Hydro Atlantic 174fsw.
Location Pompano Bch
Boat - Brownies Reef Roamer
March 17th (Day before St. Patrick's day) 2003
A small group of divers left the dock under a cloudy sky at around 1:05pm on
Sunday afternoon. Myself and my two buddies Tom and Dave. The
seas were very calm, but it was strange that this weekend summer seemed to have
arrived. Hot weather, Thunderstorms and rainy downpours, yet
it is still only March.
We were having quite a bit of fun on the way out since Dave wanted to test out
his new scooter on it's maiden Voyage. He thinks it is the fastest
in the world!!!!!! True it was bigger than mine and Tom's but we
were waiting to see it in action before we could be persuaded to agree.
Conditions looked really spiffy as we got to the wreck site, with almost
no apparent current and a 1ft sea!! I just couldn't wait to jump
in. We splashed, checked each other and then
headed for the bottom. It is amazing how many things can
change during the descent. I seemed to be going very slowly
down, I guess I must have been in Dave's propwash ;-).. but then I felt
it... Yikes!!!! the temperature dropped, and dropped and I could feel icy
water on my face, it was so cold I yelled out &^%%$$*^#@ Cold through my
reg. I expect the others thought I had gone bonkers!! So far I have
resisted getting separate inflation gas for my suit because I already have enough stuff
to carry, but on this dive I was wishing that I had one. As the
wreck came into view the current picked up just a little and the visibility
improved. There was just enough current to have some fun with our
scooters. First job was to send the grapple up on a lift bag and
then chain the line onto the wreck, but as we arrived I see that there was a
perfect bullseye and the grapple was way down in a hole. The
good part was that Dave had already volunteered at the surface to do the job
<G>.. He seems to be a bit nervous about losing these anchors
;-).. I see him hauling up the hook then Tom popped into the hole
and fetched the chain out, and we found a cool spot to clip it off. I
checked my timer and it was reading 68 degrees..
Then we lapped the wreck a couple of times just to start the dive and then I
homed in for the skylight leading to the engine room.
We Dropped off the scooters and stuff and headed inside. I went
straight down two levels to the engine room. It was
cold... and I looked at my gauge again.. now it was reading 64 degrees..! Brrrrr. We played around in there a
little bit, I love to check all of the handles and valves in there just to
pretend to turn them as if they were still working. Going
through into the next room it opens up into a huge hold with an opening to the
surface, where the roof has fallen in. There are huge chunks
of the upper deck just hanging there and it makes me wonder if sooner or later
they will drop off onto an unsuspecting diver as the ocean claims the wreck as
it's own. I looked back and saw Dave giving me the signal to leave
and I saw Tom looking pretty cold in there so we turned and exited the
same way we entered. It actually felt warm back on the deck
even though it was still only 68 degrees up there. At 27minutes we
turned the dive and headed over to get the line. All three of
us were cold and deco seemed very very long, but it was such an awesome feeling
as you were moving up to your next stop and feeling the warmer
water. I saw our safety diver pop down to 70ft in a very light
wetsuit, and I was thinking that he must have been really really chilly!
As we were at 20ft we were buzzed by an enormous turtle all covered in
barnacles, with a contingent of little fishes swimming with it, which was a
magnificent sight. It was a pity that we couldn't
scooter after it but when it saw us it quickly dropped out of sight.
It was so nice to break the surface and feel warm again :-), how strange, early
summer at the surface, and abnormally cold water below.
I was feeling sad on the way back because it was Sunday afternoon and the
beginning of another work week was just one day away, but then I
remembered.... Next weekend Key west!!!! :-), maybe it's
warmer down there.
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