First dive of the day Saturday was on the wreck of the USS HOGAN. The swell model predictions hadn’t appeared to be too favorable, but when we got to the mouth of the channel at Mission Bay, it looked good enough that I knew Dean was going to want to take the chance and run down near the Mexico / US border and try to get on the wreck. It turned out to be a great decision. The predicted swells never materialized and we had a gorgeous day diving off Danny’s "Ugly Yellow Boat" (http://www.yellowcharterboat.com/ - great dive platform). When the conditions cooperate, the HOGAN is a beautiful wreck – a WICKES class destroyer that saw action in both WWI and WWII, including the attack on Iwo Jima – and the conditions more than cooperated. The first 20 feet were green with about 10ft of viz, but after we broke through that it was beautiful. Our combined estimates ran the gamut of between 40 and 50 feet visibility on the wreck itself. Almost no current. It was a tad chilly – we all came up with very similar Suunto readings of 50°f at 126 fsw – which Dean swears is really 47-48°. I don’t know why he was complaining since, unlike our pairing, he, Cyndy and Danny were all diving dry. Despite the chill, or even arguably because of it, Veronica and I had an amazing dive. Danny and Dean had managed to put the anchor about 15’ south of the very much intact stern of the wreck. With available visibility there was no chance of any navigation problems and we were able to view a good portion of the remains of this very impressive vessel. However, all too quickly our bottom time was running short. Soon after I turned our dive though, Veronica and I spotted a very cool wolf eel peering out of what appeared to be a circular ventilation shaft in one of the bulkheads. I had never seen one this far south before. An excellent addition to an already memorable dive.

SLANG

• Re: Dive Report - 3.22.08 Danny Howard 10:42:01 04/03/08 (0)