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Tortugas Trip, Gulf of Mexico.
Rhein, Araby Maid, U2513, Oil Wreck, Baja California
Tortugas Area Sept 2002
NOTE: If you want to read about the wrecks themselves then it would be better to go to the AUE site and look there because they know a heck of alot more about them than I do. My dive reports are more like stories of my experiences (made possible by their effort) diving them.

This dive trip was one of the most exciting I have ever been on. It feels like somebody opened a window and let me peek outside and there was a whole different world out there.

I arrived at the marina some time around 9:45pm in the middle of a huge downpour.   We had nervously been watching Tropical Storm Edward all week and even though he headed away from us, he still decided to send some token rainfall and it continued to soak us the entire time we were loading the boats to leave .   Some people had already arrived and others were still arriving or unpacking. It takes a tremendous amount of effort to load up two boats with enough gas and tanks for 3 days of diving.   I know everyone would have brought even more stuff if we had been allowed to.   As it was I was over my limit, having 5 deco bottles instead of 4.    Eventually we set off from the dock shortly after midnight. The run out to the wrecks was approximately 120 nautical miles.   After some chit chat, and snacks we all hit our bunks anxious to get some sleep ready for the next day's dives, while the captain bravely stayed up all night and drove the boat.
Diving the Rhein
Tortugas Friday Sept 6th 2002
Depth 250, to the deck 200fsw
I awoke next morning around 7:00am and was amazed to find we weren't there yet!!!! but arrived around 8:00am.   It wasn't long before we were up and already delving into our dive gear.   My first dive was on 15/70, so that I could top up with air and still have good mixes for 3 deep dives from each set of doubles.   I had been very skeptical about this at first but in fact it worked out just fine and I was able to make ALL the dives on decent mixes.     I got a nice scooter tow over to the line :-) which was awesome, and down we went.    This was my first time visiting these deep wrecks out here and it was a real adventure.   On our first drop my buddy and I found out that while we were gearing up the boat had broken loose, so there was no wreck at the bottom of the line, we returned to the surface to let everyone know and informed the captain.    The second drop was great.     The water was a perfect blue, and then I saw the giant kingposts of the Rhein standing up to greet me.

   I saw the buddy pair below me messing with the hook which had popped off the wreck again and was dragging away across the sand.    There was no way they were going to retrieve it by swimming, but with the help of my buddy's scooter he managed to scooter the grapple back over to the wreck and then between us hook it back in place,   PHEW!!.   I turned towards the stern to begin my tour.   My head was full of advice about where to find this and that and where the portholes were etc: etc: but it wasn't long before I realized that I wasn't going to get very far in the short BT of 25 minutes that we had.     I saw the huge mast that had fallen laying across the deck. There were two cargo holds that I could see in my immediate area so I ducked down for a few minutes into them to see what was down there.    I didn't go to the bottom, wanting to conserve both back gas and deco gas, so at this point I hit my maximum depth of 214fsw for this dive.    I scouted around a bit in the silt looking for buried things but didn't see much so I headed out and a little further towards the stern.     Larry told me that the stern was broken off and I wanted to see it but this wreck is over 400ft long and there was no way I was going to make it so I reluctantly turned around and headed back towards the line. I arrived there at 2000psi and headed up.

   The fish were incredible. It seemed to me that I had been beamed into a land of GIANT fish, all triple the size of the ones on the East coast.   One of the first things I saw when I hit the deck was the biggest hogsnapper that I had EVER seen, and all I could think was "Eric is never gonna believe this one !" he looked almost the same size as the desk in my office!!!.    Not only this they were so very curious that they kept coming really close just to inspect me. Imagine being inspected by a 5ft long amberjack!!

    This wreck is definitely a scooter dive if you want to see all of it.   Luckily I was to have a second dive in the afternoon so I had two chances to view everything.   I elected, on my afternoon dive to head towards the bow.    This proved to be very interesting, and at this point I realized that the hook was way closer to the the bow than the stern,   I got there quite quickly. No wonder I never made it to the stern earlier.      There were some long thin gun barrel looking things on the bow. with a kind of metal arch over one end of them.   I'd swear that they looked like guns but couldn't be sure because they were pretty thin.    Then I went back around the forward superstructure which was pretty intact and easy to swim into.     Having not yet found any of the legendary "things" on this wreck I dropped down to the forward cargo holds at about 230 and took a small tour inside.     I honestly could have spent the entire 3 days diving this wreck, there is so much to explore but then looking at my timer I figured, darnit time to go back to the line, and besides that my wet suited buddy had his teeth chattering at this point and was longingly looking at the surface.

     That evening we had the most awesome surprise. As if it wasn't enough fun to get to dive a primo wreck twice in one day, we were visited by a huge group of dolphins as the sun was going down.    There were so many dolphins that we couldn't count, there could have been anywhere between 50 and 200.   They just wanted to play with us and hang out.     I grabbed my bathing suit and jumped in over the side and I saw Sleepy and Jeff off the other boat jump in also, shortly followed by Larry and his video camera, and Cindy from our boat.    It was incredible swimming with the dolphins,   they swam so close around us, turning onto their sides so I could see the white undersides as I was swimming.    If you snorkeled down a couple of feet you could hear the water full of dolphin noises too.   It was a once in a lifetime encounter.   After about 30 minutes or so I guess they decided we weren't as good swimmers as they were and they left us and our boats alone again in the middle of the ocean.
Diving the Araby Maid
Tortugas Sept 7th 2002
Depth 210,
After quite a bit of discussing we decided to move to the Araby Maid and dive there the next morning.     On this day we were hoping to squeeze in three dives, and so hopped in the water pretty early.    Again I got a nice scooter ride over to the line, thanks Larry.   If I keep his up I will be getting too lazy soon and forget how to swim to the line :-).   Today I started on my second set of doubles, it was so nice to go back to my 95's after dragging the 104's around the day before.    The visibility was beautiful and there was NO current, as I headed down to the wreck and again I was struck by the number and size of the fish population.       On this dive I saw some of the other divers way below me almost on the bottom as I was heading down, it is amazing how tiny they looked.    This wreck was very different to the Rhein.   It was much older with a smaller profile, and of course therefore less intact, but in no way less interesting.      The visibility was great.      I dropped down through the deck into the lower levels and was fascinated by the fact that the bottom appeared to be made of wood.     In fact this was the case, and the wooden floorboards are still intact and remarkably well preserved.   As I shone my light over the floor you could pick out the green glint of some of the old brass fixtures such as bolts and hinges etc:.    Then I spied something that was completely circular but so covered in growth that there was no way to tell what it might be.    I turned it over a few times but still couldn't figure it out. Next time you are there go and look for the giant polo mint :-) maybe you can figure it out. I had an annoying equipment failure at this point and elected to leave my giant polo mint in place before a second failure would have made the first one significant (you know these things never happen in ones, it's the snowball effect) and so I turned the dive at 17 minutes.     While on deco I couldn't help suppressing a smile as I saw my friend with a piece of china carefully clipped off with a spool hanging down below him.      It looked to me exactly like a piece off a chamber pot and I figured I'd tease him about that later.     It brought back memories of my granny who was a very old fashioned lady and did actually keep a chamber pot under her bed.   (She also used to save the last 1" of milk stout from her evening beer to set her hair once a week while she watched match of the day :-)..)
Diving the U2513
Tortugas Sept 7th 2002
Our next dive was on the U2513.    This one was the real challenge of the trip for me. We noticed a current at the surface as we were hooking the wreck, and set up a line.     It looked significant but not like the type of thing you see routinely on the East coast wrecks.      Of course I elected for a scooter tow over to the line and so bravely the USS Sea Wolf pulled us along for a little while.   I made sure my buoyancy was cool, and tucked in behind Larry as much as I could to reduce drag, then I looked up and we were STILL in the same place under the boat although of course down somewhat.    I started kicking to help get us over there, but a couple of minutes later I looked again and we were making almost no progress so I let go and decided to swim it not wanting to break the scooter.       Let me tell you that this was the swim of a lifetime, the current was stronger at about 60ft than at the surface and the line almost never seemed to get any closer.    Eventually I reached it and was able to pull myself down to the wreck arriving there a full 9 minutes into the dive, and with considerably less gas than I wanted.    I hung out and hid from the current behind the broken section of the wreck for a few minutes and chilled out. I then re-checked my gas and set off for a quick tour.     I was at least able to see some of it and started swimming towards the bow past the conning tower which was tilted to starboard.     I surveyed the sand a little bit also looking for parts of the debris field.    I had been warned that if I found something that looked like a coffee can with fins on it definitely NOT to bring it back with me!!!    I turned around and wanted to go back to check the broken section where I had chilled out earlier, it had been looking as if it had some interesting places to check out, and not only this I was sure I had seen a lobster in there!!!!   But I needed to get another decent mix out of the tanks I was using so I elected to leave the bottom with 2000psi and get a better look next time.

I finished my deco with a little extra help from a sleepy ramora, and while drifting at about 5ft of depth back to the boat saw a big bull shark approaching from far away in the distance.   The thing is with the visibility being so great I had a fantastic look at it even though it was far away.    I have a bull shark drawing pinned up in my office so that if I ever saw one close enough I would be able to recognize it instantly.    WELL! I recognized this one very instantly and I could see it's little piggy eyes.    It came within about 50ft and I was anxiously watching for any change in behaviour as I drifted along I estimated it to be about an 8ft shark maybe a bit more who knows, but big enough to eat me.   After about 15 seconds or so the shark took a last look and decided that red and black rubber clad fish don't taste good, flipped his tail and left again,   Phew!!!   One wonders how many of them do that in poorer vis that you never ever see??
Night Diving the Oil Wreck
145 fsw
Tortugas, Sept 7th 2002
I sat and relaxed after my marathon swimming dive earlier as we motored over to the Oil Wreck, but when one of the guys appeared on the other boat asking Night Dive anyone?! I decided now was the time to get back in the water, and three of us headed down to the Oil wreck.     I had a total blast on this dive.    Due to the shallower depth I took only one deco gas, and it seems as if I was flying around the wreck instead of dragging all that extra stuff around.    We arrived down there to a spectacular sight.   The whole wreck was chock full of sleeping turtles.   They had little hidey holes in corners and underneath debris and they were simply snoring their heads off down there.     The visibility was quite poor at night I guess about 30-40 ft so we stuck pretty close together.   Although it wasn't difficult since all of us had big cave lights (note My new helios 9 arrived in time for the trip :-).. BG).   So many tiny fish and plankton wanted to gather around the light head it was really interesting just watching that.      I was also getting that feeling you get on night dives when the zillions of tiny fish are so dense that they are bumping into you allover your face, it reminded me of my night time Keys bridge dives.    At one point I saw Jeff disturb a big old sleeping nurse shark that zoomed off at top speed.      The wreck was covered in shrimp nets and all kinds of fishing tackle.   I looked into a hole and found the remains of a sizeable dead turtle.   The shell was upside down just the bones remaining.     I picked one up, but somehow it made me feel bad, and I felt as if this place was mystical as is suspected of an "elephant graveyard".    The thought of the great age of these creatures, then coming here to die was quite creepy.    We disturbed quite a few big huge jewfish but I didn't realize the extent of the jewfish population until I saw the wreck in full daylight the next day.   The wreck itself was pretty interesting although very difficult to get oriented at night, and it just seemed like a jungle of ribs and giant oil drums, with us swimming around between them.     We ran our bottom time to 30 minutes and then left.    The deco made me pretty nervous out there in the dark, I suppose your mind gets to run wild while you have lots of time on your hands to just hang out in the water.    I spotted what I thought were a bunch of very small sharks hanging around and then swimming away when I shone my light at them.    Then I remembered all of the recent discussions about sharks and HID lights which of course made me triple nervous.   I was very glad to get out of the water after the dive, I mean even though they were very small it still doesn't mean they can't bite.
Diving the Oil Wreck
Tortugas Sept 8th 2002
Depth 145,
As I was semi sleeping (all night) in my bunk it really seemed that the seas were picking up and I was rocking and rolling allover the place. I was very happy to find that early next morning we were still able to gear up again for the Oil wreck dive.   We had not had flat seas all weekend but the weather had still remained pretty decent for diving despite Edward. This morning the sun was shining and I was ready to go.    We planned a 45 minute bottom time.       I dropped in and this time swam over to the line in no current.   The visibility was crystal clear it must have been about 200ft.      I could see the wreck below me and around it was a milky haze that only occurred at the wreck, nowhere else.    Since we were the first down there I know it wasn't anyone making silt, it just seemed like a natural condition.     I actually descended extremely slowly just looking at the awesome view.    There were literally thousands of fish on the wreck, this definitely took the prize for the fishtank dive of the week.    Loads of Jacks and barracudas, and I saw an enormous shoal of what I call lookdowns, just like a cloud.     On the wreck itself the vis was maybe 50ft.   I saw the nurse shark again, i'm sure it was the same one we had flushed out the night before.    For a large part of this dive I hung motionless just watching the fish.    I swam up to the stern and this was when I bumped into the biggest crowd of jewfish I had EVER seen in my life.    There must have been a dozen of them all swimming in and out of the wreck and believe me they were not scared of me at all,    some even zoomed too close for comfort.      The turtles were still around, and one medium sized on swam right towards me, he seemed to be looking at something else, and I thought he was going to bump into me.   In fact he went under me and missed me by about 2 inches.     It was pretty freaky being so close and I really wasn't too sure about that big beak of his.   As always there is never enough time on the wreck and soon it was time to leave, yet deco was a great deal of fun because we were treated to the same spectacular view and fish display that we had viewed on the trip down there.
Diving the Baja California
Tortugas Sept 8th 2002
Depth 110,
I could not believe that it was time for our last dive already,   I still had something like 15% He in my tanks which was quite amazing I thought.    Had anyone told me I could do that before this weekend. I would not have believed them.    I had been told that this wreck was stuffed with jewfish and bottles and I couldn't figure out which I wanted to look for plus this was the only dive shallow enough for me to get some photos with my camera so I decided what the heck I would do all three.     Immediately I plopped into the water I saw the vis was like milkshake, but there was absolutely NO current.    I spotted the team from the other boat on deco as we were going down, and stopped to check out what they had found before continuing on.    I was greeted by a giant round deck gun laying tilted at a weird angle.   It was pretty spectacular but due to the milky vis and it's large size it wasn't possible to get a good picture.    I started a tour of the wreck in search of bottles, debris and jewfish.     I was rewarded with all of them.     I smiled as we passed Al and Cindy doing exactly the same thing I was. Ahead of Me I saw one of my goals a large group of jewfish, they were hard to see in the low vis but still there, I think maybe I saw about 6 or 7 of them.       I was beginning to get a bit discouraged looking for stuff when I saw my buddy had laid his video camera down and was trying to reach something under an overhang.    I popped down to help him out and slid into the spot he was reaching under.    I could see several things but couldn't figure out what it was he was after so I passed back some pieces of china and a glass bottle stopper,   then it got even more interesting as I pressed further in I could see an old newspaper rolled up.   I grabbed it and took a look.   I was so fantastic to think that I was looking at a newspaper from so long ago I and couldn't believe it was so intact.    It had been rolled up with many layers I could tell it had cartoons on there.   I passed that back to my buddy, and pressed even further in.     I could see a shopping bag half buried under the silt too but it was just that little bit too far and I didn't want to get myself keyed in by the butt end of my tanks so I slowly backed out.    I moved further down and saw some blue bottles but they were totally welded to a large chunk of debris, neither Larry nor I could budge them.     I then spotted the rim of another one and amazingly it was whole and just popped out of the silt.    It turned out later to be a bottle that had contained Vicks Vapor Rub (well I suppose they needed that back then too).     I saw a comb too but I assumed that it had been dropped by a shrimp boat or something, but I heard later that it was probably really part of the cargo.   My buddy also found a button :-).      I checked my timer and we needed to begin thinking about our time, we made a final bottom time of 45 minutes.

Now that we found all this stuff I had to carry it since I didn't bring a bag, and I quickly learned why I need to be able to clip and unclip things on my gear with one hand <G>. However I managed to balance the stuff, make my gas switch and still deco with no losses :-). Oh yeah and I did take a few pictures on deco as well :-)..
Epilogue
Although we had been heading in the general direction of home as we hopped from wreck to wreck it was still a 3 1/2 hour ride back to the dock. For the most part we just slowly put gear away and the boat gradually began to look a little more orderly. A much less exciting task than it had been at the beginning of the trip. We arrived back at the dock and unloaded both boats, Then after a great deal of effort I managed to get everyone in one place for a final group shot (very hard to do when everyone is not on the same boat). I always hate goodbyes but this was the end of the trip so we exchanged hugs (well the guys didn't) and everyone headed back to their homes until next time. I got back at 11:30pm, with a car stuffed to the ceiling with salty gear :-(.. but I didn't care it was worth every single bit of effort. This was some of the best wreck diving I have ever done, I can't wait to go back and do it all over again one day. Thanks to everyone for diving with me :-).