VaJames once bubbled...
I spent 3.5 years there before I started diving. Where do you dive down there?
You know, I get asked that all the time.
If there's water, I'm in it.
I'm sure you're familiar with the inland, tidal rivers. To call them "murky" would be a dramatic understatement. The summertime boasts 85* temps, but that's when the visibility is the lowest... Literally, I've put my guages against my mask and not been able to see them. But that sort of unfriendliness to divers means that anything lost in these waters goes completely unnoticed... And that includes several Civil War shipwrecks, lots of Revolutionary War shipwrecks, and even the
Hunley submarine. The history is literally there for the discovering.
...And that's to say nothing of the incredible fossil finds that make this place world-renowned. Megladon teeth and mammoth vertebre are common.
Still, in search of clear waters, I do most of my local diving offshore. Around five miles offshore, the waters go amazingly clear. 80 foot vis is nothing uncommon, and there's a ton of great wrecks to see there. Still further out (about 20 miles, which is less than an hour's boat ride offshore) there is the
Betsy Ross, a whopping 430 feet of retired Liberty Ship just waiting to be dived. Marine life is abundant, too, and it has to be seen to be understood. In fact, the 'Ross is actually in the Gulf Stream, which comes amazingly close to shore here, and breeds a gorgeous tropical underwater environment. As a diver, you're hard pressed to not think you're in the Keys or the Caymans.
I still have a bunch of friends still on MCAS and the next time I visit them I might look you guys up. Underwater is about the only place you can get away from them damn sandfleas!!!
Lol! Yep, that's definitely true... Especially around Parris Island, where they consider the tiny bugs "a part of Marine training."
Definitely look us up... We're diving constantly! It has to be seen to be believed...
