Anybody dove the Oriskany?

Okidiver

Yup, twice (4 total dives). Boring trip reports (that I sent to my dive buddies) with links to horrid pics attached. I think I mentioned in there the best way to dive this thing is with RBs and scooters (it's fairly large after all...)
Thus my newfound interest in rebreathers...
Cool site, BTW, I'm enjoying the reading here.
Rick

0315 rise time in order to make 0600 roll call at The Scuba Shack in Pensacola. Took about 50 minutes to drive there, doing the speed limit. Checked in and paid. Boat (the Wet Dream) was right out back of the shop, huge dock access. Big wheel barrow cart thing--the shop had a couple--made hauling gear from car to dock total cake. Set my 120 air tank up, stashed my 120 Nitrox tank and watched the masses arrive. Pretty good crowd, I'm guessing 20-25 divers? Plus one deck hand (anchor/tank slave--probably a poor dive master candidate...), a couple "dive assistants" I think is what they called their DMs, and a videographer. VERY nice setup on the boat, big covered deck space, tables, benches and TWO heads, one for each sex. Dive deck had two double-backed benches, rear dive deck, two rear ladders, and two side exits (one right near my tank, uh huh...) Captain gave a quick, humorous dive brief--of note was no wreck penetration, just do the "swim throughs" if you want to. That's wreck penetration to me, but no worries, not on my agenda today. Departed at 0700 SHARP, sunny skies, calm winds and flatness pervading.

25 minutes later, dolphin sighted! A pod of 6-7 were riding in the boat's formidable wake. A couple really big ones leaping like 5 feet from the boat. Cool. Plus a couple little ones.

2 1/2 hour boat ride out to the site, no land in sight. This was one of those, "make sure you're on the boat before it heads back" routines. Compass recommended, for a couple reasons. Got to the site and one small boat there, a doc and his partner. That was the only boat out there all day. Awesome, had the damn aircraft carrier all to ourselves! I guess on previous days there've been other boats out there tied up, so the Wet Dream had a sign with an arrow pointing up their down line. Novel idea, not commonly seen around here. Didn't work for the two dummies who, a day earlier, drifted off the wreck and got picked up by another boat...there's dweebs in every crowd, I guess.

First in the water and greeted by green chunkiness. Huh? I figgered this'd be top to bottom vis? At about 20 feet, vis cleared, the wreck was in sight, and I was freefalling like a stone. I had tables for planned deco, traveling 22 minutes to 130 feet, before ascending for stops. Fortunately, I didn't put both computers in gauge mode... Wow, this thing's huge, I thought. So, I'm descending, trying to take pictures (most crappy, as usual...), watching my gauges, and seeing if the current kicks in. Must have really been sucking air, as my SAC was .56 SCFM at the end of the dive, pretty sure an all-time high (downloaded by my Cobra dive computer). Oh well, it was a goll durn aircraft carrier, fercryinoutloud! Hit the deck at 138 and took several pictures of my computer for posterity...one turned out good--did I mention I suck at taking pictures? Oh, 138 feet, tables now busted and worthless, so had to dive the computers--so much for diving my plan (I still did the stops on my slate on the way up, though). Gesh--shudda ran tables for 140'. Water temp at depth really wasn't that bad--79 at depth, and 81 up top (little did I know...) Current was barely blowing, and it was coming right down the flight deck, perfect for flight ops! Slowly made my way up the bridge, noticing other divers appearing from above, taking crappy pictures until, fortunately, my camera batteries died. Good, clip off the camera and enjoy the dive! Could not see to the end of the flight deck on the bow, and vis was pretty good. What was startling was how wide that damn thing was--could not even see off the other edge. Swam around the outer bridge and, man, was it a long way down to the bottom of the ship--yowsie! Might have to plan a bounce dive down to the sand sometime...or maybe not The relief on this thing was awesome--just as good as a wall dive. A huge school of bait fish was swirling around the bridge and a couple med/lg 'cuda hanging out, but that was it for the big fish. Kinda surprised, I figgered there'd be a lot more, but I guess after winter (when the big fish come in) this place'll be rockin' Then it'll start collecting nets... Cobra hit deco 11 minutes into the dive at 112 feet. Slowly cruised around the bridge and made my way up, never incurring more than 4 minutes of mandatory decompression, making my planned stops at 60/50/40/30/20 & 10 feet. Wow, awesome. Dive # 1138, 138' max, 66' avg, 48 minutes, 990 left in tank.

After a nice 1:43 surface interval, during which we--well most of us anyway--took turns churning ice cream--I was back rolling into the blue again. Greeted this time by waters that were a bit chillier--79 on top and 73 at depth! Weird how it changed like that, but that's the way the Gulf of Mexico is. Current and seas picked up a little bit too, but no big deal. Another really cool dive, didn't have to worry about dumb camera. Despite 31 Nitrox, ran out of bottom time fairly quickly, so made my way up sooner than I'd have preferred--didn't feel like doing a lot of mandatory deco on my second dive. Highlight was on the down line, when a couple of Remoras expressed a LOT of interest in me and especially the guy above me doing our safety stops. At about 15' they finally latched onto him--it was kinda cool watching how they would extend their head/back sucker plates when trying to latch on. Really cool. He probably enjoyed it also, as they insisted on clinging to the inside of his thighs... After we got back on the boat, we all moved up on the bow, so's when the last guy got back on the boat, he'd see nobody up there. It was his 100th dive and his daughter had bought him a big cookie to celebrate, which he cut up and shared with us. Pretty cool. Us old farts reminisced about when we did our 100th dives... Dive # 1139, 112', 67' avg, 46 minutes, .43 SAC rate, 1250 psi getting back on boat.

Well, I've earned the T-shirt, though I haven't bought one yet... Might have to contact the dive shop and see how much they charge for the video DVD. Also going next Saturday on a different boat, so more to come. I'd recommend this operation without hesitation--they DID do a roll call after the dives. They pretty much let folks do what they wanted, treating them like responsible adults. Fortunately, on this boat, we had a pretty good bunch of folks, so we didn't have any Stupid Diver Tricks to talk about (other than moi busting tables...) Good mix of nitrox and air tanks on board, their rental gear was quality stuff, but oddly I was the only person with 120s. My mix selection sucked--next time I do this dive I'll probably do 28 and 36 respectively, as there's lots to see from 65-90 some-odd feet for the second dive. Getting back on the boat with 1250 in my Nitrox tank was silly, but when it's time to get out, it's time to get out.

Here's where the suck-ass pictures are located:

http://adobe.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?...&x=0&y=-vv5ve8

Trip #2 out there:

Hooked up with Viking Diving, Capt Tim Thorsen, his daughter Megan was ship's mate. Left out of Chico Marina. Met Walt (from Slidell, LA) and Bill (from Montana), + a judge, a Navy guy who chatted endlessly, & a hottie who worked at the Gulfairium with the dolphins. Boat underway shortly after 8, kinda small, but well set up for diving. As 1 120 was in 4 hydro, had to rent an air tank 4 1st dive. Got out 2 site and Wet Dream was already there. Jumped in at 1037 and dropped straight down to 130 ft. Temp went from 82 to 72--shudda worn the hooded vest. Vis not as good as Monday. Cruised deep and went into deco @ 126 ft about 10 minutes into the dive (2296 psi in tank). Scoping out this huge wreck--cool. Slowly ascended and hung out around 67 ft then slowly made my way up for safety stops, coming out of deco @ 20 ft, 34 min into the dive. Dive # 1140, 131 max depth, 73 ft avg depth, SAC rate .38 SCFM, used 51 cu/ft of gas, 39 minutes, 1100 psi in tank on surface.

1:04 surface interval, I was the only one in the water headed down toward the wreck with my steel 120 on my back with a rich 36 EAN mix. Had hooded vest on, but didn't but the hood on (!) until I realized it during decent, so it was over mask strap, no worries... Once again, cooler on second dive, temp was 79 up top, dropping to 73 on the wreck (NOTE to self: bring 5 mil full w/hooded vest next time). Dropped down to 100 ft and cruised the bridge; current blowing more than first dive; hit deco @ 72 ft, 28 min into the dive. There were wussies diving the wreck in dry suits also--the Navy guy who talked a lot, turned early as his suit filled up with water. Decided this wreck either needs 2B penetrated properly or cruised with a scooter on 28 EAN. Max depth 99 ft, avg depth 62.4 ft for 52 minutes. My OLF% at the end of the dive was 72%, so I was an oxygen *****. Also noticed computer printout had one of my medium tissue groups at 103% at end of dive...hmmm...SAC .4, used 68.4 cu/ft (1890 psi) and ended with 1450 psi...gotta love them big tanks.

Sorry about the kinda boring dive report with no pictures, 4 dives now on the biggest artificial reef in the world and kinda getting ho hum about it...B-) If ya'll chip in and get me that rebreather & scooter I want for Christmas we can cruise down and scope out the screws at 200 ft+...(John's idea...) Drift diving down at Boynton Beach starting next Sunday with my newly certified snorkel-losing-has-hand-on-the-inflator-hose-way-too-much brother. Also going to meet Rob down there for a day of diving also--we'll see who's aged the most--let's see, I'm working at AFSOC HQ Mecca and he's been teaching gun-wielding monsters in Baltimore... Rick & Rob are also planning a trip over to Pensacola in July to dive the Oriskany--we'll B sure and take pictures...

Jason Blackwell

Get rid of those fish!

only joking! It will be a fantastic artifical reef in a few years time.

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Jason Blackwell
TDI Instructor Trainer #1358
Optima...Inspiration/Evolution...KISS...and what is next???
www.divedivedive.com.au
OZTeK '09 March 2009 Sydney, Australia www.diveoztek.com.au

webhead

Thanks for the report. Awesome. Looking forward to making my trip out there soon.

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"These are not the droids you are looking for.... move along" - Obi-Wan Kenobi

Benthic

Dove it today (the 4th). Dive was great! The locals are starting to move in, but so far the population is sparse.

We dove with Dave Mucci of Blue Water Adventures. The run time out to the site was about an hour and fifteen minutes. The seas were vey flat and we were the only ones there.

Dive Pros in Pensacola can handle your trimix and/or sorb needs. I would call them in advance and make sure that they are prepared for you. You can also book Mucci's boat through Dive Pros if you don't want to go to Dave directly. I know that MBT pumps mix--I don't know if they stock sorb or not.

Looks like Heather and I are going to be back out there on Saturday too. My thought is that, while it's an interesting dive now, it's going to be a GREAT dive in 6-12 months after all the fish 'move in.'

Brian

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webhead

Awesome news. Sounds like it might be worth just coming up to dive it without hauling the personal boat. Was thinking of flying in to a local airport to save time driving from the east coast.

How was the current and viz on your dive today? Has anybody been going in the hanger deck or down to the props?

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"These are not the droids you are looking for.... move along" - Obi-Wan Kenobi

sadave

Great report, thanks for taking the time to share it. I just had one question for ya...

Here in Oz, we have 4 (so far!) scuttled ex-Navy artificial reefs, but every one of them is a marine reserve. No fishing within a 1k radius. I gather from your "collecting nets" comment, that this isn't the case over there?

Whats the point of an artificial reef, if it isn't a no-take zone?

Thanks

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Okidiver

You were out there today? I was out with the Wet Dream (Scuba Shack). Did the Chevron Rig and the Brass Boat (?).

No chunky vis today -- vis very good up in the warm stuff and, oddly fell off once below the temperature gradient.

Rick

Okidiver

Good question. Haven't heard talk about making it a marine reserve. Spearfishing is pretty big here, and can't see operations pushing for no fishing regulations. It is quite a ways out, which'll keep the yahoos from snaggin' it. And trawlers gotta know it's there, so hopefully no nets also. Moot right now, though, as no fish on it yet

Had a nice conversation on board with a guy who's also researching rebreathers...

Rick

Benthic

Yep, we ran out there first thing in the morning on the 4th of July. The Y-Knot is a pretty fast boat (25kts or so) so we were there by 8:30 or so and then gone again before 10:30. With the nice flat seas we motored back and forth pretty quickly.

Sounds like your vis was similar to ours. You could see the top of the island from the surface and then things got a bit worse down by the flight deck. We were there early enough that it was still overcast. Some sunshine would have helped alot.

Brian

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Well lit rooms will not repel determined beer ninjas.