Posted by Ross-O on September 01, 2003 at 14:45:47:
Hah! I beat Phil to the trip report!
Phil & I dove the Moody this AM. 42 min dive, 15 min BT, 52F at the bottom, 61F at the surface, 64F in the boat. Vis sucked both above the water & below.
We arrived at the boat at 7AM to find a heavy layer of fog dropping vis to only about 100 yards or so. We were more than a bit nervous leaving the harbor and kept a close eye on the radar. We had to do some unexpected manuevering more than once. We anchored above the Moody and waited around a little while for the fog to open up. Both of us had visions of hanging on the anchor chain and feeling a big tug and then feeling the line go limp as a freighter ran over the Giant Stride. When the fog opened up to a half mile or so, we geared up, and rolled off into a nasty green layer that had us fighing to see our fin tips. We hoped that like on Sat, the vis would open beneath the thermocline. Vis opened to an optimistic 20 or so at several spots up and down the line, but the bottom only gave us 8' true vis with about 15' of "see your buddies HID vis". As we've done 3 times in a row now, we dropped our anchor and chain all over and into the wreck. The first few mins of the dive was spent dragging the anchor and chain clear of the twisted metal. Our original plan was to double up on Phil's scooter and try to see both sides of the wreck in the 20 mins or so of planned BT. Upon finding the line leading to the other side, we looked at each other and shook our heads NO WAY! In case of crappy conditions, the backup plan was to play around the anchor for 15 mins or so and then head back up. I grabbed onto Phil's tow line (I can't admitting grabbing another dude's crotch strap) and we went for a little scooter ride along the wreck. Vis sucked so bad that we didn't even feel comfortable making a lap around the wreck so we headed back to the anchor. In our few mins of playing around on the wreck, we found a beautiful colony of about 8 2-3' tall metridiums inside one of rooms, we found several huge lings hanging out in the twisted metal, we found the usual assortment of big nudis, and I salvaged a small piece of brass. After spending another minute or two making sure the anchor was well clear of the wreck, we began our long cold ascent. We hit a thermocline on our 60ft stop that warmed us up a few degrees. It wasn't much warmer, but it was much appreciated.
This was one of the darkest and most eerie dives that I've been on. I love warm waters and great vis, but there's also something wonderful about the dark, alien, spooky dives that we have from time to time. Diving with Phil is always a blast even when conditions don't cooperate and today was no exception.
I hope y'all have a great Memorial day.
Ross-O