peace.
Yesterday, we checked out a new unidentified wreck off Key Largo for some
friends. Known as the DIRTBAG WRECK, it sits in 260fsw and has a very low
profile. There was a bit of fast swell out there, which complicated the
location of the wreck on the fishfinder. However, we had confirmed the
numbers last year so we knew there was something down there. Joe and I
geared up and once the boat was positioned we hit the water and started our
scooters straight for the sand. Within a minute we had leveled off just
above the bottom and starting looking for the wreck. We ended up with a
great drop and found ourselves maybe 50 feet off the portside of the wreck.
We again had phenomenal conditions on the bottom, which had a very slight
current and well over 100 feet of visibility. I had the camera off and
shooting the stern within two minutes of leaving the surface -- it was going
to be a good day.
The wreck had a very narrow beam and was laying exactly north-south, typical
of the wrecks that are dropped where the Florida Current influence spins
their ass around. It looked to be a former yacht, perhaps 200 feet long.
However, the superstructure had been razed, and it was obvious it served as
a barge before being sunk (most likely as a private artificial reef). The
bow appears to have hit bottom first, as it has been pushed back and up due
to the collision. Aside from the common AJs that would follow us around, I
noted quite a few small queen snapper, a very pretty species of deepwater
fish. After fully documenting the wreck, we decided to bug out and ascended
for the surface, with Lesley meeting us midwater to ferry the camera and
tape measures to the surface. After a couple of hours drifting north, we
tried to jump the OCEAN FREEZE, but the drop was a bit off and the bottom
conditions were not as nice as earlier, so we just bugged out after a few
minutes of seeing nothing but sand.
Already looking forward to next weekend!
Michael C. Barnette
Association of Underwater Explorers
Because it's there...somewhere...maybe.
http://www.mikey.net/aue
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