USS Oriskany

As you all know, I'm an avid scuba diver. The weekend of 27-29 July, myself and a group from work went to Pensacola, FL to dive, what is known right now, as the Recreation Dive Site of the World, the USS Oriskany. It is an aircraft carrier that was sunk 24 miles off the cost of Pensacola back in June, 2006 as part of an artificial reef program. It's in 212 feet of water, with the control tower being as high as 68 feet and the flight deck is at 137 feet. Below is my write up I put on my Scuba Forums.. The detailed write up is on my website linked from the "Trips" page.

Report from the Oriskany, 28 Jul 07.
Booked the Charter through MBT Divers in Pensacola. We were charted on the “Tech Rec” with Capt Chris Wachtel and deck mate, his very attractive, yet under-aged, daughter, Erin. They were most excellent hosts and provided a great day on the water. The charter had my group of 4 and two other divers from NC and PA. The 6 of us enjoyed a looong 2 hour ride out to the “Mighty O.” The Tech Rec isn’t the fastest boat to charter to the “O”, but it was the slowest either. In it's favor, it does had a head and cushioned bunks below for those that wanted to nap.
We got above the “O” and Erin tied us off to a buoy. We first splashed at 1100 local with 27% NITROX. We went straight to the Flight Deck. The down line was tied off on the ship at 111 feet, so by the time we got to the end of the line, we could see the flight deck. We jumped down, took a reading showing 137 feet as we stood on the flight deck, and then took a few pictures. With our profile, we only had 9 minutes of bottom time at 137 fsw, so right after pics, we started to spiral our way up and around the island. Vis was only about 60 feet on this dive. Capt Chris said it was the worst vis he had seen in a few weeks. (Lucky us).. We worked our way up and ended the dive 1152 local. Saw a bunch of amberjack, bleemies, triggerfish, and a good number of barracuda.
1.5 hours surface interval and we splashed again. This time we were running 30% and kept our max depth above 100 feet. This dive concentrated on the swim-thrus all along the island. We entered the bridge and took a couple pictures and then hit just about every door we could find working our way up. There was one that allowed you to go up a stairwell and another that took you from one side of the island and out the other. It was an awesome time going into the wreck with no chance of getting trapped or lost. From every open door in the island you can see another door way or opening to the outside. They planned this wreck well for Recreational Divers. Vis, unfortunately, dropped to about 40 feet near the end of this dive. We were all getting low on air, so we called it and ascended to our safety stop. For the most part, uneventful and very cool dive. We had a couple “operator error” minor SNAFU’s, but nothing that caused any harm or danger to anyone in our group. After the diving, there was a loooong 2 hour ride back to the Marina. But, we had a blast on the trip.!!! All in all, a VERY exciting day.
In case anyone is interested, we also ate at two really good joints: The Fish House and Trigger’s Seafood. Both highly recommended. The Fish House is a bit more upscale that we’re used too, but Trigger’s is a down-home “Mom and Pop” type joint that is some good eatin’!!! To finish up the story, we stopped by Morrison Spring and did a dive to rinse the gear on our back to GA. 3 of the 4 of us had never been and the other had been over 4 years ago. Nice dive, but it got crowded near the end. We were running 32% there and got an hour, 27 minutes on that one dive out of an AL80. Afterwards, we loaded up the gear and headed back to GA.. I was back home in enough time to tuck my 13 month old into bed that evening.

All in all, it was an AWESOME trip!!! Thanks to Dive Buddy Dee, Mark M2 and Bill F+10 for going with me. Good dives, good times and good Buds!!! Thanks to all!!!

The pictures are: (top) Me on the Flight Deck of the Oriskany 137 feet down taknen by Mark M2. (Yes, I know my head looks like a glow stick) :) And (bottom) the flags draped off the side of the "Mighty O" in honor of those that served on her. Isn't that just a cool picture?

**D**

CONGRATS!!!

A hearty Congratulations goes out to Dive Buddy Dee. She earned her PADI Advanced Open Water certification AND her Enriched Air/NITROX certifications this past weekend. She also made her first ocean and night dives of her diving career for these certifications. Below is her quick write up of her events:

All I can say for my first dive in the ocean--Oh Wow! We dove Friday and Saturday. Friday, the weather was beautiful and the water was calm. Perfect for my first dive. We did two dives that day and went back that night for two night dives. During the day, we got to see a shark hiding under the reef, a sting ray, puffer fish, lobsters, big blue fish that I can even name and soooo many others. It was just beautiful. Then we went back for a twilight dive. The weather was rough with thunder and lightning all around us and huge waves (to me) as we jumped in. As we descended, you could see the lightning from above and hear the thunder. That was the coolest thing ever. The reef was very active at this time of the day. The current wasn't too bad either so we just floated gently along the wall looking for critters. We saw two wrecks on this dive. We came up just before dark and did another dive after dark. Spooky but fun. We were at the wall of the reef and that's when it happened...we were attacked...by a turtle! Yes, this peaceful animal came gracefully gliding toward us out of the dark and I thought, "How cool!" But then it kept coming right at me and I had to get out of the way. Tim, Dick and I were right there together and this turtle kept doing figure-eights around us causing us to keep dodging it until it finally rammed Tim and then left. It was quite an experience! Mark, who was hanging out just above all of this commotion, later said that it was quite amusing. The next day we did two more dives. The first was my deep dive for AOW so we went down to 97'. The water was so clear at this location that you could see the bottom almost as soon as you got in. This was also a drift dive but I think it was more like a fly-by as I swear we were going 30mph. (I later asked Tim how fast we were going and he said about 2mph.) Anyway, it felt like we were flying! It was the most beautiful dive of the trip with the water that clear as we sailed over the reef. We saw a couple more turtles on this day but they were all sleeping. Anyway, wow! Thank you Tim and Diversity Diving with Capt. Tony and DM Sherry for a great trip! I hope to do it again soon. Dee

Congrats Dive Buddy Dee!!!!

You done good. :)

This weekend...

Good Luck to Dive Buddy Dee this weekend. She is headed down to Boca Rotan, FL to get her PADI Advanced Open Water certification and her Enriched Air/NITROX certification. When I get her trip report, I'll write about it here.