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dalehall
07-31-2007, 12:09 AM
Report from the Oriskany, 28 Jul 07.

Booked the Charter through MBT Divers in Pensacola. We were charted on the “Tech Rec” with Capt Chris Wachtel and deck mate, his very attractive, yet under-aged, daughter, Erin. They were most excellent hosts and provided a great day on the water. The charter had my group of 4 and two other divers from NC and PA. The 6 of us enjoyed a looong 2 hour ride out to the “Mighty O.” The Tech Rec isn’t the fastest boat to charter to the “O”, but it wasn’t the slowest either.

We got above the “O” and Erin tied us off to a buoy. We first splashed at 1100 local with 27% NITROX. We went straight to the Flight Deck. The down line was tied off on the ship at 111 feet, so by the time we got to the end of the line, we could see the flight deck. We jumped down, took a reading showing 137 feet as we stood on the flight deck, and then took a few pictures. With our profile, we only had 9 minutes of bottom time at 137 fsw, so right after pics, we started to spiral our way up and around the island. Vis was only about 60 feet on this dive. Capt Chris said it was the worst vis he had seen in a few weeks. (Lucky us).. We worked our way up and ended the dive 1152 local. Saw a bunch of amberjack, bleemies, triggerfish, and a good number of barracuda.

1.5 hours surface interval and we splashed again. This time we were running 30% and kept our max depth above 100 feet. This dive concentrated on the swim-thrus all along the island. We entered the bridge and took a couple pictures and then hit just about every door we could find working our way up. There was one that allowed you to go up a stairwell and another that took you from one side of the island and out the other. It was an awesome time going into the wreck with no chance of getting trapped or lost. From every open door in the island you can see another door way or opening to the outside. They planned this wreck well for Recreational Divers. Vis, unfortunately, dropped to about 40 feet near the end of this dive. We were all getting low on air, so we called it and ascended to our safety stop. For the most part, uneventful and very cool dive. We had a couple “operator error” minor SNAFU’s, but nothing that caused any harm or danger to anyone in our group. I will put them on my website when I update it, but I won’t tell them here. ;)

After the diving, there was a loooong 2 hour ride back to the Marina. But, we had a blast on the trip.!!! All in all, a VERY exciting day.

In case anyone is interested, we also ate at two really good joints: The Fish House and Trigger’s Seafood. Both highly recommended. The Fish House is a bit more upscale than we’re used too, but Trigger’s is a down-home “Mom and Pop” type joint that is some good eatin’!!!

To finish up the story, we stopped by Morrison Spring and did a dive to rinse the gear on our way back to GA. 3 of the 4 of us had never been and the other had been over 4 years ago. Nice dive, but it got crowded near the end. We were running 32% there and got an hour, 27 minutes on that one dive out of an AL80. Afterwards, we loaded up the gear and headed back to GA.. I was back home in enough time to tuck my 13 month old into bed that evening. I’ll load up the pictures from the trip and a detailed write-up on my website and post a link here when it’s done. I have to work this weekend, so that will be a good time to do it. :D

acelockco
07-31-2007, 02:11 AM
Thanks for the great dive report. I may be drilling you with some questions later as we are going there in November. Glad to hear you had a good time.

Sounds like you loved the little boat rides you had. Anyway, did you say you got 87 minutes dive time out of one AL80? How deep was your dive? I am wondering if I could do that on land let alone at any depth.

dalehall
07-31-2007, 11:53 AM
Thanks.. You have any questions, feel free to PM me and I'll give you my direct email. I'll answer what I can. :)
Yes, I was surprised to hear we got 87 minutes out of an AL80 also. I got too close to the surface once and my computer started counting another dive, so I never knew the total bottom time until after we got out and added the two up. I dive a lot with a female dive buddy, so I've been really working on my breathing so I didn't short change her dives. When we first started diving together last October, I would have to call the dive around 500 and she still had about 1000 left. I started working on it and this past weekend, after 87 minutes, she 390 and I had 380. Depth was very minimal. Most of the dive was between 12 and 20 feet (the outer rim of Morrison).. I did hit the cavern a couple times (35 feet) and the cave sign once (45 feet)..

acelockco
07-31-2007, 01:48 PM
Funny, I had a similar time with my wife. In the begining she would ALWAYS outlast me by at least 500 psi if not more. It made me start to think about my air consumption and now I actually can outlast her by a few hundred psi. That being said, we only get about 50 minutes out of an AL80, but most of our dive is at 40-45 feet @ 45-50 minutes and I thought that was good.

dalehall
08-04-2007, 08:06 PM
All of the pictures from the weekend are now loaded on my site.. Click link below and then go to "Trips page."