After quite a few shallower dives lately, on the Mercedes, Tracey and Scutti I was looking forward to having some fun on something a little deeper and taking my scooter out for a run, Scootie had been very miserable seeing me go out without him so many times recently.   The previous day I had been out on the reef but using my drysuit because I was testing out a new argon bottle mounting on my 104's ready for my trip up to NC the following week.   I had been hot and sweaty underwater.    Today I decided to treat myself and dive in my Skin with a little hooded vest and be more comfortable.  I don't know how it is for you but for me sometimes I just feel as if  I want to really communicate with the water and for me wearing as little suit as possible is a great way to do that.

Myself,  Dave C, Dean and Tom Scott made up the scooter team with two buddy pairs,   and Cliff M. and John B. made up a swimming team.     We had a fun dive project  planned, and even got out the white board to set up the plan so that we would all be clued in properly.    I love dives that have a little bit of a goal or a mission.   The plan was that the scooter team would drop in on the Clinton which is a small Dredge sunk at about 170ft.   We would shoot the hook and float back to the surface directly using a lift bag, then proceed to spend about 20 minutes on the wreck.    After 20 minutes we would assemble our team and scooter due North to the Miller Lite which is about 800ft away and using the Northbound current to assist us (a much better Idea than trying to scooter against it).      After 20 minutes from our drop the boat would go to the Miller Lite and drop the swimming team there for a dive on that wreck.   The swimming team would set the hook on the second wreck.    and we would unite with them when we arrived there.   Then at the end of the dive we would unhook from the wreck and drift deco with the float ball.     This is pretty much SOP for us but this time we had the added fun of two wrecks instead of one.

After a really pleasant sunny ride up to the wrecks we dropped in the hook and waited.    Hmmm.. there was quite a strong north current and a rather large wake around the ball.    Yep today was one of those high current days but the ball was still on the surface and not sucked under so that is a good sign :-)...     We made two quick drops,  first Dean and Dave, followed closely by Tom and I.        As I hit the water the visibility was a bit crummy and I had some difficulty figuring where the line was and how fast we were drifting.    Then finally I spotted it and quickly dropped down scootering, checking to make sure Tom was OK and still in sight.   He was right there  :-).     After a few seconds the Clinton came into view... and BRRRRR...... the next big shock was the change in temperature.. Good Grief... it was FREEZING down here.   I couldn't believe how cold it was, and gloomily remembered how hot I had been yesterday at 30ft in my superfluous drysuit!!!      I saw Dave and Dean working to free the hook and send it up, it was a tough job today since Capt.  Chuck had been in great form and dropped the hook firmly in the well in the centre of the wreck where it was gripping firmly. A perfect bullseye!. I tried to help them from above by relieveing the tension on the line a bit but the current was making it difficult to make progress.    Eventually the hook was free and off it went to the surface.    Tom and I hung out together on the deck and compared temperatures on our UWATECs.    Jeez,  mine said 93 degrees!! the temperature that had been at the surface,  Tom's said 87 degrees.   It takes a long time for these gauges to react to temperature change.

Although artificial, the Clinton is an interesting wreck since there is plenty of machinery laying around to look at and it isn't the usual "just another freighter".   I had not dived it since October 2001 and It seemed smaller than I remembered.  Probably because I didn't have a scooter back then!    We did the usual tour around and then dropped down to the sand and up through the centre of the wreck. The wreck has a huge profile, deck  at about 150ft and parts even at 120ft but I was surprised to hit 174ft on my depth gauge at the sand, it was a bit deeper than I remembered too.     On the starboard side there is a small blast hole close to the bottom and Tom zipped down there to inspect it.     I stayed above a little bit and watched, it was way to cold to follow him down there.  I could already feel the chill beginning to set in.    I glanced at my timer wondering if I would be too cold make the scheduled time and to my surprise Dean and Dave showed up already signaling us to get in formation to go to the other wreck.    We were only 10 minutes into the dive.    I had a little private chuckle here knowing how much Dave loves cold water and sure enough they were ready to get the heck out of there early.

We set off, heading due north with the current, and at a depth of about 130ft. We scootered along,  maintaining contact with our lights but keeping as spread out as possible to increase our chances of hitting the second wreck.   I stopped a few times to let Tom catch up ;-)...   After about 5 minutes I saw Tom suddenly cut to the right, and looking at my compass I wondered what was up, because I knew I was going North correctly.    After another 10 seconds I saw the large hulk of the second wreck come into View.     The other team had run into the anchor chain slightly earlier and followed it to find the wreck.     As always it was very satisfying to reach our second target.    The deck of the Miller Lite was at about 125-130ft  and my temperature was now showing 64 degrees.    I was wondering what the temperature must have been at 170 on the Clinton.. NO WONDER we were cold, I think it must have been something with a 5 as the first digit, and very interesting in a 1/2 mil skin!!!!!.    Dean swore later he could see icicles on his mouthpiece at the gas switch :-).     We had arrived early at the wreck, and there was no line.    As we held back in the sand it was fascinating to see the hook coming down as the boat prepared to drop the swimming team.    It bounced and skipped across the deck.     Dean quickly grabbed it and tried to hook it on.    Tom and I scootered around the wreck at about 140ft or so and I found myself gradually creeping towards the shallowest parts of the superstructure trying to get some relief from the cold temperatures.     I also realized that I was breathing way to hard because of the cold and I decided to end the dive.    I was happy to see an enthusiastic head shaking and a thumb from from Tom when I did this.    We went back to the upline just in time to see Dean and Dave clipping off their empty stage bottles to it,  and the bottles passed us as we approached the line on their merry way to the surface.    I told them we were leaving and off we went.    As we watched from above I saw the swimming dive team arrive at the wreck and attempt to set the hook and shoot the anchor up on a lift bag.    With the weight of myself and Tom on the line and the pull from the current they were struggling considerably.    To help them out we released the line and used our scooters to stay in position until they were done.    On reaching 70ft the line was still not unhooked and as we made our gas switch we drifted off and Tom sent up a lift bag which was much more comfortable than waiting on the line for them to finish their dive.      We had a nice peaceful deco,  interrupted only by a very obnoxious ocean trigger fish who didn't seem to understand that I was 100 times larger than him, and the fish was quite aggressive.     I wasn't at all happy about this as I watched that nasty spine he was sticking up on top but finally he swam away and left us in peace.  

Dean and Dave surfaced not too long after us,   and then we waited on the boat for Cliff and John to finish their dive.    It's always fun afterwards listening to everyone's dive experiences and dive stories,  and everyone always on a high and talking at once.     Despite the cold temperatures we all had a good time, and the dive plan had worked out pretty smoothly :-).   All in all a wonderful way to finish the weekend.