Living and diving in three-quarter time

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Capt Jim Wyatt

Hanging at the 10 Foot Stop
Staff member
ScubaBoard Business Sponsor
Scuba Instructor
Messages
4,521
Reaction score
4,175
Location
High Springs - Cave Country
# of dives
5000 - ∞
After spending a few days with NetDoc and Mselenaous on Key Largo they convinced me I should do some blogging about my diving and share some photos. It sounds like a fun task.


Starting out are some old photos of me image.jpg image.jpg
The first photo is of me and some of my shipmates on the Spiegel Grove. That is me on the far right. I served as Gunnery Officer on the SG for a couple of years.

The next image is of the sea state on the dive site of the Spiegel Grove on 2/15/14. I always love diving the Grove.

A couple of things to clear up on the Spiegel Grove -- On the ship there is a little room overlooking the well deck and where the flight deck used to be. It has a flag flying from it. This room also has a birds eye view of the cranes.

This little room was called Pri-Fly, or Primary Flight control. The officer who directed the one or two helicopters landing was stationed in that room. This room was not used for crane operations.


The Spiegel Grove was also used as a training platform for Delta force commandos in response to the 1985 hijacking of the MS Achille Lauro. It was very cool watching the helicopters fly in on the deck of the sea, pop up and dump commandos on deck within a VERY FEW seconds after we heard them approach.

image.jpg This image is of me in a US Navy Mk 14 surface supplied dive rig. I had a blast going through the four month long Navy Basic Diving Officer school in Panama City Beach, Florida.


image.jpg Ensign Wyatt in 1983.

For those of you that know me I am more into cave diving these days, but that interest is not more important to me than nice reefs and wrecks. I am looking forward to getting more reef and wreck diving in in the future.
 
I was there on the boat with Jim when the DM gave the dive briefing. Everyone seemed to have a guide, other than Jim and myself. Not to be left out, I proclaimed that I brought my own guide: Someone who served on the ship for two years. Jaws dropped and immediate respect was proffered, as it should be. At first the DM started giving out the canned brief until she got to the point where she had read that the flight deck held 22 helicopters. She looked over at Jim and asked, "Does that sound right?" He demurred saying only, "I don't know about that. I never saw more than one or two at a time back there." Then she got to the "Crane Control Station" and Jim was confused. "The crane operators control them on the cranes!" After a few of us trying to describe the place, someone finally said, "Its where they hang the American Flag". "Oh!" exclaimed Jim, "That's the Pri Fly station." "The WHHHHHAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTT?" all of us said in almost unison. Then he patiently explained what it was all about as well as many of the experiences he had had on that vessel. I had never heard this ever. I have always heard it referred to as the Crane Control Station. I love it when a bit of reality destroys a long held misconception.

If you haven't met Jim, he's one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet and a very competent instructor. He's one of the owners of Cave Country Dive Shop and serves on the board of the NSS-CDS (Nationals Speleological Society- Cave Diving Section) and the NFSA (North Florida Springs Alliance). He's a very patient Cave instructor and an awesome mentor. I had an issue with my rebreather on our dive and I am glad I had Jim there in case the caca really impacted those revolving blades of life. It's been great having him and his far better half hang with us these past few days. I would love for them to stay longer, but he has a Cavern class in the morning. Talented people are always busy.
 
Jim showed me his stateroom... not there's no sign above the door, his bathroom and the officers' wardrobe. We saw a lot of the wreck even though we were only down a few minutes.
 
Jim,

What was your initial reaction when you heard the SG was going to be sunk? I always wondered how the crews might feel about that. . .
 
What was your initial reaction when you heard the SG was going to be sunk? I always wondered how the crews might feel about that. . .
Jax--I thought and still think it is great to reef these old ships -- its better than making razor blades out of them. It boosts the local economies where they are made as new dive sites. It takes pressure off of the natural reefs and is a place for fish to live.:idea:

Jim, I really enjoyed your post. I wish I had the opportunity to dive on some of the ships I served on.
Me too, I wish more would be scuttled and made artificial reefs.
 
For the past two days I ran a cavern class for Scubaboard member Zuzanna. We did the class at Cave Country Dive Shop and Ginnie Springs. Zuzanna was an excellent student and is a very good diver. She passed the cavern class with flying colors.

The reason she did so well was that she had the following attributes.
  • Solid Buoyancy Control
  • Solid Posture Control
  • Comfortable in the water
  • Never swam using her hands
  • Listened closely and was able to follow instructions
  • Low SAC rate
  • Positive attitude.
  • Good equipment

IMG_3169.jpgIMG_3168.jpg

Today I am starting an IANTD cave instructor class for a guy from Romania!! Details and photos to follow.
 
Have fun, Jim! I am certain that Thez-yo did!
 
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https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

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