Posted by Wayne on November 12, 2000 at 20:21:04:
Dove the Yukon again on Saturday. This time I planned to dive her with two of my daughters and a freind. The other two kids and dog did not want to go out on the boat and wait, so the wife stayed with them (the wife was not that impressed with the Yukon when she dove her last week). We arrived at a bad time. Three of the moorings were taken and the boat at the bridge mooring was floated against the other bridge mooring so I could not pick it up without risk of collision or hitting divers in the water (we assumed there would be divers in the water with all these boats, but there were actually no divers in the water at the time).
So we sat in the boat and waited for somebody to leave. We waited a very long time. We had the chance to reflect on how slow these guys could be. I was amazed how long these boats were on-site with no divers in the water. So there we sat bobbing in the water. Every 10 minutes or so we would move back near the wreck and again take up our watch. All that bobbing was too much for #2 daughter's stomach. She announced she was no longer doing the dive and entertained herself by chumming for fish off the starboard side.
Finally a 6-pack left and we took the stern mooring. Vis was much, much better this time. No current, but a bit of swell. The swell was interesting since it gave the illusion of buoyancy problems. If we were inside or near an opening, the swell would propell us up or down instead of back and forth. With the ship being on its side, this added to the oddnes of the experience.
We tried to take pictures by posing with the props. Unfortuantely, the camera did not want to flash. The film did not seem to advance either. I looked and all the correct lights were on, it just did not work. So there I was dragging a dead camera around for the dive. After the dive, #1 daughter picked up the camera and showed my why it had trouble. 3/8" of sea water was inside the housing. Dang. Crap. Just bought the wife a new BC and computer and slip rent is coming due, so I will not be able to take pictures for a very long time.
Over all the dive was great. There is a bit of hard encrustation taking place and the murals are still highly visable. I had to laugh about the ease of communication at this site. I started to feel cold about 20 minutes into the dive. Just then I came across where someone had written "ITS COLD" in the moss. All I had to do was point! We got to the planned pressure to turn back and scooted along the deck side back to the stern and headed up to the 15 fsw spot to hang out for five.
Next trip to San Diego will be when I drive the boat to Cabrillo Marina in San Pedro. I do not expect to dive the Yukon again for many years. I am glad that this dive had better vis and was so much fun. So my memories of the Yukon are almost all good -- certainly better than if the poor visability of last week was all I had. Now if only the nut behind the viewfinder had not flooded the camera!
Wayne