It appears the Oriskany may have claimed another life today. We were on site for a couple of dives but ended up calling the dives before we ever got in. While seas were fairly calm when we left, the forecast was wrong and we ended up in 3-4 foot seas and we were getting tossed all over the place. Had we been planning recreational dives, it might have been okay, but we were on a technical charter and it was pretty evident that getting off and on the boat was going to be pretty difficult in those conditions. Another boat was on site with recreational divers who had gotten in the water. As we were getting ready to leave we found out one of their divers was overdue. We circled around the area looking for the diver in hopes the diver was hopefully blown off the wreck and floating on the surface somewhere beyond our sight over the 4 foot waves. We spent about an hour doing this. During this time the other boat captain made a call to the coast guard and a call for assistance was put out. Several fishing boats in the area showed up to help search the surface. A couple of divers on that boat went down to the flight deck and did a search in the area of the tower and down the escalator. While we had trimix on board, our O2 percentages were too rich to go below the flight deck and none of us had reels or lights to look inside the wreck. By the time we left the diver was about 1.5 hours overdue. The coast guard was en route. Divers with appropriate trimix blends were also en route from Pensacola. While it would be nice to think we just missed finding the diver on the surface, I think that would be hoping for too much at this point. Let's hope the search team remains safe and the diver is found soon. I'm intentionally keeping details about the diver out of this post until I know the next of kin has been notified. Another sad day.
