Trip Report: North Carolina Wreck Diving

ScubaDadMiami

A group of 18 divers chartered the Diver Down, http://diverdownscubadiving.com/, located in Atlantic Beach (Morehead City area), North Carolina for four days of wreck diving. If you are considering diving in this area, you should definitely read below before booking your trip.

General diver information: I was the only CCR diver aboard. However, there were divers on this trip equipped with double open circuit tanks and decompression gas bottles.

The boat: Okay for no more than about 12 divers (whereas we had 18 on our trip). I spent a great deal of time seated on the deck floor (or standing) for the trip of often over two hours each way because there was inadequate seating on the boat for the number of people aboard.

The bench seats where the divers kit up were totally inadequate. Once the diver's equipment was in place, the seat was too short below the legs, making it so that half of my back side was off of the edge when seated. So, it was also not possible to sit in this location when the boat was under way just to use as a place to sit.

At the extreme aft positions, the bench seat turns 90 degrees, running from along the gunwale to along the stern. At the corner, it is expected for a diver to be seated here, which is impossible if divers on either side of the corner are present.

There was no room for two divers to sit next to each other while gearing up because of the layout of the tanks being so close to each other. I had to either clip on my bailout bottles in the water or while on the rocking platform in order to put them on. This makes it impossible for divers to put on gear, stand up or sit down since everyone is on top of each other due to this poor layout.

The bench seats also have holes countersunk behind to fit scuba tanks. However, if one is diving with a CCR, this makes a most unstable location for the CCR to rest since the CCR will be at rest on the fulcrum point between two sets of countersunk tank holes. Also, the bungees used to hold tanks etc. behind the bench seat are also poorly done, allowing at least one person's scuba tank to fall during our trip, damaging a regulator.

Last, I had two holes made in the rear of my thigh of my drysuit. I can't completely prove that this was caused by the bench seat. However, I am mighty suspicious about it.

Day one: I can't say if the captain ever did a boat briefing before I arrived to board the boat. However, I can tell you that one was never done once I was aboard. Once we departed for the dive sites, the boat captain (and crew) never gave a single briefing on any of the dive sites. Not even the name of the sites.

As we are about to hit the water, it is suddenly announced that we would have to limit our total run time (not just time on the bottom but total time underwater) to 30 minutes. Some heard it, some didn’t. When we were told not to worry about it (by the person that booked the boat and had a prior relationship with the captain), a half dozen or so of us on the boat didn’t (worry about it). At role call after returning from the dive, in front of everyone in the boat, it was announced that we will not be allowed back in the water for the rest of the day. We lost one eighth of our trip right there. There was no getting it back.

A group of us opted to seek a refund for the remainder of the trip. The captain refused. He had our money already, and it is his boat. There was nothing we could do. We decided to see if some kind of compromise on the dive limitations can be worked out. We make very little progress in that regard.

Day two: I pull up to the boat seeing people running off with panicked looks in their eyes. I find out that the captain has announced that we got off ten minutes late the day before, and he is pulling off from the dock at 6:30 sharp whether people are aboard and ready or not. Everyone is running because they might not have enough time to check their gas (for content) and get their equipment on board. I am thinking: “We chartered this entire boat for our group. We should have some control over where we go and when. It is wrong for us to be treated this way.”

A new announcement comes out from the captain: No decompression optimization gas allowed on the boat. It was fine to carry it yesterday. Today, he suddenly decides that, in addition to forcing us to shorten our bottom time, the open circuit divers have to choose between lowering safety margins by doing minimum ascent times on back gas in order to have at least 20 minutes or so on the bottom, or spending even less time on the bottom in order to have a slow enough ascent. I refuse to dive without open circuit bailout gas, which I am allowed to take only after some further negotiation with the captain. Many of us are furious and begin to openly complain that the captain is compromising safety by creating these arbitrary restrictions.

As we tie up to the first wreck, the captain runs over the anchorline. We end out waiting and wasting time while the crew attempts to unwrangle the line from the propellor without success. Finally, one of the divers in our group straps on his tanks and jumps over to assist. The captain almost backs over him with the boat after the diver requests that the engine be placed in neutral gear before he will go under to try to free the line.

Due to the lost time, we now end up diving the same wreck twice instead of two different spots. At least it was a good wreck. However, had we known that this would be the plan, many of us would have opted to conduct one long dive and then an efficient, single ascent rather than subjecting ourselves to multiple ascents. We ride back over two hours with no room and survive another day.

Day three: Seas are building slightly to about three feet. It isn’t that rough at all. It’s just that everyone is getting thrown all about since they are sitting on top of each other as it is. We do two more dives with hampered and limited bottom times, and then spend time making the long, arduous ride back to port.

My buddy and I, who have driven over 14 hours from Florida to join in on this trip, have had enough. We decide that we are going home whether or not the captain will give us our money back. The sites themselves were great. However, spending these agonizing rides back and forth to spend no more than 20 minutes on the bottom in order to meet the captain's arbitrary rules was not worth it.

I have never, ever left a dive trip early in my life before. So, if I make such a drastic move, you can bet that there is a good reason behind it. I am down right angry, and I have good reason to be. This captain made the customers serve him instead of him worrying about our needs and desires. I will never go on another trip like this again, and I surely would stay away from this captain if you ever go to North Carolina.

For me and my buddy, the highlight of our trip was the stop off at the Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, Florida during the 14 hour drive back home. While the diving locations themselves were great, we never got enough time to see them. So, we can’t say much more about what North Carolina diving is like other than what we have experienced.
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Howard Packer
IANTD CCR Instructor
Miami Beach, Florida
CCRDiveTraining.com