Wilmington area suggestions?

[volvorules]

My girfriend and I will be visiting Wilmington during the last weekend of July, and I've been doing some research about getting a dive or two in while we're there. I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations as to sites or dive ops to use? Looks like the Hyde might be fun. I'm an AOW certified diver with ~20 dives under my belt, and she is a very experienced diver and used to be an instructor. Let me know what you guys/gals think!

Rob

 

[Garth]

The Hyde should be a good wreck that time of year, should be a good bit of sharks too.

 

[oceancat]

Hi. Aquatic Safaris and Cape Fear Divers are two dive ops in the area. I haven't been with CFD yet, but have had 2 nice dives on the Hyde. It's a fun dive to do.

 

[Shot a man in Reno...]

At this late of a date you might have trouble getting on a dive. However, lot of the spaces taken are on spec by other dive shops (when they don't fill all of the spots they give them up to the original shop) so check into getting on a waiting list at Aquatic Safaris. They often get cancellations of reservations ~1 week prior to the scheduled dives.

Scuba-now is a new operation, they usually have space on their boats. But they do not have their ****e tegether as well as AqSa.

 

[volvorules]

Found a spot with Cape Fear, going to the Hyde on Sunday. Very excited for the trip, thanks for the help!

Rob

 

[deepair]

The Hyde is a great dive. SHould be able to do it in a shorty.

 

[Garth]

The Hyde is a great dive. SHould be able to do it in a shorty.

I dove it in a drysuit in august with a t-shirt underneath perfectly comfy above and below the water. But a short should be good.

 

[Lee Taylor]

Check out this absolutely beautiful water we found offshore Wilmington NC last season. It was wonderful! Dove the Gill. Used the Hawksbill. The Hawksbill is one of the Cape Fear Dive Center boats. I have seen the u-tube videos of the Hyde. It does look like a good-one! Enjoy!

 

[volvorules]

Got back home late last night after an awesome day of diving! Cape Fear Divers was a great operation, very friendly and organized. It was hot and humid by 7am when we were on the boat, and we pushed off a bit late, but once we hit the water the wind felt great! ~1:45 minute boat ride out to the Markham, which they decided we should dive first since there were already a couple of boats on the Hyde. Seas were quite calm, very comfortable ride out. Dove the Markham, and saw a good amount of sea life, including my first sand tiger shark! Unfortunately we were on our way back up, so couldn't get a close up view of the beast, it was probably at least 10'.
Had a long (almost 2 hr) SI waiting for the other boats to leave the Hyde, but they finally did, and the 2nd dive was AMAZING. So much sea life on the Hyde, I was very impressed with the NC waters. Saw a nudibranch, a few arrow crabs, a bunch of spadefish and barracuda, as well as 3-4 sharks swimming around. Also saw a toadfish hiding under a big piece of angle iron away from the ship, which was cool. Also saw the biggest hermit crab I've ever seen, it's cool seeing them outside of a little plastic cage All in all had an awesome time, and would definitely recommend Cape Fear Divers to anyone looking to dive in Wilmington!