Saturday, 28 July 2007: We were up around 0545 getting ready and sorting out our gear.  We met the others downstairs around 0700 and headed to MBT. We picked up our tanks and after having some doubts the tank guy would fill us correctly, since he took no notes or even asked us our names, we were pleasantly surprised when all 8 were filled exactly how we requested.  After analyzing out fills, we headed out to the marina where we were to meet our charter for the day.

0745: We get the area, but have no idea where the boat is, so I decide to get out and walk down to find it. As I get out, this very attractive young lady walks up and asks if I was looking for someone. I said I was looking for the "Tech Rec" and she says, "That's us. I'll help you with your tanks."  So we unloaded and took all our gear down to the boat.  Our Captain was Chris Wachtel and the very attractive young lady was his daughter, Erin.  They would be our hosts for the day.  After all the gear was stowed Capt Chris gave us our briefing and we met the other two people on the boat for the day.  This was definitely no "cattle car" operation.  6 customers, 2 crew and a big enough boat where there was plenty of room to move around.  Now, the trip out there was as smooth as glass. Good thing too, because it took us 2 1/2 hours to get out there.  We left the marina at 0800.  We were on site at 1130.  There were 5 or 6 other boats anchored out over the "O" also.  The next 30 minutes were spent gearing up, getting anchored in and getting our briefings.  We were briefed that the vis would be pretty good and to dive our plan.  The flight deck was at 137 feet and although he said he couldn't make us, Capt Chris begged us to not go below the flight deck.  No worries. We had no intention of doing that.  But, to the flight deck? You betcha!!!

1200: We splashed for the first time to dive the "Mighty O!!!"  This was going to be cool.  We followed to down line all the way to where it was tied to the ship.  Visibility was only about 60 feet, we were down pretty far before we even got our first glimpse at the ship.  And, because viz wasn't that great, we didn't get that awe-inspiring "Holy Cow this thing is HUGE" scene as we descended.  But, as the ship came into view, we were still amazed at the size of what we were seeing.  We we touched the ship for the first time, I noticed we were already at 111 feet.  So, I looked over to my right and there was the flight deck only 25 feet or so below us. I pointed at the deck to the other 5 (Erin was with us on part of this dive) and we all went down to it.  We landed on the flight deck and started snapping pictures.  We were breathing EAN28 and it gave us 9 minutes of bottom time at 140 feet, so we needed to get down, get our pics and bounce back up above 105 feet to enjoy the rest of our dive. We did exactly that.  Then we started up by circling around the island.  We stayed out side of the island and just looked at everything we could take in as we slowly circled and ascended.  There are a couple of flags that are hanging off the Starboard side of the island. A huge American flag and a smaller POW/MIA flag below that.  They are weighted and flow with the current. They look they are waving in the wind. It is an awesome site to turn a corner and see those two flags "flying" there.  There isn't a huge amount of marine life or marine growth on the ship yet.  We saw amberjack, crabs, spider-shrimp, and a small octopus that was curled up in a corner inside a doorway.  There were also a good number of barracuda in the area. That was cool because I had never seen a 'cuda before.  Next thing we know, our dive time is up and we have to surface. We were down a total of 52 minutes with a max depth of 137 feet. Air temp was 92, surface temp was 84 and at depth was 76.  No major mishaps. I was slightly overweight due to breathing a monster 119 cf high pressure tank that we nicknamed, "The Beast" so I had to work a bit more than normal to maintain good bouyancy.  I also set a setting in my computer wrong and it put me in deco mode.  (I told it I was diving a "below 1.4 PPO" profile, when I knew I was diving a 1.47 PPO. My mistake) I did what it told me too so it was all good.

1430: After an hour and a half surface interval, we splash for our second dive.  This dive was going to concentrate on the swim-thrus around the island.  We went in the Bridge and took some pictures and hit just about everything swim-thru we could find on the island.  It was planned out very well for Rec divers. If you enter a door on the island, you can immediately see another opening to the outside.  There are even a few that allow you to swim from one side to the other or from one end to the other.  Very cool swimming up a flight of stairs.  At one point, I went from one side of the island to the other and Bill followed me through it.  As he came out the other side, a barracuda dove straight down and missed his head by, I swear, no more than about 3 feet.  I wasn't sure what was going to happen there, but he went right past Bill and cause no harm, no foul. Viz had dropped on this dive to about 40 feet, so when it was time to surface, I couldn't find our ascent line.  Dee was hanging on a line, but I knew it wasn't ours.  So, after looking around, Bill pointed in a direction he said the line was located. I took his word for it and went that way.  Lo and behold, out of the darkness, out line with the orange streamer at the bottom came into view.  We all grabbed it and headed to the surface. We did our safety stop and boarded the boat for the last time.  This dive was done with EAN30. We had 47 minutes bottom time and a max depth of 101 feet. Temps were the same.  The waves had kicked up and it was bit rougher on the seas getting in the boat and for ride back home.  Nothing too bad, but the weather looked bad enough where we decided not to try and do a night dive that night.  We were back in the Marina around 1730.  We thanks Capt Chris and Erin for an awesome time and gave Erin her well deserved tips for the day.  We loaded back up and headed to MBT to drop off our tanks for refilling for our trip to Morrison the next day.

2000: After dropping off the tanks, showering and rising off the gear, we met to eat. We asked Capt Chris where to go and he said he wanted us to go to this one place called "Trigger's Seafood" but he couldn't  even begin to tell us how to get there. So, we decided to test Tom-Tom.  We put in the city, told it we wanted a restaurant and it started showing all of them in the area.  And, yes, Trigger's was on there. We followed the directions it gave us and besides being about 100 yards off, we found it with no problems.  And, Trigger's was well worth the trip out there. Awesome Mom and Pop seafood joint!!!  Got back to the hotel around 2145 and crashed.

Next Day

Back to Trips Page