West Palm Beach February 24, 2013

Morning dive trip -

We were all excited for this mornings dives.  There was a total of 16 divers from Discover Diving Dive Center on board for this trip.  Most of us were on Nitrox and a few divers had not done their certification yet so they were on air.  As you may know, diving with air, your bottom time is much less than diving with Nitrox (Tanks with a higher percentage of oxygen in it).  Those divers with air tanks had a bottom time of 30 minutes, while Nitrox divers had a limit of 45 minutes.

Our first dive was on "The Danny".  Named for a 16 year old Danny McCauley who was in a tragic automobile accident. This artificial reef was sunk two days prior to our dives on February 22, 2013.    This 110 foot World War II vintage tugboat, formerly called the Pocahontas, was deployed perfectly upright with the bow facing south. Being a relatively small vessel at a moderate depth with plenty of open areas to explore this promises to be an excellent dive for openwater divers.  We dropped down and with the northern current pushing us, we landed right on the wreck.  The tugboat sits in 74 feet of seawater with the deck in the 50 foot range.  Large holes throughout the wreck make this a perfect wreck for getting all of the required dives done for your wreck certification.  It hadn't been down long enough to do a penatration dive for our wreck certification divers this time so we will have to come back another day.  Oh Darn, we will have to make another dive trip down to West Palm Beach.  LOL  Once we got around the tug a few times, it was time to drift onto our next wreck site, "The Spud Barge".  All of our air divers had used up their aloted time of 30 minutes at this point so they were on their way back to the boat.  Those of us who still had enough air to get to this point got to see the two groupers that lived on this wreck.  We even got some video of these two beautiful creatures.  By this time it has been just about the full 45 minutes and most divers have used up their air or reached the 45 minute limits and we all made our ascents to the boat.

Our second dive was "North Double Ledges".  This dive is always a great one with two ledges to follow along the bottom.  Once again we filed off the charter in two sets.  Because this was a drift dive and the current pushes you with the direction of the ledges, it allows for a nice relaxed dive, while seeing all that the ocean has to offer.  Not everyone gets to see what the other does.  There were sightings of a shark, many Lionfish, a Scorpion Fish and a Moray Eel, just to name a few.   These dives are always fun because most of the time, the two groups catch up to one another and divers that don't always get to dive together, end up together.

Hope to see you on our next trip down south.

Happy Diving!

Diving in 2013

Wow!  Last year has just flown by and I can hardly believe it's 2013.  Hope everyone had a great year of diving.

Ryan went down to West Palm yesterday for some diving and had an awesome time.  After the holidays, everyone was looking for a good dive.  He saw the usual array of marine life but was happy to be back in the water. 

As you know, winter is a time of year that diving in general gets a bit slower for us.  The shop crawls along, just waiting for spring.  We get the annual visitors who want to get into the water, no matter what the weather but for the most part, everyone else is waiting for spring too.  Some of us do research on what the upcoming year's dive gear will look like.  What are the new colors this year?  (Well, maybe that's just me)  What technical advances have they done to the dive computers?  What innovative new ideas have they put into the BCD?  What's different about the mask  that might help me clearing it easier?  (I hated that part of my Open Water training!)  We can try and answer any of these questions for you and if we haven't heard of whatever it is you heard, we will try and find out.

We love telling stories in class and even posting them on facebook.  If you have a dive story that might make someone feel better about their dives, tell us and we might feature you in one of our blogs.  Some of you are featured in our conversations with our new classes and don't even know it.  We never give out names so you don't have to be embarrassed.  Now, if you drop into the shop while we are teaching a class, you might hear your story being told and if you want to add in any extra information, go ahead because your story might help another diver conquer any fears they might have about getting certified.  If you could do it, so can they.

I would love to sit and bable on and on but you would probably get bored so I will sign off for now and promise to keep up with this blogging thing.  Maybe even show some pictures or videos of The Exciting Tales of the Deep, via Ryan's pictures.  Be sure to check in frequently, I will try and post up some funny stories as they come in.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Diving!

North Carolina Diving May 2012

It was my first time diving in the waters off North Carolina and sounded like great place to dive.  I couldn't wait to get there and see what the sea had to offer.  We drove up on a Friday and arrived late.  Excited about the next couple of days ahead, we all had restless nights of sleep.  6:00 am came early but we were all ready to dive, dive, dive!


Our dive charter, Diver Down Scuba Divers in Morehead City, N.C., were a great bunch.  We were with a group of other divers that came down from Virginia.  All just as excited as we were to get to see some of the famous dive sites outside of North Carolina.

Our fist dive was to the U-352:


A German Submarine (VII-C Class) 218 feet long was sunk April 9, 1942 by the United States Coast Guard Cutter "ICARUS". This vessel is possibly the most intact and unique wreck in this area. This is the signature dive in the Morehead City area. The maximum depth of the dive is 110 feet.


Our second dive of the day was to the Spar:

The Coast Guard Cutter Spar was sunk as a diver friendly wreck just yards from the Aeolus. Known as a popular spot for Sand Tiger Sharks, the 180ft long and 37ft wide Spar sits upright in 100ft of water and is completely intact, allowing many opportunities for a diver to penetrate the wreck.

After a great fist day of diving, we got back to Fisherman's Inn and cleaned up before going to dinner.  We talked about what everyone had seen that day and how much fun we all had.  The video above is from our first dive on the U-352.  We were having some technical difficulties with the other video camera so we only had time to splice together a short clip of the first dive.  As soon as I have enough time to take a breath, I am going to get together another video clip of The Spar. 

The next morning we were on our way to do two more dive sites.  It's always great to be able to travel to another state and dive what the city has to offer.  You could never get tired of diving wrecks off our coastal waters.  The biggest thrill is knowing that most of the sites you dive in North Carolina have been sunk naturally, the way it was 30, 40, 50 years ago.  The water preserves these treasures for us to see but won't be there forever. 

Our first dive of the day was to The Papoose:

An American Tanker 412 ft. in length was torpedoed & sunk on march 3, 1942 by the German Submarine U-124 Vessel is intact & upside down with the hull rising approx. 30 ft. off the bottom. This wreck is a breeding ground for Atlantic Sand Tiger Sharks and lion fish. Depth of dive is approx. 125 ft.

Our second dive of the day was to The Schurz:

A WW1 German Cruiser 225 ft. in length was captured & repatriated by the U.S. at the outbreak off the war On June 21, 1918 it sunk after colliding with the S.S. FLORIDA. Time has taken a heavy toll on this vessel. The deck cannons, boilers,& engines are the remaining structures visible making this an excellent dive. Many artifacts are still being recovered. This one of the prettiest dives South of Cape Lookout !! Look for sharks, turtles, rays, and eels. Depth of dive is approx. 110 ft.

Tons of life on all these wrecks.  Excellent videos to come. 

If you ever have a chance to get to Morehead City, N.C., be sure to book your charter with Diver Down Scuba Click Here for more information.  To everyone there, thank you, we had a great couple of days with you.

That's it for now.  Happy Diving!!!