Diving the North Carolina Wrecks part I

[ABQdiver]

Trip Log for North Carolina Wreck Diving

Day 1:
Arrived at Olympus Dive Center at 6am to an already busy scene. Checked in in the shop and signed our waivers.
Olympus offers 100cf/3300psi alum tanks with EAN30 for all the dives with MOD of 121fsw. Most of their intended sites are about 110fsw or above, so the mix will work just nicely.
There are twenty-three divers on board today on the Olympus with 26 spots. The boat has a double center rack and seats with one on the outboard sides as well with a lockable storage bin below each seat so the gear can be left onboard overnight. The Olympus is at 55 ton, 65’ long dive boat with bench seating in the salon, additional seating and lounging area above the salon amidships.

The boat has the divers entering the water on each side, amidships with two T-ladders at the stern scaleable with fins on. Divers use double line system from each corner of the stern weighted with a 35# weight connecting to another weighted vertical line a amidships which then connects to the anchor line at the bow of the boat. Between each weighted line on each side is a connecting line for the safety stop at 15fsw. A regulator is hung from each stern side for divers running low on gas. The shop fills the 100cf tanks to 3400-3500psi which is appreciated.

Day One

Weather was partly cloudy with light rainstorm on the horizon
Dive site 1: The Schurz; a 250' long German wooden ship taken by the Americans in World War I, sunk in 1908 by collision lies on the sand at 115fsw. The wood is mostly gone, eaten by salt-water worms and torn asunder by hurricanes. Visibility was approximately 40 feet showing the boilers, condensers, two cannons on the sand. We dropped down around the anchor line with minimum current and swam through the debris field of the wreck. Lots of bait fish, grunts, spade fish and several Queen Angels as well. A few grouper seen on the wreck, with some barracudas hanging around watching us at the anchor line. Mike and I did a 40 minute dive with a max depth of 107fsw. Managed to stay out of deco by a minute, with a mid water stop for 2 minutes as well as a 5 minute safety stop. Water temps ranged from 80 degrees at the top to about 74 degrees at the wrecks.

Back on board, we relaxed and ate a sandwich we brought and ate some fruit. The boat offers use of two microwaves, a convection oven and small refrigerator. Maybe tomorrow, we'll bring something that we can cook!

Dive Site 2: The USCG Spar; a 185' long recently sunk buoy tender sunk as an artificial reef. Wreck is up right, sand is 110fsw and has a multi leveled profile between the sand and the top of the wheelhouse at 75fsw. The wreck is starting to get sea life growing on it and is home to schools of baitfish, grunts lizardfish, grouper and a squad of Sand Tigers that are incredibly friendly (for sharks). There were plenty of opportunities to take photos of the sharks as they continually swam by around the wreck. Great dive!!
Max depth of 103fsw with a run time of 42 minutes

Day Two

Double Dip on the Caribsea, a 261’ long Cargo ship carrying Manganese ore. Torpedoed with two fish from the German U-158 on the starboard side and sunk in three minutes, all but seven sailors went down with the ship or died afterwards in the water waiting for rescue.
Ship sits at about 90fsw with a relief of the engines at about 75fsw. The wreck is laid open from the amidships are with the engine and both boilers exposed. The bow has a massive anchor chain piled up on the deck and rusting with the anchor in the sand below with the windlass on the deck, which is the anchor spot for the dive boat. The stern has fallen apart with the rudder sticking upright in the sand about 15’ from the rear portion.
Visibility was approximately 30’ dropping to a couple with all the baitfish in the waters, with a light current running across the ship from starboard to port. Visibility got a bit better the second dive. Bow was a great place to watch the ballet of baitfish, large Amber Jacks and Sand Tiger Sharks followed by schools of spades and a few barracudas. Dove along the sand and manganese ore remains on the bottom and picked up several sharks teeth for souvenirs.
First dive max depth of 93fsw for 51 minutes total run, second dive max depth for 87fsw for 47 minutes total

continued...... next post

 

[ABQdiver]

Day Three

Full boat with another four divers and photographers on board from the National Geographic Institute shooting a series on sharks on artificial reefs.
Weather was partly to mostly cloudy the first dive turning to rain showers and a bit of a storm chasing us after the second.
Dive Site One: The Papoose (aka WE Hutton) a 412’ long American Tanker, torpedoed by the German U-124 in March of 1942. The Papoose turned during sinking landing on the Port side and over the super structure and crushing much of it as well as splitting in two amidships exposing the interior of the ship and boilers that are now above you. The wreck sits on the 120fsw with the stern and rudder at the highest point at 90fsw. The propeller was present until the mid-1970s when salvagers blasted it off, but the huge rudder is still intact although swung to the starboard side of the wreck. The Olympus anchored off to the ship at the center of the broken section.
At the bottom there were several Lion fish, Sand Tiger Sharks and Amber Jacks as well as an enormous quantity of bait fish swimming around. Inside the cavernous interior there were more bait fish and Jacks. Looking up you could see the sunlight filtering in from several holes in the upside down hull casting strange, but enjoyable. Visibility was from 50’ to 60’ with a slight current toward the stern of the ship.
Water temperatures are consistent with the other wreck locations in the area, with up to 80 degrees on the surface down to about 72 degrees on the bottom.
The Papoose and WE Hutton were sunk within hours of each other in March of 1942, it was later found out that the Papoose is actually the WE Hutton, but the name as stuck…..
Max depth of 119fsw for a total run time of 37 minutes

Dive Site Two: The German U-352! The U3-52 is aVIIC class submarine that attempted to sink at least two separate ships in April, 1942; the Swedish ship SS Freden (fired 4 torpedoes, all missed), a couple of days later fired two more torpedoes at another ship missed with both of those as well.
The ship turned out to be the US Coast Guard Cutter Icarus, which quickly turned and made its initial attack run on the U-352. The Icarusfired5 depth charges, which severely damaged the u-boat internally, wrecked the conning tower and blew off its deck gun. Two more depth charge attacks forced the U-352 to the surface where the u-boat commander KL Rathke ordered the scuttling and abandonment of his ship. The Icarus fired 3” guns and machine gun fire at the submarine causing chaos during the process.
The U-352 sits on the bottom at approximately 115fsw on it’s keel in a starboard 45 degree list. The outer hull is rusting away, and the bow has some storm damage on it. The wreck is pretty small but impressive with the conning tower and forward gun mount was interesting. Bring a light to peer inside the torpedo tubes for fun, along with several hatches along the top of the U-boat.
Normal fish life around the wreck with temperatures in the 70 – 78 degree range.
Max depth of 110’ for a total run time of 39 minutes

Day Four
Double Dip Dive: The USCG Spar, The Spar got its name from the US Coat Guard Motto "Semper Paratus, Always Ready" which was an appropriate name for the Coast Guard buoy tender commissioned June 1944. Making port at various locations up and down the Northeast US, the Spar was one of the most awarded vessels in the Coast Guard fleet and served in a variety missions during its 50-year service including submarine hunting and oceanography assignments. After being decommissioned in Feb of 1997, the ship was sunk as an artificial reef off the coast of Morehead City.

Dive One: Boat anchored to the stern of the USCG Spar, we cruised down and went forward checking out the topside parts and open hatches/holes in the wreck. Dropped down the port side a bit to look for sharks but they weren’t around there. Back up to the bow section with the large crane section resting from amidships to the locking dog on the bow in amongst the schooling bait fish. Amazing amount of bait fish and spades up in that area.
Max depth was 112fsw for a total 46 minutes run time including 2 min at half depth and 6 min between 20 and 15fsw for additional off gassing, (This was typical of all our dives).

Dive Two: This time our plan as to find some more sharks teeth in the sand amidships since the sharks hang out above there to feed, we splashed as the last divers to dive hoping to avoid the other divers. We dropped down just above the sand at the stern and went to the starboard side hoping to avoid the current that picked up during the surface interval, but it was running bow to stern…. The other divers had sent the sharks down to the sand and there was a BUNCH! I lost count of all the Sand Tigers, but have one picture that has thirteen to fourteen of them in the frame. There were probably thirty of them circling the wreck. They ranged from about 4’-5’ long to about 9’-10’ long. The larger ones being pretty impressive! No loose teeth, but lots of teeth in them sharks!!
Max depth of 112fsw for a total of 44 minutes of run time.

We enjoyed diving with Olympus Dive Center very much. It was and is a family business with customer service at the foundation of their business plan. They have a well-run and very safe boat with fun and capable crew. They didn’t haul your tanks for you, but that is not a big deal for the diver who likes this kind of diving. Would dive with them again!



Olympus Dive Center
713 Shepard Street
Morehead City, NC

A few more photos with larger sizes HERE!

 

[Jrock1062]

good report great photos

 

[howertonz]

Thanks for the great report! I will be diving with them on Monday.

 

[SelkieDVM]

Great report and pics! I love diving with Olympus - I get down there as often as I can.

 

[Bound]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[skyhawk133]

Great photos. Sounds like a great trip!

 

[robint]

Awesome!!!!!
Sounds like a fantastic trip. I am ready to go!!! Love all the photos, especially those with the huge amount of baitfish along with the sharks in the frame. Those need to be enlarged and hanging on a wall somewhere!

How were the seas? How long did it take to get out to the dive sites? Do they really do a 2 hr surface interval? How many divers doing singles, how many doubles? Was that an issue? (Ron and I are just poor single-tank divers...)

So where did you stay? Where did you eat? (I miss the food, so help me out here!)What did you do topside? Did you take any topside photos? More, more, more!!


robin

 

[Tjack]

Nice photos, now that looks like some fine diving. Too bad we can't get one of them thar Sand Tigers to live in the Blue Hole.

 

[ABQdiver]

Awesome!!!!!
Sounds like a fantastic trip. I am ready to go!!! Love all the photos, especially those with the huge amount of baitfish along with the sharks in the frame. Those need to be enlarged and hanging on a wall somewhere!

How were the seas? How long did it take to get out to the dive sites? Do they really do a 2 hr surface interval? How many divers doing singles, how many doubles? Was that an issue? (Ron and I are just poor single-tank divers...)

So where did you stay? Where did you eat? (I miss the food, so help me out here!)What did you do topside? Did you take any topside photos? More, more, more!!


robin

The bait fish were amazing!! All over the place, the visibility was reduced by them at several points in the dives.

The weather was pretty good for the most part, we got some pretty good rollers going out our last day (were in the 4-6' range) but things settled down nicely on the wreck site.
We did a minimum of 1:30 surface interval, closer to 2 hours several times especially on the deeper locations. There were a couple of divers that brought there own doubles, but the dive shop offers 100cf AL, 3300psi tanks which was more then enough even if you went into deco for a few minutes. The least I came up with was 900psi and that was a longish dive with about 15min coming up and hanging around watching the jellys and cudas.
The told us no deco, so we pretty much stayed with that. Went into it a couple of times for a few minutes, but cleared on the assent.

We eat fish almost every night, with about two of those fried fish combos that were almost to die for!!
We ate at Lloyd s (grilled grouper) that was delish!, The Sanitary Restaurant, had stuffed flounder there, and a family owned place NW of the downtown, Mrs. Willis had the fried platter there. It was just ok... but others on the boat really enjoyed it. But we finished up on the last night at Rap's Bar and Grill and the fried oysters were amazing!!

We stayed at the Best Western, Buccaneer about 5min from the dive shop, $85/night. They had a free breakfast, but we only ate there the last day since we were at the boat between 5:30am and 6am every day the breakfast started at 6am

The closest major airport is Raleigh/Durham which is about 3 hours away. Rented a car for the trip there and back plus to drive around in Morehead City.

There is some other shots of some of the site seeing we did, which wasn't much on that last link I posted to my smugmug account. We visited a pre-civil war grave yard that was VERY cool and Fort Macon over on Beaufort point. I'll post more in a few days as well.

Thanks for asking!