MRXRAY
Contributor
Met up with Capt. Dave Mucci on the Y-Knot for a noon departure. The Bay had a light chop on the way out and the pass was only a little sloppy as we turned East towards our first dive the Liberty Ship Joseph L. Meek.
The 7 mile run was finished real quickly and my buddy Jesse and I hit the water at 13:19. Capt. Dave did an awsome job putting us on the wreck as we found during our decent that he had put the anchor right in the middle of the wreck and inside it's hull. Wow!
Jesse and I swam toward the bow and enjoyed 20-25 foot visability and saw quite a few gags, sheepshead, some spades, and some near extinct red sanpper! Once we hit the bow we jumped over the hull and swam back down the starboard side of the wreck toward the middle of the ship collecting shells as we went, the viz here was much lower at about 10-15 feet. We spent 37 minutes under with max depth of 93 feet and a min temp of 66*. We made two simulated deco stops on the way to the surface and had an easy exit from the water.
Back on the surface we enjoyed each others company and some of Capt. Dave's Honey and Peanut butter bagels....Don't knock it till you try it!
The surface transit to the next site was short and the hour SI was over before we knew it and we splashed for our second dive on the Tex Edwards at 15:04.
We made our way down to the wreck and had less than 15 feet of viz but still enjoyed looking inside the hull at all the large fish that had gathered inside. We saw a few nice school of spades come through which were very tightly packed toghter and seemed to go on forever. It's always a thrill to move into them and watch them envelope you but leave that buffer. We spent a good bit of time wandering the wreck and looking into all the holes for a resident Golioth Grouper, but we never saw it. We did however enconter a couple of HUGE barracudda which were hanging at the front corner of the bow section, we watched them for a while then they swam off into the school of spades. We ended up with 43 mintues of bottom time and a max depth of 75 feet and the water temp was still a balmy 66*. A nice dive, but not the best visability!
We headed back to port, tied up rinsed our gear and headed to the fish house to debrief with our new friends and share stories of adventure from past dives.
Some Pics:
Why Knot?
DM Rich Sleppy and my buddy Jesse:
Jesse:
Cudda:
Toadfish:
Octopus:
The 7 mile run was finished real quickly and my buddy Jesse and I hit the water at 13:19. Capt. Dave did an awsome job putting us on the wreck as we found during our decent that he had put the anchor right in the middle of the wreck and inside it's hull. Wow!
Jesse and I swam toward the bow and enjoyed 20-25 foot visability and saw quite a few gags, sheepshead, some spades, and some near extinct red sanpper! Once we hit the bow we jumped over the hull and swam back down the starboard side of the wreck toward the middle of the ship collecting shells as we went, the viz here was much lower at about 10-15 feet. We spent 37 minutes under with max depth of 93 feet and a min temp of 66*. We made two simulated deco stops on the way to the surface and had an easy exit from the water.
Back on the surface we enjoyed each others company and some of Capt. Dave's Honey and Peanut butter bagels....Don't knock it till you try it!
The surface transit to the next site was short and the hour SI was over before we knew it and we splashed for our second dive on the Tex Edwards at 15:04.
We made our way down to the wreck and had less than 15 feet of viz but still enjoyed looking inside the hull at all the large fish that had gathered inside. We saw a few nice school of spades come through which were very tightly packed toghter and seemed to go on forever. It's always a thrill to move into them and watch them envelope you but leave that buffer. We spent a good bit of time wandering the wreck and looking into all the holes for a resident Golioth Grouper, but we never saw it. We did however enconter a couple of HUGE barracudda which were hanging at the front corner of the bow section, we watched them for a while then they swam off into the school of spades. We ended up with 43 mintues of bottom time and a max depth of 75 feet and the water temp was still a balmy 66*. A nice dive, but not the best visability!
We headed back to port, tied up rinsed our gear and headed to the fish house to debrief with our new friends and share stories of adventure from past dives.
Some Pics:
Why Knot?
DM Rich Sleppy and my buddy Jesse:
Jesse:
Cudda:
Toadfish:
Octopus:
