trip report

[mako1]

we dove with DISCOVERY DIVERS in BEAUFORT N.C. over all had a great time. We got there friday night, and checked inn. we stayed in there bunkhouse (west) not the east, which we were told by other diver had no common room, which west has. It had three rest rooms and a full kitchen and was perfect for the 16 of us too have some fun after diving each day. the boat was a little crowed with 20 divers but not to bad since we all have been diving together before. the captin (jerry) and mate (justin) were good no problems, other then they were very quick to cancell a dive.We did the ATLAS on sat. in the am. this was a big wreck, 77degrees at bottom with 55ft vis. tons of bait fish and some big albacore , spayed fish as well as barracuda.

the second dive was the CARIBSEA this was the best dive of the weekend!! lots of sand tigers, 30 or more swimming in and out. one shark was huge!! i was told 12 ft, it was much larger then the rest. we also found lots of teeth. 78 degrees and 45ft vis.

waves were small and sun shinning we tried to do a third dive but no go. they were all booked up, and no night dives to risky.

sunday we tried to do the sub (352) but no go captian said waves could get to big. there for we did the hutton and soloide both okay nothing great about them 70ft deep
not much of a ship left but i was under water so it was good. we did see a couple of small sand tigers on the hutton and a turtle as well as tons of bait fish.

no afternoon dive because the waves could get larger very quick.

monday no dives wind was up! side note, i am not a boat captian and have never been a captian, so the captian might have been right on with his predicition of the weather, but it was my dives being cancelled so i was disapointed not angry!

all in all a great time and will be heading back next year!!
mike

 

[Tanked Monkey]

Glad you had a good time. I dove with Discovery a month or so ago, and we got to do the Caribsea and Atlas. Both were great, but I'm a little partial to the Caribsea. TONS of cool sea life on that wreck, and we found several sharks' teeth without even looking for them. It was great. Thanks for the report.

Mike

 

[Diveral]

Thanks for the report. Sounds like you had a good time. My club is looking to dive the NC wrecks with Discovery Diving this summer. How were their bunkhouses? Boats? Crew?

Al

 

[fireflock]

I wouldn't have any hesitations about booking a club trip with Discovery this summer. For a large group (more than 6) you would be on one of the crew boats that are pretty standard for the area and work very well for diving in NC. I think they are both 40-something feet long and have a dive deck, a sun deck, and a cabin area. I'm sure there are some pictures on their website.

I've only been on 1 boat in NC with a bad crew member, and it wasn't at Discovery (or anywhere else in the Morehead City/Beaufort area). The vast majority of the crew members in NC are very good. In my experience, the crew will stay out of your way if you know what you're doing, help if you ask (or look like you need it), and they will look out for you even if you don't notice they are doing it. Some divers won't notice it, but they will spot check your gear before you jump in, check to be sure your air is on, and they use a roll call sheet to keep track of who is in the water.

I've stayed in 1 of the 2 Discovery bunkhouses a few times and it has always been fine for the group I was with. The price is right, particularly in the summer when lodging is expensive in the area. I would call the bunkhouses basic but adequate. If you have a group that is expecting daily maid service, wants private rooms/bathrooms, or will freak out over a few bugs then you might want to look into renting a house for the week in Beaufort (they can be nice and affordable if you look in the historic but not waterfront area of town).

Hope that helps-
Rich

 

[Diveral]

Thanks for the report. It looks like we will be diving with them this summer and will be bringing 12-20 divers. The bunkhouse sounds great if some of the wives don't come ;-) Thanks for the tip on the house rental. We may want to look into it if the wives decide to join us for the trip.

We will be bringing some newer inexperienced OW divers and the divers in our sister club in Minnesota have a lot of cold water experience but not many have tried boat diving in the Ocean. We are planning on diving a regular day on some of the nearer and shallower wrecks the first day and hitting some of the deeper and more challenging wrecks, such as the U352 or Caribsea, on the second day. We are looking for some spectacular sites for both days, any suggestions?

Thanks,
AL

 

[BigGameJamesWorthy]

I use discovery diving and am always very happy with them.

 

[BabyDuck]

al, my thought is that an afternoon dive (which are usually inshore) would be a good warmup for your less-ocean-experienced friends, and the next day you can go offshore. i've gone out with discovery and olympus, both are great. i've stayed in both dive dorms - discovery's is more like a house with a lot of bunk beds and olympus' is the upstairs of a business with a common room and little rooms with 4 to 8 bunks. i guess the difference is that groups of strangers would have an easier time in the olympus set-up while a group of friends would be fine in either. i've been on 1 of discovery's boats and 2 of olympus', and all were nice. either shop is a good value and will hopefully be able to help you pick some spots good for tune-ups.

 

[Diveral]

al, my thought is that an afternoon dive (which are usually inshore) would be a good warmup for your less-ocean-experienced friends, and the next day you can go offshore. i've gone out with discovery and olympus, both are great. i've stayed in both dive dorms - discovery's is more like a house with a lot of bunk beds and olympus' is the upstairs of a business with a common room and little rooms with 4 to 8 bunks. i guess the difference is that groups of strangers would have an easier time in the olympus set-up while a group of friends would be fine in either. i've been on 1 of discovery's boats and 2 of olympus', and all were nice. either shop is a good value and will hopefully be able to help you pick some spots good for tune-ups.

BD, Thanks for the insight, both outfits and dorms would be suitable for us. We are bringing some very experienced divers and we have some relatively inexpereinced divers who will find some of these sites very challenging. I have not dove the Cape Lookout area. I dove further up the coast on the U-85 about 18 yrs ago when I was in the Navy. I am looking for some wrecks for the first day that will be easy enough for the inexperienced divers and interesting enough for the experienced divers. I have read up on the Indra, Hardee, Verbena, and the Ashkabad. Based on the information I have found I believe that these would be suitable. How many of these have you dove on and what are your suggestions?

Thanks,
AL

 

[bankey]

Thanks for the report. It looks like we will be diving with them this summer and will be bringing 12-20 divers. The bunkhouse sounds great if some of the wives don't come ;-) Thanks for the tip on the house rental. We may want to look into it if the wives decide to join us for the trip.

We will be bringing some newer inexperienced OW divers and the divers in our sister club in Minnesota have a lot of cold water experience but not many have tried boat diving in the Ocean. We are planning on diving a regular day on some of the nearer and shallower wrecks the first day and hitting some of the deeper and more challenging wrecks, such as the U352 or Caribsea, on the second day. We are looking for some spectacular sites for both days, any suggestions?

Thanks,
AL

Something you might want to check into since you're bringing so many people that you can pretty much charter the whole boat is to try to do a three dive inshore day. Every so often I think olympus does it. I'm not for sure if Discovery does. Generally it's something like the Hutton,Suloide, and Indra. The nice thing about the Hutton and Suloide is you can take a polespear, and hunt for some flounder. If you're gonna be inshore you might as well have something to do. You can't lose with any of the offshore wrecks I'm partial to the Schurz and the Papoose if you have to pick from the "standard" ones.