Scuba North Carolina Sharks !!

[longstocking]

We made a trip down to NC for memorial weekend to dive some of the wrecks off of NC.

These are horrible pictures.... as we were over 100 feet down and my little crappy camera won't do the job well at that depth !! We were also fighting some pretty bad currents on the first dive.


This is the top of one of the wrecks... in the distance was a 6 foot baracuda:

Here is the only shot of a shark I could get... we saw about 4 of them.... this one was about 8 feet long. You would think the first time you see a shark you would freak out a bit.... instead we chased the dang thing :wacko: He is the distance so all you get to see is a shadow.

Me at 105 feet :

Amber jack... this one was about 4 or 5 feet:

and one last shot:

 

[mscichlid]

WOW! You guys are really doing it! Fantastic and congratulations.

Ask Rodney Conway which camera he uses for underwater. I don't think it is expensive.

Francine

 

[Charlutz]

Very cool Sarah! You and Bill are lucky. We vacation every year in NC but the trips are more about the kids' enjoyment than activities that would take us off on our own. My wife and I have done dives in the Caribbean and at Pennekamp park in the Florida keys, but the coldest we ever got was on our certification course in a quarry in VA where the temp was about 40 degrees. Not in a hurry to try that again, but the wrecks off NC are enticing. What was the temp like for your dives?

 

[longstocking]

The gulf stream comes up through NC. You dive in the "off shoots" of the stream. So, the water is WARM! You do have a long boat ride out though... 2 hours or so. These were shot 30 miles out or so. These are NOT easy dives... lots of current and pretty deep. Most people on the boat were adv. divers.

Pictures are from an old U-boat that was sunk in ww2 13 peopl died in the u-boat ( sub ) and a bouye (sp??? ) boat.... the ones that do maintenance on them.

Temp from top to bottom was 75 degree

I have my eye on a 6.0 pix under water camera. No under water camera is cheap lol.... a decent one... at least 600 to 1,000 dollars. The one I'm shooting with is a 40 dollar crap camera.... ZERO settings lolololol. No strobe either... which is a must this deep.

 

[Charlutz]

After I posted I noticed that it looked like you weren't wearing a hood and so I figured it wasn't that cold -- but 75 degrees? Wow. I think we had 8mm suits for our certification dives and it was downright frigid in 40 degree water. We never did anything beyond the open water certification, but from what I remember, your time at 100 feet was limited to about 10 minutes or so. Am I remembering that correctly?

 

[longstocking]

We are Nitrox certified so we got to stay down a bit longer... and we have dive computers so it's bit longer than a square profile with gages.... which is about 5-10 min. So yes, and no. We stayed down about 20 min.

We got adv. certified in one of those cold quarries... 38 degrees. I won't be doing that again .... I froze my freakn butt off in a farmer john 7mm !!! NC diving all you need is a 3 mil.

If you do decide to dive nc..... make sure your first dives are easy. There are a couple that aren't quite as far out or as deep that are considered pretty easy for nc. There are also a couple of shore dives off of the outter banks ( if this is where you vacation... this might be a good idea if you can find a place to drop off the kids for a couple hours ). The vis is never as good... but the water is still warm. You can expect anywhere from 10 to 100 feet vis off nc.... we had 60 feet this past weekend.

 

[Charlutz]

We do vacation in the OBX. The most amazing thing to me about those beaches is how the water and weather conditions can change as quickly as they do. Being exposed with no land mass to buffer weather or tides leads to some extreme changes. We've seen over the course of five days the water temp change from 67 to 82 degrees. The vis at the shore can go in the space of a few hours from capuccino to completely clear so that you can stand up to your neck deep and still see your toes. Just amazing how quickly it can change. We vacation with a couple other families and usually get a night out for dinner without the kids. I'll have to push the dive idea.

 

[longstocking]

That's why NC diving isn't considered easy diving. It's the change in conditions.

But... the shore dives are pretty shallow from what I've read. I think 40 feet or so. So just pick a day that looks good and you should be fine.

I think there is even a shop that leads dives off the beach if you aren't comfortable going alone. If you want more info I'll dig it up for you.

 

[Charlutz]

Cool. Thanks for the offer. Let me send up a weather balloon at home to see if it's something that would fly. Leaving our 3 kids at night with the other couples is easy because it's usually just an hour or two til bedtime. Leaving them for several hours is a different story.

 

[longstocking]

If you need more info to convince her....

Here is the shop I've heard good things about. They will take you out on a shore dive.... for 35 each. That way you would only be gone 1 or 2 hours. You are diving wrecks even though it's a shore dive... you just have to swim out a bit. They also have any gear you need.

http://www.obxdive.com/

Here is some history on the wrecks you can dive off the beach....

http://www.obxdive.com/NagsHead.htm

 

[Charlutz]

Sweet. You da man! (In the best possible way.) :wacko: