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Considering that the list is so quiet lately, I thought I'd post one of my recent dive reports to stir up some conversation. I post these regularly to the FLTechDiver list but usually not to this list. Here ya go... ============================================ Date: Sunday December 10, 2000 Boat: Splash By: Mike Rodriguez Seven AUE divers met in Panama City in the Florida Panhandle to dive the Ozark, a Navy mine-layer commissioned in 1944. The Ozark is 450 feet long with a 60 foot beam. It served in WWII and later in peace-time in the South Atlantic. In 1975 the Ozark was used for target practice with laser-guided bombs. A storm broke loose the ship and it ran aground. It was towed back out to sea and another storm later sank it. It now sits upright in the sand at just over 320 feet deep. A few weeks before this dive, our team got together for dinner and to watch video of another group's expedition to the Ozark. The visibility in the video was spectacular, and we were hoping to find the same conditions at the site for this dive; unfortunately, it didn't work out that way... Our team loaded the boat early in the morning and we were underway well before sunrise. Although there was a nearly full moon in the sky, a dense fog obscured it making for a very dark night. Using the boat's radar the captain carefully guided us out of the harbor and into open ocean. Our course was southwest and the wind was out of the northeast giving us a following sea and a relatively smooth ride. We arrived at the site about five hours after getting under way. Even now the fog still had not lifted completely and above the fog was an overcast sky. The air temperature was about 70F and the water was 72F. There was a light current and good visibility on the surface. The seas were less than two feet. I was diving trimix 12/60/28 with 50% and 100% oxygen for decompression. Everyone gathered around the bottom finder as the huge ship passed underneath us and registered on the screen. We dropped our large grapple hook onto the wreck and waited for it to snag. Pulling on the line confirmed that we were securely hooked in, so we geared up and piled onto the platform at the rear of the boat to wait for the drop. When we were in position, the captain called out and we dropped in. I immediately found the line and was the first on the way down following the gentle slope. One of my buddies scootered past me at about 100 feet and I lost sight of him in the gloomy darkness below. Around 200 feet the visibility dropped from around 80 feet near the surface to about 20 feet near the bottom. At 250 feet it became essentially a totally dark night dive. Even my HID did little to cut through the gloom. I continued down making sure to stay close to the line. At around 280 feet I finally saw my buddy who'd passed me on his scooter; he was securing the hook on the ship. I waited by the hook trying to figure out which way the ship was oriented as the other divers arrived down the line. Looking up I could just barely see the silhouette of the crow's nest at 200 feet against the almost pitch dark water. It was spooky. I reoriented myself, then went exploring. I swam toward what I thought was the starboard side of the ship and dropped to the sand. My bottom timer read 328 fresh-water which is ~318 feet of salt water. The sand was very fine, almost like silt. It wasn't granular like sand usually is and stirring it up clobbered the visibility completely in that area. I swam toward the bow and saw dozens of very odd-looking triangular fish on the bottom. They were about three inches on each side with a half-inch long very skinny nose and what looked like frog-legs on either side. Later, I was unable to find them in a book, but I did confirm that they were batfish of some sort. They were very docile and I was able to pick them up easily without them trying to swim away. One of my buddies dropped to the sand with me and I circled one of the fish with my light and asked him through my regulator "what the hell it THAT?"... his answer came immediately... "I dunno!" The exchanged gave me a laughing fit. Once I recovered, I swam along the sand toward the bow which is crushed and mangled from the bombing practice the ship sustained before it sank. I rounded the bow then stopped in the sand for a moment to contemplate where I was... over 320 feet below the surface and 60 miles offshore. More people have been to the moon than where I was. I recovered from these thoughts, and continued exploring. I swam aft along the port side of the ship at deck level where I noticed numerous brass fittings and assorted artifacts waiting to be collected; maybe on our next visit to the Ozark. I passed the bridge and continued aft where the character of the ship changed from lots of structures to a wide flat area which turned out to be a helicopter landing pad. I swam all the way to the stern intending to swim down to the rudder, but as I reached the stern, my time was almost over. Reluctantly, I turned back to the floatline. I arrived at 20 minutes total time and by the time we'd unhooked the line and started up, I'd spent 22 minutes on the bottom. Around 250 feet daylight began to return and by my first decompression stop at 190 feet there was enough light to read my gauges without artificial light. Around this time, the hook fouled on the line apparently began to touch bottom which prevented the floatline from drifting freely in the light current. Rather than swim against the current during the long decompression, I began to pull the hook up about 50 feet; my buddies immediately read my intentions and came to help. We tied a knot in the line and retracted enough line to keep the hook off the bottom; with the line in a free-drift, we all casually floated about and completed deco uneventfully except for a couple of sharks that got a little too close to two of our divers for comfort. Once everyone was back on the boat, we eat hot-dogs and changed into dry clothes as we talked about our dive. We were all disappointed that the visibility was so poor, but at least we'd finally dove the Ozark which had been on our "must do" list for a long time. On the way home we talked excitedly about our upcoming AUE dives on the Andrea Doria and we began planning our next visit to the Ozark next summer. We reached the dock late in the afternoon and said goodbye to those heading home that evening. The following morning a few more left for home, but three of us headed out for some cave diving at nearby Jackson Blue spring to rinse our gear before heading home. In the end, despite arduous conditions both on the boat and below the surface, we had a very successful weekend and we're all looking forward to our next visit to Panama City and the Ozark next year. -Mike Rodriguez <mikey@mi*.ne*> http://www.mikey.net/aue Pn(x) = (1/(2^n)n!)[d/dx]^n(x^2 - 1)^n -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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