boydski
Contributor
Wednesday, in between the snow blizzards and ice storms, I had an amazing opportunity to go out and dive the wreck of the Al-Ind-Esk-A-Sea from a submarine. Having done this 240' dive a few times on open circuit, it was quite nice to be warm, cozy and dry for a 3 hour dive. Better yet, there was No Deco to do! 
The "Big Al" as she is known locally is a 336' long freighter that sank near Everett Washington after a fire in 1982.
For this dive, I was able to hitch a ride on a five man submarine named Antipodes. It is owned by OceanGate, which is a non-profit based in Everett, WA with a pair of subs that are used for expeditions and research around the world.
We dropped down the anchor line of the AO buoy, which is located near the wreck, off of the port of Everett and then did some "dead reckoning" over to the wreck. Depth at the base of the anchor is about 240'.
We cruised along the hull of the wreck, right at the edge of the bulwarks until we reached the stern and then dropped down to the bottom to check out the props. Below is a photo of the forward-looking sonar as we sat on the bottom just 8' from the stern of the Big Al. You can see the rudder on the left side of the screen (the Al-Ind-Esk-A-Sea is lying on its Port Side).
Why were we sitting on the bottom, you ask? Good question and this might be interesting to the rebreather divers. We had to stop and change the scrubber material. Four people go through the scrubber material fairly quickly, so it is changed out whenever the CO2 starts climbing.
You can't really see it in the picture, but the Sorb turns blue, indicating it is spent.
After three hours on the bottom, we had to surface and head back to the dock, arriving just in time for a very nasty snow storm. Not your average dive, but very interesting. It is nearly impossible to get good photos from inside the dome port, but video works well. It's also very hard to beat staying warm and dry for what is usually a very challenging dive!
The "Big Al" as she is known locally is a 336' long freighter that sank near Everett Washington after a fire in 1982.
For this dive, I was able to hitch a ride on a five man submarine named Antipodes. It is owned by OceanGate, which is a non-profit based in Everett, WA with a pair of subs that are used for expeditions and research around the world.
We dropped down the anchor line of the AO buoy, which is located near the wreck, off of the port of Everett and then did some "dead reckoning" over to the wreck. Depth at the base of the anchor is about 240'.
We cruised along the hull of the wreck, right at the edge of the bulwarks until we reached the stern and then dropped down to the bottom to check out the props. Below is a photo of the forward-looking sonar as we sat on the bottom just 8' from the stern of the Big Al. You can see the rudder on the left side of the screen (the Al-Ind-Esk-A-Sea is lying on its Port Side).
Why were we sitting on the bottom, you ask? Good question and this might be interesting to the rebreather divers. We had to stop and change the scrubber material. Four people go through the scrubber material fairly quickly, so it is changed out whenever the CO2 starts climbing.
You can't really see it in the picture, but the Sorb turns blue, indicating it is spent.
After three hours on the bottom, we had to surface and head back to the dock, arriving just in time for a very nasty snow storm. Not your average dive, but very interesting. It is nearly impossible to get good photos from inside the dome port, but video works well. It's also very hard to beat staying warm and dry for what is usually a very challenging dive!
