North Carolina July 17th-19th... any suggestions?

[bobnelson0]

Hi!

I'm going to be traveling to Greensboro, NC in July of next year on business. I've never been to NC and I don't know when I might be there in the future, so I was thinking I might check out the legendary dive scene while I'm out there. I'll be in Greensboro from the 17th-19th, but I might extend my stay for the scuba opportunities. Plus, it looks like Greensboro is about 5 hours or 6 hours from the coast, correct?

I'm mainly looking for suggestions from locals regarding which dives sites are a MUST and which dive shops are the best to use.

I'm also looking for suggestions for gear to bring. I'm primarily a tropical diver, but I live in the northwest too, so I can do warm water or cold water no problem.
What kind of conditions should I expect in the NC waters?

 

[herman]

Welcome to the board.

That time of year is pretty warm so a 3mm will do fine, some wear less. Even if you don't intend to dive more than one day, plan on several days to be at the coast because it is not uncommon for us to cancel dives due to bad sea conditions. Plus I would suggest you go down at least the day before because most of the boats leave early in the morning so driving down the day of the dive means a very early departure from GB...which is about 5 hrs from Morehead City or 4 hrs from the Wilmington area and plan on staying over that night. After 5 or 6 hrs on a rolling ocean a 5 hr drive is not fun...been there done that, never again. If you intend to dive on a weekend get your reservations early, most weekend charters fill up fairly early but weekday reservatiopns are not a bad idea.
With a few exceptions, our wrecks are a 2 or 3 hr boat ride off shore and we dive in 6ft + seas. Unless you are absolutely sure (lots of time on boats in rough water) you don't get seasick, plan on some meds, better safe than sorry. None of our ops I am aware of provide DM or guides, you are given a dive briefing and turned loose. It's up to you to plan your dive and dive your plan so don't expect to have your gear moved or the dive lead, not going to happen unless you hire a guide..which is not a bad idea.

I would suggest the Hyde and Markham wrecks out of Wilmington. They are about 2 hrs off shore in 80ish feet of water. That time of year the sand tiger sharks should be there plus plenty of tropical fish as well. Wilmington is a little closer to GB, easy to get to and lots of other things to do if you get blown out (seas too rough).
Renting larger tanks is not a bad idea unless you have a great air consumption rate- nitrox is a good idea and you really need a safety sauge (BIG one, not the little 2-3 ftrs), you will be diving in the open ocean many miles from shore. These wrecks are fished a lot so a line cutter is a really good idea as well.
Our wrecks are a lot more work than many places but being buddies with a 10 ft sand tiger for most of your dive makes it worth the trouble. (and it's common for them to swim with you...close. )

 

[Scotttyd]

second what Herman says, the Hyde and Marlam are a good intermediate dive - There are also several other wrecks further out, but I have been unable to dive them due to weather conditions. I have booked 24 days of diving this year and made it out 5 days - but that is worse than normal. If you go to Morehead City/Beaufort (olympus, discovery, and some others) you do not know what sites you are going to hit until you head out and judge the weather. Those sites are usually 2+ hours, with both dives are 90+ feet. This is where you will find the famous U-boat - a dive that is cool to do historically once, but then it is kinda boring after that (I have done three dives on it and that is enough). NCdivers.com has links to a the various charter companies out there and discriptions of the sites out of Wilmington

 

[Lee Taylor]

Hello Bob,

I wrote the following to help those planning to dive the waters offshore North and South Carolina. I dove the NC waters for many years. The underwater conditions, offshore NC, vary greatly with the weather and the surface is significantly affected by the weather. Generally the worse case a dive boat will find itself in is 6 ft rollers, choppy seas, and rain. The dive trip is usually called off if seas this high are expected. I will not sugar coat it here. You will get an occasional bouncy ride offshore NC. On the other hand, some days the surface will be flat, the water aqua blue, and you will be able to see the shipwreck from the surface.

But in general, to give you a reference, the waters in southern Florida and the Carribean are MUCH flatter.

You will find that naturally, the further offshore the boat goes, the better the viz. Soil suspended in the water of the local rivers flowing into the sea causes the water close to the shore to be turbid and brownish with very little viz.

A little further out the water turns green. Green water is about a 1 hour boat ride off the Carolinas.

Even further out the water turns to blue. Blue water is about a 2 hour - 3 hour boat ride off the Carolina coast.

When they speak of an inshore dive in the Carolinas, they are usually speaking of green water (50-70 feet deep). When they speak of an offshore dive, they are usually speaking of blue water (80-130 feet deep).

The depth, and details, of each dive site, is listed on the dive store websites. The water depth will give you a clue as to how far offshore the site is. It is helpful to ask the shop: How long is the boat ride?

Some of the sea life you will see diving offshore North Carolina.

Lobster, tropicals, angels, eels, dolphins and dolphin fish, flounder, lionfish, spotfin butterfly, flying fish, octopus, large pelagics, large grouper, rays, loggerhead turtles, invertebrate life, huge amberjacks, baracudas, trumpet fish, blowfish, spadefish, nurse sharks, sand tiger shark, bull shark, tiger shark, and giant southern sting rays.

I agree that Nitrox and larger tanks are helpful when doing deeper dives.

You can get the coastal water temps from the NOAA website.

The offshore wrecks are fished a LOT. It is a good idea to carry a poly line slitter and metal line shears. A safety sausage and whistle are good ideas also because of the sometimes rolling surface with chop. If you do not come up the anchor line, the sausage will make you easier to spot.

There are lots of good dive operations on the coast. The first two that come to mind are Olympus in Morehead City NC and Aquaticsafaris in Willmington NC

Have fun and enjoy!

 

[bobnelson0]

Thats why I love this forum! Great advice everyone! Thank you! NC diving sounds like a lot of work, but also a lot of fun, just the way I like it. Hopefully I'll have some spare vacation time to extend my trip!

Thanks again to all of you for the advice!

 

[101recon]

You might want to stop by NADCO while you are in Greensboro. North American Divers Company
Dolphi and Randy are both very helpful and knowledgeable about NC diving.

 

[Lee Taylor]

I found the links below to be a good reference. The ones I have dove and can recommend are the Aeolus, Askhabad, British Splendour, Caribsea, Indra, Papoose, Schurz, U-353, and the Hutton.

Aeolus (AR-305)
Alexander Ramsey (AR-370)
Ario
Ashkhabad
Atlas
Australia
Bedfordshire
Box Wreck
British Splendour
Caribsea
Cassimer (WR-2)
Catherine M. Monohan
City of Houston
Dionysus (AR-160)
Dixie Arrow
E.M. Clark
Empire Gem
Esso Nashville
F.W. Abrams
Fenwick Island
George Weems
Hardee's
Hesperides
Idaho (aka "Paddlewheeler")
Indra (AR-330)
John D. Gill
Kassandra Louloudis
Keshena
Lancing
Liberator
Malchace
Manuela
Mirlo
Naeco
Nevada
Normannia
Queen Ann's Revenge
Papoose
Porta Allegra aka "Lobster Wreck"
Proteus
San Delfino
Schurz
Senateur Duhamel
Spar
Tamaulipas
Tarpon
Theodore Parker (AR-315)
Trawler - Hatteras
U-352
U-701
U-85
Veturia
W.E. Hutton
William Rockefeller
Yancey (AR-302)
Zane Gray (AR-160)

 

[Scotttyd]

Bob, I will be on vacation that week, and depending on plans for Bonaire, I might be able to meet up with ya for a day or two. Drop me a line when you know what you are doing.

 

[RICHinNC]

Take a look at.... www.aquaticsafaris.com

 

[packman]

If you end up diving out of the Wilmington area, the big wrecks to hit are:
Hyde
Markham
John D Gill
Normannia
Cassimir
Porta Allegra/Ed's Lobster Wreck
Greg MicKey
Rosin
City of Houston

There are also sites such as Frying Pan Tower (derelict light tower sitting in 50' of water at the tip of the shoals) and various live bottom ledges (5 Mile, 23 Mile, Lobster Ledge, Meg Ledge, etc).