mempilot
May 26th, 2005, 10:55 AM
The plan for Friday April 29th was to dive the Caicos Express. What happened was a 230' blue water dive. What happened? I'll explain.
The conditions topside were excellent yesterday for diving. The Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Pompano, FL was fairly smooth with almost no surface current. The sun was shining, and the mood was good.
The divers:
Eric, 18/45, ean50, O2
Jeff, 17/45, ean50, O2
Julia, 17/45, ean50, O2
Laird, cancelled
The boat:
The Avid Diver operated by Capt. Oliver, chartered by Fill Express
The wreck:
The Caicos Express, built in 1956, is a 188 foot diesel freighter sunk November 12, 1985 off the coast of Pompano in 240 fsw. A recent dive team reported reaching 250 fsw on the dive. Before the sinking, the ship was used as a set for several episodes of Miami Vice. The wreck is situated north and south, and only being 35' wide, our north/south currents make her a tough hook up.
picture http://www.dixiedivers.com/shipwreck.htm#CAICOS (http://www.dixiedivers.com/shipwreck.htm#CAICOS)
The dive:
We showed at the dock at 1pm for a 2pm departure. The Avid Diver showed up about 1:30pm and we stowed our gear aboard this small dive vessel. She is setup to run as a sixpack for technical diving. The run to the Hillsboro inlet took about 15 minutes, and then 10 minutes later we were over the wreck which was painting nicely on the scope.
Rather than snag the wreck with a grapple (mistake), we decided to free descend with the grapple as a group and tie-off. With minimal surface current and a planned descent at 100fpm and the top of the wheelhouse being at 190fsw, we figured we'd see the Caicos on the way through 150' or so (mistake).
We dropped in, submerged, inverted and kicked for the bottom. I lagged back about 30' or so to spot and watch the bubbles for shifts in the current. Guess what? The current down below was pushing us east and into deeper water. To boot, the visibility sucked and we couldn't see more than 40 feet or so. Try to find 35' wide wreck in 40' of visibility descending through 200' while being blown out into deep water. Not going to happen. We missed the Caicos, stopped our descent at 230', and started back up. Shining my HID straight down from 230 didn't paint the bottom?? We were east and deep. Damnit!
We were 5 minutes into the dive and ascending looking at our 'missed drop' plans. 24 minutes later, we were out of the water and on the boat. We accomplished a 29 minute bluewater decompression dive. Shit! That was expensive.
The captain told us that a group of divers had recently seen a group of hammerheads on this wreck, and that it also is frequented by several bulls. I was very dissappointed to say the least.
We're going to shoot for it again in the next couple of weeks. I think we'll try to snag the wreck this time! http://scubatalk.org/board/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif
The conditions topside were excellent yesterday for diving. The Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Pompano, FL was fairly smooth with almost no surface current. The sun was shining, and the mood was good.
The divers:
Eric, 18/45, ean50, O2
Jeff, 17/45, ean50, O2
Julia, 17/45, ean50, O2
Laird, cancelled
The boat:
The Avid Diver operated by Capt. Oliver, chartered by Fill Express
The wreck:
The Caicos Express, built in 1956, is a 188 foot diesel freighter sunk November 12, 1985 off the coast of Pompano in 240 fsw. A recent dive team reported reaching 250 fsw on the dive. Before the sinking, the ship was used as a set for several episodes of Miami Vice. The wreck is situated north and south, and only being 35' wide, our north/south currents make her a tough hook up.
picture http://www.dixiedivers.com/shipwreck.htm#CAICOS (http://www.dixiedivers.com/shipwreck.htm#CAICOS)
The dive:
We showed at the dock at 1pm for a 2pm departure. The Avid Diver showed up about 1:30pm and we stowed our gear aboard this small dive vessel. She is setup to run as a sixpack for technical diving. The run to the Hillsboro inlet took about 15 minutes, and then 10 minutes later we were over the wreck which was painting nicely on the scope.
Rather than snag the wreck with a grapple (mistake), we decided to free descend with the grapple as a group and tie-off. With minimal surface current and a planned descent at 100fpm and the top of the wheelhouse being at 190fsw, we figured we'd see the Caicos on the way through 150' or so (mistake).
We dropped in, submerged, inverted and kicked for the bottom. I lagged back about 30' or so to spot and watch the bubbles for shifts in the current. Guess what? The current down below was pushing us east and into deeper water. To boot, the visibility sucked and we couldn't see more than 40 feet or so. Try to find 35' wide wreck in 40' of visibility descending through 200' while being blown out into deep water. Not going to happen. We missed the Caicos, stopped our descent at 230', and started back up. Shining my HID straight down from 230 didn't paint the bottom?? We were east and deep. Damnit!
We were 5 minutes into the dive and ascending looking at our 'missed drop' plans. 24 minutes later, we were out of the water and on the boat. We accomplished a 29 minute bluewater decompression dive. Shit! That was expensive.
The captain told us that a group of divers had recently seen a group of hammerheads on this wreck, and that it also is frequented by several bulls. I was very dissappointed to say the least.
We're going to shoot for it again in the next couple of weeks. I think we'll try to snag the wreck this time! http://scubatalk.org/board/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif