We made it to Scuba Shack in time to drop off gear and sign liability releases on Friday afternoon. Then we joined folks for a great dinner at Zia’s Restaurant. The food and service were outstanding as usual and the peach crumb dessert is absolutely sinful. In addition to our usual suspects, Gilless joined us on this trip. It was a pleasure meeting and diving with him.
After dinner we joined Scuba board folks out at the beach and just socialized and had a drink with them. The night dive was cancelled because of high surf and they were already well on their way to partying the night away.
We retired early after watching the weather channel and were quite anxious that we would not get to go out Saturday morning. Six o’clock came very early but we were elated that the seas had calmed some and we could head to the Oriskany. We had maybe three to five foot seas on the way out. Our bumpy ride was well worth being the first boat to anchor.
We began our first dive with a moderate surface current. Water was murky on the way down but visibility opened at depth and we enjoyed a fantastic dive. The marine life was superb and the old lady sublime on the second anniversary of her sinking.
We spent most of the dive on the down current side of the island. We looked at the escalator and worked our way up. The barracuda were funny, stacked up in their own pecking order. We got thirty-seven minutes with a max depth of 139 feet.
During the surface interval we enjoyed hot dogs and conversation. The seas calmed dramatically but we could count eight boats now.
On the second dive we easily found the octopus. She must not have eggs yet because there were no arrow crabs hanging about in hopes of a taste. The wreck became crowded quickly and some of the divers had little courtesy or maybe little skill. They crashed and thrashed about and one young fellow with a quacker almost had it inserted. Why can’t folks learn early that peace and quiet is sublime and leave it at that? Our max depth was 110 feet for 51 minutes. We enjoyed strawberry O with shortcake ice cream on the way in.
The long day on the boat and rough seas in the morning left us tired. We had dinner at Zia’s again and hit the sack early.
Sunday we were off with another early start. We sailed to the Pete Tide II on really calm seas. There was a pea-green layer between the surface and 50 or so feet but visibility opened up to about thirty feet on the wreck. We went around the stern on the sand and saw several deer cowry, a nudibranch, and a sulky old batfish. We ascended to the wheelhouse and found the grandest surprise. There is a pipe sticking up with around 25 to 30 blennies. We called it the Blenny Condo. These little critters were put on Earth for the sole purpose of making us laugh. Just sitting and watching their antics is a wonderful experience in itself. Our dive was 49 minutes with max depth of 105 feet.
The radar showed lot of boats on the San Pablo so we started toward another site when some of the boats left. We anchored on the large wreck north of the boilers. The visibility was the same here as the previous dive. We looked along the wreckage and marveled at the fantastic variety and sheer number of inhabitants. We found several nice lures and ran into one mondo flounder. MM wouldn’t let me juge him with my knife so we went on our way and left him to live another day. I could do dozens of dives on this wonderful wreck and never see it all. She was a 315 foot long refrigerator ship in her heyday and today her wreckage hosts a magnificent variety of creatures. Max depth was 85 feet with 59 minutes bottom time. Water temperature on all dives was about 72 degrees on the surface and 70 at depth.
The weather turned really sour while we were on this dive. The anchor rope bounced wildly and the ride in proved rough. We sailed against the wind but the piña colada ice cream made it worthwhile. Watching them dip the ice cream in four to five foot seas was a comedy in itself. We had pizza waiting on the pier.
Although we were very tired, we thank the staff at Scuba Shack once again for a fantastic bunch of dives and a fabulous weekend.
After dinner we joined Scuba board folks out at the beach and just socialized and had a drink with them. The night dive was cancelled because of high surf and they were already well on their way to partying the night away.
We retired early after watching the weather channel and were quite anxious that we would not get to go out Saturday morning. Six o’clock came very early but we were elated that the seas had calmed some and we could head to the Oriskany. We had maybe three to five foot seas on the way out. Our bumpy ride was well worth being the first boat to anchor.
We began our first dive with a moderate surface current. Water was murky on the way down but visibility opened at depth and we enjoyed a fantastic dive. The marine life was superb and the old lady sublime on the second anniversary of her sinking.
We spent most of the dive on the down current side of the island. We looked at the escalator and worked our way up. The barracuda were funny, stacked up in their own pecking order. We got thirty-seven minutes with a max depth of 139 feet.
During the surface interval we enjoyed hot dogs and conversation. The seas calmed dramatically but we could count eight boats now.
On the second dive we easily found the octopus. She must not have eggs yet because there were no arrow crabs hanging about in hopes of a taste. The wreck became crowded quickly and some of the divers had little courtesy or maybe little skill. They crashed and thrashed about and one young fellow with a quacker almost had it inserted. Why can’t folks learn early that peace and quiet is sublime and leave it at that? Our max depth was 110 feet for 51 minutes. We enjoyed strawberry O with shortcake ice cream on the way in.
The long day on the boat and rough seas in the morning left us tired. We had dinner at Zia’s again and hit the sack early.
Sunday we were off with another early start. We sailed to the Pete Tide II on really calm seas. There was a pea-green layer between the surface and 50 or so feet but visibility opened up to about thirty feet on the wreck. We went around the stern on the sand and saw several deer cowry, a nudibranch, and a sulky old batfish. We ascended to the wheelhouse and found the grandest surprise. There is a pipe sticking up with around 25 to 30 blennies. We called it the Blenny Condo. These little critters were put on Earth for the sole purpose of making us laugh. Just sitting and watching their antics is a wonderful experience in itself. Our dive was 49 minutes with max depth of 105 feet.
The radar showed lot of boats on the San Pablo so we started toward another site when some of the boats left. We anchored on the large wreck north of the boilers. The visibility was the same here as the previous dive. We looked along the wreckage and marveled at the fantastic variety and sheer number of inhabitants. We found several nice lures and ran into one mondo flounder. MM wouldn’t let me juge him with my knife so we went on our way and left him to live another day. I could do dozens of dives on this wonderful wreck and never see it all. She was a 315 foot long refrigerator ship in her heyday and today her wreckage hosts a magnificent variety of creatures. Max depth was 85 feet with 59 minutes bottom time. Water temperature on all dives was about 72 degrees on the surface and 70 at depth.
The weather turned really sour while we were on this dive. The anchor rope bounced wildly and the ride in proved rough. We sailed against the wind but the piña colada ice cream made it worthwhile. Watching them dip the ice cream in four to five foot seas was a comedy in itself. We had pizza waiting on the pier.
Although we were very tired, we thank the staff at Scuba Shack once again for a fantastic bunch of dives and a fabulous weekend.
