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Hi all I have not posted many trip reports lately, but since we have a special trip going to the "Mexicana" in August , I will post this one because that is where we went this past weekend. WE departed the dock at 9:30pm on Saturday on the dive boat "Miss Lindsey" to dive the "Mexicana" depth 140ft. We also plan to do a night on the way there and the 4A drydock was chosen, the depth of this was 72 ft and I have no details of the site, but believe it to be artificial. We got to the site at just before 11pm, several of our quest chose not to do this dive as they had already settled into their bunks for the night, "BIG MISTAKE" , those that dived were treated to 40 ft vis which is unheard of on that site most of the time, not to even mention the lobsters that they got, some had never got one before, so they were a happy bunch. Mike Hiller (owner of LDC) recovered one of the brass lights with glass intact. I did not dive that site, I had other plans! We arrived at the "Mexicana" at around 3am, it is 60 miles to the wreck and worth every mile to get there. My plan was to dive it as soon as we got there, which I did, Capt Mike Hiller hooked the wreck and in I went to do the "tie in" as everyone slept Capt Mike and one mate stayed up to monitor my dive. I do not recommend the solo dives like I do, at night they can be very stressful and 140ft can produce a significant amount of required deco. I entered the water with scooter and followed along the anchor line, the temp was a warm 71 until I reached 62 ft, there the temp dropped to 59, at 100 ft it went to 51. I completed my task of the tie in and attached a tank light to the anchor, our strobe light had burned out on the first dive, vis was an clear 80ft. The wreck sits on her keel and is around I think 300ft long. The bow is broken off and laying on her port side, The boilers are exposed as the shell plating has fallen to make easy access to them in this area. Much of the decking is gone to expose the beams and frames of the deck. Easy cargo holes to go into( which I did and have done before), but I have been unable to recover anything in them. The "Aft Helm" still is in place but only half of it and is made of steel and wood. I scootered along the STBD side, we were hooked in at STBD AFT. There were several seabass sleeping for the night and they did not care too much for me waking them up. I did a sharp turn around the bow ran right into a net that is hung on the wreck and suspended with float balls, almost all our wrecks have those on them. I did not become tangled in it and it was only a wake up call to be more careful, I was alone, there would be no one to help me should I need it. I scootered back along the port side and around the stern until back at the tie in, 24 mins had past. I drop into the cargo hole and took a look for a couple mins and headed up. At 60ft I saw something in the corner of my eye, I shined my light to see what it was and then startled by a school of large amberjacks. I have caught sharks in the area in excess of 800lbs and lost bigger ones( look in the fish gallery of my site), so it weights in the back of your mind. During my 30ft stop I could still see the light I put on the anchor light which was at 110ft. The deck lights from around the "Miss Lindsey" had the water lite up to 30ft deep and a 60ft radius. I could see something very large moving just out of the light, it was no school of amberjack. Slow moving and seem to be staying at the same distance away. I kept checking my time hoping to hurry and get out of the water, I did not like the feeling I was getting. I was looking at my BT when it made its move to me and I looked up at a very large sea turtle coming right at me, I really think I scared him more than he did me when I put my light on him.I completed my deco and got on the boat to sleep for a bit. By morning everyone was talking and preparing to dive, seas were slick 2-3ft rollers and brite sunshine. Breakfast of eggs, toast, and link sausage was served by our mate Becky.If you don't get seasick, you will gain weight if dive on the "Miss Lindsey" alot. Everyone completed their first dive, but not without a little excitement. Tom Adams who is one of the few who dives as much as me, had an up close talk with that same net I had avoided, had it not been for his dive buddy Debbie Evans he may not have gotten out of it. Good job "Debbie"! Capt Mike Hiller ( also known as Big Mike) had speared an amberjack to cook for lunch, while snorkeling. So it was hot dogs, hamburgers, and fish for lunch. I had plan to do my second dive and started down the anchor line only to reach the bottom and see just nothing but sand, the shackle had broken we were not in the wreck anymore, no other divers were in the water at this time, just me. I came up and informed everyone and we rehooked the wreck and I went down tied in and did my dive. Everyone came in just behind me and in a short time we were headed home from a great dive. I will have a few photos on my site in a few days of this trip. JT "You can't learn to dive on the net, sooner or later you have to get in the water" Your Guide to Great Wreck Diving along the East Coast & more Web Site http://www.capt-jt.com/ Email captjt@mi*.co* -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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