Favorite dives for an out of towner?

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havnmonkey

Contributor
Messages
546
Reaction score
28
Location
WPB, FL
# of dives
200 - 499
Hey I plan on making a trek to asheville are in early august for a week... so I would like to start off by hitting the coast (NC or SC coast, which ever one has more promise) and getting a day or two of diving in.

What are the favorable wrecks for someone who has never dove the Carolinas?
 
ooh, that's like picking your favorite child. well, most folks love the u-352. i love the papoose. we wanted to do city of houston easter but got blown out. i've done the indra and spar pretty often, hyde and gill once... actually, look up fpsndiver's profile and check out his website - it's awesome! full of good wreck info. that's likely to be your best resource. the places to go out of in nc are morehead or wilmington. wilmington will be a bit closer from asheville, but not enough to rule morehead out.

come over to ncdivers.com if you need more info!
 
The Papoose and Schurz are consistently good out of Morehead City. The U352 is good to do atleast once for historic purposes. If you can hit a flat day and manage to do something like the Lobster Wreck its awesome. That time of the year the Caribsea and Atlas would be good options as well if you want to see sandtigers. Have fun!
 
contact SPEARIT charters for the meg charters.
3mm is good for Aug. temps are generally mid to high 70's
 
Diving in NC is very dependent on the weather. You may not get your choice of wreck, but here is what I would do if I only had 2 days:

Go to Morehead City and dive with Olympus Dive Center, or just down the road in Beaufort with Discovery Dive Center. I would take Olympus first. If you cant go to the "big" wrecks offshore, you still have a chance of making it to the inshore dives (Indra, etc). If you can go out, the crew will tell you which are the best options and what conditions have been like. If that doesnt work out you can hit Radio Island and dive the wall at high tide. Otherwise there are a fair bit of other things to do if you get completely blown out - get tide charts at iether shop and make sure you have a flag. Have dinner at Clawsons in Beaufort at least once while you are there.

Diving out of Wilimington has less options although the riverfront/historic district can be fun to hang out at with great restaurants and clubs.

~Marlinspike
 
Thanks for the input, I would probably call way ahead and try to get a reservation with an operator and pending on conditions dive whatever they tell me but I would be more concerned with what city to dive out of... Morehead sounds pretty consistent
 
I've only dove out of the Morehead City area, but Wilmington seems to be picking up a lot of steam as an "overlooked" location. I plan on diving in Wilmington in the next few years before it becomes saturated. With that said If you're looking for "popular" "well known" wrecks to dive, go out of Morehead. I'm sure the poeple that dive out of Wilimington will and probably should contest this thought. I've dove with some of the charters in the Morehead city area, and I would recommend diving with Olympus on the Olympus. I think everyone should meet George at least once, he is a wealth of information, and my wife/buddy won't let me dive with anyone else. If I had only only a couple of days, I'd shoot for the Papoose, and hope you got anchored into the break in the wreck, and head to the stern. You can't lose with the Schurz either. Anything beyond that is icing on the cake as far as a "regular" day goes. If you call Olympus ask for Lauren she's always up for a good brain picking. To save money I always stay in the bunkhouse.
 

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