VA Beach, June 10th - "Tiger" w/ Lynnhaven Dive Center

[H3LlIoN]

I'll look at beefing up my thermal protection and think about the wreck reel.

You should not carry a reel unless you have been properly trained, and have proper experience and practice. Your first boat dive in 4 foot seas is not the proper place to try out new equipment configs. Try and score a buddy with experience, and make him carry it.

Also, I've never been on the tiger but, if penetration is possible, stay the #$&@ out.

Otherwise, have fun. Boat diving is a riot.

- H

 

[xjkip]

I have had several very positive experiences with Lynnhaven. The Miss Lindsey is a great dive boat, naps on the top deck during SI are key!

To reiterate what others have said, those traveling to VB should expect cold water, low viz, rough waters, and some great diving. Be safe, stay on the lines, and near your buddy and you will have a great time.

 

[Wil]

BW,

Hope you had a great day diving off Va Beach! Like to know how it went, your perspective on conditions, temp, visibility.

Often in these forums there's a bit too much advice about "do this - don't do that". It's all meant to be good advice but can be overwhelming...sometimes. I look at it this way; you've received training, proven your knowledge and skill level, now it's time to get some more experience. Plan your dive with your Dive Buddy and dive YOUR plan.

If you didn't get out on the Tiger, let me know. We'll plan a trip on my boat and give it a go. You can dive with me - I'll dupe RAD Diver into staying on the boat while we're in the water (it'll take him a while to get all his gear on anyway). My wife and a few others are wanting to make a dive like Tiger as a sort of warm up dive. We can either "risk" using a wreck reel, practice a bit of dead reckoning navigation, or play with some sonar navigation things I have - have to stay inside of a mile of the transmitter though ;-)

Safe Diving,
Will

 

[RAD Diver]

Hey, what do you mean? All my gear.LOL
No problem with me staying on board as long as I get in eventually.
Trina & I are in Hatteras this weekend with JT, but will be willing in the very near future.

 

[watchoutheyspit]

So, BW, how did the dive go?
I dove the Tiger with LDC in July a few yrs ago. A DM set up a line from the anchor to parts of the wreck & back to anchor for us to navigate by. Vis was 5' or so.

 

[Wil]

RAD,
I knew you couldn't stay away from this forum, even while down at Hatteras! I hope you guys have a great weekend. Looks like perfect weather to be down there.
I was hoping to get Wendy in the water ont he 27th. Then again, that's the weekend Taug season opens.... But there's always Sunday to head back out to the Triangle wrecks.

Wil

 

[BobbyWombat]

Hey all,

First, many thanks for the great advice and postings on the board. This is a really fantastic resource for less experienced divers such as myself.

Sorry for not getting this out sooner, but re-entry into real life was a bit busy. In short: it was a great dive!

Wonderful day for diving with mild seas and air temps in the low 80s. Sounds like I was fortunate not to have the typical 4 ft swells.

Surface temps were in the 70s w/ a thick thermocline starting around 20 ft. At 55 fsw the temp was 58 degrees.

Visibility was not great, maybe around 10 ft. We landed right on the boilers, which was really nice, as the rest of the wreck is pretty much a debris field. Really easy to get turned around, but there were some lines already run and a couple people from our boat ran some lines also, which was indespensible for navigation (in my opinion).

Capt Mark got me hooked up with one of the DMs as my dive buddy, who had been on the wreck a few times before. Had to stick really tight to him because 4 or 5 fin kicks of separation and we wouldn't be able to see each other anymore.

Oh! And I got entangled! No big deal, but ran into some monofilament at the bottom of the anchor line. I was about to reach for my shears, but there was another DM who was also caught up in it and had just cut himself loose, and then cut my fin free as well. Nothing dramatic...but at least I got the authentic boat diving experience!

The boilers were great to swim around, and had lots of fish too see. One guy caught some spade fish, and there were some big Toutogs (sp?) lurking around but safe since they were out of season.

I did wind up bringing a reel along, even though I don't have any hands-on experience using one. I did not plan on using it, but decided that if I got separated from the navigation line, I would at least like to have the option of having it to use for searching my way back to the line, rather than have nothing.

Ideally, I would have liked to use my second dive as a change to do some "training" on using it under the eye of a more experienced diver. As it turned out, the DM I was buddied with was interested in doing some spear fishing...and I was perfectly happy just to have someone experienced to tag along with.

The crew of the Miss Lindsay did an excellent job. The Lynnhaven folks were top notch. A very enjoyable way to spend a day off work.

-BW

 

[BobbyWombat]

BW,

Hope you had a great day diving off Va Beach! Like to know how it went, your perspective on conditions, temp, visibility.

Often in these forums there's a bit too much advice about "do this - don't do that". It's all meant to be good advice but can be overwhelming...sometimes. I look at it this way; you've received training, proven your knowledge and skill level, now it's time to get some more experience. Plan your dive with your Dive Buddy and dive YOUR plan.

If you didn't get out on the Tiger, let me know. We'll plan a trip on my boat and give it a go. You can dive with me - I'll dupe RAD Diver into staying on the boat while we're in the water (it'll take him a while to get all his gear on anyway). My wife and a few others are wanting to make a dive like Tiger as a sort of warm up dive. We can either "risk" using a wreck reel, practice a bit of dead reckoning navigation, or play with some sonar navigation things I have - have to stay inside of a mile of the transmitter though ;-)

Safe Diving,
Will

Will,

Thanks for the kind offer. I'd love to go out with you sometime and have the chance to meet some local divers. I'll be up front and admit that my diving "hall passes" can be a bit sparse these days, but I'd love for you to keep me in mind when you are getting plans together.

-BW

 

[chappy]

BW -

Here are the photos I took on the tiger. LDC Dive sites 2009
Got a couple of you on the way down to the wreck. Nice meeting you, and hope to see you on the boat again soon.

dana

 

[Drewski]

Chappy - nice shots!

Great deck hardware, BTW...