Friday July 11th and Saturday July 12th found a group
of Nova Tech divers on a 6-pack diving off the coast
of Virginia.

The intent of Nova Tech is to develop divers who
subscribe to the DIR methodology of diving and employ
a true team approach during their dives.  To this end
we selected a 6-pack as opposed to a larger dive boat
so that the group, by nature of chartering the entire
boat and selecting the divers on board, could insure
that agreed upon protocols would be followed.  This
allowed us to discuss with the captain before hand,
dive procedures we intended to follow, gas to be
utilized, decompression procedures and emergency
procedures.

We selected the Marine Electric for two dives on
Friday when we would have fresh mix and a shallower
wreck, the Monroe on Saturday when we would be "air
topping" our backgas.

Dive Team 1 was made up of of Todd Clagett, Allyson
Clagett & Tim James.

Dive Team 2 consisted of David Dalton, SR & David
Dalton, Jr. (on home leave from the USN).

Equipment, in addition to personal gear, included 10
sets of doubles, and 3 scooters (2 Gavins & 1 Apollo).
 Team 1 utilized one Gavin and 1 Apollo while Team 2
utilized the other Gavin. Divers without scooters (Tim
& David Jr.) were towed, when necessary to cover
distance expeditiously.

Friday found beautiful weather, sunny, but not too hot
and calm seas, and the ride out to the ME took about 2
1/2 hours.

We hooked the wreck and the two teams descended. Team
2 descended first and found the hook had pulled off
the main portion of the wreck lodging itself securely
in a small section of debris out of sight of the
wreck.  A compass course was selected and run for
approximately 1 minute out and back in an unsuccessful
attempt to to find the wreck.  Team 1 then arrived at
the anchor and ran a course approximately 90 degrees
off the course run by team 2 and located the port side
of the aft edge of the bow, approximately 100 ft from
the anchor.  A line was run from the hook to the wreck
and the teams separated and ran their planned BTs of
30 min.  We found viz to be approximately 40 ft, temp
to be 57 degrees and max depth of 131 ft.

Team 2 completed it's dive first and proceeded to the
surface making required deco stops on the way.

Team 1 followed shortly behind.

After a 2 & 1/2 hour SI, both teams were back in the
water and completed a second dive also with a BT of 30
minutes.  Team 2 completed it's dive first followed by
Team 1 who pulled the anchor as they ascended.

The Marine Electric is an impressive wreck due to the
recency of it's sinking, it's size, how intact it is,
and how easily it can be penetrated.  Todd Clagett
participated with other VB Tech team members last year
in the penetration of the wreck into the engine room. 


Our 2 teams agreed in planning this dive, that no
penetration of the wreck would be made on this trip.
Still, it was impressive to look into gaping holes &
see far into the bow of the wreck.  Definitely this is
a wreck to which we want to return in the very near
future!

On day 2 we opted to limit activities to one dive so
that we would finish early and complete the drive back
to DC at a reasonable hour.  We selected the Monroe as
the dive site from the Captains repertoire.  The trip
to the Monroe took slightly longer than an hour and
again we were blessed with beautiful weather and flat
seas.  There was a slight surface current, but it was
not strong enough to pose a challenge.  The
composition of the two teams were the same as on
Friday, Team 1 - Clagett, Clagett & James; Team 2 -
Dalton & Dalton.

After hooking the wreck the two teams geared up and
entered the water.  Team 2 descended first and tied in
the anchor.  We found bottom temps of 66 degrees with
visibility of 25-30 ft.  Maximum depth encountered was
87 fsw.  After 35 minutes BT, Team 2 finished the dive
first and ascended making required deco stops.  Team 1
followed shortly thereafter pulling the hook on the
way up.

The Monroe is a very pretty wreck and sea life was
abundant on her.  Team 2 spotted a couple of bugs but
were without bags, so no attempt to catch them was
made.

The pleasant conditions on both days, and beauty of
these two wrecks ALMOST made up for the many dives
that have been blown out this year.

Dave Dalton, SR.




=====
Dave Dalton

"You just can't show up for "Game Day" and expect to win.
  You've got to go to practice if you want to be ready!"

     http://home.earthlink.net/~toddclagett/NovaTech/

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Autos - Get free new car price quotes
http://autos.yahoo.com
--
Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'.
Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.

Navigate by Author: [Previous] [Next] [Author Search Index]
Navigate by Subject: [Previous] [Next] [Subject Search Index]

[Send Reply] [Send Message with New Topic]

[Search Selection] [Mailing List Home] [Home]